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This paper reported a novel approach to quantification of adulterated fox-derived components in meat products by drop digital polymerase chain reaction (ddPCR). By using the F2 gene as the target gene of fox, a single primer was designed to identify the adulteration that had been added either inadvertently or deliberately during the process. In this paper, the fox meat was used as the experimental materials and a relationship was established between fox mass and copy number by extracting DNA and using DNA concentration as an intermediary. The results that across the dynamic range, the relationships between meat mass and DNA concentration were nearly linear (R2 = 0.9986), as was the relationship between DNA concentration and DNA copy number (R2 = 0.9992). Based on the DNA concentration, the following formulas were developed about the relationship between fox meat mass (Mfox) and DNA copy number (C): Mfox = 0.05C + 2.7.

ABSTRACTMaillard reaction products (MRPs) play a crucial role in preserving food quality due to their antioxidant capacity. In this study, we isolated and characterized the antioxidant components from MRPs using a xylose-lysine system under optimal conditions. Methylene chloride and ethyl acetate were employed for sequential extractions, and the ethyl acetate phase underwent thin-layer chromatography and silica column separation. The identified compound, 3-hydroxy-4-methyl-2(5 H)-furanone (3H4MFN), was analyzed using FT-IR, GC-MS, and NMR, revealing its volatile nature with a chemical formula of C5H6O3. Further activity analysis demonstrated that 3H4MFN exhibited higher or comparable antioxidant activity to vitamin C (VC) and vitamin B6 (VB6). This newly discovered compound shows potential as a natural antioxidant in cosmetics, food, and nutraceutical applications.

ABSTRACTNatural pigments derived from microorganisms have many advantages and are widely studied in the food industry. A filamentous fungus, DBFL05, was identified as Aspergillus ustus, which produces a bright and abundant brown pigment. This extracellular, water-soluble pigment is highly polar and slightly soluble in alcohol but insoluble in other organic solvents. The pigment is stable under sunlight, at pH 2–10, and below 100°C. However, it is sensitive to Zn2+, Fe3+, Fe2+, and Cu2+. The pigment is mainly composed of two chemical components, pyrropyrazine diketone and dianthrone, and is classified as a polyketone pigment. Both components of the pigment exhibit inhibitory effects on bacteria and scavenging abilities for •OH and DPPH. The pigment showed no significant toxicity to plants and low toxicity to brine shrimp larvae. These findings indicate that the easily obtainable A. ustus pigment is a polyketone with attractive colour, stability, safety, and bioactivity.

Abstract Background and objectives The mechanisms by which local anesthetics cause neurotoxicity are very complicated. Apoptosis and autophagy are highly coordinated mechanisms that maintain cellular homeostasis against stress. Studies have shown that autophagy activation serves as a protective mechanism in vitro. However, whether it also plays the same role in vivo is unclear. The aim of this study was to explore the role of autophagy in local anesthetic-induced neurotoxicity and to elucidate the mechanism of neurotoxicity in an intrathecally injected rat model. Methods Eighteen healthy adult male Sprague-Dawley rats were randomly divided into three groups. Before receiving an intrathecal injection of 1% bupivacaine, each rat received an intraperitoneal injection of vehicle or rapamycin (1 mg.kg-1) once a day for 3 days. The pathological changes were examined by Haematoxylin and Eosin (HE) staining. Apoptosis was analysed by TdT-mediated dUTP Nick-End Labelling (TUNEL) staining. Caspase-3, Beclin1 and LC3 expression was examined by Immunohistochemical (IHC) staining. Beclin1 and LC3 expression and the LC3-II/LC3-I ratio were detected by western blot analysis. Results After bupivacaine was injected intrathecally, pathological damage occurred in spinal cord neurons, and the levels of apoptosis and caspase-3 increased. Enhancement of autophagy with rapamycin markedly alleviated the pathological changes and decreased the levels of apoptosis and caspase-3 while increasing the expression of LC3 and Beclin1 and the ratio of LC3-II to LC3-I. Conclusions Enhancement of autophagy decreases caspase-3-dependent apoptosis and improves neuronal survivalin vivo. Activation of autophagy may be a potential therapeutic strategy for local anaesthetic-induced neurotoxicity.

The influence of water resources allocation patterns on root layers soil desalination and groundwater quality were investigated by monitoring different irrigation area from People’s Victory Canal irrigation district in Huang Huai Hai plain China that had been conducted well canal combined irrigation patterns from 1954. A typical area was chosen belong to the People’s Victory Canal irrigation district from 2013 to 2015. Precipitation of the area, surface water irrigation amount, groundwater consumption amount, salinity content in 0 to 100 cm soil layer and total dissolved solids in groundwater were monitored, the ratio of canal-well water (the ratio of surface water to groundwater irrigation amount, CWWR), soil salinity spatial dynamic, desalinization rate in 0 to 100 cm soil layer and sodium adsorption ratio (SAR) of groundwater were analyzed in the area. CWWR of 1st, 2nd, 3rd branch canals ranged from 0.72 to 1.03, 2.50 to 2.63, and 0.65 to 1.26 in 2013 to 2015, respectively. The soil salinity contents for the top 100 cm horizons in the 2nd branch canal irrigation area decreased slightly by 1.63% to 8.90% compared with the values in the 1st and 3rd branch canal irrigation districts while the water resources allocation patterns were conducted two years later. Compared with the area in the hydrological period in 2013, area of average soil salinity exceeded 0.32 mS/cm for the top 20 cm horizons has decreased notably in 2014 and 2015. Compared with the values in 2014, the average TDS concentration of groundwater increased by 18.66% in the study area in 2015, while the sodium adsorption ratio (SAR) values in the above-mentioned irrigation areas decreased by 23.58%, 36.82%, and 53.37% in the normal period in 2015. The combined well-canal irrigation pattern could represent a useful water allocation method mainly because of the temporal and spatial regulation of water resources and root layer soil desalination; however, possible increases of TDS in the groundwater may cause potential ecosystem degradation risks after long-term water allocation in semi-arid areas. Thus, water allocation should be emphasized to maintain a healthy groundwater environment and sustainable stable yields of grain in combined canal-well irrigation districts

The ultrasound-degraded oxidized konjac glucomannan (U-OKGM) was manufactured and its immune activity in RAW264.7 macrophages was examined. Results showed that ultrasound treatment, which was an effective method to obtain low molecular weight OKGM, did not change the main structure of polysaccharides under the test conditions. Molecular weights (MW) of OKGM and U-OKGM are about 1.58 × 106 g/mol and 5.64 × 105 g/mol, respectively. We showed that U-OKGM could inhibit NO secretion and augment phagocytotic activity of RAW264.7 cell, and 0.8 mg/mL U-OKGM reached significant level (p

The study was to investigate the immunological activities of polysaccharide isolated from Elaeagnus angustifolia L. The extracted Elaeagnus angustifolia L. polysaccharide (EAP) was purified by DEAE cellulose-52 chromatography (DEAE-52) and Sephadex G-100 size-exclusion chromatography (G-100). Then the average molecular weight (Mw) of purified polysaccharide was determined by high-performance gel permeation chromatography (HPGPC). One main fraction (EAP-1a) was obtained through the isolation and purification steps. The results showed that EAP-1a had strong immunological activities. EAP-1a could significantly increase spleen and thymus index, enhance the NK cell activity, stimulate the phagocytosis of peritoneal phagocyte and increase the level of IL-2, IFN-γ and IgG in serum. Thus, EAP-1a isolated from Elaeagnus angustifolia L. could enhance the immunological activities of immunosuppressed mice induced by cyclophosphamide (CY).

A simple, sensitive, and specific capillary electrophoretic method based on 1-phenyl-3-methyl-5-pyrazolon (PMP) derivatization has been developed for simultaneous separation and determination of 11 aldoses (maltose, xylose, arabinose, ribose, glucose, rhamnose, fucose, galactose, mannose, glucuronic acid, and galacturonic acid). The separation of PMP-labeled maltose and monosaccharides was carried out under the selected optimum conditions with pH 11.0, 200 mM borate buffer containing 4% methanol at voltage 20 kV, and capillary temperature 25°C, and the 11 PMP aldoses could be perfectly separated from each other within 41 min. Our experiment results demonstrated that the molar ratios of carbohydrates in 10 kinds of honey were greatly different, and the carbohydrates’ constitutions varied greatly between commodity honey and natural honey. This proposed zone electrophoresis method provides an accurate and economic alternative for monosaccharide and maltose analysis to identify honeys, and can also be applied to routine detection of reducing carbohydrates in real-life samples.