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Peanut (Arachis hypogaeaL.) is one of the most important oil crops in the world due to its lipid-rich seeds. Lipid accumulation and degradation play crucial roles in peanut seed maturation and seedling establishment, respectively. Here, we utilized lipidomics and transcriptomics to comprehensively identify lipids and the associated functional genes that are important in the development and germination processes of a large-seed peanut variety. A total of 332 lipids were identified; triacylglycerols (TAGs) and diacylglycerols were the most abundant during seed maturation, constituting 70.43 and 16.11%, respectively, of the total lipids. Significant alterations in lipid profiles were observed throughout seed maturation and germination. Notably, TAG (18:1/18:1/18:2) and (18:1/18:2/18:2) peaked at 23386.63 and 23392.43 nmol/g, respectively, at the final stage of seed development. Levels of hydroxylated TAGs (HO-TAGs) increased significantly during the initial stage of germination. Accumulation patterns revealed an inverse relationship between free fatty acids and TAGs. Lipid degradation was determined to be regulated by diacylglycerol acyltransferase, triacylglycerol lipase, and associated transcription factors, predominantly yielding oleic acid, linoleic acid, and linolenic acid. Collectively, the results of this study provide valuable insights into lipid dynamics during the development and germination of large-seed peanuts, gene resources, and guiding future research into lipid accumulation in an economically important crop.

Hydrogenated vegetable oils contain of transfatty acids. Because of the increased health concern about transfatty acids, new hydrogenations have been studied to seek ways for substantial reduction of the transfatty acids in the hydrogenated vegetable oils. This paper reviews new hydrogenation processes such as electrocatalytic hydrogenation, precious catalyst hydrogenation, and supercritical fluid state hydrogen, which have shown promising results for the reduction of transfatty acids below the level of 8%. This paper also reviews the recently introduced hydeogenation technique for high accumulation of conjugated linoleic acids, beneficiary functional components. The hydrogenated vegetable oils with high quantity conjugated linoleic acid might provide the possibility for the utilization of hydrogenated oils as health‐prompting food ingredients.

The effects of types and amount of catalysts, hydrogen pressure, and kinds of vegetable oils on the formation of CLA isomers were studied during hydrogenation. CLA isomers were identified by using a silver ion-impregnated high-performance liquid chromatograph and 100-m cyano-capillary column gas chromatograph. A selective catalyst (SP-7) produced a considerably higher content of CLA in soybean oil than nonselective catalysts. The maximal quantity of CLA produced in soybean oil during hydrogenation increased greatly with increasing amount of catalyst. By increasing the amount of selective catalyst from 0.05 to 0.3%, the quantity of total CLA obtained was about 1.9 times higher. Changes in hydrogen pressure also greatly influenced total CLA formed. By decreasing hydrogen pressure from 0.24 to 0.024 MPa, the quantity of CLA obtained was about 1.3 times higher. With different oil species (soybean, cottonseed, and corn oils), the time to reach the maximal quantity of CLA was different under the same hydrogenation conditions. However, the maximal quantity of CLA and proportion of CLA isomers formed were almost identical, regardless of oil species tested, under the same hydrogenation conditions.

The inhibitory activity of berberine on the DNA single-strand cleavage induced by hydrogen peroxide and cytochrome c was measured. Berberine effectively inhibited single-strand cleavage of DNA and its effectiveness was concentration-dependent. As the berberine concentration increased, the inhibitory activity against the DNA single-strand cleavage increased. The treatments with 1,5,10,50, and 100 μM berberine showed 7.7,10.8,32.2,39.5, and 51.6% inhibition of DNA cleavage. This inhibitory activity of berberine against the DNA single-strand cleavage has never been reported previously. The inhibitory activity of berberine against DNA cleavage was stronger than caffeic acid and ascorbic acid. Berberine did not show strong hydroxyl radical scavenging activity, but showed strong superoxide anion radical quenching ability.

Bulk flow properties of five kinds of model food powders composed of starchy powder (potato starch) and proteinaceous powder (wheat protein) were determined at different water activity by measuring loose bulk density, tapped bulk density, Hausner ratio, angel of repose and slide and shear stress of the model powders. Fitted equations relating these bulk properties to water activity were also developed. As the water activity of model food powders increased, all the tested properties of the model powders increased except loose bulk density and internal friction angle. As the protein content of model food powder increased, Hausner ratio, angle of slide, shear stress, and cohesion increased, but loose bulk density decreased. There were no significant differences in angle of frictions among the tested model powders. If a powder with high protein content is exposed to a high humidity environment, the powder may aggregate due to the low flowability. The correlation coefficients (R) for all the fitted equations were greater than 0.98, indicating the high reliability of the fitted equations for predicting the individual bulk property at a given water activity.