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Postmenopausal obesity is becoming a serious global health concern. Soyasaponin Ab (SA) inhibits adipocyte differentiation; however, the preventive and therapeutic potential of SA in postmenopausal obesity has not been clearly established. Here, we investigated the anti-obesity effects of SA in postmenopausal obesity in vitro and in vivo. SA inhibited adipocytic differentiation of 3T3-L1 cells and reduced lipid accumulation and lipid droplet formation. Moreover, SA significantly decreased weight gain, adipocyte area, serum metabolic profiles in OVX mice. SA also inhibited the lipid metabolism-related factors but increased the thermoregulatory factors in both in vitro and in vivo. SA treatment further increased energy expenditure through beige fat activation. Overall, we found that SA effectively accelerated energy consumption by stimulating beige fat activation, even under estrogen-deficient conditions. Thus, SA treatment may be a promising strategy for the prevention of postmenopausal obesity by promoting weight loss, reducing fat accumulation, and improving obesity-related metabolic disorders.

The current research was characterized on phenolic metabolite profile including six chemical structures (phenolic acid, luteolin, orientin, apigenin, isoscoparin, and tricin) in wheat seedlings using HPLC-Q-Orbitrap-MS/MS and NMR techniques. Our study was also was the first to demonstrate fluctuations of isolated nine phenolic contents and antioxidant properties in various cultivars of this species with different growth times. The antioxidant abilities differed significantly in the 80 % methanol extracts (600 μg/mL) according to cultivar and growth time, with the highest average activities (DPPH: 82 %; ABTS: 87 %) observed after 7 days. The isolated nine compositions exhibited considerable differences in cultivars and growth times, specifically, isoorientin (6) and isochaftoside (8) were observed the most abundant average contents (99.3; 64.3 mg/100 g), representing approximately 28.3 and 18.3 % (total content: 350.8 mg/100 g). Their total phenolics showed the highest rates (420.8 mg/100 g) at 7 days, followed by 9 → 5 → 12 → 14 days with 374.6 → 366.7 → 350.7 → 241.1 mg/100 g, as the rank orders of antioxidant effects. These findings suggest that wheat seedlings may be a potent source of functional agents.

The changes in phenolic and antioxidant capacities of seedlings of various barley cultivars through four different harvest times were investigated. Ten phenolics were characterised as hydroxycinnamic acid, orientin, isoorientin, and isovitexin derivatives using UPLC-PDA-ESI/MS and NMR. In particular, lutonarin (2) and saponarin (3) were the predominant constituents (71–75%) with significant differences in cultivars and harvest times. The highest average total phenolic content was found as 2671.8 mg/100 g on 23 days after the sowing, whereas the lowest was 1400.8 mg/100 g on 56 days. The radical scavenging abilities also exhibited considerable differences in 80% of methanol extracts (40 µg/mL), depending upon the phenolic contents. Interestingly, isoorientin (5) and orientin (6) possessed potent antioxidant effects with IC50 values of 20.7 ± 1.1 and 27.5 ± 7.3 µM (DPPH) and 5.7 ± 0.3 and 8.2 ± 0.3 µM (ABTS), respectively. These results may be contributed to enhancing the value of barley as a functional food ingredient and dietary supplement.

The compositional components (lignan, protein, and oil) as well as antioxidant properties of white and black sesame seeds from different crop years were evaluated. Various solvent extracts of sesame seeds possessed two major peaks and their chemical structures were confirmed as sesamin (1) and sesamolin (2) using NMR spectroscopy and HPLC–DAD–ESI/MS technique. Moreover, their optimal extraction was achieved using 90% acetonitrile for 6 h at 25 °C. Lignans differed significantly with seed colours, cultivars, and crop years, whereas protein and oil contents exhibited slight variations. Interestingly, total average lignan of white cultivars (7.36 mg/g) was two times more than that of black sesasme (3.10 mg/g). Antioxidant effects of the 90% acetonitrile extracts of all cultivars also varied with black cultivars showing higher values than white seeds. Additionally, Kopoom (white) and Kangbaek (black) may be recommended as potential cultivars due to the highest lignan content (9.08 mg/g) and antioxidant capacity (DPPH: 81.5 and ABTS: 93.2% at 90 μg/ml: the concentration of the 90% acetonitrile extract on dried seed weight). Thus, antioxidant effects of sesame seeds may not well correlate with their contents of lignans.

This research was the first to investigate nutritional components, including soluble phenolics (isoflavones and anthocyanins), protein, oil, and fatty acid as well as antioxidant activities in different coloured seed coat soybeans (yellow, black, brown, and green) for two crop years. The soluble phenolics differed significantly with cultivars, crop years, and seed coat colours, while protein, oil, and fatty acid exhibited only slight variations. Especially, malonylgenistin and cyanidin-3-O-glucoside compositions had the most remarkable variations. Green soybeans had the highest average isoflavone content (3079.42 μg/g), followed by yellow (2393.41 μg/g), and black soybeans (2373.97 μg/g), with brown soybeans showing the lowest value (1821.82 μg/g). Anthocyanins showed only in black soybeans, with the average contents of the primary anthocyanins, cyanidin-3-O-glucoside, delphinidine-3-O-glucoside, and petunidin-3-O-glucoside, quantified at 11.046, 1.971, and 0.557 mg/g, respectively. Additionally, Nogchae of green soybean and Geomjeongkong 2 of black soybean may be recommended as potential cultivars owing to the highest average isoflavone (4411.10 μg/g) and anthocyanin (21.537 mg/g) contents. The scavenging activities of 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) and 2,2′-azino-bis(3-ethylbenzthiazoline-6-sulphonic acid) (ABTS) radicals also differed remarkably, depending upon isoflavone and anthocyanin contents, with black soybeans exhibiting the highest antioxidant effects.

The current research was the first to investigate coumarins and their cholinesterase inhibitory activities from Angelica dahurica roots. The ethanol extract of this species (100 μg/ml) possessed inhibitory effects against human acetylcholinesterase (hAChE) and butylcholinesterase (BChE) with IC50 values of 26.40 and 14.71 μg/ml, respectively. To evaluate the compounds responsible for these activities, the ethanol extract was chromatographed, which yielded ten coumarins, including isoimperatorin (1), imperatorin (2), senbyakangelicol (3), oxypeucedanin (4), byakangelicol (5), t-OMe-oxypeucedanin hydrate (6), t-OMe-byakangelicin (7), angelol H (8), byakangelicin (9), and oxypeucedanin hydrate (10). Among them, coumarin 5, 7, and 9 showed potent inhibition with IC50s of 46.3, 39.0, and 55.4 μM (hAChE) as well as 45.2, 25.6, and 42.4 μM (BChE), respectively. Moreover, their inhibition modes against two cholinesterases exhibited noncompetitive. The individual coumarin contents were remarkable differences, especially, oxypeucedanin (4) was the most predominant compound (8710.9 μg/g), representing approximately 55.0% of the total content.