Search

We have developed one approach to fingerprint and estimate the active compounds in the leaves of Vitex trifolia Linn possessing anti-tracheospasmolytic assay using two-dimensional TLC pattern comparison. Based on the two-dimensional TLC pattern and the activity of the centrifugal partition chromatography fractions, we concluded that the semi polar compounds were responsible for anti-tracheospasmolytic activity. The best non-polar/semi polar mobile phases for the two-dimensional TLC using silica gel as the stationary phase were chloroform/methanol (9/1) as the first mobile phase and ethyl acetate/chloroform/methanol (28/28/44) as the second mobile phase.

A novel approach to identify compounds possessing adenosine A1 receptor binding activity in the leaves of O. stamineus was developed. O. stamineus extract is one of the components of a functional beverage used in Indonesia for the treatment of kidney stones. In this study, adenosine A1 receptor binding, which is related to the diuretic action in the treatment of kidney stones was tested. A combination of thin layer chromatography of different extracts prepared by extraction with diverse solvents (n-hexane, chloroform, n-butanol and water), and multivariate data analysis based on orthogonal partial least squares proved to be a promising approach to determine these active compounds. Several methoxyflavonoids, fatty acids or terpenoids were estimated to be related to this activity. The results of this study support the traditional use in Indonesia of O. stamineus as a functional drink to treat kidney stones.

The dough characteristics of mixtures of wheat flour and potato starches from three different cultivars (Eniwa, Benimaru and Norin No. 1) were investigated using a Brabender farinograph. The water absorption of control wheat dough was higher than that for all mixture doughs and decreased significantly with increases in potato starch. The peak time of wheat flour-potato starch mixtures ranged from 21.0 to 22.5 min, with no large difference with increase of potato starch. Dough stability significantly increased with increase of potato starch. The increase of potato starch in the mixtures decreased the tolerances of mixing, indicating that they were weaker than the control flour. Breakdown time of mixtures tended to be the same as for control wheat flour up to 5 % potato starch, above which it increased significantly. Results are applicable to the substitution of potato starch in certain wheat-based foods such as noodles, breads, biscuits, and crackers.

High-quality fish oil for human consumption requires low levels of toxic elements. The aim of this study was to develop a method to extract oil from fish wastes with the least toxic elements contamination. Supercritical fluid extraction (SFE) was applied to detoxify fish oils from toxic elements. The SFE unit used consisted of an intelligent HPLC pump equipped with a cooling jacket to deliver CO2. The freeze-dried fish waste sample was extracted by heating in a column oven. Under supercritical conditions, the oil dissolved in CO2 was separated from the supercritical phase using pressure reduction. The SFE parameters (pressure, temperature, CO2 flow rate, and extraction time) were optimized using response surface methodology (RSM) to extract the highest levels of toxic elements. The results showed that toxic elements in fish oil can be reduced using supercritical CO2 at optimum pressure 40 MPa, temperature 61 ºC, CO2 flow rate 3.8 MPa, and extraction time 4.25 hr. There were significant reductions in the mercury (98.2%), cadmium (98.9%), arsenic (96%), and lead contents (99.2%) of the fish oil. The fish oil extracted using this method contained elements at levels that were much lower than the accepted limits of 0.1 μg/g. The reduction of toxic elements using the SFE method was more efficient than that of the conventional methods due to the high selectivity of supercritical CO2 for non-polar compounds.

Chitosan is a promising biopolymer for drug delivery systems. Because of its beneficial properties, chitosan is widely used in biomedical and pharmaceutical fields. In this review, we summarize the physicochemical and drug delivery properties of chitosan, selected studies on utilization of chitosan and chitosan-based nanoparticle composites in various drug delivery systems, and selected studies on the application of chitosan films in both drug delivery and wound healing. Chitosan is considered the most important polysaccharide for various drug delivery purposes because of its cationic character and primary amino groups, which are responsible for its many properties such as mucoadhesion, controlled drug release, transfection, in situ gelation, and efflux pump inhibitory properties and permeation enhancement. This review can enhance our understanding of drug delivery systems particularly in cases where chitosan drug-loaded nanoparticles are applied.

Starch that avoids digestion by amylases in the small intestine and passes to the large bowel for fermentation is defined as resistant starch (RS). RS appears to be desirable in human health, as it has functional properties similar to fermentable dietary fibers. The amount of RS is related to the rate of starch digestion by amylases. Enzymatic digestibility of starch is largely dependent on physicochemical properties of the starch. Enzymatic digestibility of gelatinized and raw starch is an important property in food manufacture. In potato starch, raw starch granules have larger granule size, which is highly resistant to hydrolysis by amylase. In addition, potato starch has a definitely higher amount of covalently bound phosphate compared to other starches. In this study, enzymatic digestibility of raw and gelatinized starches in various potato starches besides sweet potato, cassava, and yam starches was determined along with other starch properties, median granule size, phosphorus content, and pasting properties. Furthermore, the correlation coefficients were calculated between the enzymatic digestibility and other starch quality parameters. A larger granule size was closely associated with a lower digestibility in raw starch, while the digestibility in gelatinized starch did not correlate with the median granule size. An increase in the phosphorus content resulted in a definitely lower digestibility in raw starch and tended to decrease the digestibility in gelatinized starch for the composite of potato and other starches.

The molecular mass distribution, amino acid composition and radical-scavenging activity of collagen hydrolysates prepared from collagen isolated from the sea cucumber Stichopus vastus were investigated. β and α1 chains of the collagen were successfully hydrolysed by trypsin. The molecular mass distribution of the hydrolysates ranged from 5 to 25 kDa, and they were rich in glycine, alanine, glutamate, proline and hydroxyproline residues. The hydrolysates exhibited excellent radical-scavenging activity. These results indicate that collagen hydrolysates from S. vastus can be used as a functional ingredient in food and nutraceutical products.

Phytosterols provide important health benefits: in particular, the lowering of cholesterol. From environmental and commercial points of view, the most appropriate technique has been searched for extracting phytosterols from plant matrices. As a green technology, supercritical fluid extraction (SFE) using carbon dioxide (CO2) is widely used to extract bioactive compounds from different plant matrices. Several studies have been performed to extract phytosterols using supercritical CO2 (SC-CO2) and this technology has clearly offered potential advantages over conventional extraction methods. However, the efficiency of SFE technology fully relies on the processing parameters, chemistry of interest compounds, nature of the plant matrices and expertise of handling. This review covers SFE technology with particular reference to phytosterol extraction using SC-CO2. Moreover, the chemistry of phytosterols, properties of supercritical fluids (SFs) and the applied experimental designs have been discussed for better understanding of phytosterol solubility in SC-CO2.

The present study was undertaken to determine the bacterial agents present in various clinical solid wastes, general waste and clinical sharp waste. The waste was collected from different wards/units in a healthcare facility in Penang Island, Malaysia. The presence of bacterial agents in clinical and general waste was determined using the conventional bacteria identification methods. Several pathogenic bacteria including opportunistic bacterial agent such as Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Salmonella spp., Klebsiella pneumoniae, Serratia marcescens, Acinetobacter baumannii, Staphylococcus aureus, Staphylococcus epidermidis, Enterococcus faecalis, Streptococcus pyogenes were detected in clinical solid wastes. The presence of specific pathogenic bacterial strains in clinical sharp waste was determined using 16s rDNA analysis. In this study, several nosocomial pathogenic bacteria strains of Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Proteus mirabilis, Lysinibacillus sphaericus, Serratia marcescens, and Staphylococcus aureus were detected in clinical sharp waste. The present study suggests that waste generated from healthcare facilities should be sterilized at the point of generation in order to eliminate nosocomial infections from the general waste or either of the clinical wastes.

In the present study, ultrasound-assisted extraction of crude oil from winter melon seeds was investigated through response surface methodology (RSM). Process variables were power level (25–75%), temperature (45–55 °C) and sonication time (20–40 min). It was found that all process variables have significant (p < 0.05) effects on the response variable. A central composite design (CCD) was used to determine the optimum process conditions. Optimal conditions were identified as 65% power level, 52 °C temperature and 36 min sonication time for maximum crude yield (108.62 mg-extract/g-dried matter). The antioxidant activity, total phenolic content and fatty acid composition of extract obtained under optimized conditions were determined and compared with those of oil obtained by the Soxhlet method. It was found that crude extract yield (CEY) of ultrasound-assisted extraction was lower than that of the Soxhlet method, whereas antioxidant activity and total phenolic content of the extract obtained by ultrasound-assisted extraction were clearly higher than those of the Soxhlet extract. Furthermore, both extracts were rich in unsaturated fatty acids. The major fatty acids of the both extracts were linoleic acid and oleic acid.

Sea cucumber (Stichopus vastus) is considered an underutilized resource, since only its stomach and intestines are eaten raw as salad in a few countries and the remaining parts, especially the integument rich in collagen, is discarded. Hence a valuable by-product having potential nutraceutical and pharmaceutical applications is wasted. In the present investigation, pepsin-solubilized collagen (PSC) from the integument of S. vastus was isolated, purified and characterized.Sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoretic analysis showed that the purified collagen was of type I, consisting of three α1 chains of approximately 122 kDa each. The peptide map of PSC digested by V8 protease was different from that of calf skin type I collagen. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy revealed that the triple helical structure was well preserved in isolated collagen. The denaturation temperature of PSC was 21.23 °C and showed good gel-forming capability at pH 6.5 and 300 mmol L⁻¹ NaCl.It is inferred that the collagen isolated from S. vastus integument has potential for use as an alternative to land-based mammalian collagen in food, nutraceuticals and pharmaceutical industries.

Mango peel is a good source of protease but remains an industrial waste. This study focuses on the optimization of polyethylene glycol (PEG)/dextran-based aqueous two-phase system (ATPS) to purify serine protease from mango peel. The activity of serine protease in different phase systems was studied and then the possible relationship between the purification variables, namely polyethylene glycol molecular weight (PEG, 4000-12,000 g·mol(-1)), tie line length (-3.42-35.27%), NaCl (-2.5-11.5%) and pH (4.5-10.5) on the enzymatic properties of purified enzyme was investigated. The most significant effect of PEG was on the efficiency of serine protease purification. Also, there was a significant increase in the partition coefficient with the addition of 4.5% of NaCl to the system. This could be due to the high hydrophobicity of serine protease compared to protein contaminates. The optimum conditions to achieve high partition coefficient (84.2) purification factor (14.37) and yield (97.3%) of serine protease were obtained in the presence of 8000 g·mol(-1) of PEG, 17.2% of tie line length and 4.5% of NaCl at pH 7.5. The enzymatic properties of purified serine protease using PEG/dextran ATPS showed that the enzyme could be purified at a high purification factor and yield with easy scale-up and fast processing.

Objective To assess the immunopotentiality of Ayurvedic polyherbal preparations, “Saribadi” and “Anantamul Salsa”. Methods Freshly prepared BALB/c mice splenocytes were cultured with “Saribadi” or “Anantamul Salsa” treatment [doses of 0.25%, 0.50%, 0.75%, 1.00%, 1.50%, 2.00%, 3.00% and 4.00% (v/v)] at 37 °C for 5 days. The immunoglobulin M (IgM) production and lymphocytes proliferation were determined by ELISA and MTT methods, respectively. Endotoxin contamination was assessed by treating the preparations with polymyxin B. Results The doses of “Saribadi” [0.25%, 0.50%, 0.75% and 1.00% (v/v)] significantly increased IgM productions (0.966, 0.728, 0.695 and 0.615 μg/mL vs. control 0.265 μg/mL) and lymphocytes proliferation [absorbance 0.311, 0.394, 0.372 and 0.334 optical density (OD) vs. control 0.162 OD]. Similarly, the doses of “Anantamul Salsa” [0.50%, 0.75%, 1.00% and 1.50% (v/v)] promoted IgM productions (0.933, 0.919, 0.917 and 0.892 μg/mL vs. control 0.502 μg/mL) and the doses of “Anantamul Salsa” [0.50%, 0.75%, 1.00%, 1.50%, 2.00%, and 3.00% (v/v)] stimulated lymphocytes proliferation (absorbance 0.395, 0.326, 0.440, 0.398, 0.452 and 0.355 OD vs. control 0.199 OD). The activity of “Saribadi” and “Anantamul Salsa” was not retarded by the treatment of preparations with polymyxin B. Conclusions Immunomodulatory activity of “Saribadi” and “Anantamul Salsa” was unveiled for the first time. “Saribadi” and “Anantamul Salsa” possess immunostimulating potential acting through the induction of lymphocyte proliferation and IgM production. These preparations may be useful in strengthening immune responses. However, further cellular and in vivo studies are required.