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Wheat tempering is an important step in wheat milling process. Appropriate tempering method is beneficial to shorten tempering time, reduce microbial content, improve the quality of flour and by-products, reduce energy consumption and save production cost. However, tempering process is often affected by multiple factors such as raw grain varieties, water quality, water addition, time, temperature, season and climate. At present, wheat flour processing enterprises are facing technical problems such as uneven tempering and easy breeding of microorganisms in the tempering process. In this paper, the basic principle of wheat tempering and the effects of raw grain, water addition, different temperature and humidity, time and other factors on wheat tempering were introduced in detail. The effects of different tempering methods such as heat treatment, vibration, ultrasound, vacuum, fracturing damage, biological enzyme preparation, salt water, acid water and other sterilization treatment on wheat processing and product quality were emphatically expounded. The advantages and disadvantages of different tempering methods and their application in current domestic production were also summarized in order to provide reference for wheat milling enterprises. Finally, it is pointed out that further research should be carried out on the accurate calculation and regulation of water content and the combination of different tempering methods and its effects on flour application quality for different wheat varieties.

Yeast plays an important role in fermented cereal products, especially fermented flour products, affecting the texture, aroma, appearance and nutrition of the products. In order to select grain microbial starter and improve the quality of fermented flour products, yeasts were isolated from traditional old flour and natural flour collected from different provinces and cities in China. Yeast identification was carried out by combining morphology and 26S rDNA sequence alignment. High-sugar-resistant, heat-resistant and high-quality yeasts were screened out to verify their application characteristics in steamed bread, toast bread and frozen dough. The results showed that 65 strains of yeasts were isolated, all of which were Saccharomyces cerevisiae, and 9 strains with strong fermentation ability were screened out, among which 5 strains could improve the specific volume, texture and taste of steamed bread, and the other 4 strains were resistant to high sugar and heat, which could improve the texture and flavor of toast bread. Besides, one strain had strong frost resistance, which could prolong the vitality period of frozen dough. The discovered strain is expected to be developed into a high-quality starter for fermented grain products, improve the performance of different kinds of fermented flour products, provide differentiated products for consumers, and promote the innovative development of grain processing industry.

Abstract Chinese indigenous pig breeds are recognized as an invaluable component of the world's pig genetic resources and are divided traditionally into six types. Twenty-six microsatellite markers recommended by the FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization) and ISAG (International Society of Animal Genetics) were employed to analyze the genetic diversity of 18 Chinese indigenous pig breeds with 1001 individuals representing five types, and three commercial breeds with 184 individuals. The observed heterozygosity, unbiased expected heterozygosity and the observed and effective number of alleles were used to estimate the genetic variation of each indigenous breed. The unbiased expected heterozygosity ranged between 0.700 (Mashen) and 0.876 (Guanling), which implies that there is an abundant genetic variation stored in Chinese indigenous pig breeds. Breed differentiation was shown by fixation indices (FIT, FIS, and FST). The FST per locus varied from 0.019 (S0090) to 0.170 (SW951), and the average FST of all loci was 0.077, which means that most of the genetic variation was kept within breeds and only a little of the genetic variation exists between populations. The Neighbor-Joining tree was constructed based on the Nei DA (1978) distances and one large cluster with all local breeds but the Mashen breed, was obtained. Four smaller sub-clusters were also found, which included two to four breeds each. These results, however, did not completely agree with the traditional type of classification. A Neighbor-Joining dendrogram of individuals was established from the distance of – ln(proportions of shared alleles); 92.14% of the individuals were clustered with their own breeds, which implies that this method is useful for breed demarcation. This extensive research on pig genetic diversity in China indicates that these 18 Chinese indigenous breeds may have one common ancestor, helps us to better understand the relative distinctiveness of pig genetic resources, and will assist in developing a national plan for the conservation and utilization of Chinese indigenous pig breeds.

Aim:Proteins with legume lectin domains are known to possess a wide range of biological functions. Here, the antitumor effects of two representative legume lectins, concanavalin A (ConA) and Sophora flavescens lectin (SFL), on human breast carcinoma cells were investigated in vitro and in vivo.Methods:Human breast carcinoma MCF-7 cells and human normal mammary epithelial MCF-10A cells were examined. Cell viability was detected using WST-1 and CCK-8 assays. Cell apoptosis was analyzed with Hoechst 33258 staining. Cell cycle was investigated using flow cytometry. The expression of relevant proteins was measured using Western blotting. Breast carcinoma MCF-7 bearing nude mice were used to study the antitumor effects in vivo. The mice were injected with ConA (40 mg/kg, ip) and SFL (55 mg/kg, ip) daily for 14 d.Results:ConA and SFL inhibited the growth of MCF-7 cells in dose- and time-dependent manners (IC50 values were 15 and 20 μg/mL, respectively). Both ConA and SFL induced apoptotic morphology in MCF-7 cells without affecting MCF-10A cells. ConA and SFL dose-dependently increased the sub-G1 proportion in MCF-7 cells, while SFL also triggered the G2/M phase cell cycle arrest. Both ConA and SFL dose-dependently increased the activities of caspase-3 and caspase-9 and release of cytochrome C from mitochondria into cytoplasm, up-regulated Bax and Bid, and down-regulated Bcl-2 and Bcl-XL in MCF-7 cells. ConA reduced NF-κB, ERK, and JNK levels, and increased p53 and p21 levels, while SFL caused similar changes in NF-κB, ERK, p53, and p21 levels, but did not affect JNK expression. Administration of ConA and SFL significantly decreased the subcutaneous tumor mass volume and weight in MCF-7 bearing nude mice.Conclusion:ConA and SFL exert anti-tumor actions against human breast carcinoma MCF-7 cells both in vitro and in vivo. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using curcumol that was extracted from the volatile oil of Rhizoma Curcumae as the raw material, its derivatives were synthesized and purified. The structures of these compounds were confirmed by 1H, 13C NMR, and mass spectral data. The test compounds were evaluated for their in vitro anti-tumor activity against gastric cancer cell lines SGC-7901 and lung carcinoma cell line H460 by methyl thiazolyl tetrazolium chromatometry. Distinct structure–activity relationships of these curcumol derivatives were also revealed for inhibiting cell proliferation. Presence of electron-withdrawing groups or amino could increase the activity significantly, whereas esterification of 8-hydroxy diminished the anti-tumor activity. Many of the tested candidates exhibited higher inhibition efficiency than curcumol, suggesting that structural modifications could enhance its activity effectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Myocytes in the pulmonary veins (PV) play a pivotal role in the development of paroxysmal atrial fibrillation (AF). It is therefore important to understand physiological characteristics of these cells. Studies on these cells are, however, markedly impeded by the fact that single PV myocytes are very difficult to obtain due to lack of effective isolation methods. In this study, we described a novel PV myocyte isolation method. The key aspect of this method is to establish a combination of retrograde heart perfusion (via the aorta) and anterograde PV perfusion (via the pulmonary artery). With this simultaneous perfusion method, a better perfusion of the PV myocytes can be obtained. As results, the output and viability of single myocytes isolated by simultaneous heart and PV perfusion method were increased compared with those in conventional retrograde heart perfusion method.