Identification of the antiglycative components of Hong Dou Shan (Taxus chinensis) leaf tea

Evaluation of genotoxicity and teratogenicity of phillyrin

Phillyrin is extracted from Forsythia suspensa (Thunb.) Vahl, is significantly higher in (unripe Forsythiae Fructus) Qing qiao than in (ripe Forsythiae Fructus) Lao qiao fruits of the plant. However, the toxicity of phillyrin has not been adequately investigated. The study investigates the genetic and teratogenic effects of phillyrin to determine its safety profile. Assessing the genotoxicity and teratogenicity of phillyrin involved various tests, such as the bacterial reverse mutation assay, mammalian erythrocyte micronucleus assay, spermatocyte chromosome aberration assay, and teratogenicity assay. The results demonstrated that phillyrin exhibited no discernible impact on the following: number of colonies that spontaneously revert for Salmonella typhimurium TA 97, TA98, TA100, TA102, and TA1535, frequency of bone marrow polychromatic erythrocytes, and the rate of chromosomal aberrations. In the teratogenicity test, the pregnant rats exhibited no signs of toxicity or abnormal changes, and the growth, embryonic development, and visual anatomy of each pup were normal. In comparison with the negative control group, there were no significant differences in fetal body weight, mortality, deformity rate, malformed nest rate, gravid uterus weight, average number of fetuses per litter, fetal body length, or visceral and skeletal development in each dose group. In conclusion, these findings provide evidence that phillyrin does not exhibit genotoxic or teratogenic effects, supporting its potential safety for pharmacological applications.

The Potential of Ginkgo biloba as a Source of Biologically Active Compounds-A Review of the Recent Literature and Patents

Ginkgo biloba is a relict tree species showing high resistance to adverse biotic and abiotic environmental factors. Its fruits and leaves have high medicinal value due to the presence of flavonoids, terpene trilactones and phenolic compounds. However, ginkgo seeds contain toxic and allergenic alkylphenols. The publication revises the latest research results (mainly from 2018-2022) regarding the chemical composition of extracts obtained from this plant and provides information on the use of extracts or their selected ingredients in medicine and food production. A very important section of the publication is the part in which the results of the review of patents concerning the use of Ginkgo biloba and its selected ingredients in food production are presented. Despite the constantly growing number of studies on its toxicity and interactions with synthetic drugs, its health-promoting properties are the reason for the interest of scientists and motivation to create new food products.

Flavonoid Components, Distribution, and Biological Activities in Taxus: A review

Taxus, also known as "gold in plants" because of the famous agents with emphases on Taxol and Docetaxel, is a genus of the family Taxaceae, distributed almost around the world. The plants hold an important place in traditional medicine in China, and its products are used for treating treat dysuria, swelling and pain, diabetes, and irregular menstruation in women. In order to make a further study and better application of Taxus plants for the future, cited references from between 1958 and 2022 were collected from the Web of Science, the China National Knowledge Internet (CNKI), SciFinder, and Google Scholar, and the chemical structures, distribution, and bioactivity of flavonoids identified from Taxus samples were summed up in the research. So far, 59 flavonoids in total with different skeletons were identified from Taxus plants, presenting special characteristics of compound distribution. These compounds have been reported to display significant antibacterial, antiaging, anti-Alzheimer's, antidiabetes, anticancer, antidepressant, antileishmaniasis, anti-inflammatory, antinociceptive and antiallergic, antivirus, antilipase, neuronal protective, and hepatic-protective activities, as well as promotion of melanogenesis. Flavonoids represent a good example of the utilization of the Taxus species. In the future, further pharmacological and clinical experiments for flavonoids could be accomplished to promote the preparation of relative drugs.

Spinach (Spinacia oleracea) microgreen prevents the formation of advanced glycation end products in model systems and breads

The formation of advanced glycation end products (AGEs) in daily diets poses a great threat to human health, since AGEs are closely related to some chronic metabolic diseases. In this study, we investigated the antiglycative capabilities of some popular microgreens in chemical model. Our data indicated that baby spinach (Spinacia oleracea) had the highest antiglycative activity during 4-wks incubation, with antioxidation being the main action route. Moreover, a bread model was set up to evaluate its antiglycative potential in real food model. The results showed that the fortification of baby spinach in bread significantly inhibited AGEs formation, with acceptable taste and food quality. Further study revealed that the antiglycative components were mainly distributed in leaves, which were separated via column chromatography and tentatively identified as chlorophyll derivatives. In summary, this study highlighted the antiglycative benefits of baby spinach which can be developed into healthy functional foods.

Self-Assembled Micelles Improve the Oral Bioavailability of Dihydromyricetin and Anti-Acute Alcoholism Activity

Dihydromyricetin (DMY) is highly effective in counteracting acute alcohol intoxication. However, its poor aqueous solubility and permeability lead to the low oral bioavailability and limit its clinic application. The aim of this work is to use Solutol®HS15 (HS 15) as surfactant to develop novel micelle to enhance the oral bioavailability of DMY by improving its solubility and permeability. The DMY-loaded Solutol®HS15 micelles (DMY-Ms) were prepared by the thin-film hydration method. The particle size of DMY-Ms was 13.97 ± 0.82 nm with an acceptable polydispersity index of 0.197 ± 0.015. Upon entrapped in micelles, the solubility of DMY in water was increased more than 25-fold. The DMY-Ms had better sustained release property than that of pure DMY. In single-pass intestinal perfusion models, the absorption rate constant (Ka) and permeability coefficient (Papp) of DMY-Ms were 5.5-fold and 3.0-fold than that of pure DMY, respectively. The relative bioavailability of the DMY-Ms (AUC_0-∞) was 205% compared with that of pure DMY (AUC_0-∞), indicating potential for clinical application. After administering DMY-Ms, there was much lower blood alcohol level and shorter duration of the loss of righting relax (LORR) in drunk animals compared with that treated by pure DMY. In addition, the oral administration of DMY-Ms greatly reduced oxidative stress, and significantly defended liver and gastric mucosa from alcoholic damages in mice with alcohol-induced tissue injury. Taken together, HS 15-based micelle system greatly improves the bioavailability of DMY and represents a promising strategy for the management of acute alcoholism. Graphical abstract.

Analysis of chemical compounds and toxicological evaluation of Forsythia suspensa leaves tea

To determine the compositions of Forsythia suspensa leaves tea (FSLT) and its safety, the chemical compounds were analysed with some methods, and the toxicity was evaluated in Kunming mice and Wistar rats. The results showed that FSLT contained rich flavonoid, lignans, triperpene acids, amino acids, and mineral elements. In the acute toxicity study, none of the mice died, and no obvious poisoning symptoms were observed after 14 days in mice at the dose of 15 mg/g·body weight (bw) FSLT; in the sub-chronic toxicity, no abnormal or dead rat was found at the dose of 1, 3, and 10 mg/g·bw during 90 days feeding administration; there was no significant difference in bw and food consumption; no significant differences were found in each hematology and serum biochemistry parameter and organ/body weight ratio comparing with the control experimental group. The results revealed that the FSLT has low or no toxicity via oral administration. Therefore, FSLT is very suitable and safe to be used as a new resource food.

Tricoumaroylspermidine from rose exhibits inhibitory activity against ethanol-induced apoptosis in HepG2 cells

Hepatocyte apoptosis is involved in the pathogenesis of alcohol-associated liver disease (ALD) and anti-apoptotic agents/extracts are thereby of great importance in the prevention/treatment of ALD. In this study, the protective effects of 10 edible flowers against ethanol-induced cell death were investigated in HepG2 cells, with rose (Rosa rugosa) showing the strongest activity. Therefore, rose was chosen for further separation and purification of bioactive fractions. A special fraction, SLs, was found to significantly increase the viability of EtOH-treated cells and attenuated EtOH-induced apoptosis partially via the activation of the AMPK/SIRT1 signaling pathway. Chromatographic analysis identified a series of hydroxycinnamic acid amides, kaempferol glycosides, and quercetin glycosides in this fraction, while the following intracellular uptake and cytotoxicity studies revealed that N1,N5,N10-(E)-tri-p-coumaroylspermidine (a hydroxycinnamic acid amide) in this fraction exhibited remarkable hepatoprotective activity with similar effective dosage to sulforaphane. Hence, our results highlighted the anti-alcohol and hepatoprotective benefits of consuming rose.

Qualitative and quantitative analysis of the major constituents in Spatholobi Caulis by UFLC-Triple TOF-MS/MS and UFLC-QTRAP-MS/MS

There have been few comprehensive studies on the holistic chemical composition of Spatholobi Caulis (SC) and consequently, the information is lacking for the in-depth study of the major constituents. SC is a kind of widely used traditional Chinese medicine with its xylem and phloem alternately arranged in 3-10 rings, but the relationship of phloem ring number and the quality remains unclear. In this study, the characterization of the major constituents in SC was analyzed by ultra-fast liquid chromatography coupled with triple quadrupole-time of flight tandem mass spectrometry (UFLC-Triple TOF-MS/MS), and the content of 19 flavonoids in SC with different phloem ring numbers was simultaneously determined by ultra-fast liquid chromatography coupled with triple quadrupole-linear ion trap tandem mass spectrometry (UFLC-QTRAP-MS/MS). Correlation analysis was performed to evaluate the quality of SC with different phloem ring numbers according to the content of 19 flavonoids. Results showed that 50 constituents in SC were identified and the fragmentation pathways of different types of compounds were preliminarily deduced by the fragmentation behavior of the 50 constituents. In addition, the content of flavonoids increased with phloem ring number, which demonstrated that the content of flavonoids in SC was positively correlated with the number of phloem rings. Our research will contribute to the variety identification and quality evaluation of SC, and provide a scientific basis for evaluating the quality of medicinal materials based on its appearance and characteristics.

The occurrence and stability of Maillard reaction products in various traditional Chinese sauces

Traditional Chinese sauces, especially soy sauce, vinegar, and oyster sauce, provide foods with special color, flavor, and taste. However, during their manufacturing process, Maillard reaction products (MRPs) might be formed and cause adverse effects on human health. This study detected the levels of some typical MRPs in these sauces. Results showed that dark soy sauce and some vinegar products were high in 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF). Moreover, dark soy sauce was significantly higher in 5-methylfurfural (MF) and methylglyoxal (MGO) than oyster sauce but lower in glyoxal (GO) than vinegar and oyster sauce, while light soy sauce had significantly higher advanced glycation end products (AGEs) than the rest three types of sauces. Besides, storage stability results indicated that MRPs increased obviously in vinegar and dark soy sauce. Finally, concentration limits/regulations of MRPs in traditional Chinese sauces should be established in the future considering their high frequency of usage and high potential of insalubrity.

Polyphenols and AGEs/RAGE axis. Trends and challenges

The formation of advanced glycation end-products (AGEs) is a key pathophysiological event linked not only to the onset and progression of diabetic complications, but also to neurodegeneration, cardiovascular diseases, cancer, and others important human diseases. AGEs contributions to pathophysiology are mainly through the formation of cross-links and by engaging the receptor for advanced glycation end-products (RAGE). Polyphenols are secondary metabolites found largely in fruits, vegetables, cereals, and beverages, and during many years, important efforts have been made to elucidate their beneficial effects on human health, mainly ascribed to their antioxidant activities. In the present review, we highlighted the beneficial actions of polyphenols aimed to diminish the harmful consequences of advanced glycation, mainly by the inhibition of ROS formation during glycation, the inhibition of Schiff base, Amadori products, and subsequent dicarbonyls group formation, the activation of the glyoxalase system, as well as by blocking either AGEs-RAGE interaction or cell signaling.