Determination of Commercial Animal and Vegetable Milks' Lipid Profile and Its Correlation with Cell Viability and Antioxidant Activity on Human Intestinal Caco-2 Cells

Insights and Perspectives on Plant-Based Beverages

The emerging demand for everyday food substitutes is increasing on a daily basis. More and more individuals struggle with allergies and intolerances, which makes it mandatory to provide alternatives for simple products like dairy milk. Plant-based beverages (PBBs) are currently trending due to the multiple diets that promote their consumption with or without a justification. PBBs can derive from various types of plants, not exclusively nuts. Some of the most well-known sources are almonds, soy, rice, and hazelnuts, among others. In view of the need for sustainable approaches to resource utilization and food production, novel sources for PBBs are being sought, and those include fruit kernels. The plant kingdom offers a palette of resources with proven bioactivity, i.e., containing flavonoids, phenolic acids, vitamins, carotenoids, and phenolics, among others. Many of these beneficial substances are water soluble, which means they could be transferred to the plant beverage compositions. The current review aims at comparing the vast number of potential formulations based on their specific nutritional profiles and potential deficiencies, as well as their expected health-promoting properties, based on the raw material(s) used for production. Special attention will be given to the antinutrients, usually abundant in plant-based sources.

Effects of enzymatic modification on the stability of cashew-based milk

The green and low-carbon awareness drives the consumption demand for "clean-label" plant-based milk, which is limited by its physicochemical stability. Herein, the effects of enzymatic hydrolysis on the stability of cashew-based milk (CM) are explored in detail. Our results showed that a maximum protein solubility of 41.36 ± 2.14% was achieved under bromelain treatment of CM either for 60 min or with the addition of 600 U g-1. Under these hydrolysis conditions, CM showed smaller particle size, larger zeta potential, and more uniform size distribution in comparison with the control. Similar behavior was also observed in the apparent viscosity and macroscopic stability, demonstrating the fortification of moderate hydrolysis on the physical stability of CM. Interestingly, bromelain hydrolysis could favor improving the oxidative stability of CM, for which the peroxide value and thiobarbituric acid reactive substances were decreased by 90% and 60%, respectively, after 14 days of storage in comparison with the control. The correlation analysis confirmed that the physical and oxidative stability was highly associated with protein solubility and secondary structures like α-helix. Therefore, our findings could provide scientific support for developing plant-based milk with fortified physicochemical stability.

Exploring the Mechanism of Hawthorn Leaves Against Coronary Heart Disease Using Network Pharmacology and Molecular Docking

Hawthorn leaves, which is a traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), has been used for treating coronary heart disease (CHD) for a long time in China. But the limited understanding of the main active components and molecular mechanisms of this traditional medicine has restricted its application and further research. The active compounds of hawthorn leaves were obtained from TCMSP database and SymMap database. The targets of it were predicted based on TCMSP, PubChem, Swiss Target Prediction, and SymMap database. The putative targets of CHD were gathered from multi-sources databases including the Online Mendelian Inheritance in Man (OMIM) database, the DrugBank database, the GeneCards database and the DisGeNet database. Network topology analysis, GO and KEGG pathway enrichment analyses were performed to select the key targets and pathways. Molecular docking was performed to demonstrate the binding capacity of the key compounds to the predicted targets. Furthermore, RAW264.7 cells stimulated by lipopolysaccharides (LPS) were treated with three effective compounds of hawthorn leaves to assess reliability of prediction. Quercetin, isorhamnetin and kaempferol were main active compounds in hawthorn leaves. Forty four candidate therapeutic targets were identified to be involved in protection of hawthorn leaves against CHD. Additionally, the effective compounds of it had good binding affinities to PTGS2, EGFR, and MMP2. Enrichment analyses suggested that immune inflammation related biological processes and pathways were possibly the potential mechanism. Besides, we found that three predicted effective compounds of hawthorn leaves decreased protein expression of PTGS2, MMP2, MMP9, IL6, IL1B, TNFα and inhibited activation of macrophage. In summary, the present study demonstrates that quercetin, kaempferol and isorhamnetin are proved to be the main effective compounds of hawthorn leaves in treatment of CHD, possibly by suppressing expression of PTGS2, MMP2, MMP9, inflammatory cytokines and macrophages viability. This study provides a new understanding of the active components and mechanisms of hawthorn leaves treating CHD from the perspective of network pharmacology.