Microbial-Transferred Metabolites and Improvement of Biological Activities of Green Tea Catechins by Human Gut Microbiota

Green tea catechins (GTCs) are dietary polyphenols with broad bioactivities that undergo extensive microbial metabolism in the human gut. However, microbial-transferred metabolites and their health benefits are not fully understood. Herein, the microbial metabolism of GTCs by human fecal microbiota and dynamic alteration of the microbiota were integrally investigated via in vitro anaerobic fermentation. The results showed that the human gut microbiota exhibited a strong metabolic effect on GTCs via UHPLC-MS/MS analysis. A total of 35 microbial-transferred metabolites were identified, far more than were identified in previous studies. Among them, five metabolites, namely EGCG quinone, EGC quinone, ECG quinone, EC quinone, and mono-oxygenated EGCG, were identified for the first time in fermented GTCs with the human gut microbiota. Consequently, corresponding metabolic pathways were proposed. Notably, the antioxidant, α-amylase, and α-glucosidase inhibitory activities of the GTCs sample increased after fermentation compared to those of the initial unfermented sample. The results of the 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis showed that the GTCs significantly altered gut microbial diversity and enriched the abundancy of Eubacterium, Flavonifractor, etc., which may be further involved in the metabolisms of GTCs. Thus, these findings contribute to a better understanding of the interactions between GTCs and gut microbiota, as well as the health benefits of green tea consumption.

Identification and hepatoprotective activity of total glycosides of paeony with high content of paeoniflorin extracted from Paeonia lactiflora Pall

The aims of this work were to obtain total glucosides of paeony (TGP) with high content of paeoniflorin and evaluate the hepo-protective properties of TGP. After optimization by response surface methodology, optimized conditions were as follows: extraction time 33.0 min, extraction temperature 48 °C, ethanol content 44%, and the yield of TGP was 47.68 mg/g. Moreover, under established macroporous resin purification, paeoniflorin content of TGP achieved 67.6% in 1.5 L scale-up verification experiment. Purified TGP (p-TGP) was further analyzed by UHPLC-Q-Orbitrap-MS/MS, and 35 compouds including paeoniflorin were identified. The obtained p-TGP effectively reduced biochemical indexes and inflammatory cytokines in liver tissue of acute alcoholic liver injury mice model. Depending on this work, TGP with definitive compound composition exhibited great protective effect against acute alcoholic liver injury in vivo. Furthermore, the finding of this work will be helpful to understand the relationship between compound composition and functional properties of Chinese herb extracts.

Characterization of the composition of plant protection products in different formulation types employing suspect screening and unknown approaches

BACKGROUND

Plant protection products (PPPs) are used extensively in agriculture to control crops. These PPPs, which may be found in different types of formulations, are composed of a designated pesticide (active principle) and other inactive ingredients as co-formulants. They perform specific functions in the formulation, as solvents, preservatives or antifreeze agents, among others.

RESULTS

A research technique based on ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography (UHPLC) coupled to a Quadrupole-Orbitrap mass analyzer was successfully applied to characterize the composition of six different PPPs in terms of the presence of co-formulants and types of formulations: emulsifiable concentrate (EC), emulsion in water (EW), suspension concentrate and water-dispersible granule. These PPPs (FLINT MAX, MASSOCUR 12.5 EC, IMPACT EVO, TOPAS, LATINO and IMPALA STAR) had antifungal activity, containing one triazole compound as active principle (tebuconazole, penconazole, myclobutanil, flutriafol or fenbuconazole, respectively). Non-targeted approaches, applying suspect and unknown analysis, were carried out and ten compounds were identified as potential co-formulants. Six (glyceryl monostearate, 1-monopalmitin, dimethyl sulfoxide, N,N-dimethyldecanamide, hexaethylene glycol and 1,2-benzisothiazol-3(2H)-one) were confirmed by injecting analytical standards. Finally, these compounds were quantified in the PPPs.

CONCLUSION

The current study allowed for detecting co-formulants in a wide range of concentrations, between 0.04 (dimethyl sulfoxide) and 19.00 g L^-1 (glyceryl monostearate), highlighting the feasibility of the proposed analytical methodology. Moreover, notable differences among the types of formulations of PPPs were achieved, revealing that EC and EW were the formulations that contained the largest number of co-formulants (four out of six detected compounds). © 2022 The Authors. Journal of The Science of Food and Agriculture published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Society of Chemical Industry.

Bioaccessibility of phospholipids in homogenized goat milk: Lipid digestion ecology through INFOGEST model

Phospholipids-rich goat milk provides health benefits to consumers. The effects of homogenization on the disruption and recombination of milk fat globule membrane and change the fatty acid positional distribution in glycerophospholipids profile by phosphatidylcholine metabolism pathways were investigated. Goat milk was homogenized at different intensity pressure. Homogenized samples were introduced into harmonized INFOGEST digestion model. Results showed that phosphatidylcholine increased significantly during storage in 30 MPa and were approximately twice that in raw milk (LOD 0.27-1.49 μg/L and LOQ 0.89-4.92 μg/L, respectively). Meanwhile, both linoleic acid (C18:2) and α-linolenic acid (C18:3ω-3), the foremost polyunsaturated acyl chains in homogenized milk extracts, showed upward trends. Notably, homogenization increased the number and altered the composition of Sn-1, 2 diacylglycerols via increasing trypsin and pancreatic lipase (PLRP2, MAUC15, CD36 and BSSL) expression and accelerated the phosphatidylcholine conversion. Ultimately, the relationship between homogenization and milk fat globule recombination and phospholipids bioaccessibility was preliminary established.