Suchergebnisse

Hyperlipidaemia is one of the essential public health risk factors that can cause other metabolic diseases such as cardiovascular diseases and diabetes. Dieting and healthy lifestyle have been among the primary approaches. However, medication is required to regulate the lipid profile in some instances. Therefore, there has been an increase in interest in using or integrating herbal medicine with modern medicine in treating hyperlipidaemia. Nonetheless, preparing standardised herbal extract or products has been one of the major challenges in the herbal industry. Standardising herbal extract or product (single plant-based or mixture of multiple herbs) is needed to ensure the quality, safety, and efficacy of the herbal maintained from batch to batch before it is released to the market. The present review thus evaluates several herbal plants with anti-hyperlipidaemic activities, quality control using chemical markers, and metabolomics application in herbal plants.

The present work aimed to evaluate the potential of Carica papaya seed extract (CPSE) as an antibacterial agent against Salmonella Enteritidis, Bacillus cereus, Vibrio vulnificus, and Proteus mirabilis. The bioautography of the CPSE on thin-layer chromatography (TLC) plates was performed, followed by fractionation of the CPSE by column chromatography using hexane:ethyl acetate (1:1) eluent. Minimum Inhibitory Concentration (MIC), toxicity, composition, and stability of the crude, fractions, and sub-fractions of the CPSE were evaluated. The bioautographic fractions of the CPSE at MIC of 5.63 mg/mL had shown that hexane:ethyl acetate (1:1) fraction and its sub-fraction 3C (Rf = 0.94 ± 0.03) demonstrated the equivalent MIC value (5.63 mg/mL) with the crude CPSE. However, the hexane:ethyl acetate (1:1) fraction and sub-fraction 3C had higher toxicity (LC50 = 1.797 ± 0.305 and 0.332 ± 0.059 mg/mL, respectively) than the crude CPSE (LC50 = 5.505 ± 0.718 mg/mL). Thus, only the crude CPSE was subjected to stability study. The dominant cis-vaccenic acid in sub-fraction 3C demonstrated the lowest MIC against B. cereus (1.41 mg/mL), P. mirabilis (1.41 mg/mL), and S. Enteritidis (0.70 mg/mL) in its pure form. Hence, these results signified the potency of the cis-vaccenic acid as an antibacterial compound from the CPSE. The stability study of the crude CPSE solution showed that at MIC of 5.63 mg/mL, the crude CPSE solution acted as a potent antibacterial agent in acidic condition (pH 4), water activity (Aw) < 0.950, and temperature < 40°C.

Bacterial growth in food sources after harvesting and during food manufacturing has emerged as a major agricultural concern. Currently, several chemical preservatives have been added to foods to prevent or inhibit bacterial growth. These phenomena, however, become a concern when consumers begin to demand the safety of the food they consume, thus resulting in a search for natural plant extracts as an alternative. The antimicrobial activity of Cosmos caudatus leaf extract against six food pathogens was thus investigated in the present work. The disc-diffusion test, the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC), and the minimum bactericidal concentration (MBC) tests were used to determine the antibacterial potential. Time-kill kinetics were used to determine their killing endpoints at various incubation times. Thereafter, Bacillus cereus was selected as a representative bacterium to be viewed under the light sheet electron microscope (LSEM) to observe the morphological changes. For the application as a sanitiser, different concentrations of C. caudatus extract were applied to chicken meat and oyster mushroom to determine bacterial reduction and sensory acceptability. The toxicity test using brine shrimp lethality assay was also performed to determine the toxicity level of C. caudatus extract. Results showed that C. caudatus extract contain five major peaks of flavonoids. In the antibacterial test, all tested pathogens were inhibited, with B. cereus being the most susceptible, with a significant reduction time of more than 3 log10 at 3.125 mg/mL. Under LSEM, the population of B. cereus was reduced, and the shape was wrinkled. In the application, C. caudatus extract at 0.05% for 5 min treatment time was chosen as the best formulation, whereas the brine shrimp tests showed that C. caudatus extract was safe for human consumption (LC50: 3.54 mg/mL). In conclusion, C. caudatus extract could have the potential to be further explored as a natural food sanitiser.

The use of chemical preservatives in food products to inhibit the growth of microorganisms is widely used nowadays. However, their use has become a concern due to several negative side effects, and when consumers question the safety of the foods they eat. Therefore, the present work was conducted to investigate the potential of plant natural sanitiser from Cosmos caudatus Kunth extract to reduce the natural microflora present in raw beef and shrimp meat samples. The present work aimed to investigate the reduction of natural microflora (B. cereus, E. coli, Pseudomonas spp., S. aureus, and L. monocytogenes) in raw beef and shrimp meat samples following sanitisation with different concentrations of C. caudatus extract (0.05, 0.50, and 5.00%) at different soaking times (5, 10, and 15 min). The sanitised samples were further evaluated with sensory acceptability (colour, odour, texture, and overall acceptability) to determine their acceptance level after treatment. Based on the results, the microflora in beef and shrimp meat samples were reduced significantly (p < 0.05) started from 0.05% at varied soaking times. The decrease in bacterial populations was proportional to the increase in extract concentrations and soaking times. In sensory acceptability, all cooked samples achieved acceptance level by the panellists at 0.05% after 10 min of soaking time. Food samples treated with 0.05% of C. caudatus extract and 10 min of soaking time showed the best combination in terms of bacterial reduction and the level of acceptance by the panellists. Hence, it can be concluded that C. caudatus extract has a high potential as a natural-based food sanitiser that can prevent bacterial contamination while maintaining the sensory acceptability of the foods.

The present work demonstrated a method to determine the growing activities of typical soy sauce fermentation yeasts under sonication stimulation in stress and/or enriched conditions. The yeast activities were determined using a programmed spectrophotometer which automatically records the optical density (OD) of the growth media. The increasing OD values were directly proportionally to the amount of yeast cells within the growth media. Spectrometry method provides a typical sigmoidal curve with the lag time, maximum growth rate, and average growth rate of microorganisms. Activities of two industrial yeast strains (Zygosaccharomyces spp. and Candida spp.) under sonication stimulations (0.5 cycles, 60 amplitude) at different salt contents (1, 3, and 5%), glucose contents (5, 10, and 15%), sonication durations (10, 20, and 30 min), and incubation temperatures (30 and 37°C) were investigated in a 24-h growth cycle model system by one-factor-at-a-time (OFAT) design. Overall, sonication treatment in the presence of salt was not lethal to yeast cells. The maximum growth rate of both yeast strains was significantly reduced (p < 0.05) when the sample was treated with 5% salt content coupled with sonication. However, when the sample was further enriched with glucose at 10%, it yielded significantly highest growth rate (0.1310 ± 0.0107 OD/h). Finally, 10 min sonication and 30°C incubation temperature were found to be better as compared to the other treatment combinations. Sonication did not exert any detrimental effect on investigated yeasts, and stimulated the growth when enrichment was appropriately provided.

The present work aimed to investigate the phytochemical profile and biological activities of Sudanese baobab (Adansonia digitata L.) fruit pulp extract. Baobab fruit pulp serves as food, and has been used in traditional medicine in Africa for the treatment of several diseases, and believed to possess many biological activities. The sample of baobab fruit was collected from Blue Nile State in Sudan. The fruit pulp was obtained from baobab pods, sieved, extracted with methanol (80%), and analysed for its antioxidant activity, and alpha-glucosidase and nitric oxide (NO) inhibitory activities. The phytochemical constituents of the pulp were determined by LC-MS and 1H-NMR techniques. The results for antioxidant activity evaluated by DPPH and FRAP for methanolic extract were 232.70 mg Ascorbic Acid Equivalent Antioxidant Capacity (AEAC)/g and 222.28 mmol/g of Fe2+, respectively. Baobab pulp extract showed greater capability in inhibiting the generation of NO from the stimulated RAW264.7 cells at 98.45% inhibition and IC50 of 36.55 µg/mL; and α-glucosidase enzyme activity at 97.94% inhibition and IC50 of 58.59 µg/mL. The LC-MS/MS analysis of the baobab extract showed that 52 compounds were found in the baobab pulp, including 19 flavonoids, ten phenolic acids, four lipids (glycero-3-phosphocholine derivative, 1,2-didodecanoyl-sn-glycero-3-phospho-(1'-sn-glycerol), 1-pentadecanoyl-2-(13Z,16Z-docosadienoyl)-glycero-3-phosphate, and glycero-3-hosphocholine derivative), sugars, organic acid, iridoids, adenosine, scopoletin, and taraxerone. The NMR detected 21 metabolites from baobab pulp extract including carbohydrates, organic acids, vitamin, amino acids, phenolic compounds, alkaloids, and fatty acids. The present work is the first of its kind in comprehensively analysing the Sudanese baobab fruit pulp, combined with qualitative characterisation of chemical components using NMR, LC-MS, α-glucosidase, and NO inhibitors. Baobab fruit pulp contains several beneficial phytochemicals and biological activities, and it has potential positive effect on general human's health.

Mangifera odorata, or known as "kuini" in Malay, is considered an underutilised climacteric tropical fruit. Recent studies had suggested that the by-products of M. odorata may serve as functional food ingredients based on their nutritional values and biological activities. Thus, the present work was aimed to determine the nutritional composition, antidiabetic properties through α-glucosidase and α-amylase inhibition assays, and phytochemical profiling of M. odorata pulp using ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography-electrospray ionisation orbitrap tandem mass spectrometry (UHPLC-ESI-Orbitrap-MS/MS). Proximate analyses found that M. odorata pulp contained high amounts of soluble fibre and moisture. The main sugar in the pulp was identified as sucrose, while ß-carotene, potassium, calcium, iron, and zinc were the major vitamins and minerals. The extraction of the sample in water, acetone, methanol, and ethanol were performed for the determination of antidiabetic assay. The results showed that 60% of ethanolic extract had the highest α-amylase inhibitory activity among the four extraction solvents. The findings revealed high levels of mangiferin in the active extract, which may be responsible for the α-amylase inhibition activity, thus contributing to lower post-prandial blood glucose. The present work provides evidence on the nutritional benefits of M. odorata pulp, as well as the potential use of its ethanolic extract as an α-amylase inhibitor.

Momordica charantia or bitter melon (Cucurbitaceae) is a widely consumed edible fruit with strong antioxidant properties. Due to these properties, it has been commercialised by the natural product industries as a coadjutant in the treatment of various ailments attributable to the deleterious effects of oxidants. The present work aimed to evaluate the antioxidant activity of M. charantia fruit extracts made with different compositions of ethanol:water, and to identify the metabolites that are responsible for this activity. To this end, the fruit samples were extracted using six different concentrations of ethanol in water (0, 20, 40, 60, 80, and 100%). Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) and multivariate data analysis (MVDA) were used to identify significant antioxidants. The 80% ethanol:water extract showed the most significant (p < 0.05) antioxidant activity when tested with the 1, 1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) and ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP) antioxidant assays. The multivariate data analysis revealed that the metabolites related to this antioxidant activity were gentiobiose, glucose, galactonic acid, palmitic acid, galactose, mannose, and fructose.