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Epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG), the key constituent of tea polyphenols, presents challenges in terms of its lipid solubility, stability, and bioavailability because of its polyhydroxy structure. Consequently, structural modifications are imperative to enhance its efficacy. This paper comprehensively reviews the esterification techniques applied to EGCG over the past two decades and their impacts on bioactivities. Both chemical and enzymatic esterification methods involve catalysts, solvents, and hydrophobic groups as critical factors. Although the chemical method is cost-efficient, it poses challenges in purification; on the other hand, the enzymatic approach offers improved selectivity and simplified purification processes. The biological functions of EGCG are inevitably influenced by the structural changes incurred through esterification. The antioxidant capacity of EGCG derivatives can be compromised under certain conditions by reducing hydroxyl groups, while enhancing lipid solubility and stability can strengthen their antiviral, antibacterial, and anticancer properties. Additionally, esterification broadens the utility of EGCG in food applications. This review provides critical insights into developing cost-effective and environmentally sustainable selective esterification methods, as well as emphasizes the elucidation of the bioactive mechanisms of EGCG derivatives to facilitate their widespread adoption in food processing, healthcare products, and pharmaceuticals.

The Maillard reaction (MR) is a complicated chemical process that has been extensively studied. Harmful chemicals known as advanced glycation end products (AGEs), with complex structures and stable chemical characteristics, are created during the final stage of the MR. AGEs can be formed both during the thermal processing of food and in the human body. The number of AGEs formed in food is much higher compared to endogenous AGEs. A direct connection exists between human health and the build-up of AGEs in the body, which can result in diseases. Therefore, it is essential to understand the content of AGEs in the food we consume. The detection methods of AGEs in food are expounded upon in this review, and the advantages, disadvantages, and application fields of these detection methods are discussed in depth. Additionally, the production of AGEs in food, their content in typical foods, and the mechanisms influencing their formation are summarized. Since AGEs are closely related to the food industry and human health, it is hoped that this review will further the detection of AGEs in food so that their content can be evaluated more conveniently and accurately.

Some food-derived bioactive peptides exhibit prominent immunoregulatory activity. We previously demonstrated that the rice-derived PEP1 peptide, GIAASPFLQSAAFQLR, has strong immunological activity. However, the mechanism of this action is still unclear. In the present study, full-length transcripts of mouse dendritic cells (DC2.4) treated with PEP1 were sequenced using the PacBio sequencing platform, and the transcriptomes were compared via RNA sequencing (RNA-Seq). The characteristic markers of mature DCs, the cluster of differentiation CD86, and the major histocompatibility complex (MHC-II), were significantly upregulated after the PEP1 treatment. The molecular docking suggested that hydrogen bonding and electrostatic interactions played important roles in the binding between PEP1, MHC-II, and the T-cell receptor (TCR). In addition, the PEP1 peptide increased the release of anti-inflammatory factors (interleukin-4 and interleukin-10) and decreased the release of pro-inflammatory factors (interleukin-6 and tumor necrosis factor-α). Furthermore, the RNA-seq results showed the expression of genes involved in several signaling pathways, such as the NF-κB, MAPK, JAK-STAT, and TGF-β pathways, were regulated by the PEP1 treatment, and the changes confirmed the immunomodulatory effect of PEP1 on DC2.4 cells. This findings revealed that the PEP1 peptide, derived from the byproduct of rice processing, is a potential natural immunoregulatory alternative for the treatment of inflammation.

Time series data typically exhibit high dimensionality and complexity, necessitating the use of specific approximation methods to perform computations on the data. The currently employed compression methods suffer from varying degrees of feature loss, leading to potential distortions in similarity measurement results. Considering the aforementioned challenges and concerns, this paper proposes a double mean representation method, SAX-DM (Symbolic Aggregate Approximation Based on Double Mean Representation), for time series data, along with a similarity measurement approach based on SAX-DM. Addressing the trade-off between compression ratio and accuracy in the improved SAX representation, SAX-DM utilizes the segment mean and the segment trend distance to represent corresponding segments of time series data. This method reduces the dimensionality of the original sequences while preserving the original features and trend information of the time series data, resulting in a unified representation of time series segments. Experimental results demonstrate that, under the same compression ratio, SAX-DM combined with its similarity measurement method achieves higher expression accuracy, balanced compression rate, and accuracy, compared to SAX-TD and SAX-BD, in over 80% of the UCR Time Series dataset. This approach improves the efficiency and precision of similarity calculation.

BackgroundThis study aimed to evaluate the ensiling characteristics, bacterial community structure, co-occurrence networks, and their predicted functionality and pathogenic risk in high-moisture oat (Avena sativa L.) silage. The oat harvested at heading stage (224 g/kg fresh weight) was spontaneously ensiled in plastic silos (10 L scale). Triplicate silos were opened after 1, 3, 7, 15, 30 and 60 days of fermentation, respectively. The bacterial community structure on day 3 and 60 were investigated using high-throughput sequencing technology, and 16S rRNA-gene predicted functionality and phenotypes were determined by PICRUSt2 and BugBase tools, respectively.ResultsAfter 60 days, the oat silage exhibited moderate fermentation quality, as indicated by large amounts of acetic acid (~ 50.4 g/kg dry matter (DM)) and lactic acid (~ 55.4 g/kg DM), relatively high pH (~ 4.79), acceptable levels of ammonia nitrogen (~ 75.2 g/kg total nitrogen) and trace amounts of butyric acid (~ 3.36 g/kg DM). Psychrobacter was prevalent in fresh oat, and Enterobacteriaceae and Lactobacillus dominated the bacterial community on day 3 and 60. Ensilage reduced the complexity of bacterial community network at the initial stage of fermentation. The bacterial functional pathways in fresh and ensiled oat are primarily characterized by the metabolism of carbohydrate and amino acid. During ensiling, the elevated pyruvate kinase and 1-phosphofructokinase levels were correlated with the lactic acid production, and the increased levels of 6-phosphogluconate dehydrogenase and ribulose-5-phosphate 3-epimerase may be responsible for the abundant acetic acid contents. Greater (P < 0.01) proportions of “Potentially Pathogenic” were observed in the bacterial community of oat silage compared to fresh oat.ConclusionsAltogether, the findings indicated that the high-moisture oat silage exhibited moderate fermentation quality, and the potential for microbial contamination and pathogens remained after 60 days of ensiling. Therefore, some effective chemical and microbial additives are recommended to ensure the quality, hygiene, and safety in high-moisture oat silage production.

The complementarity of plant proteins from various sources could achieve higher nutritional value to satisfy the requirement of replacing animal proteins. Therefore, it is very important to seek efficient and convenient approaches to fabricate highly soluble protein composites. In this study, macadamia protein–soybean protein (SP-MP′) composites were fabricated by alkaline-thermal treating at different ratios of 1:0.5, 1:1, and 1:2; then, the nitrogen solubility index, particle characteristics, and structure and emulsifying properties of SP-MP′ composites were investigated. The nitrogen solubility indexes of SP-MP′ composites were higher than 80%, and less small insoluble aggregates were observed by scanning electron microscopy. SP-MP′ composites exhibited high ζ-potential values, which were higher than −50 mV. Sodium dodecyl sulfate–polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) analysis found that both subunits of individually alkaline-thermal-treated macadamia protein (MP′) and soybean protein (SP′) were presented in SP-MP′ composites. The results of fluorescence, sulfhydryl group, and secondary structure illustrated that the SP interacted with MP to form SP-MP′ composites by the co-folding of proteins during neutralization. Compared to the individual proteins, SP-MP′ composites exhibited stronger emulsification ability and stability indexes (EAI and ESI) as the proportion of MP increased, and the EAI and ESI of SP-MP1:2′ were 21.53 m2/g and 146.7%, respectively. Meanwhile, emulsions prepared by SP-MP′ composites displayed more uniform oil droplet distributions. The findings suggested that highly soluble SP-MP′ composites with stronger emulsification abilities were successfully fabricated, which have great potential as ingredients to manufacture nutritional plant protein beverages.

The modification effects of industry-scale microfluidizer (ISM) technology on small-sized rice starch remain unknown. This study systematically evaluated the effects of ISM treatment on the structural characteristics (granular morphology, crystallinity, and short-range order) and physicochemical properties (thermal, pasting, and rheological properties) of rice starch. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) analysis revealed that ISM treatment induced the aggregation of starch granules, leading to an increase in particle size. Furthermore, ISM treatment resulted in starch damage, as evidenced by an increase in the damaged starch content from 4.25% to 17.99%. X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis found that the relative crystallinity decreased from 29.01% to 20.74%, and Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy implied that the absorbance ratio of 1047 cm−1/1022 cm−1 decreased from 0.88 to 0.73, indicating the disorganization of long-range crystalline structure and short-range ordered structure. Differential scanning calorimetry analysis demonstrated that ISM treatment reduced the gelatinization enthalpy of rice starch, with a gelatinization degree reaching 31.39%. Rapid visco analyzer (RVA) measurements indicated that ISM treatment increased the pasting viscosity of rice starch. However, the effect of ISM treatment on the dynamic rheological properties was minimal, with a slight enhancement in the loss modulus, while in-shear structural recovery rheology showed no significant impact on the ability of starch gels to recover their original structure. These results suggested that ISM technology effectively modified rice starch, leading to a disrupted structure, increased viscosity, and preserved gel network structure. This approach offers a novel strategy for the application of industry-scale microfluidizers in the development of rice-based products.

This study aimed to assess the fermentation characteristics, bacterial community structure, co-occurrence networks, and their predicted functionality and pathogenic risk in high-moisture Italian ryegrass (IR; Lolium multiflorum Lam.) silage. The IR harvested at heading stage (208 g dry matter (DM)/kg fresh weight) was spontaneously ensiled in plastic silos (10 L scale). Triplicated silos were opened after 1, 3, 7, 15, 30, and 60 days of fermentation, respectively. The bacterial community structure on days 3 and 60 were investigated using high-throughput sequencing technology, and 16S rRNA-gene predicted functionality and phenotypes were determined by PICRUSt2 and BugBase tools, respectively. After 60 days, the IR silage exhibited good ensiling characteristics indicated by large amounts of acetic acid (~58.7 g/kg DM) and lactic acid (~91.5 g/kg DM), relatively low pH (~4.20), acceptable levels of ammonia nitrogen (~87.0 g/kg total nitrogen), and trace amounts of butyric acid (~1.59 g/kg DM). Psychrobacter was prevalent in fresh IR, and Lactobacillus became the most predominant genus after 3 and 60 days. The ensilage process reduced the complexity of the bacterial community networks in IR silage. The bacterial functional pathways in fresh and ensilaged IR are primarily characterized by the metabolism of carbohydrate and amino acid. The pyruvate kinase and 1-phosphofructokinase were critical in promoting lactic acid fermentation. A greater (p < 0.01) abundance of the “potentially pathogenic” label was noticed in the bacterial communities of ensiled IR than fresh IR. Altogether, the findings indicated that the high-moisture IR silage exhibited good ensiling characteristics, but the potential for microbial contamination and pathogens still remained after ensiling.

In this study, soy isoflavones-loaded nanoparticles were prepared using rice proteins (RPs) hydrolyzed by four types of enzyme (alcalase, neutrase, trypsin, and flavorzyme). After optimizing the preparation conditions, the encapsulation efficiency (EE) of the nanoparticles ranged from 61.16% ± 0.92% to 90.65% ± 0.19%. The RPs that were hydrolyzed by flavorzyme with a molecular weight of <5 KDa showed better characters on the formation of nanoparticles, and the formed nanoparticles had the highest EE and loading capacity (9.06%), the smallest particle size (64.77 nm), the lowest polymer dispersity index (0.19), and the lowest zeta potential (−25.64 mV).The results of Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance, X-ray diffraction, and fluorescence spectroscopy showed that the nanoparticles were successfully encapsulated. The study of interaction showed that the formation of nanoparticles may depend mainly on hydrogen bonds, but other interactions, such as hydrophobic interactions and electrostatic interactions, cannot be ignored. After encapsulation, the pH stability, temperature stability, ionic stability, and oxidation resistance of the nanoparticles were enhanced. Moreover, the in vitro release experiment showed that the encapsulated nanoparticles had a certain protective effect on soybean isoflavones. In summary, rice protein hydrolysates are promising carriers for soybean isoflavones.

Alcohol addiction is a major social and health concern. Here, we determined the expression profile of microRNAs (miRNAs) in the nucleus accumbens (NAc) of rats treated with alcohol. The results suggest that multiple miRNAs were aberrantly expressed in rat NAc after alcohol injection. Among them, miR‐382 was down‐regulated in alcohol‐treated rats. In both cultured neuronal cells in vitro and in the NAc in vivo , we identified that the dopamine receptor D1 ( Drd1 ) is a direct target gene of miR‐382. Via this target gene, miR‐382 strongly modulated the expression of DeltaFosB. Moreover, overexpression of miR‐382 significantly attenuated alcohol‐induced up‐regulation of DRD1 and DeltaFosB, decreased voluntary intake of and preference for alcohol and inhibited the DRD1‐induced action potential responses. The results indicated that miRNAs are involved in and may represent novel therapeutic targets for alcoholism. Graphical Abstract The underlying molecular causes of alcohol addiction remain unclear. Many miRNAs are found modulated in the nucleus accumbens of rats chronically treated with alcohol. Specifically, miR‐382 is shown to regulate alcohol intake via DRD1 and DeltaFosB.