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Background Areke is a popular traditional distilled beverage in semi-urban and rural areas in Ethiopia. Traditional areke distillation uses an open-fire system that consumes a lot of firewood and produces a large amount of indoor air pollution. Methods The areke distiller apparatus (heat exchanger, condenser, energy-efficient stoves, storage tanks, and local areke extraction apparatus) was manufactured by technicians (welders). Different types of grains (wheat, millet, lupine, barley, and maize) were purchased from a neighborhood market. The traditional method of areke fermentation was prepared by an experienced woman brewer using a combination of ingredients and appropriate steps and procedures. The efficacy of a traditional stove, modified stove, and a combination of modified stove and double-pipe were evaluated . The amount of ethanol was estimated by measuring its refractive index and specific gravity. The sensory evaluation of areke samples was conducted by 10 consumer sensory panelists. Result The highest ethanol concentration in areke (53.75 ± 0.01 (% v/v)) was obtained from millet E ( dagusa E) in double-pipe distillation (E). The maize E ( bekolo E) of overall acceptance had the greatest score (4.5 ± 0.01) compared to other areke sensory parameters. The alcoholic strength of lupine E ( gibeto E) was scored as excellent (5.0 ± 0.01) compared to other areke sensory parameters. All judges agreed that traditional and double-pipe areke consumption was acceptable. The combination of double-pipe distillation and modified stove resulted in a 50% ± 0.15 reduction in the average amount of firewood used. The traditional open fire stove consumed more firewood (5.1 kg ± 0.1) than the combination of double-pipe distillation and modified stove (2.5 kg ± 0.01). Conclusion These results indicate that the combination of double-pipe distillation with a modified stove had better performance than traditional areke distillation.

Embedding data in hyperbolic spaces has proven beneficial for many advanced machine learning applications. However, working in hyperbolic spaces is not without difficulties as a result of its curved geometry (e.g., computing the Fréchet mean of a set of points requires an iterative algorithm). In Euclidean spaces, one can resort to kernel machines that not only enjoy rich theoretical properties but that can also lead to superior representational power (e.g., infinite-width neural networks). In this paper, we introduce valid kernel functions for hyperbolic representations. This brings in two major advantages, 1. kernelization will pave the way to seamlessly benefit the representational power from kernel machines in conjunction with hyperbolic embeddings, and 2. the rich structure of the Hilbert spaces associated with kernel machines enables us to simplify various operations involving hyperbolic data. That said, identifying valid kernel functions on curved spaces is not straightforward and is indeed considered an open problem in the learning community. Our work addresses this gap and develops several positive definite kernels in hyperbolic spaces (modeled by a Poincaré ball), the proposed kernels include the rich universal ones (e.g., Poincaré RBF kernel), or realize the multiple kernel learning scheme (e.g., Poincaré radial kernel). We comprehensively study the proposed kernels on a variety of challenging tasks including few-shot learning, zero-shot learning, person re-identification, deep metric learning, knowledge distillation and self-supervised learning. The consistent performance gain over different tasks shows the benefits of the kernelization for hyperbolic representations.

Coriander ( Coriandrum sativum L .) is a member of the Umbelliferae/Apiaceae family and one of the well-known essential oil-containing plants, in which the seeds are used in traditional medicine, and as flavoring in food preparation. Knowing the diverse chemical components of different parts of the plant, this work aims to investigate the antioxidant, the anti-inflammatory, and the immunostimulatory modulator effects of the Jordanian C . sativum ’s seed extracted essential oil (JCEO). Coriander oil extract was prepared by hydro-distillation method using the Clevenger apparatus. Different concentrations of coriander oil were examined by using DPPH radical scavenging assay, MTT assay, pro-inflammatory cytokine (Tumor Necrosis Factor-TNF-alpha) production in RAW264.7 murine macrophages in addition, scratch-wound assessment, NO level examination, Th1/Th2 assay, phagocytosis assay, and fluorescence imaging using DAPI stain were conducted. JCEO had a potential metabolic enhancer effect at a concentration of 0.3 mg/mL on cell viability with anti-inflammatory activities via increasing cytokines like IL-10, IL-4, and limiting NO, INF- γ , and TNF- α release into cell supernatant. Antioxidant activity was seen significantly at higher concentrations of JCEO reaching 98.7% when using 100mg/mL and minimally reaching 50% at 12.5mg/mL of the essential oil. Treated macrophages were able to attain full scratch closure after 48-hrs at concentrations below 0.3mg/mL. The seed-extracted JCEO showed significant free radical scavenging activity even at lower dilutions. It also significantly induced an anti-inflammatory effect via an increase in the release of cytokines but reduced the LPS-induced NO and TNF-α production at 0.16–0.3mg/mL. In summary, coriander essential oil demonstrated antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and immunostimulatory effects, showcasing its therapeutic potential at specific concentrations. The findings underscore its safety and metabolic enhancement properties, emphasizing its promising role in promoting cellular health.

Zero liquid discharge after treatment of industrial wastewater is a major goal to avoid environmental pollution. For that, membrane distillation appears as an advanced technique to generate pure water and to concentrate recyclable matter. Here, we review membrane distillation with focus on the industry of the traditional Chinese medicine. Membrane distillation has been successfully applied to concentrate fruit juice and herbal bioactive compounds in food and medicine, and to manage brine from gas, oil and desalination industries. Membrane distillation holds many advantages including energy conservation and better rejection of bioactive compounds by comparison with distillation and reverse osmosis. The recent synthesis of superhydrophobic or omniphobic membranes, such as the Janus membrane, allows to decrease wetting and fouling.

Background Ocimum americanum L. (O. americanum) and Ocimum basilicum L. ( O. basilicum ) are highly valued aromatic medicinal plants. Their leaves are widely used as spices in traditional cuisine. Their essential oils (EOs) are extensively used in food, cosmetic, and pharmaceutical industries. This study aimed to investigate the main chemical profiles of O. americanum and O. basilicum leaf EOs and assess their effects on antibacterial, antioxidant, and larvicidal properties. Methods EOs were extracted from the leaves of O. basilicum and O. americanum using steam distillation in a Clevenger-type apparatus. The chemical constituents of the EOs were analyzed using gas chromatography–mass spectrometry. 2,2-Diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH), ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP), and metal-chelating techniques were used to assess the free-radical scavenging capability of the oils. The extracted oils were also tested for their antibacterial activities via a disk-diffusion test and the broth microdilution method. Furthermore, the mosquito larvicidal ( Aedes aegypti ) activity was tested using standard protocols. Results Camphor (33.869%), limonene (7.215%), longifolene (6.727%), caryophyllene (5.500%), and isoledene (5.472%) were the major compounds in O. americanum leaf EO. The EO yield was 0.4%, and citral (19.557%), estragole (18.582%) camphor (9.224%) and caryophyllene (3.009%) were the major compounds found among the 37 chemical constituents identified in O. basilicum oil. O. basilicum exhibited a more potent antioxidant activity in DPPH, FRAP, and 2,2′-azino-bis(3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid tests than O. americanum . The zones of inhibition and minimum inhibitory concentration of the oils in the microdilution and disk diffusion methods were 8.00 ± 0.19 mm to 26.43 ± 2.19 mm and 3.12–100 µg/mL, respectively. At 400 ppm, O. basilicum and O. americanum EOs demonstrated larvicidal activity, with mortality ratios of 73.60% ± 0.89% and 78.00% ± 1.00%, respectively. Furthermore, after 30 min of exposure to O. americanum and O. basilicum EOs , the larval death rates were 73.60% ± 0.89% and 78.00% ± 1.00% , respectively. Conclusions The findings revealed that the EOs extracted from the leaves of O. basilicum and O. americanum exhibited reasonable antioxidant, antibacterial, and mosquito larvicidal potentials, and can be used as alternative medicine for the treatment of human health and larvicidal mosquito control.

Helichrysum italicum (family Asteraceae), due to its various beneficial health effects, represents an important plant in the traditional medicine of Mediterranean countries. Currently, there is a renewed interest in this medicinal plant, especially in investigations involving the isolation and identification of its bioactive compounds from extracts and essential oils, as well as in experimental validation of their pharmacological activities. In this paper, we review the current knowledge on the beneficial health effects of Helichrysum italicum extracts, essential oils, and their major bioactive polyphenolic compounds, ranging from antioxidative, anti-inflammatory, and anticarcinogenic activities to their antiviral, antimicrobial, insecticidal, and antiparasitic effects. This review also provides an overview of the most promising extraction and distillation techniques for obtaining high-quality extracts and essential oils from Helichrysum italicum, as well as methods for determining their antioxidative, antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory, and anticarcinogenic activities. Finally, new ideas for in silico studies of molecular mechanisms of bioactive polyphenols from Helichrysum italicum, together with novel suggestions for their improved bioavailability through diverse encapsulation techniques, are introduced.

Lavender is one of the most appreciated aromatic plants, with high economic value in food, cosmetics, perfumery, and pharmaceutical industries. Lavender essential oil (LEO) is known to have demonstrative antimicrobial, antioxidant, therapeutic, flavor and fragrance properties. Conventional extraction methods, e.g., steam distillation (SD) and hydro-distillation (HD), have been traditionally employed to extract LEO. However, the low yield, high energy consumption, and long extraction time of conventional methods have prompted the introduction of novel extraction technologies. Some of these innovative approaches, such as ohmic-assisted, microwave-assisted, supercritical fluid, and subcritical water extraction approaches, are used as substitutes to conventional extraction methods. While other methods, e.g., sonication, pulsed electric field, and cold plasma, can be used as a pre-treatment that is preceded by conventional or emerging extraction technologies. These innovative approaches have a great significance in reducing the energy consumption, shortening the extraction time, and increasing the extraction yield and the quality of EOs. Therefore, they can be considered as sustainable extraction technologies. However, the scale-up of emerging technologies to an industrial level should also be investigated from the techno-economic points of view in future studies.

In order to reduce the number of parameters in the Chinese herbal medicine recognition model while maintaining accuracy, this paper takes 20 classes of Chinese herbs as the research object and proposes a recognition network based on knowledge distillation and cross-attention – ShuffleCANet (ShuffleNet and Cross-Attention). Firstly, transfer learning was used for experiments on 20 classic networks, and DenseNet and RegNet were selected as dual teacher models. Then, considering the parameter count and recognition accuracy, ShuffleNet was determined as the student model, and a new cross-attention mechanism was proposed. This cross-attention model replaces Conv5 in ShuffleNet to achieve the goal of lightweight design while maintaining accuracy. Finally, experiments on the public dataset NB-TCM-CHM showed that the accuracy (ACC) and F1_score of the proposed ShuffleCANet model reached 98.8%, with only 128.66M model parameters. Compared with the baseline model ShuffleNet, the parameters are reduced by nearly 50%, but the accuracy is improved by about 1.3%, proving this method’s effectiveness.

The growing popularity of the use of nutraceuticals in the prevention and alleviation of symptoms of many diseases in humans and dogs means that they are increasingly the subject of research. A representative of the nutraceutical that deserves special attention is turmeric. Turmeric belongs to the family Zingiberaceae and is grown extensively in Asia. It is a plant used as a spice and food coloring, and it is also used in traditional medicine. The biologically active factors that give turmeric its unusual properties and color are curcuminoids. It is a group of substances that includes curcumin, de-methoxycurcumin, and bis-demethoxycurcumin. Curcumin is used as a yellow-orange food coloring. The most important pro-health effects observed after taking curcuminoids include anti-inflammatory, anticancer, and antioxidant effects. The aim of this study was to characterize turmeric and its main substance, curcumin, in terms of their properties, advantages, and disadvantages, based on literature data.

In this study, the chemical composition and antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activities of sweet basil ( Ocimum basilicum L. Lamiaceae family) were evaluated. Sweet basil is a food-related plant that is widely used in traditional Chinese medicine. Sweet basil crude oil was processed via molecular distillation and further characterized using gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC–MS) to screen for new compounds. The GC–MS analysis identified thirty-eight compounds. The major constituents of the residue fraction were estragole (17.06%), methyl eugenol (11.35%) and linoleic acid (11.40%), while the distillate fraction primarily contained methyl eugenol (16.96%), α-cadinol (16.24%) and α-bergamotene (11.92%). The antioxidant (DPPH and ABTS assays) and anti-inflammatory (in Raw264.7 cells) activities were evaluated. The residue fraction markedly scavenged the DPPH (IC 50  = 1.092 ± 0.066 mg/mL) and ABTS (IC 50  = 0.707 ± 0.042 mg/mL) radicals. Meanwhile, the distillate fraction distinctly suppressed the production of cytokines (TNF-α, IL-β, IL-6) and their gene expression in LPS-induced Raw264.7 cells and suppressed NO and iNOS in an in vitro model when compared with the crude oil. In conclusion, the fractions obtained from sweet basil crude oil showed different antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties, and they could be used as an effective source of natural antioxidant and anti-inflammatory agents after molecular distillation. Thus, the properties of essential oils in natural herbal medicines may be maximized to provide a valuable therapeutic strategy for treating various disorders caused by extreme oxidative stress.