Volume 15, Issue 1-2 -

The adsorption/desorption characteristics, modeling and properties of anthocyanins from extruded red cabbage juice by macroporous resins were investigated. The static adsorption and desorption capacities of red cabbage anthocyanins on five macroporous resins were measured and compared. The X-5 resin showed the best capacities and was selected for the adsorption kinetics, isotherms and elution studies. The pseudo-second-order kinetic model and Langmuir isotherm model were used to describe the adsorption process and mechanism. Dynamic adsorption and desorption tests were performed on a fixed-bed column, and the loading and eluent conditions were optimized. The purity of anthocyanins in freeze-dried purified powder by the resin adsorption process is 21.3 ± 0.9 wt % and shows better stability in the air than the unpurified one. Finally, the antioxidant activity and color properties including color density, color intensity, color tonality and degradation index of the purified powders were measured.

Dissecting the inhibited variation of allergen absorption could contribute to the development of novel therapeutic or preventive treatments for food/feed allergies. This study investigated the effects of fructooligosaccharide (FOS) on the absorption, intracellular accumulation of intact or hydrolysed β-conglycinin in porcine intestinal epithelial cells (IPEC-J2). As demonstrated by ELISA and immunoblotting, β-conglycinin was absorbed in a dose- and time-dependent manner ( p < 0.05). Actually, β-conglycinin was easily transported and absorbed after enzymatic hydrolysis. Three peptides (52 kDa, 30 kDa and 25 kDa) were produced during transcellular absorption of intact or hydrolysed β-conglycinin. FOS inhibited the absorption of β-conglycinin, especially the 52 and 30 kDa peptides. The immunoreactive peptides derived from the 52, 35 or 22 kDa peptides were the substrings of the known epitopes determined by mass spectrometry and bioinformatic analyses. These results indicate that FOS can efficiently inhibit the absorption of 52 and 30 kDa peptides derived from β-conglycinin.

In order to improve the uniformity of microwave absorption and obtain good drying quality, a vibratory fluidized bed was used during the microwave drying of balsam pear slices. The temperature distribution of the materials during drying is discussed. The water state and drying quality of the balsam pear slices with blanching, ultrasonic, and superheated steam pretreatment were measured using low-field nuclear magnetic resonance and scanning electron microscopy. As a result, the drying uniformity of balsam pear slices was improved, and the drying temperature decreased more than 10 °C using the microwave vibratory fluidized bed. By using an ultrasonic pretreatment step, the activity of the water molecules was improved, and the drying time was reduced by 10 min, but the product was discolored during drying. Blanching and superheated steam pretreatment did not improve the activity of water molecules, but the product color changes were minimal and drying time was reduced by 20 min. The microstructure of dehydrated balsam pear slices was destructed seriously caused by this heat–moist pretreatment. Therefore, a variety of pretreatments should be integrated for the comprehensive control of the processing characteristics, such as enzyme deactivation and improving water activity, to further improve the drying efficiency and quality of balsam pear slices.

The present study deals with the valorization of the onion solid waste (i. e. peel) by extracting quercetin (Qu) compound, as a natural antioxidant food ingredient. It is used as a raw material for cosmetic, fine chemical and pharmaceutical industries. The onion peel, as a solid waste, is a highly rich source of Qu that is a valuable source of many useful biological properties, including antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, antiviral, antibacterial and antimicrobial properties. For this purpose, Qu molecular-imprinted polymer nanoparticles (Qu–MIP NPs) and its corresponding non-imprinted polymer (NIP) were prepared using precipitation/polymerization method. The prepared Qu–MIP NPs and its corresponding NIP were characterized using Fourier transform infrared spectrometer, scanning electron microscopy and high-resolution transmission electron microscope. The prepared Qu–MIP NPs and its corresponding NIP could successfully rebind Qu at binding capacities of 60 and 10.0 mM/g, respectively. Thus, the prepared Qu–MIP NPs could successfully recover 260 mg Qu from 1 kg onion peel.

Solubility of curcumin at different temperatures is of great importance in subcritical water extraction systems. We newly developed an approach for the solid–liquid equilibrium under subcritical condition to determine the solubility of curcumin. The experimental results were correlated successfully with thermodynamics models such as Van’t Hoff, modified Apelblat equation, Wilson, non-random two-liquid (NRTL) and λh equation and the interaction parameters’ values of curcumin-water were acquired. Good agreement between the experimental and calculated values with λh equation was observed at different temperatures (373.15–433.15 °K) at 1.5 bar. The obtained value of the relative average deviation was 2.29 × 10 –5 . The molar enthalpy (Δ H 0 ), entropy (Δ S 0 ), Gibbs energy (Δ G 0 ) and their relative fraction of the total process were calculated. The calculated enthalpy with the Van’t Hoff equation (25.32 kJ/mol) agreed well with the differential scanning calorimetry analysis data (26.15 kJ/mol).

Acetic acid (AA) is the main component of the volatile acidity of lychee wine. It can be generated by yeast, contaminated lactic acid, and AA bacteria at any time during lychee wine fermentation. AA has a negative impact on yeast fermentative performance and affects the quality of lychee wine when present above a given concentration. Thus, excessive amounts of AA should be removed to control the quality of lychee wine. This study investigated the effects of supplementing lychee juice with different concentrations of metal (magnesium, potassium, and calcium) ions on AA removal during lychee wine fermentation at 20 °C. All treatments of metal ion addition negatively affected yeast growth. The addition of either magnesium or potassium ions decreased the AA content, and the lowest values were attained with the addition of 4 mM magnesium ions and 6 mM potassium ions. By contrast, the addition of calcium ions increased the AA content. The addition of metal ions significantly affected metabolites, because more succinic acid, more malic acid, more glycerol, and less acetaldehyde were produced with increasing activities of acetaldehyde dehydrogenase, acetyl-CoA synthetase, isocitrate lyase, and malate synthase. Moreover, the addition of metal ions significantly modified the aroma components of deacidified lychee wine. These findings offer insight into the mechanism of yeast utilization of AA and suggest that selectively adding metal ions may be used a tool to modulate the AA content of lychee wine.

Mechanical properties of hulless barley stems with different moisture contents (10.23%–43.14%) were investigated by using temperature sweep, frequency sweep, stress relaxation and creep tests of dynamic mechanical analyzer (DMA) in this study. Results showed a significant dependence of storage modulus, loss modulus and tan delta on moisture content. The data from stress relaxation and creep was fitted by using generalized Maxwell model and Burgers model. 5-element Maxwell model was better for describing relaxation behaviors of hulless barely stem compared with the 3-element Maxwell model. The peak values of loss modulus and tan delta both occurred at a low temperature when moisture content increased. The dynamic mechanical properties can provide useful information for the harvesting and processing of huless barely stem.

A novel coagulase negative staphylococci strain as flavor agent for the processing of fermented meat products, Staphylococcus xylosus P2, was screened from Chinese bacon. It was identified on the basis of morphology and 16S rDNA sequence analysis. Its proteolytic, lipolytic and nitrate reductive activities were evaluated. And its growth ability at different temperatures, pH, sodium chloride, sodium nitrite concentrations, biogenic amine and pigment were investigated or detected. Furthermore, the fermentation evaluation with S. xylosus P2 as starter culture was carried out. The result showed that the fermented beef jerky was more attractive on the color, odor, texture, tasty and overall acceptability. It indicated that S. xylosus P2 would be a good starter culture for fermented meat products (jerky).