Medicinal and food homologous adlay (Coix lachryma-jobi L. var. ma-yuen Stapf) plays an important role in natural products promoting human health. We demonstrated the systematic actional mechanism of functional ingredients in adlay to promote human health, based on the PubMed, CNKI, Google, and ISI Web of Science databases from 1988 to 2022. Adlay and its extracts are rich in 30 ingredients with more than 20 health effects based on human and animal or cell cultures: they are anti-cancer, anti-inflammation, anti-obesity, liver protective, anti-virus, gastroprotective, cardiovascular protective, anti-hypertension, heart disease preventive, melanogenesis inhibiting, anti-allergy, endocrine regulating, anti-diabetes, anti-cachexia, osteoporosis preventive, analgesic, neuroprotecting, suitable for the treatment of gout arthritis, life extending, anti-fungi, and detoxifying effects. Function components with anti-oxidants are rich in adlay. These results support the notion that adlay seeds may be one of the best functional foods and further reveal the action mechanism of six major functional ingredients (oils, polysaccharides, phenols, phytosterols, coixol, and resistant starch) for combating diseases. This review paper not only reveals the action mechanisms of adding adlay to the diet to overcome 17 human diseases, but also provides a scientific basis for the development of functional foods and drugs for the treatment of human diseases.

Nutritional therapy, for example through beer, is the best solution to human chronic diseases. In this article, we demonstrate the physiological mechanisms of the functional ingredients in beer with health-promoting effects, based on the PubMed, Google, CNKI, and ISI Web of Science databases, published from 1997 to 2024. Beer, a complex of barley malt and hops, is rich in functional ingredients. The health effects of beer against 26 chronic diseases are highly similar to those of barley due to the physiological mechanisms of polyphenols (phenolic acids, flavonoids), melatonin, minerals, bitter acids, vitamins, and peptides. Functional beer with low purine and high active ingredients made from pure barley malt, as well as an additional functional food, represents an important development direction, specifically, ginger beer, ginseng beer, and coix-lily beer, as consumed by our ancestors ca. 9000 years ago. Low-purine beer can be produced via enzymatic and biological degradation and adsorption of purines, as well as dandelion addition. Therefore, this review paper not only reveals the physiological mechanisms of beer in overcoming chronic human diseases, but also provides a scientific basis for the development of functional beer with health-promoting effects.

Low temperature stress severely hampers rice productivity, and hence elaborating chilling-mediated physiochemical alterations and unravelling cold tolerance pathways will facilitate cold resilient rice breeding. Various cold tolerant Near-isogenic lines (NILs) selected at the booting stage through backcrossing of a japonica landrace Lijing2 (cold tolerant) with cold sensitive Towada (a japonica cultivar). The cold tolerance attributes of NILs was validated over two years by evaluating the spikelet fertility followed by correlation of nineteen morphological traits with the rate of seed setting (RSS). Results revealed BG, FG, 1-2IL, RSLL, and UIL were significantly correlated with RSS and had nearer marker interval distance with cold tolerance in QTL analysis. Two QTLs, qCTB-7-a and qCTB-7-b, were found for RSS based on a mixed linear model. Alleles of two QTLs were contributed by Lijing2 and genetic distances between the peaks were 0.00 and 0.06cM, which explained 5.70% and 8.36% variation, respectively, One QTL for 1-2IL, RSLL, and ILBS, while two QTLs for FG, BG, and UIL were also identified. These findings can be exploited to engineer low temperature stress tolerant rice in times of climate change.

Background: Qingshan Town, Guizhou Province, represents the core distribution area of wild Camellia tetracocca Chang and a key production area of ‘Pu’an hong’ tea. This region has a long history of tea cultivation and harbors rich tea germplasm resources. As an endemic and endangered tea species in Guizhou, C. tetracocca Chang is threatened by habitat fragmentation and genetic diversity loss, highlighting the urgent need for systematic genetic analysis and conservation research. To facilitate the conservation and utilization of tea germplasm in Qingshan Town, 192 tea accessions representing four populations (wild ancient tea plant Ⅰ, wild ancient tea plant Ⅱ, cultivated ancient tea plant, and cultivated tea plant) were analyzed for genetic diversity using intron length polymorphism (ILP) markers. Results: A total of 180 alleles were detected across 40 ILP loci, with a mean observed alleles ( Na ) of 4.45. The average observed heterozygosity ( H _o ) was 0.22, expected heterozygosity ( H _e ) 0.59, and Nei’s gene diversity ( H ) 0.59. The mean Shannon’s information index ( I ) was 1.11, and the mean polymorphic information content ( PIC ) was 0.53. Structure analysis revealed that the 192 individuals could be divided into three subpopulations, which was consistent with the results of UPGMA clustering and principal coordinate analysis (PCoA). Furthermore, a core germplasm collection comprising of 29 accessions was successfully established. Conclusion: Our results indicate that the tea germplasm in Qingshan Town maintains high genetic diversity, and the constructed core germplasm collection effectively represents the genetic diversity of the whole collection. This study provides a theoretical foundation for breeding elite tea cultivars and conserving the genetic resources of this endangered tea species.