Naturally occurring food-derived active ingredients have received huge attention for their chemopreventive and chemotherapy capabilities in several diseases. Rosmarinic acid (RA) is a caffeic acid ester and a naturally-occurring phenolic compound in a number of plants belonging to the Lamiaceae family, such as Rosmarinus officinalis (rosemary) from which it was formerly isolated. RA intervenes in carcinogenesis through different ways, including in tumor cell proliferation, apoptosis, metastasis, and inflammation. On the other hand, it also exerts powerful antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory, antioxidant and even antidepressant, anti-aging effects. The present review aims to provide an overview on anticancer activities of RA and to deliberate its therapeutic potential against a wide variety of diseases. Given the current evidence, RA may be considered as part of the daily diet in the treatment of several diseases, with pre-determined doses avoiding cytotoxicity.
10 June 2011 in Journal of Food Science and Technology
While the use of vinegar to fi ght against infections and other crucial conditions dates back to Hippocrates, recent research has found that vinegar consumption has a positive effect on biomarkers for diabetes, cancer, and heart diseases. Different types of vinegar have been used in the world during different time periods. Vinegar is produced by a fermentation process. Foods with a high content of carbohydrates are a good source of vinegar. Review of the results of different studies performed on vinegar components reveals that the daily use of these components has a healthy impact on the physiological and chemical structure of the human body. During the era of Hippocrates, people used vinegar as a medicine to treat wounds, which means that vinegar is one of the ancient foods used as folk medicine. The purpose of the current review paper is to provide a detailed summary of the outcome of previous studies emphasizing the role of vinegar in treatment of different diseases both in acute and chronic conditions, its in vivo mechanism and the active role of different bacteria.
The present study was designed to characterize oat bran for their biological attributes. The results showed that bran of Avon variety contained high TDF, SDF, β-glucan and extractability of β-glucan than bran of oat variety Sargodha-81. The extrusion process exhibited the highest extractability of β-glucan (45.37%) followed by cooking (37.28%) and baking methods (32.45%). Moreover, the glucose level reduction was found significantly different when raw and processed oat bran diets fed to normal, hypercholesterolemic and diabetic rats. The highest reduction was recorded when fed on diet containing 30% processed oat bran. The processed oat bran exhibited more reduction as compared to raw oat bran. Furthermore, addition of 20% oat bran in wheat grits porridge was found to have significant effect (p < 0.05) on appearance, mouth feel and overall acceptability. Convincingly, it is recommended that processed oat bran may be introduced in diet-based remedy to rheostat lifestyle-related disorders.
In the current study, bioactive compounds of Vitis vinifera (Perlette) were extracted using an ultrasound-assisted extraction technique. The central composite design of response surface methodology (RSM) was used to determine the effect of time, temperature, and concentration of acetic acid on response variables that include extract yield, total phenolic content (TPC), total flavonoid content (TFC), and antioxidant activity of Vitis vinifera extracts. The results of the central composite design of RSM revealed that the quadratic polynomial model is best fitted to experimental results, with all the responses having a regression coefficient greater than 0.9. Optimized extraction levels include 26.5 min, an extraction temperature of 59 °C, and an acetic acid concentration of 62.9% with good extraction yield results of 34.95 g/100 g dry weight (DW) of grapes, TPC 34.38 mg gallic acid equivalent per gram (GAE/g) DW, flavonoid content 10.21 mg quercetin equivalents per gram (QEQ/g) DW, and antioxidant activity of 9.11 mg/100 mL ascorbic acid equivalent. The present study showed that acetic acid can be effectively used for the ultrasound-assisted extraction of polyphenols, flavonoids, and antioxidants of Vitis vinifera. These optimized conditions can be used for the extraction of bioactive compounds that can be for the development of nutraceutical products.