Crude rice bran oils from different rice cultivars and extraction methods bear different contents of nutraceuticals. The health benefits of lowering cholesterol activity of rice bran oil being confirmed by many reports are partly attributed to non-nutrient nutraceuticals, especially γ-oryzanol, phytosterols, and policosanols. As the world has been facing the global warming crisis, green extraction technology is gaining attention from many sectors. The current study aims to compare the nutraceutical composition with respect to γ-oryzanol, phytosterol, and policosanol content as well as the antioxidant properties of crude rice bran oils extracted from white and red rice bran using three green technologies, comparing with conventional hexane extraction. The data show that the traditional solvent extraction gave the highest oil yield percentage (26%), but it was not significantly different from subcritical liquefied dimethyl ether extraction (24.6%). Subcritical liquefied dimethyl ether extraction gave higher oil yield than supercritical CO₂ extraction (15.5–16.2%). The crude rice bran oil extracted using subcritical liquefied dimethyl ether extraction produced the highest total phenolic contents and antioxidant activities. The highest γ-oryzanol content of the crude rice bran oil was found in oil extracted by conventional cold press (1370.43 mg/100 g). The γ-oryzanol content of the oil obtained via subcritical liquefied dimethyl ether extraction was high (1213.64 mg/100 g) compared with supercritical CO₂ extraction. The red rice bran yielded the crude rice bran oil with the highest total phytosterol content compared with the white bran, and the oil from red rice bran extracted with subcritical liquefied dimethyl ether generated the highest total phytosterol content (1784.17 mg/100 g). The highest policosanol content (274.40 mg/100 g) was also found in oil obtained via subcritical liquefied dimethyl ether extraction.

Musa (ABB group) “Kluai Namwa” bananas (Musa sp.) are widely grown throughout Thailand. Mali Ong is the most popular Kluai Namwa variety used as raw material for sun-dried banana production, especially in the Bangkratum District, Phitsanulok, Thailand. The sun-dried banana product made from Nanwa Mali Ong is well recognized as the best dried banana product of the country, with optimal taste compared to one made from other Kluai Namwa varieties. However, the production of Mali Ong has fluctuated substantially in recent years, leading to shortages. Consequently, farmers have turned to using other Kluai Namwa varieties including Nuanchan. This study investigated the nutraceutical contents of two popular Namwa varieties, Mali Ong and Nuanchan, at different ripening stages. Nutraceuticals in the dried banana products made from these two Kluai Namwa varieties and four commercial dried banana products were compared. Results indicated that the content of moisture, total sugar, and total soluble solids (TSS) (°Brix) increased, while total solids and texture values decreased during the ripening stage for both Kluai Namwa varieties. Rutin was the major flavonoid found in both Namwa Mali Ong and Nuanchan varieties ranging 136.00–204.89 mg/kg and 129.15–260.38 mg/kg, respectively. Rutin, naringenin, quercetin and catechin were abundant in both Namwa varieties. All flavonoids increased with ripening except for rutin, gallocatechin and gallocatechin gallate. There were no significant differences (p < 0.05) in flavonoid contents between both varieties. Tannic acid, ellagic acid, gallic acid, chlorogenic acid and ferulic acid were the main phenolic acids found in Mali Ong and Nuanchan varieties, ranging from 274.61–339.56 mg/kg and 293.13–372.66 mg/kg, respectively. Phenolic contents of both varieties decreased, increased and then decreased again during the development stage. Dopamine contents increased from 79.26 to 111.77 mg/kg and 60.38 to 125.07 mg/kg for Mali Ong and Nuanchan, respectively, but the amounts were not significantly different (p < 0.5) between the two Namwa varieties at each ripening stage. Inulin as fructooligosaccharide (FOS) increased with ripening steps. Production stages of sun-dried banana products showed no statistically significant differences (p < 0.05) between the two Namwa varieties. Therefore, when one variety is scarce, the other could be used as a replacement in terms of total flavonoids, phenolic acid, dopamine and FOS. In both Namwa varieties, sugar contents decreased after the drying process. Sugar contents of the dried products were 48.47 and 47.21 g/100 g. The drying process caused a reduction in total flavonoid contents and phenolic acid at 63–66% and 64–70%, respectively. No significant differences (p < 0.05) were found for total flavonoid and phenolic contents between the dried banana products made from the two Namwa varieties (178.21 vs. 182.53 mg/kg and 96.06 vs. 102.19 mg/kg, respectively). Products made from Nuanchan varieties (24.52 mg/kg) contained significantly higher dopamine than that from Mali Ong (38.52 mg/kg). The data also suggest that the banana maturity stage for production of the sun dried products was also optimum in terms of high nutraceutical level.

Bacopa monnieri is a medicinal herb that is increasing in demand in Thailand. However, the lack of high-bacoside cultivars has limited pharmaceutical utilization and production. Here, chromosome doubling in B. monnieri was attempt to improve biomass and bacoside content in its seedling. Nodal segments were treated with colchicine (0, 0.025, 0.05, 0.075, 0.1, and 0.5% w/v) for 24 or 48 h before transferring to multiple shoot induction medium (1/2 MS medium supplemented with 0.2 mg L⁻¹ BAP). Of 326 tested clones, 18 and 84 were mixoploids and autotetraploids, respectively. The highest autotetraploid-induction percentage (14.6%) was found after treated with 0.5% (w/v) colchicine, and 48 hours exposure. From 28 selected autotetraploid clones, 21 and 13 have significantly higher fresh and dry weight compared to the diploid clone, respectively. The maximum fresh and dry weight of autotetraploid plants was 2.8 and 2.0-time higher than diploid plants, respectively. Moreover, the maximum total bacoside content (1.55 mg plant⁻¹) was obtained from an autotetraploid plant, which was 2.3-fold higher than the level in diploid plants. These novel autotetraploids have the potential to be developed as resources for value-added improvements in the medicinal and pharmaceutical industries.

Musa (ABB) ‘Mali-Ong’ is an economically important banana cultivar in Thailand. We morphologically and molecularly characterized ‘Nam Wa Mali-Ong’. Leaf blade width was the only statistically different morphological character among the clones. To determine genetic variation, nine ‘Nam Wa Mali-Ong’ clones were compared with 10 samples of Musa ABB, AA, and BB cultivars by fingerprinting using seven pairs of sequence-related amplified polymorphism (SRAP) and eight inter simple sequence repeat (ISSR) markers. The SRAP and ISSR primers generated 65 and 76 amplicons, respectively, of which 57 (87.7%) and 62 (81.6%) amplicons, respectively, were polymorphic; the polymorphic information content was 0.28–0.49. The SRAP data revealed two distinct groups: Group I, comprising two subgroups (one including all ABB samples and the other containing the BB genome accessions), and Group II, comprising the AA genome accessions. The ISSR data revealed two groups: Group I, which incorporated the AA (Hom Champa) genome, and Group II, consisting of two subgroups: Subgroup A, comprising only the AA (Hom Chan) accessions, and subgroup B, comprising all the ABB accessions and wild banana M. balbisiana (BB genome). The ‘Nam Wa Mali-Ong’ samples clustered together, regardless of the markers used. SRAP and ISSR markers will be useful for germplasm evaluation and future Musa (ABB) improvements.

Rice blast disease caused by the fungus Pyricularia oryzae is considered as one of the severe diseases, leading to reduce tremendous rice productivity in its cultivated areas of Thailand. Due to the rapid evolution and high genetic diversity of the pathogen, the innate rice resistance (R) genes associated with defense mechanisms are significantly considered as the most important for rice breeding program to create new rice varieties, resistant to blast disease. This study aimed to investigate the rice blast R genes (Pi9, Pib, and Pi-ta) in 98 landrace rice germplasms collected from three different provinces in lower northern Thailand, Phichit (PCT), Phitsanulok (PLK), and Sukhothai (STI) through PCR assay. The results showed that the Pi-ta gene was presented in 29 different varieties, making it the most widespread, whereas the Pi9 and Pib genes were found in 28 and 25 varieties, respectively. The distribution percentage of studied genes in PLK and STI germplasms is higher than in PCT germplasms. Interestingly, only eight landrace rice varieties (varieties no. 46, 47, 48, 51, 66, 76, 81, and 90) collected from PLK and STI germplasms contain all of these three resistance genes. This finding provided the genetic information and diversity of the R genes across landrace rice varieties in the lower north of Thailand. Moreover, these R genes could be useful as genetic resources for rice improvement with resistance to blast disease through breeding program in the future.