Quinoa plant is a valuable food crop because of its high nutritional and functional values. Total saponin content, sapogenins, polyphenol, and flavonoid contents and antioxidant activities were analyzed in various parts of quinoa plants, including sprout, seeds, bran, pericarp, leave, stem, and root. Quinoa seeds (QS) had significantly higher sapogenin content than quinoa stem (QT), quinoa leaves (QL), and quinoa roots (QR). Quinoa saponin was mainly composed of phytolaccagenic acid. Quinoa root (QR) had the highest amount of total saponin (13.39 g 100 g⁻¹), followed by quinoa bran. The highest total phenolic content (30.96 mg GAE 100 g⁻¹) and total flavonoid content (61.68 mg RE 100 g⁻¹) were observed in quinoa root extract and 1‐month‐old sprout extract, respectively. Quinoa sprouts showed better antioxidant activity than fully grown parts of the quinoa plant. Overall, root and sprout had a higher antioxidant capacity compared to other parts of the quinoa plant, suggesting the potential use of quinoa root and sprout as a nutraceutical ingredient in the health food industry.

In this study, we evaluated the antimicrobial effects of different levels of a potassium lactate (PL) plus sodium diacetate (SDA) mixture against the growth and survival of Listeria monocytogenes S...

Vibrio parahaemolyticus and Vibrio vulnificus are the major pathogenic Vibrio species which contaminate ready-to-eat seafood. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the risk of human illness resulting from consumption of ready-to-eat seafood such as sashimi and raw oyster meat due to the presence of V. parahaemolyticus and V. vulnificus. We compared the growth kinetics of V. parahaemolyticus and V. vulnificus strains in broth and ready-to-eat seafood, including flounder and salmon sashimi, as a function of temperature. The growth kinetics of naturally occurring V. vulnificus in raw oyster meat was also evaluated. The minimum growth temperatures of V. parahaemolyticus and V. vulnificus in broth were 13 °C and 11 °C, respectively. Overall, significant differences in lag time (LT) and specific growth rate (SGR) values between flounder and salmon sashimi were observed at temperatures ranging from 13 °C to 30 °C (p < 0.05). The growth of naturally occurring V. vulnificus reached stationary phase at ~4 log CFU/g in oysters, regardless of the storage temperature. This data indicates that the population of V. vulnificus in oysters did not reach the maximum population density as observed in the broth, where growth of V. vulnificus and V. parahaemolyticus isolated from oysters grew up to >8 log CFU/mL.