The chemical composition and nutritional content of garlic are greatly impacted by its production location, leading to distinct flavor profiles and functional properties among garlic varieties from diverse origins. Consequently, these variations determine the preference and acceptance among diverse consumer groups. In this study, purple-skinned garlic samples were collected from five regions in China: Yunnan, Shandong, Henan, Anhui, and Jiangsu Provinces. Mid-infrared spectroscopy and ultraviolet spectroscopy were utilized to analyze the components of garlic cells. Three preprocessing methods, including Multiple Scattering Correction (MSC), Savitzky–Golay Smoothing (SG Smoothing), and Standard Normalized Variate (SNV), were applied to reduce the background noise of spectroscopy data. Following variable feature extraction by Genetic Algorithm (GA), a variety of machine learning algorithms, including XGboost, Support Vector Classification (SVC), Random Forest (RF), and Artificial Neural Network (ANN), were used according to the fusion of spectral data to obtain the best processing results. The results showed that the best-performing model for ultraviolet spectroscopy data was SNV-GA-ANN, with an accuracy of 99.73%. The best-performing model for mid-infrared spectroscopy data was SNV-GA-RF, with an accuracy of 97.34%. After the fusion of ultraviolet and mid-infrared spectroscopy data, the SNV-GA-SVC, SNV-GA-RF, SNV-GA-ANN, and SNV-GA-XGboost models achieved 100% accuracy in both training and test sets. Although there were some differences in the accuracy of the four models under different preprocessing methods, the fusion of ultraviolet and mid-infrared spectroscopy data yielded the best outcomes, with an accuracy of 100%. Overall, the combination of ultraviolet and mid-infrared spectroscopy data fusion and chemometrics established in this study provides a theoretical foundation for identifying the origin of garlic, as well as that of other agricultural products.

In this study, gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) based untargeted metabolomics was used to describe the changes of metabolites in edible grass with Lactobacillus plantarum (Lp) fermentation durations of 0 and 7 days, and subsequently to investigate the protective effect of fermented edible grass on acetaminophen-induced stress injury in HepG2 cells. Results showed that 53 differential metabolites were identified, including 31 significantly increased and 22 significantly decreased metabolites in fermented edible grass. Fermented edible grass protected HepG2 cells against acetaminophen-induced stress injury, which profited from the reduction in lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) and malondialdehyde (MDA) levels and the enhancement in superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity. Cell metabolomics analysis revealed that a total of 13 intracellular and 20 extracellular differential metabolites were detected. Fermented edible grass could regulate multiple cell metabolic pathways to exhibit protective effects on HepG2 cells. These findings provided theoretical guidance for the formation and regulation of bioactive metabolites in fermented edible grass and preliminarily confirmed the protective effects of fermented edible grass on drug-induced liver damage.

Different pollutants often coexist in natural environments, making it crucial to monitor and study the ecotoxicological effects of composite pollutants in aquatic environments. Nanoplastics and heavy metals are emerging environmental pollutants that can affect the health of aquatic organisms and threaten human health via the food chain. In this study, zebrafish was employed as a model organism to explore the effects of short-term exposure to polystyrene nanoplastics (PS-NPs) and heavy metal copper ions (Cu²⁺) either individually or in combination on fish behavior. First, the single and combined toxicity of Cu²⁺ and PS-NPs to adult zebrafish was investigated to obtain the LC₅₀ values of the two pollutants at 24, 48, 72, and 96 h. Then, the effects of sub-lethal concentrations of Cu²⁺ (0.06, 0.15, and 0.3 mg/L), PS-NPs (5, 10, and 15 mg/L) and binary mixtures containing Cu²⁺ and PS-NPs (0.06 mg/L + 10 mg/L, 0.15 mg/L + 10 mg/L, and 0.3 mg/L + 10 mg/L) on the swim speed and individual distance of zebrafish within 4 h were studied. The results show that the LC₅₀ value for single exposure of zebrafish to Cu²⁺ decreased with the increase in the exposure time, while PS-NPs showed no significant acute toxicity to zebrafish when the concentration was less than 20 mg/L and the exposure time was less than 96 h. The combined exposure of zebrafish to Cu²⁺ and PS-NPs resulted in a 3.1–32.2% reduction in the LC₅₀ value at different time points compared with Cu²⁺ alone. In the behavioral study, both single and combined exposure to Cu²⁺ and PS-NPs induced hyperactivity and aggregation phenomena in the zebrafish at different levels; the duration of these two phenomena was correlated with the concentration of the pollutants. The combined exposure to Cu²⁺ and PS-NPs exacerbated the behavioral changes in zebrafish compared with exposure to Cu²⁺ alone, reducing their hyperactivity time, average swim speed and aggregation time by 30.7–41.0%, 13.6–15.4%, and 28.3–28.8%, respectively. Therefore, this study indicates that the combined short-term exposure to PS-NPs and Cu²⁺ can exacerbate the toxicity of pollutants, and also proves the feasibility for early warning of combined NPs and heavy metals pollution based on adult zebrafish behavioral indicators.

Rosa Roxburghii (RR), a traditional Chinese medicinal fruit, is rich in bioactive substances that make it a potential natural antioxidant resource. This research aimed to study the antioxidant properties of RR by in vitro experiments and through intracellular assessment in H₂O₂-induced HepG2 cells. A non-targeted metabolic analysis was conducted to indicate changes in intracellular and extracellular metabolites. Differential metabolites and metabolic pathways were explored using PCA, PLS-DA, and KEGG pathway analysis. The results showed that RR rich in bioactive substances exhibited a significant antioxidative property in vitro and intracellularly. This property may be achieved by scavenging free radicals, increasing the activity of catalase (CAT), glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px), superoxide dismutase (SOD), and the levels of bicinchoninic acid (BCA) while reducing the reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation. This study identified 13 differential metabolites intracellularly and 7 extracellularly, among which the key differential metabolites included D-glucopyranose, D-mannose, fructose, citric acid, malic acid, cholesterol, and cholestenone. These key metabolites primarily regulated glucose-related metabolism, the citrate cycle, and the primary bile acid biosynthesis pathway in H₂O₂-induced HepG2 cells. These findings provide potential application evidence of RR in the development of natural resources for functional foods.

In this work, spontaneously fermented and inoculation-fermented Akebia trifoliata fruit Jiaosu (SFAJ/IFAJ) were compared. The key metabolites and antioxidant activities of SFAJ and IFAJ were tracked and tested during fermentation. The antioxidant effect of fermented Akebia trifoliata fruit and the underlying mechanisms were explored using network pharmacology for the prediction and verification of the molecular targets and pathways of the Akebia trifoliata fruit’s action against oxidative stress. Furthermore, the results were verified by molecular docking and then investigated, based on a HepG2 cell model. The results of correlation analysis and principal component analysis (PCA) showed that there were significant positive correlations between the phenols, flavonoids, and terpenoids in SFAJ and IFAJ and their antioxidant activities. Network pharmacology and molecular docking analysis disclosed the antioxidation mechanism at the molecular level. In addition, both SFAJ and IFAJ were effective at alleviating oxidative stress in HepG2 cells. In particular, IFAJ performed better than SFAJ in protecting cells with an intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) level of 99.96 ± 4.07 U/mg prot, superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity of 41.56 ± 0.06 U/mg prot, catalase (CAT) activity of 91.78 ± 3.85 U/mg prot, and glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px) activity of 39.32 ± 2.75 mU/mg prot in the IFAJ group. Collectively, this study revealed the changes in bioactive metabolite contents and the in vitro antioxidant activity during fermentation and investigated the protectiveness of SFAJ and IFAJ against oxidative stress within HepG2 cells, promoting the study of the antioxidant efficacy of IFAJ, thereby providing valuable reference data for the optimization of its preparation and the development of relevant products with health benefits.

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) poses a significant global health burden with rising incidence, particularly in Asia. This study employed an integrative network pharmacology approach combined with molecular docking to elucidate the therapeutic mechanism of ganoderic acid A (GAA) against IBD. Potential GAA targets were retrieved from pharmacogenomic databases, while IBD-related genes were curated from OMIM and GeneCards databases. Weighted gene co-expression network analysis of IBD transcriptomic datasets (GSE38713, GSE126124) identified disease-associated modules, with the yellow module exhibiting the strongest positive correlation. Functional enrichment analyses demonstrated significant involvement of overlapping targets in lipid metabolism, the inflammatory response, and the mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) signaling cascade pathway. We identified 14 IBD-GAA-ferroptosis-related genes and 54 key module genes. Intersection analysis revealed 5 overlapping targets, including tumor necrosis factor-α(TNF-α), peroxisome proliferators-activated receptor γ (PPARγ), MAPK14, phosphatidylinositol-4,5-bisphosphate 3-kinase catalytic α (PIK3CA), and Caspase 3 (CASP3). Molecular docking confirmed high-affinity binding of GAA to these targets, with binding energies ranging from −7.3 to −10 kcal/mol. Crucially, experimental evaluation demonstrated the pivotal role of GAA in alleviating disease pathology. GAA treatment suppressed the significantly elevated levels of TNF-α and p-MAPK14 in the organoids using a cytokine/LPS-induced IBD model. These findings collectively suggest a potential involvement of GAA in pathways associated with ferroptosis regulation, although direct experimental evidence for ferroptosis markers remains to be established. The observed multi-target effects on immune regulation and cellular proliferation/differentiation provide a foundation for further mechanistic investigation.