(1) Background: Extensive research has focused on flavan-3-ols, but information about the bioactivities of green tea flavonols is limited. (2) Methods: In this study, we investigated the antioxidative, anti-inflammatory, and anticancer effects of flavonol glycosides and aglycones from green tea using in vitro cell models. The fractions rich in flavonol glycoside (FLG) and flavonol aglycone (FLA) were obtained from green tea extract after treatment with tannase and cellulase, respectively. (3) Results: FLG and FLA contained 16 and 13 derivatives, respectively, including apigenin, kaempferol, myricetin, and quercetin, determined by mass spectrometry. FLA exhibited higher radical-scavenging activity than that of FLG. FLG and FLA attenuated the levels of intracellular oxidative stress in neuron-like PC-12 cells. The treatment of RAW 264.7 murine macrophages with FLG and FLA significantly reduced the mRNA expression of inflammation-related genes in a dose-dependent manner. Furthermore, FLG and FLA treatments decreased the viability of the colon adenoma cell line DLD-1 and breast cancer cell line E0771. Moreover, the treatment with FLG or FLA combined with paclitaxel had synergistic anticancer effects on the DLD-1 cell line. (4) Conclusions: Flavonols from green tea exerted beneficial effects on health and may be superior to flavan-3-ols.

The production of soybean continues to increase worldwide. People are showing more interest in the beneficial health effects of soybeans than before. However, the origin and history of soybeans are still being discussed among many researchers. Chromatographic methods enable the desirable separation of a variety of isoflavones from soybeans. The structures of isolated soy isoflavones have been successfully identified in tandem with spectroscopic analytical instruments and technologies such as liquid chromatography, mass spectrometry, and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy. The theoretical background behind spectroscopy may help improve the understanding for the analysis of isoflavones in soybeans and soy-derived foods. This review covers the origin of the English name of soybean and its scientific name, Glycine max (L.) Merrill, based on the evidence reported to date. Moreover, the reports of soy isoflavones discovered over a period of about 100 years have been briefly reviewed.

Flavonols, the second most abundant flavonoids in green tea, exist mainly in the form of glycosides. Flavonols are known to have a variety of beneficial health effects; however, limited information is available on their fate in the digestive system. We investigated the digestive stability of flavonol aglycones and glycosides from green tea under simulated digestion and anaerobic human fecal fermentation. Green tea fractions rich in flavonol glycosides and aglycones, termed flavonol-glycoside-rich fraction (FLG) and flavonol-aglycone-rich fraction (FLA) hereafter, were obtained after treatment with cellulase and tannase, respectively. Kaempferol and its glycosides were found to be more stable in simulated gastric and intestinal fluids than the derivatives of quercetin and myricetin. Anaerobic human fecal fermentation with FLG and FLA increased the populations of Lactobacilli spp. and Bifidobacteria spp. and generated various organic acids, such as acetate, butyrate, propionate, and lactate, among which butyrate was produced in the highest amount. Our findings indicate that some stable polyphenols have higher bioaccessibilities in the gastrointestinal tract and that their health-modulating effects result from their interactions with microbes in the gut.

Buckwheat sprouts that are synthesized during the germination process are rich in flavonoids, including orientin, vitexin, rutin, and their isomers (isoorientin, isovitexin, and quercetin-3-O-robinobioside, respectively). The purpose of this study was to optimize and validate an analytical method for separating flavonoid isomers in common buckwheat sprout extract (CSE). Factors, such as range, linearity, precision, accuracy, limit of detection, and limit of quantification, were evaluated for each standard using high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). On the basis of resolution and symmetry, a column temperature of 40 °C with 0.1% (v/v) acidic water and acetonitrile as mobile phases, at a flow rate of 1 mL min⁻¹ were determined to be the optimal analytical conditions. Calibration curves for orientin, isoorientin, vitexin, isovitexin, and rutin exhibited good linearity with correlation coefficients of 0.9999 over the 6.25–100.00 μg mL⁻¹ range. Recovery values of 96.67–103.60% confirmed that the method was accurate for all flavonoids. The relative standard deviations of intra-day repeatability and inter-day reproducibility confirmed method preciseness, with values of less than 5.21% and 5.40%, respectively. The developed method was used to analyze flavonoids in CSE, with isomers satisfactorily separated and simultaneously quantified. We demonstrated that the developed HPLC method can be used to monitor flavonoids in buckwheat sprouts.

Agricultural water is closely linked to surface and ground water as well as soil; hence, ensuring its safety is an important endeavor. We used the “quick, easy, cheap, effective, rugged, and safe” (QuEChERS) method to analyze multi-residue pesticides in agricultural water by using a combined-sorbent-based clean-up procedure. Among the various sorbents examined, clean-up using ENVI-Carb combined with a primary secondary amine sorbent delivered the highest recovery of multi-residue pesticides (>93.9%). While the developed method showed satisfactory linearity (R² > 0.9991), precision, and specificity, recovery was low for pyrazolate (29.1%) and thidiazuron (59.2%). The limits of detection and quantification for the 55 pesticides targeted in this study were in 0.02–3.0 μg L⁻¹ and 0.1–9.9 μg L⁻¹, respectively. The developed method was used to identify and quantify multi-residue pesticides during sample analysis. The results suggest that the QuEChERS method employing a combination of ENVI-Carb and another sorbent can be applied for the effective analysis of multi-residue pesticides in agricultural water.