Szu-chuan Shen

This study investigated the effect of aqueous and ethanol soluble solid extracts of guava (Psidium guajava Linn.) leaves on hypoglycemia and glucose metabolism in type 2 diabetic rats. Low-dose streptozotocin (STZ) and nicotinamide were injected into Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats to induce type 2 diabetes. Acute and long-term feeding tests were carried out, and an oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) to follow the changes in plasma glucose and insulin levels was performed to evaluate the antihyperglycemic effect of guava leaf extracts in diabetic rats.The results of acute and long-term feeding tests showed a significant reduction in the blood sugar level in diabetic rats fed with either the aqueous or ethanol extract of guava leaves (p < 0.05). Long-term administration of guava leaf extracts increased the plasma insulin level and glucose utilization in diabetic rats. The results also indicated that the activities of hepatic hexokinase, phosphofructokinase and glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase in diabetic rats fed with aqueous extracts were higher than in the normal diabetic group (p < 0.05). On the other hand, diabetic rats treated with the ethanol extract raised the activities of hepatic hexokinase and glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (p < 0.05) only. The experiments provided evidence to support the antihyperglycemic effect of guava leaf extract and the health function of guava leaves against type 2 diabetes.

... Pei-Ting Chuang 1 ,; Szu-Chuan Shen 2 ,; Ning-Jung Wu 1 ,; James Swi-Bea Wu 1 ... 12 Inoguchi T, Li P, Umeda ... Yu HY, Kakimoto M, Imamura M, et al, High glucose level and free fatty acid stimulate reactive oxygen species production through protein kinase C-dependent activation ...

ABSTRACT Tumour necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) plays a pivotal role in cellular insulin resistance and can induce insulin resistance in mouse FL83B hepatocytes. Caffeic acid and cinnamic acid were found to improve glucose uptake in TNF-α-treated insulin-resistant mouse FL83B hepatocytes. The mechanism of glucose metabolism by caffeic acid and cinnamic acid was further investigated. The result from Western blot analysis revealed that caffeic acid and cinnamic acid increased expression of glycogen synthase, whereas the expression of glycogen synthase kinase and phosphorylation of glycogen synthase at Ser641 in insulin-resistant mouse hepatocytes was decreased. Caffeic acid and cinnamic acid suppressed the expression of hepatic nuclear factor-4 in TNF-α-treated mouse FL83B hepatocytes. The activity of phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase was also inhibited. Thus, caffeic acid and cinnamic acid ameliorated glucose metabolism by promoting glycogenesis and inhibiting gluconeogenesis in TNF-α-treated insulin-resistant mouse hepatocytes.

Tumor necrosis factor-alpha was used to induce insulin resistance of mouse liver FL83B cells. Two phenolic acids, caffeic acid and cinnamic acid, were then added separately to investigate their effects on glucose uptake of the insulin-resistant cells. The results suggest that these two phenolic acids may promote insulin receptor tyrosyl phosphorylation, up-regulate the expression of insulin signal associated proteins, including insulin receptor, phosphatidylinositol-3 kinase, glycogen synthase, and glucose transporter-2, increase the uptake of glucose, and alleviate insulin resistance in cells as a consequence.

The unbalance of glucose metabolism in humans may cause the excessive formation of methylglyoxal (MG), which can react with various biomolecules to form the precursor of advanced glycation end products (AGEs). Vescalagin (VES) is an ellagitannin that alleviates insulin resistance in cell study. Results showed that VES reduced the value of oral glucose tolerance test, cardiovascular risk index, AGEs, and tumor necrosis factor-α contents while increasing C-peptide and d-lactate contents significantly in rats orally administered MG and VES together. The preventive effect of VES on MG-induced inflammation and carbohydrate metabolic disorder in rats was thus proved. On the basis of the experiment data, a mechanism, which involves the increase in d-lactate to retard AGE formation and the decrease in cytokine release to prevent β-cell damage, is proposed to explain the bioactivities of VES in antiglycation and in the alleviation of MG-induced carbohydrate metabolic disorder in rats.

The present study investigated the stability of green color in 1-60% ethanolic solutions of chlorophyll a. Kinetics studies were performed. The results show that the color loss follows first-order reaction kinetics, similar to that in aqueous systems, with a reaction rate constant between 0.013 and 13.575 day(-1) at 20 degrees C and an activation energy between 18.4 and 85.1 kJ mol(-1). The rate of color loss increases with the temperature and varies with the ethanol concentration. It reaches the maximum at 40% ethanol concentrations. The difference among the absorption spectra of the ethanolic solutions suggests that the interaction between water and ethanol molecules may be the major factor affecting the color stability of chlorophyll in the solutions. The bathochromic shift is most obvious around 40% ethanol concentration. We postulate that the formation of clusters of water-ethanol molecules is responsible for the increase in the rate of color loss.

Nonenzymatic browning occurs readily in alcoholic beverages and degrades their color quality. Ascorbic acid degradation in the presence of phenolic compounds is a major browning pathway in alcoholic beverages with fruit or fruit juice as the raw material or an ingredient. In the present study ethanolic solutions of ascorbic acid and catechin were prepared to simulate the alcoholic beverages. Ascorbic acid degradation and browning in these model solutions were investigated. Glycerol solutions with the same water activity (A(w)) values as those of the ethanolic model solutions were used as controls in the evaluation of browning rate. Results showed that the aerobic degradation of ascorbic acid dominates over the anaerobic one in ethanolic solutions, that the browning rate decreases as the ethanol concentration increases, that the compound 3-hydroxy-2-pyrone may not be a good indicator of browning in ethanolic ascorbic acid-catechin solutions, and that A(w) is a major factor responsible for the difference in the browning rate among ascorbic acid-catechin solutions with different ethanol concentrations.

Crude pectinesterase (PE) inhibitor (PEI) extracted from jelly-fig achenes (JFA) (Ficus awakeosang Makino) was added to carambola (Averrhoa carambola L.) puree to determine the change in methanol production during fermentation. Addition of pectin or microbial pectic enzyme to puree increased dose-dependently the methanol content in fermented products. Decreasing ratio (from 1:0 to 1:19, v:v) of pectic enzyme to diluted crude PEI solution in the puree-enzyme mixture decreased the PE activity remarkably. Except for transmittance (%T), addition of crude PEI to puree did not affect apparently the physical and chemical properties of wine; however, it reduced methanol content in the control from 256 to 58 ppm. The degree of esterification (DE) of pectin in starting puree was approximately 70%. It decreased to approximately 27% in the control group and reduced slightly to approximately 67% in fermented puree with crude PEI added after 14 days of fermentation. This reveals that crude PEI solution was potent in inhibiting intrinsic carambola PE activity and appeared to be a potential alternative for methanol reduction in wines.

Immunoglobulin in yolk (IgY)(with a titer of 1.3× 106) specific against bovine milk (BM) alkaline phosphatase (ALP) was obtained by intramuscularly immunizing hens on the thigh and was used as the primary antibody to conduct competitive indirect enzyme-linked ...

Combination of methanol oxidase (MOX) and basic fuchsin was confirmed effectively in determining methanol content in a model and real systems. The optimal reaction conditions for 20ppm formaldehyde–0.1% basic fuchsin mixture were determined to be at 35°C for 2h in 0.25 N HCl with a maximal absorption wavelength of 560nm, while those for MOX (0.8 unit MOX/mL)–methanol mixture were at

The present study compared the Maillard reaction products in ethanolic and aqueous glucose–glycine solutions. The pH 4.3, 0.2M glucose–0.2M glycine solutions were prepared and heated. HPLC-DAD (diode array detection) was then used to analyse the browned solutions, the ethyl acetate extracts of the solutions, and the coloured bands in TLC of the extracts. HMF (5-hydroxymethyl-2-furaldehyde) was found in both of