- Kuala Lumpur
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Purpose The purpose of this study was to evaluate the screen time used by Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) children and its association with their physical activity and weight status. Design/methodology/approach This cross-sectional study... more
Purpose The purpose of this study was to evaluate the screen time used by Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) children and its association with their physical activity and weight status. Design/methodology/approach This cross-sectional study was conducted among 100 purposive sampled children registered under the National Autism Society of Malaysia centres in Kuala Lumpur. Parents-administered questionnaire composed of socio-demographic, anthropometric data (height and weight of the children), Autism Severity Questionnaire, Screen Time Questionnaire and Physical Activity Questionnaire for Older Children (PAQ-C) was used in this study. Findings Respondents in this study were categorised as having mild ASD (55%). Most of the respondents had higher screen time (78%), with average (4.14 ± 3.19) h spent using the devices. The respondents had low physical activity level (54%), with average PAQ-C scores of (2.38 ± 0.79). Average BMI-for-age z-scores was 1.06 ± 2.15, which was in the normal categ...
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Sago starch which naturally contains high amount of resistant starch, comes to the attention due to its ability to confer health benefits as functional food i.e., prebiotic. The present work aimed to investigate the effects of sago starch... more
Sago starch which naturally contains high amount of resistant starch, comes to the attention due to its ability to confer health benefits as functional food i.e., prebiotic. The present work aimed to investigate the effects of sago starch consumption on body weight, satiation, caecum short chain fatty acids body, and hepatic lipid content on diet-induced obese rats for obesity management. A total of 36 male Sprague Dawley rats were fat-induced and divided into the obesity-prone and obesity-resistant groups. Eight percent and sixteen percent resistant starch from sago and Hi-maize260 were incorporated into the standardised feed formulation. Food intake was weighed throughout the intervention period. The caecum sample was subjected to short chain fatty acids analysis using HPLC. Hepatic lipid content was measured using the Folch method. Both dosages of sago starch (8 and 16% SRS) promoted body weight loss with a reduction of food intake, which suggested satiety. No significant differe...
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Objective: This study aimed to investigate the longitudinal relationship between maternal vitamin D concentrations during pregnancy and neonatal vitamin D concentrations at birth.Materials and Methods: A prospective cohort of 236 healthy... more
Objective: This study aimed to investigate the longitudinal relationship between maternal vitamin D concentrations during pregnancy and neonatal vitamin D concentrations at birth.Materials and Methods: A prospective cohort of 236 healthy pregnant women from various ethnicity in early pregnancy (≤20 weeks of pregnancy) was followed at late pregnancy (28–40 weeks of pregnancy) and birth. Maternal serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D) was assessed at early pregnancy (baseline) and late pregnancy, while neonatal cord serum 25(OH)D at birth. General estimating equations (GEE) were used to analyze the longitudinal association of maternal serum 25(OH)D levels during pregnancy and neonatal cord serum 25(OH)D levels at birth with adjusting for the time exposure, maternal weight gain, ethnicity, and skin type.Results: The results showed that the prevalence of vitamin D deficiency (25(OH)D <50 nmol/L) was at 89.9, 92.2, and 96.1% in early, late pregnancy and in neonatal cord serum, respective...
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Dietary components have been known for many years to have a variable effect on non-haem iron uptake in humans. Since it is impractical and expensive to employ in vivo methods for iron uptake, in this study, a human intestinal Caco-2 cell... more
Dietary components have been known for many years to have a variable effect on non-haem iron uptake in humans. Since it is impractical and expensive to employ in vivo methods for iron uptake, in this study, a human intestinal Caco-2 cell line was utilised for investigation of the effect of dietary components on non-haem iron uptake.Using a radioactive iron isotope 55Fe, it is possible to observe iron uptake activity in Caco-2 cell whether or not the dietary components are present in the media. Several dietary components including ascorbate, B-carotene, amino acids, organic acids and two types of polyphenols (rutin dihydrate and catechin dihydrate) increased iron uptake in Caco-2 TC7 cells. In contrast, phytate and zinc reduced iron uptake, and vitamin E showed no effect on iron uptake. Interestingly, effects of ascorbate, zinc and phytate on iron uptake were found to follow Michaelis-Menten equation.Fe(III) reduction was measured by analysing the formation of Fe(II) via the spectrop...
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It has been well documented that bioavailability of iron is influenced by other food constituents. We carried out a kinetic study to look at the effect of zinc on ferric iron uptake in human epithelial Caco-2 TC7 cell-line. Zinc reduced... more
It has been well documented that bioavailability of iron is influenced by other food constituents. We carried out a kinetic study to look at the effect of zinc on ferric iron uptake in human epithelial Caco-2 TC7 cell-line. Zinc reduced iron uptake in a concentration-dependent manner. Iron uptake was significantly increased in the presence of ascorbic acid in the medium. We also found that zinc significantly increased the main iron transporter Divalent Metal Transporter-1 (DMT1) expression in whole cell and membrane proteins. The evidence from in vitro studies show that zinc suppressed iron uptake by Caco-2 cells and this phenomenon could be reversed by the presence of ascorbic acid in the growth media.
Research Interests: Biochemistry, Medicine, In Vitro, Zinc, DMT, and 3 moreBioavailability, Ascorbic Acid, and Transporter
Malaysia is experiencing a nutrition transition with burgeoning obesity, particularly in women, and a growing prevalence of non-communicable disease. These health burdens have severe implications not only for adult health but also across... more
Malaysia is experiencing a nutrition transition with burgeoning obesity, particularly in women, and a growing prevalence of non-communicable disease. These health burdens have severe implications not only for adult health but also across generations. Pre-conception health promotion could address the intergenerational risk of metabolic disease. This paper describes the development of the "Jom Mama" intervention using Intervention Mapping (IM). The Jom Mama intervention aims to improve the health of young adult couples in Malaysia prior to conception. IM comprises of five steps prior to the last one, which involves the evaluation of the intervention. We used the five steps to develop the Jom Mama intervention. Both the process and evidence is documented providing the rationale to the selection of the key objectives of the intervention: (i) increasing healthy dietary practice; (ii) increasing physical activity levels, (iii) reducing sedentary activity; and (iv) improving soci...
Research Interests: Health Promotion, Health Behavior, Obesity, Malaysia, Life Style, and 15 moreDiet, Medicine, Humans, Metabolic diseases, Female, Exercise, Intervention Mapping, Parents, Adult, Medicine and Health Sciences, Health Intervention, Family Characteristics, Delivery of Health Care, Community health services, and gestational diabetes mellitus
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Simple lifestyle changes can prevent or delay the onset of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). In addition to maintaining a physically active way of life, the diet has become one of the bases in managing TD2M. Due to many studies linking the... more
Simple lifestyle changes can prevent or delay the onset of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). In addition to maintaining a physically active way of life, the diet has become one of the bases in managing TD2M. Due to many studies linking the ability of resistant starch (RS) to a substantial role in enhancing the nutritional quality of food and disease prevention, the challenge of incorporating RS into the diet and increasing its intake remains. Therefore, we conducted this review to assess the potential benefits of RS on metabolic biomarkers in pre-diabetes and diabetes adults based on available intervention studies over the last decade. Based on the conducted review, we observed that RS intake correlates directly to minimize possible effects through different mechanisms for better control of pre-diabetic and diabetic conditions. In most studies, significant changes were evident in the postprandial glucose and insulin incremental area under the curve (iAUC). Comparative evaluation of R...
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The presented method is focused on simultaneous determination of retinol and two carotenoids (lutein, β-carotene) in selected Malaysian food products. A Dionex Ultimate 3000 Series High-Performance Liquid Chromatography system equipped... more
The presented method is focused on simultaneous determination of retinol and two carotenoids (lutein, β-carotene) in selected Malaysian food products. A Dionex Ultimate 3000 Series High-Performance Liquid Chromatography system equipped with two Dionex Acclaim Polar Advantage II C18 columns was utilized in this study. Simultaneous elution of retinol, lutein and β-carotene was achieved within 45 min with gradient profile of methanol and ultra-pure water (95:5–100:0–95:5) programmed at 0.8 mL/min flow rate and 30 °C. Retinol was acquired at 325 nm while lutein and β-carotene were acquired at 440 nm. Limits of detection and quantification of retinol and lutein were at 0.10, 0.34 µg/mL, and 0.08, 0.26 µg/mL; respectively while higher levels were observed for β-carotene at 1.06 and 3.54 µg/mL. Linearity test indicated R2 of 0.996–0.999, along with high accuracy (71.92–116.29%) and excellent repeatability for all analytes. Extraction efficiency was determined using standard addition into r...
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Edible bird’s nest (EBN) is one of the expensive functional foods in herbal medicine. One of the major glyconutrients in EBN is sialic acid, which has a beneficial effect on neurological and intellectual capability in mammals. The aims of... more
Edible bird’s nest (EBN) is one of the expensive functional foods in herbal medicine. One of the major glyconutrients in EBN is sialic acid, which has a beneficial effect on neurological and intellectual capability in mammals. The aims of this research were to study the effects of sialic acid from EBN on cell viability and to determine its effect on mitochondria membrane potential (MtMP) in Caco-2, SK-N-MC, SH-SY5Y, and PC-12 cell lines. Fourteen samples of raw EBN were collected from four different states in Malaysia. The confluency of the epithelial monolayers measurement of the tight junction for all the cell lines was determined using transepithelial electrical resistance (TEER), and the sialic acid uptake study in cell lines was determined by using ultra-high performance liquid chromatography (UHPLC). The MTT assay was conducted for cell viability study. The MtMP in cell lines was determined using the Mito Probe JC-1 Assay by flow cytometer analysis. We have recorded a statisti...
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The utilization of therapeutic plants is expanding around the globe, coupled with the tremendous expansion of alternative medicine and growing demand in health treatment. Plants are applied in pharmaceuticals to preserve and expand... more
The utilization of therapeutic plants is expanding around the globe, coupled with the tremendous expansion of alternative medicine and growing demand in health treatment. Plants are applied in pharmaceuticals to preserve and expand health—physically, mentally and as well as to treat particular health conditions and afflictions. There are more than 600 families of plants identified so far. Among the plants that are often studied for their health benefit include the genus of Salvia in the mint family, Lamiaceae. This review aims to determine the bioactive components of Salvia and their potential as antidiabetic agents. The search was conducted using three databases (PubMed, EMBASE and Scopus), and all relevant articles that are freely available in the English language were extracted within 10 years (2011–2021). Salvia spp. comprises many biologically active components that can be divided into monoterpenes, diterpenes, triterpenes, and phenolic components, but only a few of these have ...
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Essential oils (EOs) are known to have varying degrees of antimicrobial properties that are mainly due to the presence of bioactive compounds. These include antiviral, nematicidal, antifungal, insecticidal and antioxidant properties. This... more
Essential oils (EOs) are known to have varying degrees of antimicrobial properties that are mainly due to the presence of bioactive compounds. These include antiviral, nematicidal, antifungal, insecticidal and antioxidant properties. This review highlights the potential of EOs and their compounds for application as antifungal agents for the treatment of skin diseases via conventional and nonconventional approaches. A search was conducted using three databases (Scopus, Web of Science, Google Scholar), and all relevant articles from the period of 2010–2020 that are freely available in English were extracted. In our findings, EOs with a high percentage of monoterpenes showed strong ability as potential antifungal agents. Lavandula sp., Salvia sp., Thymus sp., Citrus sp., and Cymbopogon sp. were among the various species found to show excellent antifungal properties against various skin diseases. Some researchers developed advanced formulations such as gel, semi-solid, and ointment base...
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Despite the improvements in life expectancy, neurodegenerative conditions have arguably become the most dreaded maladies of older people. The neuroprotective and anti-ageing potentials of essential oils (EOs) are widely evaluated around... more
Despite the improvements in life expectancy, neurodegenerative conditions have arguably become the most dreaded maladies of older people. The neuroprotective and anti-ageing potentials of essential oils (EOs) are widely evaluated around the globe. The objective of this review is to analyse the effectiveness of EOs as neuroprotective remedies among the four common age-related neurodegenerative diseases. The literature was extracted from three databases (PubMed, Web of Science and Google Scholar) between the years of 2010 to 2020 using the medical subject heading (MeSH) terms “essential oil”, crossed with “Alzheimer’s disease (AD)”, “Huntington’s disease (HD)”, “Parkinson’s disease (PD)” or “amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS)”. Eighty three percent (83%) of the studies were focused on AD, while another 12% focused on PD. No classifiable study was recorded on HD or ALS. EO from Salvia officinalis has been recorded as one of the most effective acetylcholinesterase and butyrylcholineste...
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As part of the effort in updating and expanding the carbohydrate data in Malaysian Food Composition Databases, 83 foods were selected based on the most commonly consumed foods and food products by Malaysian. The samples include 31 cereal... more
As part of the effort in updating and expanding the carbohydrate data in Malaysian Food Composition Databases, 83 foods were selected based on the most commonly consumed foods and food products by Malaysian. The samples include 31 cereal products, 9 starchy roots and tubers products, 4 legume products, 11 nut and seed products, 4 vegetables, 5 fruits, 15 sugar and syrup products, 2 meat products and 2 oil and fat products. Individual sugars (fructose, glucose, sucrose, lactose and maltose) were analysed usingHigh Performance Liquid Chromatography with Refractive Index Detector. Most of the cereal products contained sucrose, glucose, fructose, lactose and maltose. Four starchy root and tuber products contained sucrose, glucose and fructose. Sucrose was detected in all legume, nut and seed products. Most vegetables contained fructose while all fruits contained glucose and fructose. In addition, all syrups contained sucrose except for kiwi and lime cordial. Overall, sugar and syrup pro...
Research Interests: Engineering, Chemistry, Food Science, Food, Sugar, and 5 moreSucrose, Field Robotics, Fructose, Lactose, and Maltose
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Abstract Several species of medicinal plants have long been used for the complementary treatment of obesity-diabetes in various systems of medicine. Among them are the plant-derived essential oils which are rich sources of volatile... more
Abstract Several species of medicinal plants have long been used for the complementary treatment of obesity-diabetes in various systems of medicine. Among them are the plant-derived essential oils which are rich sources of volatile organic compounds. The objective of this review is to assess the effectiveness of essential oils as anti-obesity agents. All the literatures were extracted from three databases (PubMed, EBSCO Discovery Service and Ovid) from year 2000 to 2015 using the Medical subject heading (MeSH) terms ‘essential oil’, crossed with the term ‘obesity’, ‘anti-obesity’ or ‘antiobesity’. Nine articles were selected and divided into five broad categories of experiments. The attenuation effects of essential oils on obesity may be mediated by several possible mechanisms that include anti-lipase activity, increasing the plasma glycerol concentration and suppressing fat accumulation. Only one randomized controlled trial (RCT) study on essential oil was identified so far and these data were not conclusive to provide evidence-based health claim on this issue.
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Food composition database (FCD) provides the nutritional composition of foods. Reliable and up-to date FCD is important in many aspects of nutrition, dietetics, health, food science, biodiversity, plant breeding, food industry, trade and... more
Food composition database (FCD) provides the nutritional composition of foods. Reliable and up-to date FCD is important in many aspects of nutrition, dietetics, health, food science, biodiversity, plant breeding, food industry, trade and food regulation. FCD has been used extensively in nutrition labelling, nutritional analysis, research, regulation, national food and nutrition policy. The choice of method for the analysis of samples for FCD often depends on detection capability, along with ease of use, speed of analysis and low cost. Sample preparation is the most critical stage in analytical method development. Samples can be prepared using numerous techniques; however it should be applicable for a wide range of analytes and sample matrices. There are quite a number of significant improvements on sample preparation techniques in various food matrices for specific analytes highlighted in the literatures. Improvements on the technology used for the analysis of samples by specific in...