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- Author or Editor: G. S. Zhang x
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Summary
1,7-Dihydroxy-3,8-dimethoxyxanthone (X1) and 1,8-dihydroxy-3,7-dimethoxyxanthone (X2) are two important xanthones of the Tibetan medicinal plant Gentianopsis paludosa (Hook. f.) Ma. They are very similar in structure, the only difference being exchange of OH and OCH3 at the 7 and 8 positions. By calculations based on the geometry of the molecules using the MM+ force field, the different distances between the hydroxyl groups of the two xanthones were obtained (4.64774 Å for X2 and 7.19412 Å for X1), therefore, the two hydroxyl groups of X1 should freely interact with more water molecules than those of X2 in aqueous solution. In other words, X2 is more hydrophobic than X1. Micellar electrokinetic capillary chromatography (MEKC) was therefore chosen for separation of the compounds. The optimum separation conditions were: 20 mm borate + 20 mm SDS (pH 9.8) as running buffer, 17.5 kV applied potential, and detection wavelength 260 nm. The two xanthones were well separated in 9.0 min, with Gaussian peak shapes. The repeatability of the MEKC method (expressed as RSD) for X1 and X2 was 0.9 and 1.1%, respectively, for migration time, and 3.1 and 1.4% for peak area. The limits of detection (S/N = 3) were 0.41 μg mL−1 for X1 and 0.82 μg mL−1 for X2. The recovery of the MEKC method for the two xanthones was also satisfactory.
Abstract
Human milk (HM) of healthy, well-nourished, lactating mothers is a unique and ideal source of nutritive factors, like hormones, cytokines, chemokines, growth factors that ensures the proper growth and development of infants. Among the main components of HM, fat is an important energy source and a regulatory factor. The quality of milk fat depends on its fatty acid (FA) composition. Gas chromatography coupled with flame ionisation detection is one of the most common methods for analysis of the FA profile of HM. The aim of this study was to evaluate the FA composition of HM, collected from mothers with different health conditions (normal Body Mass Index (nBMI); overweight and obese) using GC-FID method. The results showed that saturated FAs were present in the highest amount in the HM samples, of which palmitic acid was the main representative. The major monounsaturated FA was oleic acid, while linoleic acid was the most abundant of the polyunsaturated FAs (PUFA). Overweight and obese women have lower levels of PUFA in their breast milk. The data were subjected to principal component and quadratic discriminant analysis (QDA). QDA classified nBMI and overweight and obese mother milk samples with 88.24% accuracy. Significant differences were found between normal and overweight and obese HM samples in case of C10:0 and C18:3 FAs. Higher maternal BMI was associated with a higher n-6/n-3 PUFA ratio.
Abstract
Nattokinase (NK) is effective in the prevention and treatment of cardiovascular disease. Cucumber is rich in nutrients with low sugar content and is safe for consumption. The aim of this study was to construct a therapeutic cucumber that can express NK, which can prevent and alleviate cardiovascular diseases by consumption. Because the Bitter fruit (Bt) gene contributes to bitter taste but has no obvious effect on the growth and development of cucumber, so the NK-producing cucumber was constructed by replacing the Bt gene with NK by using CRISPR/Cas9. The pZHY988-Cas9-sgRNA and pX6-LHA-U6-NK-T-RHA vectors were constructed and transformed into Agrobacterium tumefaciens EHA105, which was transformed into cucumber by floral dip method. The crude extract of NK-producing cucumber had significant thrombolytic activity in vitro. In addition, treatment with the crude extract significantly delayed thrombus tail appearance, and the thrombin time of mice was much longer than that of normal mice. The degrees of coagulation and blood viscosity as well as hemorheological properties improved significantly after crude extract treatment. These findings show that NK-producing cucumber can effectively alleviate thrombosis and improve blood biochemical parameters, providing a new direction for diet therapy against cardiovascular diseases.
