Tea polyphenols (TPs) are the general compounds of natural polyhydroxyphenols extracted in tea. Although a large number of studies have shown that TPs have obvious neuroprotective and neuro repair effects, they are limited due to the low bioavailability in vivo. However, TPs can act indirectly on the central nervous system by affecting the “microflora–gut–brain axis”, in which the microbiota and its composition represent a factor that determines brain health. Bidirectional communication between the intestinal microflora and the brain (microbe–gut–brain axis) occurs through a variety of pathways, including the vagus nerve, immune system, neuroendocrine pathways, and bacteria-derived metabolites. This axis has been shown to influence neurotransmission and behavior, which is usually associated with neuropsychiatric disorders. In this review, we discuss that TPs and their metabolites may provide benefits by restoring the imbalance of intestinal microbiota and that TPs are metabolized by intestinal flora, to provide a new idea for TPs to play a neuroprotective role by regulating intestinal flora.

The Neuroprotective Effect of Tea Polyphenols on the Regulation of Intestinal Flora.

Isolation and structural elucidation of unique γ-oryzanol species in rice bran oil.

Background Food items are prepared in different ways like steaming, boiling, freezing, cooking with oil, shallow frying, deep frying etc. People are more attracted by deep frying food items by the organoleptic properties like colour, aroma, texture, crispiness etc. Repeated usage of oil to its smoke point in cooking food materials gets degraded due to the chemical reactions that leads to chronic heart diseases, colon cancer, atherosclerosis and high blood pressure. Hence finding the quality of oil before reuse is very important to protect human health. Scope and approach Chemical amendment like peroxide, free fatty acids (FFA), saturated fatty acids, monomer, dimer and trimer are formed on degradation in oil. Existence and quantification of these compounds are analysed using physical properties like viscosity, density, refractive index, surface tension and chemical properties like FFA, Saponification Value (SV), Peroxide Value (PV), Iodine value (IV), etc. Analytical methods such as Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) spectrophotometer, Gas chromatograph (GC) with Mass spectra (MS), etc, are treated as a promising method to estimate the percentage of compositional changes in oil. All degraded products in oil are quantified as total polar compound (TPC). Hence capacitive based dielectric measurement of the reusability of oil would be a novel method in quality analysis. Key findings and conclusions This paper discusses the available physical and chemical parameters that are used to index the oil quality also comparison of the various research articles on dielectric constant, and empirical equations is given. As a consequence, a low cost device could be used in food industry and at home to analyse the quality and reusability of oil in future.

Measurement of dielectric constant: A recent trend in quality analysis of vegetable oil - A review

We previously reported that the ethanol extract from polished rice suppresses inflammation and the formation of aberrant crypt foci in the mouse colon and particularly focused on the plant sphingolipid glucosylceramide (GlcCer). Here, we investigated the effects of rice lipid fractions and GlcCer on differentiated Caco-2 cells treated with lipopolysaccharide (LPS), in particular, we evaluated the mechanism of action of GlcCer using related substances and metabolic enzyme inhibitors. Rice-derived polar lipids suppressed the LPS-induced reduction in the number of cells. The polar lipids with higher GlcCer content exerted a better effect than the other fractions. GlcCer-related substances reversed the LPS-induced reduction in the number of cells, and GlcCer-metabolic inhibitors, including a sphingosine kinase inhibitor, suppressed the beneficial effects of GlcCer-related substances. These results suggest that GlcCer is a rice component with intestinal protection. Secondly, GlcCer is metabolized during inflammation and protects intestinal cells by maintaining the sphingolipid levels in cells and producing sphingoid base-1-phosphate.

Protective Mechanism of Rice-Derived Lipids and Glucosylceramide in an In Vitro Intestinal Tract Model.

γ-Oryzanol is an important group of nutraceuticals that play a key role in addressing metabolic disorders. This study, for the first time, examined volatile-free spice fixed oils (FOs) as an alternate plant source for γ-oryzanol and other nutraceuticals (phenolics, flavonoids, phytosterols, and tocopherols) using HPLC, HR-MS and NMR. The in vitro antioxidant activities of FOs were also analysed. The selected spices were Alpinia galanga, Cinnamomum zeylanicum, Trigonella foenum-graecum, Foeniculum vulgare and Myristica fragrans. The major polyphenols and flavonoids quantified were gallic, protocatechuic, vanillic, syringic, para-coumaric, ferulic, rutin, trans-cinnamic, and quercetin. T. foenum-graecum FOs recorded high levels of ergosterol (48.56 mg/100 g) and stigmasterol (247.36 mg/100 g). The fucosterol levels were high in A. galanga (268.31 mg/100 g) FOs, whereas C. zeylanicum FOs showed high content of β-sitosterols (7037.77 mg/100 g). C. zeylanicum and T. foenum-graecum FOs recorded high α-tocopherol content (47.55 and 15.96 mg/100 g respectively). C. zeylanicum FOs showed high levels of three ferulates, namely, cycloartenyl ferulate, 24-methylene cycloartenyl ferulate and β-sitosteryl ferulate, whose contents were 89.42, 170.23 and 50.23 mg/100 g respectively which was confirmed by HRMS with a molecular mass (m/z) of 601.45, 615.47, and 589.45 respectively. Further, γ-oryzanol ferulates in C. zeylanicum FOs were confirmed by 1H-NMR analysis. The acidified methanolic extractives of FOs showed high free radical scavenging activity and antioxidant potential. These spice FOs have excellent antioxidant activities, and are novel potential functional ingredients against lifestyle disorders.

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Spice fixed oils as a new source of γ-oryzanol: nutraceutical characterization of fixed oils from selected spices

Provided is an analytical method which enables accurate quantitative determination of each vitamin E homolog in an oil or fat containing tocopherol and tocotrienol. Each vitamin E homolog in an oil or fat containing tocopherol and tocotrienol can be quantitatively determined accurately by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) using a normal phase column as a separation column, and using hexane : ethyl acetate : acetic acid = 98.5 to 99.8 : 0.1 to 0.5 : 0.1 to 1 (v/v) as a mobile phase.

Analytical method for vitamin e

γ-Oryzanol is a naturally occurring component of rice bran and consists of various steryl ferulates. The antioxidant activities of γ-oryzanol have mostly been demonstrated in cell-free systems. Therefore, we determined whether steryl ferulate of γ-oryzanol suppress spontaneous intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) in cell-based systems. We found that cycloartenyl ferulate and β-sitosteryl ferulate suppressed spontaneous intracellular ROS in a similar way to N-acetylcysteine and α-tocopherol.

Takuya Nakagami

Papers

Analytical method for vitamin e

Isolation and structural elucidation of unique γ-oryzanol species in rice bran oil.

Cycloartenyl Ferulate and β-Sitosteryl Ferulate - Steryl Ferulates of γ-Oryzanol - Suppress Intracellular Reactive Oxygen Species in Cell-based System