As a basis for the development of a sensitive analytical method for the determination of carmine food dye, a study of the differential pulse polarographic reduction of carminic acid (CA) on a dropping mercury electrode was performed. For the analytical differential pulse polarographic method running at pH 2.0 BrittoneRobinson (BeR) buffer solution (peak at 489 mV), the relationship between the…
The analytical method for sweeteners in various food matrixes is very important for food quality control and regulation enforcement. A simple and rapid method for the simultaneous determination of 10 sweeteners [acesulfame potassium (ACS-K), aspartame (ASP), cyclamate (CYC), dulcin (DUL), glycyrrhizic acid (GA), neotame (NEO), neohesperidin dihydrochalcone (NHDC), saccharin (SAC), sucralose (SC…
In this study, near-infrared reflectance spectroscopy and radial basis function (RBF) neural network algorithm were used to measure the protein content of wheat owing to their nondestructiveness and quick speed as well as better performance compared to the traditional measuring method (semimicro-Kjeldahl) in actual practice. To simplify the complex structure of the RBF network caused by the ex…
The current study evaluated the stability potential of a transdermal patch composed of eserine and pralidoxime chloride for prophylaxis against ()-anatoxin A poisoning. The drug combinations were fabricated in an adhesive matrix system supported by a backing membrane and attached to a temporary release liner. Stability testing of the optimized formulation was established for 6 months under ac…
Independent component (IC) analysis was applied to near-infrared spectroscopy for analysis of gentiopicroside and swertiamarin; the two bioactive components of Gentiana scabra Bunge. ICs that are highly correlated with the two bioactive components were selected for the analysis of tissue cultures, shoots and roots, which were found to distribute in three different positions within the domain [t…
Calamondin has been demonstrated to exhibit antioxidant function and tyrosinase inhibitory activity, which might be attributed to its flavonoid compounds. To improve their application, the flavonoid compositions and antioxidant activity of calamondin extracts,prepared by different solvents, were investigated. The results showed that total phenolic and flavonoid contents of extracts from peel of…
Drug abuse has become a global issue of concern. It affects not only individual users, but also their families and communities. Data were retrieved from the database of the Taiwan Surveillance System of Drug Abuse and Addiction Treatment (SSDAAT) from 2002 to 2011,and 147,660 cases reported by medical institutions in Taiwan were reviewed. This study showed that the top five reported abused drug…
Baicalein and pentamethyl-hydroxychromane (PMC) have been investigated for use as antioxidants. However, antioxidants may stimulate free radical formation under certain conditions. The aim of our study was to determine whether PMC and baicalein exhibit both pro-oxidant and antioxidant activities in human promyelocytic leukemia (HL-60) cells. In this study, electron spin resonance spectrometry …
In recent years, recreational use of Salvia divinorum (Lamiaceae), a herbal drug that contains a hallucinogenic ingredient, salvinorin A, has become a new phenomenon among young drug users. In Taiwan, as in many other countries, dry leaves of S. divinorum and its related concentrated extract products are available via the Internet. Besides S. divinorum, there are many endemic Salvia species who…
Traditional Taiwanese rice spirits were made from rice, which is their only ingredient and ethanol source. Site-specific natural isotopic fractionation by nuclear magnetic resonance (SNIF-NMR) methods were used to investigate molasses spirits usually mixed in rice spirits. Themeanratios for the parameters in five rice spirits labeled as Taikeng 8,Taikeng 9,Taichung sen 10, Tainan 11, and Tainun…
This study isolated polysaccharides from strawberry (SP) and mulberry (MP) fruit juice to compare their cytokine secretion regulatory and antiapoptotic activities using murine primary splenocytes. SP and MP in the absence or presence of lipopolysaccharide (LPS) were administered to splenocytes for 48 hours. The culture supernatant was used for cytokine secretion assay using the enzyme-linked im…
Edible seaweed products have been consumed in many Asian countries. Edible seaweeds accumulate iodine from seawater, and are therefore a good dietary source of iodine. An adequate consumption of seaweed can eliminate iodine deficiency disorders, but excessive iodine intake is not good for health. The recommended dietary reference intake of 0.15 mg/ d and 0.14 mg/d for iodine has been establish…
Nanotechnology has been applied in consumer products and commercial applications,showing a significant impact on almost all industries and all areas of society. Significant evidence indicates that manufactured nanomaterials and combustion-derived nanomaterials elicit toxicity in humans exposed to these nanomaterials. The interaction of the engineered nanomaterials with the nervous system has re…
Silver is an ancient antibiotic that has found many new uses due to its unique properties on the nanoscale. Due to its presence in many consumer products, the toxicity of nanosilver has become a hot topic. This review summarizes recent advances, particularly the molecular mechanism of nanosilver toxicity. The surface of nanosilver can easily be oxidized by O2 and other molecules in the environ…
Graphene, a single-atom-thick carbon nanosheet, has attracted great interest as a promising nanomaterial for a variety of bioapplications because of its extraordinary properties. However, the potential for widespread human exposure raises safety concerns about graphene and its derivatives, referred to as graphene-family nanomaterials. This review summarizes recent findings on the toxicological…
Nano-iron metal and nano-iron oxides are among the most widely used engineered and naturally occurring nanostructures, and the increasing incidence of biological exposure to these nanostructures has raised concerns about their biotoxicity. Reactive oxygen species (ROS)-induced oxidative stress is one of the most accepted toxic mechanisms and, in the past decades, considerable efforts have been …
Titanium dioxide nanoparticles (TiO2 NPs) are one of the most widely used nanomaterials that have been manufactured worldwide and applied in different commercial realms. The well-recognized ability of TiO2 to promote the formation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) has been extensively studied as one of the important mechanisms underlying TiO2 NPs toxicity. As the “gold standard” method to q…
Nanotechnology is a rapidly developing field in the 21st century, and the commercial use of nanomaterials for novel applications is increasing exponentially. To date, the scientific basis for the cytotoxicity and genotoxicity of most manufactured nanomaterials are not understood. The mechanisms underlying the toxicity of nanomaterials have recently been studied intensively. An important mechani…
Many of the biological applications and effects of nanomaterials are attributed to their ability to facilitate the generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS). Electron spin resonance (ESR) spectroscopy is a direct and reliable method to identify and quantify free radicals in both chemical and biological environments. In this review, we discuss the use of ESR spectroscopy to study ROS generatio…
Raman scattering is an inelastic phenomenon. Although its cross section is very small,recent advances in electronics, lasers, optics, and nanotechnology have made Raman spectroscopy suitable in many areas of application. The present article reviews the applications of Raman spectroscopy in food and drug analysis and inspection, including those associated with nanomaterials. Brief overviews of b…
To develop novel tumor cell microenvironment stimuli-responsive smart controlledrelease delivery systems is one of the current common interests of materials science and clinical medicine. Meanwhile, mesoporous silica nanoparticles as a promising drug carrier have become the new area of interest in the field of biomedical application in recent years because of their unique characteristics and a…
Cancer is the second leading cause of death in the USA according to the American Cancer Society. In the past 5 years, “theranostic nanomedicine”, for both therapeutics and imaging,has shown to be “the right drug for the right patient at the right moment” to manage deadly cancers. This review article presents an overview of recent developments, mainly from the authors’ laboratories, a…
Limnophila aromatica is commonly used as a spice and a medicinal herb in Southeast Asia. In this study, water and various concentrations (50%, 75%, and 100%) of methanol, ethanol,and acetone in water were used as solvent in the extraction of L. aromatica. The antioxidant activity, total phenolic content, and total flavonoid content of the freeze-dried L. aromatica extracts were investigated usi…
A simple, precise, accurate, and selective method is developed and validated for the determination of oleuropein, which is the main phenolic compound in olive leaves. Separation was achieved on a reversed-phase C18 column (5 mm, 150 4.6 mm inner diameter) using a mobile phase consisting of acetonitrile/phosphate buffer pH 3.0 (20:80, v/v), at a flow rate of 1.0 mL/minute and UV detection at 2…
The aim of the present study was to develop a simple and fast screening technique to directly evaluate the bactericidal effects of 5-aminolevulinic acid (ALA)-mediated photodynamic inactivation (PDI) and to determine the optimal antibacterial conditions of ALA concentrations and the total dosage of light in vitro. The effects of PDI on Staphylococcus aureus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa in the pr…
A simple and sensitive electrochemical method for the simultaneous and quantitative detection of ranitidine (RT) and metronidazole (MT) was developed, based on a poly (chromotrope 2B) modified activated glassy carbon electrode (PCHAGCE). The PCHAGCE showed excellent electrocatalytic activity toward the reduction of both RT and MT in 0.1 mol/L phosphate buffer solution (pH 6.0). The peak-to-pea…
Antituberculosis drug-related liver injury (ATLI) is the most prevalent hepatotoxicity in many countries. Whether monitoring liver tests is beneficial to prevent this potentially grave adverse drug reaction (ADR) is open to debate. The Taiwan Drug Relief Foundation (TDRF) was established by the Taiwan Food and Drug Administration to collect severe cases of ADR and carry out drug injury relief t…
To guarantee the safety of chocolate ice cream production, the Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points (HACCP) system was applied to the production process. The biological,chemical, and physical hazards that may exist in every step of chocolate ice cream production were identified. In addition, the critical control points were selected and the critical limits, monitoring, corrective measures, …
The purpose of this study is to evaluate the only available calcium p-aminosalicylate (Ca PAS) commercial product, which is one of the most commonly prescribed non-surveillance products fromthe Bureau of National Health Insurance (BNHI) database in Taiwan. An openrandomized,balanced, two-way crossover study was designed to evaluate the relative bioavailability (F) of a 500 mg Ca PAS F.C. table…
The capability of Chhit-Chan-Than extract powder (CCTEP, 10% aqueous Ocimum gratissimum L. extract) to protect against carbon tetrachloride (CCl4)-induced oxidative stress and hepatotoxicity in vivo was investigated. Wistar rats were divided into five groups. Group A was a normal control group given only vehicle; Group B, the hepatotoxic group, was injected intraperitoneally twice a week with …
The pandemic influenza A/H1N1 outbreak resulted in 18,449 deaths in over 214 countries. In Taiwan, the influenza rapid test, an in vitro diagnostic device (Flu-IVD), only requires documented reviews for market approval by the Taiwan Food and Drug Administration. The purpose of this study was to investigate the analytical sensitivity and specificity of Flu-IVDs used in Taiwan. Analytical sensiti…
Carotenoid-rich green leafy vegetables including cilantro, Thai basil leaves, sweet potato leaves, and choy sum were selected to evaluate the effects of water cooking or boiling on their total carotenoid content (TCC), total phenolic content (TPC), and total antioxidant capacity (TAC). The percentage inhibition of peroxidation (%IP), Trolox equivalent antioxidant capacity (TEAC), and metal-chel…
A new analytical method for determining deoxycytidine kinase (dCK) activity in biological milieus using luminescence is reported here. This method, based on utilizing adenosine triphosphate (ATP) as the sole phosphate donor in the kinase reaction and monitoring ATP consumption via a luciferase-based chemiluminescence reaction, is capable of detecting dCK activity without the use of specific su…
Among marine toxins, tetrodotoxin (TTX) and paralytic shellfish poisons (PSPs) are known as notorious neurotoxins that induce serious food poisoning incidents in the Southeast Asia region. The aim of this study was to investigate whether TTX and PSP toxins are important issues of seafood safety. Paralytic toxicity was observed in mice exposed to 34 specimens from five species of gastropods usin…
Livestock units are known as one of the most influential sectors in the environment pollution. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the environmental impacts of milk production in Guilan province of Iran through Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology. The primary data were collected from 45 units of milk production through a field survey with the help of a structured questionnai…
In countries like Argentina, whose economy depends heavily on crop production, the estimation of harvests is an elementary requirement. Besides providing objectivity, the use of remote sensing allows estimating yield in advance. Since the time of maximum leaf area in wheat corresponds with the critical period of the crop, a good relationship is expected between the Normalized Difference Vegetat…
Changes of Land Use and Land Cover (LULC) affect atmospheric, climatic, and biological spheres of the earth. Accurate LULC map offers detail information for resources management and intergovernmental cooperation to debate global warming and biodiversity reduction. This paper examined effects of pansharpening and atmospheric correction on LULC classification. Object-Based Support Vector Machine …
Task allocation is a fundamental problem in multi-robot systems where heterogeneous robots cooperate to perform a complex mission. A general requirement in a task allocation algorithm is to find an optimal set of robots to execute a certain task. This paper presents the work that harnesses an area decomposition algorithm, and a space-based middleware to facilitate task allocation process in un…
Besides water, tea is one of the most popular beverages around the world. The chemical ingredients and biological activities of tea have beensummarized recently. The current review summarizes tea aroma compounds and their formation in green, black, and oolong tea. The flavor of teacan be divided into two categories: taste (non-volatile compounds) and aroma (volatile compounds). All of these aro…
2014AbstractThe energy substances (mainly carbohydrates and fats) are the basis and guarantee of life activity, especially the oxidative phosphorylation forenergy supply. However, excessive absorption and accumulation of these substances can lead to metabolic diseases such as obesity, hyperlipidemia,diabetes, and cancers. A large amount of studies demonstrate that G protein-coupled receptors (G…
In this paper, we utilized dimethylhydrazine (DMH)-induced colorectal cancer (CC) model rats to explore the effects of casein glycomacropeptide (CGMP) on colorectal cancer. Rats with CC were orally administrated with 10, 50, or 100 mg/kg bw d CGMP, or the same volume of phosphatebuffered saline for 15 weeks. The total numbers of aberrant crypt foci (ACF) and crypts per focus in colon were score…
Idli is a popular Indian breakfast dish consumed by many people all over the world, made from white rice (Oryza sativum) (75%–80%) and black gram (Phaseolus mungo) (20%–25%). Idli’s wide consumption makes it ideal as a model for studying acceptability of a food reformulated with whole grains. The objective was to compare acceptability regarding texture, color and sensory properties when w…
It has long been established that an adverse maternal condition impacts on the developing fetus and predisposes the offspring to develop metabolic and cardiovascular disease in later life. However, the underlying mechanisms that are initiated during development and contribute to the disease predisposition are understudied. Recently, epigenetic reprogramming in early life has emerged as a promis…
Rattan tea, made from the leaves of Ampelopsis grossedentata, may potentially perform multiple pharmacological roles, including anti-bacterial,anti-cancer, antioxidant, hepatoprotective and anti-hypertension functions. These beneficial functions of Rattan tea are strongly associated with the bioactivity of ampelopsin, a major flavonoid compound in Rattan tea. In this review, we summarize curren…
A community of thermophiles within Tanjung Sakti Hot Spring (South Sumatera) have been cultivated and identified based on 16S ribosomal RNA gene sequence. The hot spring has temperature 80 Ce91 C and pH 7e8. We used a simple method for culturing the microbes, by enriching the spring water with nutrient broth media. Phylogenetic analysis showed that the method could recover microbes, which clu…
Colon cancer remains as a serious health problem around the world despite advances in diagnosis and treatment. Dietary fibers are considered to reduce the risk of colon cancer as they are converted to short chain fatty acids by the presence of anaerobic bacteria in the intestine, but imbalanced diet and high fat consumption may promote tumor formation at different sites, including the large bow…
Corn peptides (CPs) are reported to have many biological functions, such as facilitating alcohol metabolism, antioxidation, antitumor, antihypertension, and hepatoprotection. To develop a method for quality control, the high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) system was applied. Twenty-eight common peaks were found in all the CPs of corn samples from Enshi, China, based on which, a finger…
Teaghrelins are unique acylated flavonoid tetraglycosides found in Chin-shin oolong tea,and have been demonstrated to be promising oral ghrelin analogues. The biosynthetic pathway of teaghrelins from quercetin-3-O-rutinoside (rutin) or kaempferol-3-O-rutinoside (nicotiflorin) was proposed to comprise three enzymatic steps according to the identification of putative intermediates in Chin-shin o…
With the objective of reducing analysis time and maintaining good efficiency, there has been substantial focus on high-speed chromatographic separations and ultra-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS/MS) is a preeminent analytical tool for rapid biomedical analysis. In this study a simple, rapid, sensitive, and specific ultra-performance liquid chromatography-MS/…
Diabetes is a condition in which there is an elevation of blood glucose. Insulin, which is produced by the pancreas, is an important hormone needed by the body because it enables glucose to be transported into cells. Under the diabetic condition, the cells may not respond properly to insulin or the body does not produce a sufficient amount of insulin, or both. This situation will cause glucose …