Selenium nanoparticles: Enhanced nutrition and beyond.

Selenium is a trace nutrient that has both nutritional and nutraceutical functions, whereas narrow nutritional range of selenium intake limits its use. Selenium nanoparticles (SeNPs) are less toxic and more bioavailable than traditional forms of selenium, suggesting that SeNPs have the potential to replace traditional selenium in food industries and/or biomedical fields. From the perspective of how SeNPs can be applied in health area, this review comprehensively discusses SeNPs in terms of its preparation, nutritional aspect, detoxification effect of heavy metals, nutraceutical functions and anti-pathogenic microorganism effects. By physical, chemical, or biological methods, inorganic selenium can be transformed into SeNPs which have increased stability and bioavailability as well as low toxicity. SeNPs are more effective than traditional selenium form in synthesizing selenoproteins like glutathione peroxidases. SeNPs can reshape the digestive system to facilitate digestion and absorption of nutrients. SeNPs have shown excellent potential to adjunctively treat cancer patients, enhance immune system, control diabetes, and prevent rheumatoid arthritis. Additionally, SeNPs have good microbial anti-pathogenic effects and can be used with other antimicrobial agents to fight against pathogenic bacteria, fungi, or viruses. Development of novel SeNPs with enhanced functions can greatly benefit the food-, nutraceutical-, and biomedical industries.

Glycated modification of the protein from Rana chensinensis eggs by Millard reaction and its stability analysis in curcumin encapsulated emulsion system.

Forest frog (Rana chensinensis) eggs contain high-quality protein but have not been well utilized. In this study, the total protein of forest frog eggs was extracted and 4491 protein/peptides were identified by HPLC-MS/MS. The egg protein was glycated using monosaccharides (lactose, fructose, xylose and glucose). The xylose modified egg protein showed excellent emulsifying ability, high viscosity and uniform structure under the laser confocal microscope in a concentration dependent way (1-3%, w/v). We next used xylose glycated egg protein to encapsulate curcumin to determine the stability of its emulsion system. This emulsion system showed low particle size (< 400 nm) and high Zeta-potential (> 30 mV with absolute value) at pH > 6. The system was stable under 4 °C, 25℃ and 37 °C after seven weeks' storage, especially for the emulsions at 3% and 5% concentrations. Therefore, the glycated frog egg protein can be used to encapsulate hydrophobic nutrients.

The interaction between Lactobacillus plantarum SC-5 and its biogenic amine formation with different salt concentrations in Chinese Dongbei Suancai.

Dongbei Suancai (DBSC) - a Chinese cabbage-based sauerkraut is a traditional fermented food which is popular in Asian countries. The biogenic amines that are usually generated during spontaneous fermentation have raised public health concern, while inoculation technology may solve this problem. In the current research, the biogenic amines, as well as their interactions with the microbial community in DBSC inoculated with Lactobacillus plantarum SC-5 or spontaneously fermented without inoculation were systematically investigated throughout 60 d fermentation. High-performance liquid chromatography analysis showed that the predominant biogenic amines in DBSC including putrescine, tyramine, spermidine, cadaverine and histamine increased during fermentation. Inoculated DBSC had a significantly lower content of total biogenic amines than the spontaneously fermented DBSC (216.72-237.33 mg/kg vs. 234.62-266.81 mg/kg) during 60 days' fermentation (P < 0.05). High throughput sequencing based on 16S rDNA identified 70 species in the bacterial community belonging to 7 genera of lactic acid bacteria, of which Lactobacillus, Leuconostoc and Lactococcus were dominant. Furthermore, six common genera of bacteria were positively correlated with biogenic amines based on Spearman's rank correlation test. Notably, the abundance of Lactobacillus plantarum SC-5 was negatively correlated with the content of biogenic amines in DBSC. In conclusion, inoculation of the proper starter like Lactobacillus plantarum SC-5 can reduce total biogenic amines in DBSC possibly by modifying the microbial communities in the fermented sauerkraut, which provides practical guidance for industrial production of high quality DBSC.