Recent Advances in pH-Responsive Freshness Indicators Using Natural Food Colorants to Monitor Food Freshness.

Recently, due to the enhancement in consumer awareness of food safety, considerable attention has been paid to intelligent packaging that displays the quality status of food through color changes. Natural food colorants show useful functionalities (antibacterial and antioxidant activities) and obvious color changes due to their structural changes in different acid and alkali environments, which could be applied to detect these acid and alkali environments, especially in the preparation of intelligent packaging. This review introduces the latest research on the progress of pH-responsive freshness indicators based on natural food colorants and biodegradable polymers for monitoring packaged food quality. Additionally, the current methods of detecting food freshness, the preparation methods for pH-responsive freshness indicators, and their applications for detecting the freshness of perishable food are highlighted. Subsequently, this review addresses the challenges and prospects of pH-responsive freshness indicators in food packaging, to assist in promoting their commercial application.

[Evaluation on short term after hepatectomy for the patients with primary hepatocellular carcinoma].

OBJECTIVE: To analyze the high risk factors for tumor recurrence in short term after hepatectomy for the patients with primary hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). METHODS: Five hundreds and two patients with primary HCC underwent hepatectomy were included from January 1997 to December 2008. Among these patients, males were 419 cases and females were 83 cases. The age was 14 to 82 years (average age 54 years). The results of evaluation on 2 months after resection and tumor recurrence and survival were analyzed. RESULTS: According to the operative and pathologic findings and the evaluation on 2 months after hepatectomy, the patients with vascular invasion, palliation resection, cutting edge pathologic residual tumor, lymph notes metastasis, serum AFP level continuing higher after resection or(and) positive TACE (tumor dyeing on TACE within 1 month and a deposit of lipiodol on CT scan) were high risk factors (high-risk group, 106 cases, 21.1%), the recurrence-free survival was 22%, 9% and 3% (1, 2 and 5 year) and overall survival was 52%, 25% and 8%. On the non-high risk group patients, the recurrence-free survival was 84%, 67%, 42% and 31% (1, 2, and 5 year) and overall survival was 97%, 85%, 56% and 35%. The bigger tumor, poor differentiation, tumor invading to liver capsule, satellite focus and TNM III-IV stage in high-risk groups were more significantly than that in non-high-risk groups. CONCLUSION: The vascular invasion, palliation resection, cutting edge pathologic residual tumor, lymph notes metastasis, serum AFP level continuing higher or (and) positive TACE within 2 months after resection are high risk factors for HCC patients in short term after hepatectomy, which mean tumor remnant.