Effects of Dietary Valine Chelated Zinc Supplementation on Growth Performance, Antioxidant Capacity, Immunity, and Intestine Health in Weaned Piglets.

This study was conducted to investigate the effects of dietary valine chelated zinc (ZnVal) supplementation on growth performance, antioxidant capacity, immunity, and intestine health in weaned piglets. A total of 240 healthy 35-day-old weaned piglets (Duroc × Landrace × Yorkshire, average weight 10.70 ± 0.14 kg) were randomly divided into five groups with six replicate pens and eight piglets per pen. Dietary treatments were a corn-soybean meal basal diet supplemented with 0, 25, 50, 75, and 100 mg/kg ZnVal, respectively. The experiment lasted for 28 days. Results showed that average daily gain (ADG) was increased (P < 0.05) by ZnVal with 75-100 mg/kg supplementation on days 15-28 and with 50-100 mg/kg supplementation on days 1-28. Supplementation of 25-100 mg/kg ZnVal reduced (P < 0.01) the diarrhea rate of weaned piglets on days 1 to 14 and 1 to 28. Dietary supplementation with 25-100 mg/kg ZnVal increased (P < 0.05) copper/zinc-superoxide dismutase (Cu/Zn-SOD) and decreased malonaldehyde (MDA) activities in the serum on day 14 and 28. Supplementation of 25-100 mg/kg ZnVal increased (P < 0.05) glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px) activity in serum on day 14. Additionally, the supplementation of 75 mg/kg ZnVal significantly increased the activity of superoxide dismutase (SOD) and Cu/Zn-SOD in the liver (P < 0.05). Furthermore, the supplementation of 25-100 mg/kg ZnVal significantly increased the total antioxidant capacity (T-AOC) in the liver (P < 0.05). Higher (P < 0.05) concentrations of IgG in the serum were measured from piglets supplemented with 75-100 mg/kg ZnVal on day 14 and dietary supplementation with 25-100 mg/kg ZnVal increased the level of immunoglobulin G (IgG) in serum on day 28 (P < 0.05). In addition, higher (P < 0.05) concentrations of immunoglobulin A (IgA) in the duodenum and ileum were measured from piglets supplemented with 75 mg/kg ZnVal and the supplementation of 25-100 mg/kg ZnVal also showed a higher (P < 0.05) concentration of immunoglobulin G (IgG) in duodenum. Supplementation of 50-100 mg/kg ZnVal increased the villus height and villus height/crypt depth of jejunum (P < 0.05). Moreover, dietary supplementation with 75-100 mg/kg ZnVal showed a higher (P < 0.05) concentration of zinc in the liver and supplementation of 50-100 mg/kg ZnVal increased (P < 0.05) the concentration of zinc in the heart, spleen, and kidney. In conclusion, the present research showed that supplementation of ZnVal improves growth performance by increasing antioxidant capacity and immunity and regulating intestinal morphology and the optimal inclusion level of ZnVal was 65~80 mg/kg.

Extraction, structural analysis, and activities of rice bran polysaccharide.

The rice bran polysaccharide was extracted from defatted rice bran, and the optimal conditions of the experiment were determined. The chemical structure of rice bran polysaccharide was analyzed by IR and 13 C NMR. Three rice bran polysaccharide derivatives were prepared and characterized, namely carboxymethylated rice bran polysaccharide, phosphorylated rice bran polysaccharide, and acetylated rice bran polysaccharide. It showed that the phosphorylated rice bran polysaccharide had good activity.

The structure-activity relationships of natural glucans.

In recent years, glucan has become one of the hotspots in life science research. It is widely concerned because of its advantages, such as good immune regulation, antitumor, antivirus, hypoglycemic and lipid-lowering effects, antioxidation, antiaging, low toxicity, and high efficiency. At present, there are still two problems in the pharmacodynamics of glucans. Firstly, compared with other drugs used in clinic, most of the glucans still lack information about the mechanism of action between glucans and corresponding ligands in vivo. Secondly, the research on the structure-activity relationship of glucans is still slow. Herein, the structure-activity relationships of glucans were reviewed. The relationship between structure and biological activity is very important for the development of new glucan drugs.

Chemical composition analysis and antioxidant activity of black rice pigment.

The purpose of this research was conducted to determine anthocyanin constituent from the grains of Purple black rice No. 6. Moreover, the in vitro antioxidant activity of black rice pigment (BRP) was evaluated. The crude extract of black rice was isolated and purified by silica gel thin layer chromatography. Anthocyanins were elucidated using ultraviolet visible spectroscopy, infrared spectroscopy, nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, and high-performance liquid chromatography. Meanwhile, salicylic acid Fenton system, superoxide radical system, H2 O2 scavenging system, DPPH-free radical scavenging system, and Prussian blue method were used to determine the free radical scavenging ability and total reducing ability of BRP. Overall results suggest that the main component of BRP is cyanidin-3-glucoside, which is a kind of anthocyanins. It also had significant scavenging capacity to OH, O2- , H2 O2 , DPPH, and its scavenging rate and reducing ability increased with the increase in pigment concentration.

Application of Near-Infrared Spectroscopy Analysis Technology to Total Nucleosides Quality Control in the Fermented Cordyceps Powder Production Process.

Product quality control is a prerequisite for ensuring safety, effectiveness, and stability. However, because of the different strain species and fermentation processes, there was a significant difference in quality. As a result, they should be clearly distinguished in clinical use. Among them, the fermentation process is critical to achieving consistent product quality. This study aims to introduce near-infrared spectroscopy analysis technology into the production process of fermented Cordyceps powder, including strain culture, strain passage, strain fermentation, strain filtration, strain drying, strain pulverizing, and strain mixing. First, high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) was used to measure the total nucleosides content in the production process of 30 batches of fermented Cordyceps powder, including uracil, uridine, adenine, guanosine, adenosine, and the process stability and interbatch consistency were analyzed with traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) fingerprinting, followed by the near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) combined with partial least squares regression (PLSR) to establish a quantitative analysis model of total nucleosides for online process monitoring of fermented Cordyceps powder preparation products. The model parameters indicate that the established model with good robustness and high measurement precision. It further clarifies that the model can be used for online process monitoring of fermented Cordyceps powder preparation products.

Modification and application of polysaccharide from traditional Chinese medicine such as Dendrobium officinale.

Polysaccharides have various biological activities, such as antioxidant, anti-tumor, antiviral, anti-aging, anti-inflammatory, anti-radiation, hypoglycemic and lipid lowering, immune regulation, etc. Although many polysaccharides have been proved to have various biological activities, in the research process, it has been found that more polysaccharides in nature do not have biological activities or have low activities, and some polysaccharides have poor activities due to lack of certain groups. While others are due to polysaccharide with too large molecular weight, because its molecular weight is too large to smoothly enter cells and thus cannot exert its activity. For the former, we need to adopt molecular grafting modification. This kind of modification method is mainly chemical modification method, which increases the functional groups and molecular weight of various polysaccharides to improve their biological activity. For the latter, we need to adopt molecular degradation modification, which includes biodegradation, physical degradation, chemical degradation and other means to improve the solubility of polysaccharide in water phase by reducing its molecular weight, thus improving its activity. This article mainly introduces polysaccharide structure modification methods that have been widely used in recent years.

Lead Poisoning Can Be Easily Misdiagnosed as Acute Porphyria and Nonspecific Abdominal Pain.

Lead poisoning (LP) is less commonly encountered in emergency departments (ED). However, lead exposure still occurs, and new sources of poisoning have emerged. LP often goes unrecognized due to a low index of suspicion and nonspecific symptoms. We present a case of a 48-year-old man who had recurring abdominal pain with anemia that was misdiagnosed. His condition was initially diagnosed as nonspecific abdominal pain and acute porphyria. Acute porphyria-like symptoms with a positive urine porphyrin test result led to the misdiagnosis; testing for heme precursors in urine is the key to the differential diagnosis between LP and acute porphyria. The final definitive diagnosis of lead toxicity was confirmed based on high blood lead levels after detailed medical history taking. The lead poisoning was caused by traditional Chinese herbal pills. The abdominal pain disappeared after a course of chelating treatment. The triad for the diagnosis of lead poisoning should be a history of medicine intake, anemia with basophilic stippling, and recurrent abdominal pain.

New phenylpropenoids, bis(1-phenylethyl)phenols, bisquinolinone alkaloid, and anti-inflammatory constituents from Zanthoxylum integrifoliolum.

Five new compounds, including two new phenylpropenoids, (R,E)-1-[4-(3-hydroxyprop-1-enyl)phenoxy]-3-methylbutane-2,3-diol (1) and 4-hydroxy-3-(3-methyl-2-butenyl)cinnamyl alcohol (2), two new bis(1-phenylethyl)phenols, 2,6-bis(1-phenylethyl)phenol (3) and 2,4-bis(1-phenylethyl)phenol (4), and a new bisquinolinone alkaloid, 18-demethylparaensidimerin C (5), together with 17 known compounds have been isolated from the stem wood of Zanthoxylum integrifoliolum. The structures of these new compounds were determined through spectral analyses including extensive 2D nuclear magnetic resonance data. Among the isolates, N-methylflindersine (7), (-)-simulanol (10), and evofolin-C (16) exhibited potent inhibition against N-formylmethionylleucylphenylalanine-induced superoxide production with IC(50) values less than 12 microM.

A new cytotoxic amide from the stem wood of Hibiscus tiliaceus.

A new coumarin, hibiscusin, and a new amide, hibiscusamide, together with eleven known compounds including vanillic acid, P-hydroxybenzoic acid, syringic acid, P-hydroxybenzaldehyde, scopoletin, N- trans-feruloyltyramine, N-cis-feruloyltyramine, a mixture of beta-sitosterol and stigmasterol, a mixture of beta-sitostenone and stigmasta-4,22-dien-3-one were isolated from the stem wood of Hibiscus tiliaceus. The structures of these new compounds were determined through spectral analyses. Among the isolates, three compounds exhibited cytotoxicity (IC (50) values < 4 microg/mL) against P-388 and/or HT-29 cell lines in vitro.