Pickering emulsions stabilized by zein-proanthocyanidins-pectin ternary composites (ZPAAPs): Construction and delivery studies.

Proanthocyanidins (Pas) are widely used in the preparation of functional foods due to their diverse biological activities. Taking advantage of the effect of Pas on the stability of Pickering emulsions, this study constructed the zein-proanthocyanidins-pectin ternary composites (ZPAAPs) as stabilizer to establish Pickering emulsions with potential delivery capacity. The appearance of the emulsion was pink which could be found in visual observation. The emulsion was stable during long-term storage in the range of 0.1 âˆ¼ 0.7 oil phase. CLSM showed that the oil droplets were coated with covering layer formed by ZPAAPs, which effectively prevented droplets congregating. The rheological results indicated that ZPAAPEs had elastic gel-like structure. In addition, ZPAAPEs still contained 54.4 % curcumin after storage for 15 d. And the bioavailability of curcumin was increased to 39.7 % ± 0.3. These studies may contribute to the controllable fabrication of Pickering emulsions for nutrient delivery in the food and pharmaceutical fields.

Aquaculture Feeds Can Be Outlaws for Eutrophication When Hidden in Rice Fields? A Case Study in Qianjiang, China.

Water eutrophication caused by agricultural production has become one of the most important factors that impede sustainable rural environmental governance in China. As a result, the Chinese central and local governments want to reduce the use of nitrogen and phosphorus fertilizer and gain socioeconomical profit simultaneously by promoting crayfish and rice integrated system (CRIS) in the rural areas with abundant water resources. In this article, we investigated whether CRIS in Qianjiang, Hubei, the origin place of the system in China, contributes to fulfilling the governments' expectations. We found that CRIS efficaciously cuts the fertilizer rate in rice production and boosts farmers' incomes because crayfish has a demand for water quality and holds a large internal market requirement. However, higher profit encourages farmers to expand crayfish production and thus discourages the initiatives in rice production. The area of the ditch for crayfish production expands ceaselessly and exceeds the limit of regulation of CRIS. As a result, the CRIS in the areas has emerged as a practice of aquaculture but in farmland. This is a regulatory gap. The input-output analysis of CRIS by material balance method can also reveal that excessive feed for crayfish has become a new source of agricultural pollution. Beyond that, due to the changed irrigation system and increased water exchange frequency of CRIS, the pollution has transformed from passive distribution to active, which will increase the risk of water eutrophication on a large area.