Particulate matters, aldehydes, and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons produced from deep-frying emissions: comparisons of three cooking oils with distinct fatty acid profiles.

It is recognized that hazardous emissions produced from frying oils may be related to oil properties, particularly the fatty acid composition. However, investigations have been limited and partial. In this work, the emissions from deep-frying foods with three oils (palm, olive, and soybean oils) with distinct fatty acid profiles were comprehensively examined in a simulated kitchen, and the interrelationship among emitted substances, oil quality parameters, and fatty acids profiles was explored. Firstly, palm oil emitted the highest number concentration of total particle matters ((3895 ± 1796) × 103 #/cm3), mainly in the Aitken mode (20-100 nm). We observed a positive correlation between particle number concentration and levels of palmitic acid, a major saturated fatty acid (SAFA) (rs = 0.73, p < 0.05), and total polar compounds (TPC) (rs = 0.68, p < 0.05) in the fried oil, a degradation marker which was also positively correlated with that of black carbon (BC) (rs = 0.68, p < 0.05). Secondly, soybean oil emitted the highest level of gaseous aldehydes (3636 ± 607 µg/m3), including acrolein, propinoaldehyde, crotonaldehyde, hexanal, and trans-2-heptenal; the total aldehyde concentration were positively correlated with α-linolenic acid (ALA) percentage (rs = 0.78, p < 0.01), while hexanal and trans-2-heptenal were with linoleic acid (LA) (rs = 0.73 and 0.67, p < 0.05). LA and ALA were two major polyunsaturated fatty acids in non-tropical plant oils. Thirdly, palm oil emitted the most particle-bound polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), and a positive association was discovered between two PAHs and SAFA percentage. Olive oil seems superior to soybean and palm oils with regards to toxic emissions during deep-frying.

Cinnamon users with prediabetes have a better fasting working memory: a cross-sectional function study.

Working memory (WM) is impaired in prediabetes. We hypothesized that culinary herbs and spices may decrease insulin resistance (IR) and improve WM in prediabetes. Healthy people aged ≥60 years with prediabetes (fasting blood glucose 100-125 mg/dL) (47 men and 46 women) whose food and culinary herb intakes were established with a food frequency questionnaire had body composition assessed and fasting glucose and insulin measured. Working memory and Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) were assessed on the same occasion. The contributions to associations between WM and diet, body fat, and IR were estimated by linear regression. Compared with nonusers, cinnamon users had significantly less frequent physical activity (2.9 vs. 4.4 times per week) and more often used fresh ginger (93.3% vs. 64.1%) and ginger in cooking (60.0% vs. 32.1%). Cinnamon users also had a better WM (2.9 vs. 2.5, P < .001). Cinnamon had a significant effect (users were 0.446 higher), but not ginger or curry usage, in predicting WM. For sociodemographic variables, only education (years) was significant in predicting WM (ß = 0.065). Other significant determinants of WM were total fat mass (kilograms) (ß = -0.024) and MMSE (ß = 0.075). After adjustment for age and sex, cinnamon use, education, and MMSE remained significant individual predictors. In the final model, in which all variables listed were adjusted simultaneously, cinnamon users still had a significantly higher WM than nonusers. Cinnamon usage is associated with a better WM, not accounted for by dietary quality or IR, in untreated prediabetes.

Turmeric improves post-prandial working memory in pre-diabetes independent of insulin.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Cognitive impairment develops with pre-diabetes and dementia is a complication of diabetes. Natural products like turmeric and cinnamon may ameliorate the underlying pathogenesis. METHODS: People ≥ 60 years (n=48) with newly-recognised untreated pre-diabetes were randomised to a double-blind metabolic study of placebo, turmeric (1 g), cinnamon (2 g) or both (1 g & 2 g respectively), ingested at a white bread (119 g) breakfast. Observations were made over 6 hours for pre- and post-working memory (WM), glycaemic and insulin responses and biomarkers of Alzheimer's disease (AD)(0, 2, 4 and 6 hours): amyloid precursor protein (APP), γ-secretase subunits presenilin-1 (PS1), presenilin-2 (PS2), and glycogen synthase kinase (GSK-3ß). Differences between natural product users and non-users were determined by Students t and chi square tests; and between pre-test and post-test WM by Wilcoxon signed rank tests. Interaction between turmeric and cinnamon was tested by 2-way ANOVA. Multivariable linear regression (MLR) took account of BMI, glycaemia, insulin and AD biomarkers in the WM responses to turmeric and cinnamon. RESULTS: No interaction between turmeric and cinnamon was detected. WM increased from 2.6 to 2.9 out of 3.0 (p=0.05) with turmeric, but was unchanged with cinnamon. WM improvement was inversely associated with insulin resistance (r=-0.418, p<0.01), but not with AD biomarkers. With MLR, the WM responses to turmeric were best predicted with an R2 of 34.5%; and with significant turmeric, BMI and insulin/glucose AUC beta-coefficients. CONCLUSIONS: Co-ingestion of turmeric with white bread increases working memory independent of body fatness, glycaemia, insulin, or AD biomarkers.

Completed preparative separation of alkaloids from Cephaltaxus fortunine by step-pH-gradient high-speed counter-current chromatography.

Cephalotaxine-type alkaloids are the anti-cancer components in twigs, leaves, roots and seeds of Cephalotaxus fortunine. It is very important to use the limited resource by finding an efficient purification technology of the alkaloids. Separation of cephalotaxine-type alkaloids in Cephalotaxus fortunine by step-pH-gradient high-speed counter-current chromatography (step-pH-gradient HSCCC) was studied in this paper. The step-pH-gradient HSCCC was performed on a HSCCC instrument equipped with a 400-mL column, using the upper phase of ethyl acetate-n-hexane-water, with added 0.01% trifluoroacetic acid (TFA) as stationary phase, and the lower phase of ethyl acetate-n-hexane-water, with added 2% NH(4)OH, 0.2% NH(4)OH and 0.05% TFA as mobile phase. For each separation, 800mg of extract of cephalotaxine-type alkaloids was separated to yield 9.3mg of drupacine, 15.9mg of wilsonine, 130.4mg of cephalotaxine, 64.8mg of epi-wilsonine, 12.8mg of fortunine and 35.6mg of acetylcephalotaxine with purities 81.2%, 85.7%, 95.3%, 97.5%, 89.1% and 96.2%, respectively. The recovery of each alkaloid was more than 90%. The structures of the six alkaloids were identified by electrospray ionization mass spectrum (ESI-MS) and (1)H and (13)C NMR.