Gardenia yellow pigment: Extraction methods, biological activities, current trends, and future prospects.

Food coloring plays a vital role in influencing consumers' food choices, imparting vibrant and appealing colors to various food and beverage products. Synthetic food colorants have been the most commonly used coloring agents in the food industry. However, concerns about potential health issues related to synthetic colorants, coupled with increasing consumer demands for food safety and health, have led food manufacturers to explore natural alternatives. Natural pigments not only offer a wide range of colors to food products but also exhibit beneficial bioactive properties. Gardenia yellow pigment is a water-soluble natural pigment with various biological activities, widely present in gardenia fruits. Therefore, this paper aims to delve into Gardenia Yellow Pigment, highlighting its significance as a food colorant. Firstly, a thorough understanding and exploration of various methods for obtaining gardenia yellow pigment. Subsequently, the potential functionality of gardenia yellow pigment was elaborated, especially its excellent antioxidant and neuroprotective properties. Finally, the widespread application trend of gardenia yellow pigment in the food industry was explored, as well as the challenges faced by the future development of gardenia yellow pigment in the field of food and health. Some feasible solutions were proposed, providing valuable references and insights for researchers, food industry professionals, and policy makers.

Quantitative Proteomic Analysis Reveals the Mechanisms of Sinapine Alleviate Macrophage Foaming.

Rapeseed polyphenols have cardiovascular protective effects. Sinapine, one main rapeseed polyphenol, possesses antioxidative, anti-inflammatory, and antitumor properties. However, no research has been published about the role of sinapine in alleviating macrophage foaming. This study aimed to reveal the macrophage foaming alleviation mechanism of sinapine by applying quantitative proteomics and bioinformatics analyses. A new approach was developed to retrieve sinapine from rapeseed meals by using hot-alcohol-reflux-assisted sonication combined with anti-solvent precipitation. The sinapine yield of the new approach was significantly higher than in traditional methods. Proteomics was performed to investigate the effects of sinapine on foam cells, and it showed that sinapine can alleviate foam cell formation. Moreover, sinapine suppressed CD36 expression, enhanced the CDC42 expression, and activated the JAK2 and the STAT3 in the foam cells. These findings suggest that the action of sinapine on foam cells inhibits cholesterol uptake, activates cholesterol efflux, and converts macrophages from pro-inflammatory M1 to anti-inflammatory M2. This study confirms the abundance of sinapine in rapeseed oil by-products and elucidates the biochemical mechanisms of sinapine that alleviates macrophage foaming, which may provide new perspectives for reprocessing rapeseed oil by-products.

Biological Properties of Fucoxanthin in Oil Recovered from Two Brown Seaweeds Using Supercritical CO2 Extraction.

The bioactive materials in brown seaweeds hold great interest for developing new drugs and healthy foods. The oil content in brown seaweeds (Saccharina japonica and Sargassum horneri) was extracted by using environmentally friendly supercritical CO2 (SC-CO2) with ethanol as a co-solvent in a semi-batch flow extraction process and compared the results with a conventional extraction process using hexane, ethanol, and acetone mixed with methanol (1:1, v/v). The SC-CO2 method was used at a temperature of 45 °C and pressure of 250 bar. The flow rate of CO2 (27 g/min) was constant for the entire extraction period of 2 h. The obtained oil from the brown seaweeds was analyzed to determine their valuable compounds such as fatty acids, phenolic compounds, fucoxanthin and biological properties including antioxidant, antimicrobial, and antihypertension effects. The amounts of fucoxanthin extracted from the SC-CO2 oils of S. japonica and S. horneri were 0.41 ± 0.05 and 0.77 ± 0.07 mg/g, respectively. High antihypertensive activity was detected when using mixed acetone and methanol, whereas the phenolic content and antioxidant property were higher in the oil extracted by SC-CO2. The acetone-methanol mix extracts exhibited better antimicrobial activities than those obtained by other means. Thus, the SC-CO2 extraction process appears to be a good method for obtaining valuable compounds from both brown seaweeds, and showed stronger biological activity than that obtained by the conventional extraction process.