Dermoprotective Effects of Saffron: A Mini Review.

Crocus sativus L. (Iridaceae), known as saffron, is widely used as a coloring agent, food additive, and medicinal spice. Saffron can be beneficial for treating convulsions, tumors, oxidative-related diseases, inflammation, memory impairments, and depression. These effects are due to its chemical components like anthocyanins, flavonoids and terpenoids. Saffron has been shown to be of benefit for treating skin diseases as a result of its anti-oxidant, anti-microbial, depigmenting, and repairing activities. Therefore, it is used for formulating various lotions, creams, and cosmetics emulsions, namely sunscreens, moisturizers, and anti-spot and anti-aging products. In this review, we have presented various skin protective effects of saffron and its components.

An electrochemical biosensor based on hemoglobin-oligonucleotides-modified electrode for detection of acrylamide in potato fries.

Acrylamide a neurotoxin and strong carcinogen, is found in various thermally processed foods. In this study, an electrochemical sensor for detection of acrylamide using double stranded DNA (dsDNA)/Hemoglobin (Hb)-modified screen printed gold electrode (SPGE) was designed. The immobilization of ssDNA1-SH on the surface of SPGE was confirmed by cyclic voltammetry, and the interaction between ssDNA2-NH2 and Hb with the ratio 1:1 was characterized by agarose gel. The excellent response of the designed biosensor towards acrylamide due to acrylamide and Hb adducts and change of reduction/oxidation process of Hb-Fe(III)/Hb-Fe(II) was determined by square wave voltammetry (SWV). The biosensor showed the optimum response at pH 8.0. The linear working range for acrylamide was from 2.0 × 10-6 to 5.0 × 10-2 M with a detection limit of 1.58 × 10-7 M. The biosensor was suitable for direct determination of acrylamide in water extracted of potato fries and displayed good reproductivity and high stability.

Prediction of oxidation parameters of purified Kilka fish oil including gallic acid and methyl gallate by adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system (ANFIS) and artificial neural network.

BACKGROUND: As a result of concerns regarding possible health hazards of synthetic antioxidants, gallic acid and methyl gallate may be introduced as natural antioxidants to improve oxidative stability of marine oil. Since conventional modelling could not predict the oxidative parameters precisely, artificial neural network (ANN) and neuro-fuzzy inference system (ANFIS) modelling with three inputs, including type of antioxidant (gallic acid and methyl gallate), temperature (35, 45 and 55 °C) and concentration (0, 200, 400, 800 and 1600 mg L(-1) ) and four outputs containing induction period (IP), slope of initial stage of oxidation curve (k1 ) and slope of propagation stage of oxidation curve (k2 ) and peroxide value at the IP (PVIP ) were performed to predict the oxidation parameters of Kilka oil triacylglycerols and were compared to multiple linear regression (MLR). RESULTS: The results showed ANFIS was the best model with high coefficient of determination (R(2) = 0.99, 0.99, 0.92 and 0.77 for IP, k1 , k2 and PVIP , respectively). So, the RMSE and MAE values for IP were 7.49 and 4.92 in ANFIS model. However, they were to be 15.95 and 10.88 and 34.14 and 3.60 for the best MLP structure and MLR, respectively. So, MLR showed the minimum accuracy among the constructed models. CONCLUSION: Sensitivity analysis based on the ANFIS model suggested a high sensitivity of oxidation parameters, particularly the induction period on concentrations of gallic acid and methyl gallate due to their high antioxidant activity to retard oil oxidation and enhanced Kilka oil shelf life. © 2016 Society of Chemical Industry.

Evaluating the potential of natural curcumin for oxidative stability of soybean oil.

The active substance of turmeric rhizome (curcumin) was extracted and identified with TLC and NMR. To evaluate the antioxidant efficiency of different concentrations of curcumin (120, 160 and 200 ppm) compared with tert-butylhydroquinone (TBHQ) (120 ppm) and α-tocopherol (200 ppm) at two different temperatures (25°C and 55°C) under dark and light conditions during 90 days, the soybean oil with no added antioxidant was used as a food model, and its fatty acids profile was determined by GC. Results indicated that increasing concentration of curcumin leads to significantly decreased oxidation rates. The soybean oil containing curcumin at 25°C in darkness with the lowest rate of increased peroxide value indicated the same antioxidant activity with α-tocopherol and TBHQ. Moreover, the results of acid value and iodine value indicated that samples with curcumin were more effective in preventing oxidation at both temperatures compared with control. However, light did not have any significant effect.