[Comparison of odor and quality of Galli Gigerii Endothelium Corneum derived from domestic chickens and broilers].

Galli Gigerii Endothelium Corneum(GGEC) is commonly used for the clinical treatment of indigestion, vomiting, diarrhea, and infantile malnutrition with accumulation. In recent decades, omnivorous domestic chickens, the original source of GGEC, has been replaced by broilers, which may lead to significant changes in the quality of the yielding GGEC. Through subjective and objective sensory evaluation, biological evaluation, and chemical analysis, this study compared the odor and quality between GGEC derived from domestic chickens and that from broilers. The odor intensity between them was compared by odor profile analysis and it was found that the fishy odor of GGEC derived from domestic chickens was significantly weaker than that of GGEC from broilers. Headspace-solid phase microextraction-gas chromatography-triple quadrupole tandem mass spectrometry(HS-SPME/GC-QQQ-MS/MS) suggested that the overall odor-causing chemicals were consistent with the fishy odor-causing chemicals. According to the odor activity va-lue and the orthogonal partial least squares discriminant analysis(OPLS-DA) result, dimethyl trisulfide, 2-methoxy-3-isobutylpyrazine, and 2-methylisoborneol were responsible for the fishy odor(OAV≥1) and the content of fishy odor-causing chemicals in GGEC derived from broilers was 1.12-2.13 folds that in GGEC from domestic chickens. The average pepsin potency in GGEC derived from broilers was 15.679 U·mg~(-1), and the corresponding figure for the medicinal from domestic chickens was 26.529 U·mg~(-1). The results of pre-column derivatization reverse-phase high-performance liquid chromatography(RP-HPLC) assay showed that the content of total amino acids and digestion-promoting amino acids in domestic chickens-derived GGEC was 1.12 times and 1.15 times that in GGEC from broilers, and the bitter amino acid content was 1.21 times folds that of the latter. In conclusion, GGEC derived from domestic chickens had weaker fishy odor, stronger enzyme activity, higher content of digestion-promoting amino acids, and stronger bitter taste than GGEC from broilers. This study lays a scientific basis for studying the quality variation of GGEC and provides a method for identifying high-quality GGEC. Therefore, it is of great significance for the development and cultivation of GGEC as both food and medicine and breeding of corresponding varieties.

Microwave technology: a novel approach to the transformation of natural metabolites.

Microwave technology is used throughout the world to generate heat using energy from the microwave range of the electromagnetic spectrum. It is characterized by uniform energy transfer, low energy consumption, and rapid heating which preserves much of the nutritional value in food products. Microwave technology is widely used to process food such as drying, because food and medicinal plants are the same organisms. Microwave technology is also used to process and extract parts of plants for medicinal purposes; however, the special principle of microwave radiation provide energy to reaction for transforming chemical components, creating a variety of compounds through oxidation, hydrolysis, rearrangement, esterification, condensation and other reactions that transform original components into new ones. In this paper, the principles, influencing factors of microwave technology, and the transformation of natural metabolites using microwave technology are reviewed, with an aim to provide a theoretical basis for the further study of microwave technology in the processing of medicinal materials.

[Microbial community structure and transformation of indoles in soaking and fermentation of Indigo Naturalis].

The soaking and fermentation of Baphicacanthus cusia( Nees),the important intermediate link of Indigo Naturalis processing,facilitates the synthesis of indigo and indirubin precursors and the dissolution of endogenous enzymes and other effective components,while the role of microorganisms in the fermentation is ignored. The present study investigated the changes of microbial community structure in Indigo Naturalis processing based on 16 S amplicon sequencing and bioinformatics. Meanwhile,the contents of indigo,indirubin,isatin,tryptanthrin,indole glycoside,etc. were determined to explore the correlation between the microorganisms and the alterations of the main components. As demonstrated by the results,the microbial diversity decreased gradually with the fermentation,which bottomed out after the addition of lime. Proteobacteria,Bacteroidetes,and Firmicutes were the main dominant communities in the fermentation. The relative abundance of Proteobacteria declined gradually with the prolongation of fermentation time,and to the lowest level after the addition of lime. The relative abundance of Firmicutes increased,and that of Bacteroidetes decreased first and then increased. The contents of effective substances in Indigo Naturalis also showed different variation tendencies. As fermentation went on,indole glycoside decreased gradually; indigo first increased and then decreased; indirubin and isatin first decreased and then increased; tryptanthrin gradually increased. Those changes were presumedly related to the roles of microorganisms in the synthesis of different components. This study preliminarily clarified the important role of microorganisms in the soaking and fermentation and provided a scientific basis for the control of Indigo Naturalis processing and the preparation of high-quality Indigo Naturalis.

[Study advances of microwave processing technology in traditional Chinese medicine].

The iterative innovation of processing technology is one of the important tasks in studies on processing of traditional Chinese medicine(TCM). It is also the prerequisite for modern, refined, automatic and intelligent manufacturing of TCM pieces. Microwave processing is a new fire processing technique developed in the recent 30 years, with a unique thermodynamic form, and energy transfer and transformation laws. Moreover, it owns the advantages of a high processing efficiency, good product properties and low production energy consumption, with great application prospects. This paper introduced the study overview of microwave expansion technology in the food industry, reviewed the origin of microwave processing technology of TCM, and expounded the basic concept, principle and main purpose of microwave processing technology used in TCM. Then, the impacts of drug factors and microwave factors on the microwave processing effect were summarized, the industrial equipment that could be used for microwave processing was listed, and the impacts of microwave heating on starch, polysaccharide, protein and other components in Chinese herbal medicines were analyzed. Furthermore, the study advance of microwave processing of 14 herbs was investigated, including Aconiti Lateralis Radix Praeparaia, Galli Gigerii Endothelium Corneum and Asini Corii Colla; and the appearance and components of herbs processed by traditional processing method and microwave processing method were compared, so as to reveal the opportunities and challenges of microwave processing technology in the industrial transformation. We hoped that the systematic study of microwave processing technology could provide new ideas and techniques for the high-quality and high-level development of the TCM pieces industry in the new era, and promote its inheritance, innovation and transformation.