Seaweeds rehydration and boiling: Impact on iodine, sodium, potassium, selenium, and total arsenic contents and health benefits for consumption.

Considering the importance of seaweeds for the development of sustainable and innovative food products, this study aimed to characterize the impact of hydrothermal processing on iodine, sodium, potassium, selenium, and arsenic concentrations of four seaweed species (S. latissima, L. digitata, U. pinnatifida, and C. crispus) and on the associated health risks-benefits for consumers. These elements revealed a common pattern for leachable fractions of iodine, total arsenic, and selenium: L. digitata ≥ S. latissima > C. crispus > U. pinnatifida after rehydration and boiling during different periods. The behavior for sodium was: S. latissima > L. digitata > C. crispus > U. pinnatifida, and for potassium: U. pinnatifida > L. digitata > S. latissima > C. crispus. Generally, the species that attained more significant losses were S. latissima and L. digitata. A health-relevant sodium/potassium ratio below 0.7 was found for all species except for U. pinnatifida. In some species, the risk-benefit analysis revealed that high iodine and arsenic levels might promote risks for consumption, even after 20 min boiling, but 5 g of processed U. pinnatifida could contribute to adequate iodine, sodium, potassium, and selenium intakes for all population groups. Standardized processing treatments of seaweeds can open new opportunities for the sector.

Effects of a non-caffeinated coffee substitute on functional dyspepsia.

BACKGROUND: Functional dyspepsia (FD) is a debilitating functional gastrointestinal disorder characterized by early satiety, post-prandial fullness or epigastric pain related to meals. FD is diagnosed when organic etiology for the symptoms is not identified. It is widely believed that FD may be linked to the consumption of certain foods. In a clinical setting, it is often recommended that coffee be avoided in patients with FD. The lack of clinical research on non-caffeinated coffee substitute's effects on functional dyspepsia (FD) prompted the need to explore the topic clinically. AIM: The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of drinking non-caffeinated coffee substitute on FD symptoms in order to determine if recommending a non-caffeinated coffee substitute in patients with pre-existing FD relieves the patient's symptoms. METHODS: This is a quantitative study with 51 patients diagnosed with FD. A patient-reported outcomes (PRO) instrument called the Gastrointestinal Symptom Rating Scale (GSRS) was used to determine the results. After the participants enrolled, they completed the pre-GSRS questionnaire. The participants were instructed to stop their daily consumption of caffeinated and/or decaffeinated coffee and replace it with the non-caffeinated coffee substitute. After one month, the participants returned to the physician's office to complete a post intervention GSRS questionnaire. RESULTS: The Wilcoxon Signed Rank test was used to test for significant change across time. Our study showed a statistically significant decrease from pre-intervention to post-intervention for functional dyspepsia symptoms, (3.67-1.00), p < 0.001. CONCLUSION: To our knowledge, this study is the first to evaluate whether removing coffee from a person's diet and replacing it with a non-caffeinated coffee substitute would result in the improvement of functional dyspepsia symptoms. Our results indicate that replacing a caffeinated or decaffeinated coffee with a non-caffeinated coffee substitute decreases FD symptoms.

An initial psychometric evaluation of the German PROMIS v1.2 Physical Function item bank in patients with a wide range of health conditions.

OBJECTIVES: To translate the PROMIS Physical Function (PF) item bank version 1.2 into German and to investigate psychometric properties of resulting full bank and seven derived short forms. DESIGN: Cross-sectional psychometric study. SETTING: Inpatient and outpatient clinics of the Department of Psychosomatic Medicine at Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Germany. SUBJECTS: A total of 10 adult patients with various chronic diseases participated in cognitive debriefing interviews. The final item bank was administered to n = 266 adult patients with a broad range of medical conditions. INTERVENTIONS: Patient-reported outcome assessment as part of routine care. MAIN MEASURES: PROMIS v1.2 PF bank; MOS SF-36 PF scale (PF-10). RESULTS: Cross-cultural adaptation of the item bank followed established guidelines. For the final German translation, the corrected item-total correlations ranged from 0.44 to 0.84. Cronbach's alpha was high for each PROMIS PF short form ( α = 0.88-0.96). The full PROMIS PF bank and most short forms correlated highly with the SF-36 PF-10 ( r = 0.85-0.90), with the exception of PROMIS Upper Extremity ( r = 0.64). PROMIS Upper Extremity showed ceiling effects and lower agreement with the full bank than other short forms. Unidimensionality was supported for all PROMIS PF measures using traditional factor analysis and nonparametric item response theory. CONCLUSION: The German PROMIS PF bank was found to be conceptually equivalent to the English version and fulfilled the psychometric requirements for use of short forms in clinical practice. Future studies should pay particular attention to samples with upper extremity functional limitations to further investigate the dimensional structure of PF as conceptualized according to PROMIS.

The activity of an extract and fraction of Agrimonia eupatoria L. against reactive species.

Agrimonia eupatoria L. (agrimony) is a medicinal plant largely used in traditional medicine. Recently, phytochemical studies on an agrimony hydro-alcoholic extract and a polyphenol-enriched fraction obtained from it were carried out. The fraction was found to possess a high concentration of flavan-3-ols, flavonols, flavones and phenolic acids. So, the main purpose of this study was to search out, the extract and fraction antioxidant potential and scavenging activity against the reactive species formed during inflammation and to establish a relationship between such activity and the phenolic composition. Results showed that both the extract and the fraction promptly reacted with DPPH denoting a general radical scavenger activity and a potential antioxidant capacity. They also reacted with superoxide anion, peroxyl and hydroxyl radicals as well as with the oxidant species, hydrogen peroxide, hypochlorous acid and peroxynitrite, strengthening their radical scavenger and antioxidant activities. In most assays, the polyphenol-enriched fraction was more efficient, pointing to a significant contribution of the polyphenols content to those activities. Our data suggest that the significant scavenging capacity of reactive species by polyphenols from Agrimonia eupatoria L., could be a mechanism of its anti-inflammatory activity.

Characterisation of polyphenols by HPLC-PAD-ESI/MS and antioxidant activity in Equisetum telmateia.

The antioxidant activity of an aqueous extract (infusion) and respective ethyl acetate fraction of Equisetum telmateia Ehrh. (Equisetaceae), a plant used in traditional medicine for its anti-inflammatory and diuretic properties, has been evaluated by DPPH, TEAC and TBARS assays. A high and significant antioxidant activity was detected in the ethyl acetate fraction. Analysis of the aqueous extract and the ethyl acetate fraction by HPLC-PAD-ESI/MS allowed the identification of the major phenolic compounds as flavan-3-ol, kaempferol and phenolic acid derivatives. Among the flavan-3-ols, A-type proanthocyanidins and afzelechin derivatives were detected as well as the more common B-type procyanidins, B2 and C1, whose identification was further confirmed by HPLC using detection involving chemical reaction with p-dimethylamino-cinnamaldehyde. The results suggest that the anti-inflammatory activity of E. telmateia could be due, at least in part, to the presence of compounds with antioxidant activity.