Effects of water quality on dissolution of yerba mate extract powders.

Yerba mate tea is known as one of the most popular nonalcoholic beverages favoured by South Americans due to its nutrition facts and medicinal properties. The processing of yerba mate tea is found to affect the properties of its final forms. This study presents an investigation into the effects of water sources on the dissolution of yerba mate extract powders. Comparisons were conducted between yerba mate teas prepared by dissolving yerba mate extract powders into tap water and deionized water. Topics to be explored in this work are the major compositions and antioxidant activities, including total phenol content, reducing power, DPPH scavenging activity, and ABTS(+)• scavenging capacity. It is indicated that there is little difference for antioxidant activities and major constituents of yerba mate teas between both water sources. However, a deeper color is seen in the tap water case, resulting from the reaction between tannic acid and ions. This research finding can be treated as a way to benefit the yerba mate tea processing for applications.

Achillea millefolium L. essential oil inhibits LPS-induced oxidative stress and nitric oxide production in RAW 264.7 Macrophages.

Achillea millefolium L. is a member of the Asteraceae family and has been used in folk medicine in many countries. In this study, 19 compounds in A. millefolium essential oil (AM-EO) have been identified; the major components are artemisia ketone (14.92%), camphor (11.64%), linalyl acetate (11.51%) and 1,8-cineole (10.15%). AM-EO can suppress the inflammatory responses of lipopolysaccharides (LPS)-stimulated RAW 264.7 macrophages, including decreased levels of cellular nitric oxide (NO) and superoxide anion production, lipid peroxidation and glutathione (GSH) concentration. This antioxidant activity is not a result of increased superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT), glutathione peroxidase (GPx) activities, but rather occurs as a result of the down-regulation of inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS), cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2), tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), interleukin-6 (IL-6) and heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1) expression, thus reducing the inflammatory response. Therefore, AM-EO can be utilized in many applications, including the treatment of inflammatory diseases in the future.

Chemical composition and tyrosinase inhibitory activity of Cinnamomum cassia essential oil.

BACKGROUND: Essential oils extracted from aromatic plants exhibit important biological activities and have become increasingly important for scientific research. The essential oil extracted from Cinnamomum cassia Presl (CC-EO) has various functional properties, however, little information is available regarding the tyrosinase inhibitory activity. Therefore, the objectives of this study were to investigate the chemical composition and tyrosinase inhibitory activity of the CC-EO. RESULTS: cis-2-methoxycinnamic acid (43.06%) and cinnamaldehyde (42.37%) were found to be the two major components of the CC-EO identified by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). The inhibitory activities of CC-EO and its major constituents were further evaluated against mushroom tyrosinase. The results showed that CC-EO and cinnamaldehyde exhibited anti-tyrosinase activities with IC50 values of 6.16 ± 0.04 mg/mL and 4.04 ± 0.08 mg/mL, respectively. However, cis-2-methoxycinnamic acid did not show any anti-tyrosinase activity. The inhibition kinetics were analyzed by Lineweaver-Burk plots and second replots, which revealed that CC-EO and cinnamaldehyde were mixed-type inhibitors. The inhibition constants (Ki) for CC-EO and cinnamaldehyde were calculated to be 4.71 ± 0.09 mg/mL and 2.38 ± 0.09 mg/mL, respectively. CONCLUSION: These results demonstrate that CC-EO and its major component, cinnamaldehyde, possess potent anti-tyrosinase activities and may be a good source for skin-whitening agents.