Protective Role of Antioxidant Huskless Barley Extracts on TNF-α-Induced Endothelial Dysfunction in Human Vascular Endothelial Cells.

Oxidative stress and inflammation are considered as two key factors that contribute to the development of atherosclerosis. This study was to investigate the antioxidant capacity of huskless barley and to explore its protective functions through the regulation of the antioxidant defense and inflammatory response in human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVEC). The oxygen radical absorbance capacity (ORAC), ferric-reducing antioxidant power (FRAP), and 2,2-azino-bis(3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid) diammonium salt (ABTS) scavenging capacity of water and alkali extracts of the polysaccharides from nine huskless barley varieties were investigated in vitro. The antioxidant properties of the alkaline extracts were more pronounced than those of the water extracts. The results from the cell model showed that pretreatment of HUVEC with the water or alkaline extracts of the polysaccharides from the huskless barley cultivars QHH and NLGL decreased the levels of reactive oxygen species (ROS), monocyte chemotactic protein 1 (MCP-1), and vascular cell adhesion molecule 1 (VCAM-1) but increased the level of superoxide dismutase (SOD) and maintained cell viability. Huskless barley polysaccharide extracts exhibited the vasodilatory effect of inhibiting angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) production. These discoveries revealed the potent protective functions of barley in oxidative damage and a potential role for barley in preventing chronic inflammation in cardiovascular diseases.

Impact of cooking conditions on the properties of rice: Combined temperature and cooking time.

Changes in the properties of cooked rice under various cooking conditions were investigated. Waxy, low-, and high-amylose rice were subjected to treatment with different cooking temperatures (50, 70, 90 °C) for different cooking times (15, 30, 45 min). The results showed that cooking greatly increased the swelling behavior of waxy rice but decreased the swelling behavior and amylose leaching of low- and high-amylose rice. As the cooking temperature increased, rapidly digestible starch increased significantly for all rice products, whereas slowly digestible starch and resistant starch had a certain degree of reduction. Variation in the cooking time produced little effects on starch digestibility. Gelatinization temperature was positively correlated with temperature and time, whereas gelatinization enthalpy was negatively correlated with temperature and time. Pasting properties of all rice products decreased significantly as cooking temperature and time increased. The study showed that both cooking temperature and cooking time had significant impacts on the physicochemical properties and starch digestibility of waxy, low-, and high-amylose rice to various extents. Temperature had a more pronounced impact on the extent of change to the in vitro digestibility than did cooking time.