Anti-Ice Nucleation Activities of Tyrosine Peptide.

　We investigated whether trimers of serine, threonine, tyrosine, and phenylalanine which may interact with water molecules and ice, show anti-ice nucleation activity. Only tyrosine trimer had high levels of anti-ice nucleation activity (10.10±0.74℃) at a final concentration of 0.2 mM. This was constant at an activity of 2.0℃ between the 0.01-0.1 mM concentrations, and rapidly increased at 0.1 mM or more. At the final concentration of 0.2 mM or more, the activity of the tyrosine trimer was almost constant (from 9.2℃ to 10.2℃). Although it is lower than the activity against silver iodide, the tyrosine trimer showed an effect on the activity of the ice nucleating bacteria. This is the first report that revealed that trimer of amino acid, especially tyrosine has the supercooling-facilitating activity.

Characterization of Anti-Ice Nucleation Activity of the Extract from Coffee Refuse.

　The supercooling-facilitating (SCF) activities, that is, the anti-ice nucleation activity of the hot water extracts from five types of processed food refuse was examined. The extract with the highest activity among five hot water extracts was coffee refuse, showing 1.50℃ of SCF activity at a final concentration of 0.1 mg/ml. From the hot water extract of coffee refuse, the coffee refuse extract containing various polyphenols was prepared by the ultrafiltration (less than MWCO 10,000), a solvent fractionation of ethyl acetate. The yield of coffee refuse extract was 0.9% (w/w) from dried coffee refuse. The SCF activity of the coffee refuse extract at a final concentration of 1.0 mg/ml was 4.2℃. HPLC analysis of the coffee refuse extract showed that caffeine and chlorogenic acid, which are major components of coffee, could be found at 173 and 62.3 µg/ml, respectively. However, the SCF activities of both compounds (0.70 and 1.06℃) at a final concentration of 0.1 mg/ml were lower than those of ferulic acid and coumaric acid, respectively at 3.40 and 2.35℃. This is the first report to our knowledge on the SCF activity of caffeine. The SCF activity of caffeine at a final concentration of 1.0 mg/ml was 2.3℃. The specificity of caffeine against various ice nuclei containing calcium oxalate, 9-fluorenon, and ice nucleating bacteria was examined. Caffeine at a final concentration of 1.0 mg/ml could inhibit the ice nucleation activity of calcium oxalate, and Pseudomonas fluorescens KUIN-1 at the same level that of as silver iodide. From these results, it was suggested that the extract could be able to be applied to the field to control the frost damage of the vegetables and that the harvested vegetables might be stored unfrozen even at 0℃ or less.

Anti-Ice Nucleation Activities of Adenine and Poly-A Nucleotides.

　Most of the ice nucleation activity inhibitor reported so far are compounds processing the hydroxyl group such as the polyphenolic derivative. After examining the anti-ice nucleation activity of the purine base, the highest compound is theophylline, and the activity showed 3.80±0.32℃ at a final concentration of 0.1 mg/ml. We found that the activity of the adenine which was essential to genome information DNA was higher than that of guanine. After examining effect of adenine concentration, high activity showed 9.1±1.2℃ and became approximately constant above 0.1 mg/ml. This active rise is a result of effect of concentration under alkaline condition. Therefore after examining effect of pH on the activity of adenine, this activity rose under an alkaline condition. The active rise predicts that an electric charge of adenine is a factor. Among four kinds of nucleotide of 6 bases, poly-A nucleotide was higher and showed 1.33±0.42℃ at a final concentration of 0.1 mg/ml. This activity of poly-A were proportional to the number of the base. From these results, it was suggested that the poly-A and adenine could be able to be applied to the field to preserve the blood and tissue which differentiated in the generative medicine.