Natto: A medicinal and edible food with health function / 中草药·英文版

Natto is a soybean product fermented by natto bacteria. It is rich in a variety of amino acids, vitamins, proteins and active enzymes. It has a number of biological activities, such as thrombolysis, prevention of osteoporosis, antibacterial, anticancer, antioxidant and so on. It is widely used in medicine, health-care food, biocatalysis and other fields. Natto is rich in many pharmacological active substances and has significant medicinal research value. This paper summarizes the pharmacological activities and applications of natto in and outside China, so as to provide references for further research and development of natto.

Effects of co-culture supernatant of Lactobacillus casei and Bacillus subtiliis natto on intestinal microecology, mucosal barrier function and immune function in mice with antibiotic-associated diarrhea / 中国药科大学学报

@#The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of co-culture supernatant of Lactobacillus casei(LC)and Bacillus subtiliis natto(BN)on intestinal micro-ecology, mucosal barrier function and immune function in mice with antibiotic-associated diarrhea(AAD). The AAD mouse model was established and the normal saline, LC, BN and co-culture supernatants were administered, respectively, for 4 days. The general conditions of the mice during the intervention were observed. The thymus and spleen weight ratios of different intervention mice were compared. The histopathological changes of the proximal colon lesions were observed. The intestinal microecology, mucosal barrier function and immune function of each group were detected. The results showed that the mice in the model group showed poor mental state, decreased feeding intake and abnormal stool characteristics, which were aggravated with the prolongation of time. After intervention, the above-mentioned states of mice in each group were improved, with the best recovery for the co-culture group. Histopathological results showed that the intestinal wall of the model group was severely damaged and villus was shedding. Cellulose-like exudation, necrosis of epithelial cells and infiltration of inflammatory cells could be seen in the model group. The pathological changes mentioned above were improved after intervention, and the co-culture group had the best effect. Compared with the control group, the thymus and spleen weight ratio, microbial diversity(Shannon)index, richness(Chao)index, Lactobacillus number, Bifidobacterium number, secretory immunoglobulin IgA(sIgA)in intestinal mucosa, interleukin(IL)-2 and IL-2/IL-4, the relative expressions of tight junction related protein-1(ZO-1)and atresia protein(Occludin)in intestinal tissue of the model group were lower, while the number of enterobacteria, enterococcus number, serum diamine oxidase(DAO)bacterial ectopic rate and IL-4 in intestinal tissue were higher(P< 0. 05). Compared with the model group, the thymus, spleen weight ratio, Shannon, Chao index, Lactobacillus number, Bifidobacterium number, sIgA in intestinal mucosa, IL-2 and IL-2/IL-4, the relative expressions of ZO-1 and Occludin in intestinal tissue of the intervention groups were higher(P< 0. 05), and the co-culture group was higher than the LC group and the BN group(P< 0. 05). There was no significant difference between the LC group and the BN group(P> 0. 05). Compared with the model group, the number of enterobacteria, enterococcus, serum DAO, bacterial ectopic rate and intestinal IL-4 in each intervention group were lower(P< 0. 05), and the co-culture group was lower than LC group and BN group(P< 0. 05). There was no significant difference between LC group and BN group(P> 0. 05). There were no significant differences in serum DAO, bacterial ectopic rate, sIgA, IL-2, IL-4 levels and IL-2/IL-4 levels between the co-culture group and the control group(P> 0. 05). The results showed that LC and BN co-culture supernatant can effectively regulate intestinal micro-ecology of AAD mice, improve intestinal mucosal barrier function, and improve intestinal and global immune function.

Fermented foods and preterm birth risk from a prospective large cohort study: the Japan Environment and Children's study

BACKGROUND@#The dietary pattern of pregnant women is known to be associated with preterm birth (PTB). We investigated whether PTB was associated with intake of fermented food by using data from the Japan Environment and Children's Study.@*METHODS@#From a data set of 103,099 pregnancies, 77,667 cases at low risk for PTB were analyzed. The primary outcome measurements were based on PTB. Fermented food (miso soup, yogurt, cheese, and fermented soybeans) consumption was assessed by using a semi-quantitative food frequency questionnaire.@*RESULTS@#Intake of miso soup, yogurt, and fermented soybeans before pregnancy significantly reduced the risk of early PTB (< 34 weeks). The adjusted odds ratio (OR) for early PTB in women who had miso soup 1-2 days/week, 3-4 days/week, or ≥ 5 days/week were 0.58, 0.69, and 0.62, respectively, compared with those who had miso soup < 1 day/week (95% confidence interval (CI) 0.40-0.85, 0.49-0.98, and 0.44-0.87). The adjusted OR for early PTB in women who ate yogurt ≥ 3 times/week was 0.62 (95% CI, 0.44-0.87) compared to those who ate yogurt < 1 time/week. The adjusted OR for early PTB in women who ate fermented soybeans ≥ 3 times/week was 0.60 (95% CI, 0.43-0.84) compared to those who ate < 1 time/week. However, the incidence of overall PTB and late PTB (34-36 weeks) was not associated with fermented food intake.@*CONCLUSION@#PTB low-risk women with a high consumption of miso soup, yogurt, and fermented soybeans before pregnancy have a reduced risk of early PTB.

Miaoling Natto Capsules in protection against myocardial ischemia-reperfusion injury in rats / 中成药

AIM To investigate the protective effects of Miaoling Natto Capsules (MNC) on myocardial ischemia-reperfusion injury (MIR) in rats.METHODS Forty-eight healthy male Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats randomly divided into sham group,model group,positive control group (propranolol),MNC groups (low dose,medium dose,and high dose groups) underwent corresponding 7-day oral administration at a frequency of twice daily (rats of the sham group and the model group were dosed with saline water at 1 mL/100 g).Anesthetized by 8％ chloral hydrate,rat models were made by left anterior descending coronary artery ligation,30 min coronary occlusion followed by 3 h of reperfusion for ST segments and T waves monitoring,and rats in the sham group were performed opening and suture procedures.The rats had their serum levels of acetic transaminase (AST),lactate dehydrogenase (LDH),creatine kinase isoenzyme (CK-MB),cardiac troponin-Ⅰ (cTn-Ⅰ),superoxide dismutase (SOD),malondialdehyde (MDA),and tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) detected,real time ECG changes monitored and myocardial infarction area assessed by TTC.RESULTS Compared with the sham group,the model group was observed with markedly elevated ST segments or high T waves rise,significantly increased activities of CK-MB,LDH,AST and the content of cTnⅠ,MDA,TNF-α,and decreased activity of SOD (P ＜ 0.01 or P ＜ 0.001).Compared with the model group,the positive control group and the low,medium and high dose MNC groups achieved controlled ST segments elevation or greater T waves amplitude,significantly decreased activities of CKMB,LDH,AST and the content of cTnⅠ,MDA,TNF-α increased activity of SOD (P ＜0.01 or P ＜0.05) and mycocardial infact range reduction (P ＜ 0.001).CONCLUSION MNC is protective to rats with myocardial ischemia-reperfusion injury.

Effect of two kinds of fermented food on blood glucose and lipids in induced diabetic mice / 中国应用生理学杂志

OBJECTIVES@#To investigate the effect of two kinds of fermented food, noni juice and natto, on blood glucose and lipids in induced diabetic mice.@*METHODS@#Female (ICR) mice were induced into diabetes by an injection of alloxan (55 mg/kg, i. v.). After 72 hours, those mice whose fasting blood glucose levels were over 12.00 mmol/L and urine sugar was strongly positive (+ + +) were regarded as diabetical model and were randomly divided into three groups (=10):diabetical model (DM) group, noni juice (NJ) group and natto (NT) group. Another ten normal female ICR mice were taken as normal control (NC) group. The mice in NJ and NT groups were gavaged with noni juice (25.0 ml/kg) and natto (0.6 g/kg) respectively. The other two groups were given normal saline (25.0 ml/kg). Continuous gavage administration was given for 30 days, the water-drinking volume and food-intake were recorded. After 1.5 h of the last administration, the glucose tolerance of mice was measured. Finally, the changes in glycated serum protein(GSP), insulin(Ins) and blood lipids of blood samples of mice, taken from the femoral artery, were determined.@*RESULTS@#Compared to the NC group, the water-drinking amount and food-intake, GSP and total cholesterol (TC), triglyceride(TG) and low density lipoprotein (LDL) in DM group were increased significantly (<0.01), while glucose tolerance, Ins and high density lipoprotein (HDL) were decreased significantly (<0.01). However, when it came to DM group, NJ and NT could significantly (<0.01 or <0.05) reduce, GSP, TG and LDL, meanwhile improve glucose tolerance, Ins and HDL (<0. 01).@*CONCLUSIONS@#Both noni juice and natto could reduce the blood glucose levels in induced diabetical mice and improve blood lipids, which suggested that they may have certain application value in prevention and treatment of diabetic mellitus.

Spectrum-effect Relatsionship of Extract from Semen Sojae Praeparatrm Fermented by Bacillus natto on Proliferative Activity Toward Rat Osteoblasts / 中国药学杂志

OBJECTIVE: To establish the fingerprint of the extract from Semen Sojae Praeparatrm fermented by different preparation, to investigate the effects on the proliferation in rat osteoblasts, and to analyze the spectrum-effect relasionship. METHODS: The fingerprint of alcohol extract from Semen Sojae Praeparatrm fermented by one functional bacteria for 6, 12, 18 h and 1-7 d(H6, H12, H18 and D1~D7) were established by HPLC, and the proliferation of each extract on rat osteoblasts was measured by MTT. The spectrum-effect relasionship was analyzed by grey relation analysis. Qualitative analysis was performed by HPLC-DAD-MS for analysis of major active components in alcoholic extract. RESULTS: Alcoholic extract of Semen Sojae Praeparatrm fermented by different preparation was demonstrated to show similar proliferative activity at the concentration of 100 μg·L-1. Semen Sojae Praeparatrm fermented for 4 d led to the osteoblasts proliferation rate of 43.6%. On the basis of UV and mass spectral analysis,sixteen flavonoids were tentatively characterized.The glycitein had the highest correlation with pharmacodynamics, genistin, glycitin and daidzin also show higher correlation than the other chromatography peaks. The proliferation were promoted significantly after the treatment with glycitein, genistin, and daidzin (10-9-10-6 mol·L-1) by the verification experiment. CONCLUSION: Fermentation time of 4 d is more appropriate. The RESULTS: of grey relational analysis and the activity in vitro of glycitein, genistin and daidzin mutually support each other, which confirms the scientificness of the spectral-effect relationship analysis in this study. The substance basis of anti-osteoporosis effect in the pure bacterial fermented soybean and natural fermented soybean are basically the same.

Enhanced Production of Vitamin K2 from Bacillus subtilis (natto) by Mutation and Optimization of the Fermentation Medium

The aim of this study was to enhance the production of vitamin K2 by using N-methyl-N-nitro-N-nitroso-guanidine (NTG) and low energy ion beam implantation and optimizing the fermentation medium. Mutation resulted in 1.66-fold higher production of vitamin K2 than that of the parentl strain. The production by the mutant BN-P15-11-1was increased 55% and reached 3.593±0.107 mg/L by using the Plackett-Burman and Box-Behnken designs to optimize the fermentation medium. The optimal fermentation culture medium was composed of (g/L) glycerol 69.6, sucrose 34.5, K2HPO4 4.0, peptone 20, yeast extract 25 and fermented at 37 °C and 150 rpm for 72 h. The results showed that the NTG and low energy ion beam implantation mutations and optimizing fermentation medium were effective methods to enhance vitamin K2 production.

Levan from Bacillus subtilis Natto: its effects in normal and in streptozotocin-diabetic rats

Levan is an exopolysaccharide of fructose primarily linked by ƒÀ-(2¨6) glycosidic bonds with some ƒÀ-(2¨1) branched chains. Due to its chemical properties, levan has possible applications in both the food and pharmaceutical industries. Bacillus subtilis is a promising industrial levan producer, as it ferments sucrose and has a high levan-formation capacity. A new strain of B. subtilis was recently isolated from Japanese food natto, and it has produced levan in large quantities. For future pharmaceutical applications, this study aimed to investigate the effects of levan produced by B. subtilis Natto, mainly as potential hypoglycemic agent, (previously optimized with a molecular weight equal to 72.37 and 4,146 kDa) in Wistar male rats with diabetes induced by streptozotocin and non-diabetic rats and to monitor their plasma cholesterol and triacylglycerol levels. After 15 days of experimentation, the animals were sacrificed, and their blood samples were analyzed. The results, compared using analysis of variance, demonstrated that for this type of levan, a hypoglycemic effect was not observed, as there was no improvement of diabetes symptoms during the experiment. However, levan did not affect any studied parameters in normal rats, indicating that the exopolysaccharide can be used for other purposes.

Medium Optimization for Lipopeptide Produced by Bacillus natto TK-1 Using Response Surface Methodology / 中国生物工程杂志

Response Surface Methodology was applied to optimize the culture components for lipopeptide production by Bacillus natto TK-1. In the first step, two level factorial design of Plackett-Burman was used to evaluate the influence of six related factors. It showed that three factors playing the important roles in the medium, including peptone, yeast extract powder and CaCl_2. The path of steepest ascent was used to approach the optimal region of the fermentation conditions subsequently. In the third step, the concentrations of those three main factors were further optimized by using Box-Behnken and Response Surface Analysis. By solving the quadratic regression model equation, the optimal concentrations of the variables were determined as: peptone 1.73%, yeast extract powder 0.063 %, CaCl_2 1.385?10-4mol/L. Under the optimal culture conditions, the diameter of haemolysis zone increased 29.3 % than before. HPLC analysis showed the precise production of lipopeptide was 30.2% higher than preliminary culture. Furthermore, at three batches cultivation, the experiment values under the optimal conditions agreed with the predictive values. It showed that Response Surface Methodology was proper and a good choice for optimization.

Enhancement of Natural Killer Cell Activity by Supplementation of Extract of Metabolic Products of Bacillus subtilis AK (EMBSAK) / 日本補完代替医療学会誌

Natural killer (NK) cells specifically lyse cancer cells or infected cells and play important roles in immune surveillance against tumor and infection. Probiotics, live bacteria and their metabolic products beneficial to humans, are reported to modulate NK cell activity and result in the prevention of tumor development. In this study, we examined the effect of metabolic products of strain <i>Bacillus subtilis AK</i>, selective strain from <i>Bacillus subtilis natto</i>, (EMBSAK) on NK cell activity. NK cell activity in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) was enhanced in 50% of the rats orally inoculated with EMBSAK. In the experiments using EMBSAK-containing product, SARABAGAN, increasing frequency of NK cell activation was observed in volunteers as dose depending manner. These results suggested that supplemental intake of EMBSAK enhanced NK cell activity and indicated the possible utility of EMBSAK as complementary and alternative medicine, although susceptibility is individually various.<br>

THE HEALTH FUNCTION OF FERMENTED RICE BRAN EXTRACT BY BACILLUS NATTO / 营养学报

Objective:To explore the resource of rice bran by comparing antioxidative activities and growth promotion of Bacillus bifidus between supernatant of formented rice bran(RBF) by Bacillus natto and water extract of rice bran(RBW) . Method:The reducing capacity the?OH and ??O 2 scavenging capacity and the inhibitory effect to oxidize lard were determined in vitro. The growth promotion for Bacillus bifidus by photodensity with simulated condition was investigated in vivo. Results:RBF and RBW had antioxidant activity in vitro. The IC50 of scavenging?OH and ??O 250 of RBF was 3.55 mg/ml and 23.5 mg/ml,0.3 and 10 folds higher than that of RBW respectively. In inhibiting oxidation of lard,RBF had a little higher antioxidative activities than RBW,near VE. RBF and RBW could promot growth of Bacillus bifidus by 65.2% and 17.8% respectively. By enzymatic digestion,the promotive rate of RBF was still 51.6%. Conclusion:RBF had higher antioxidant activity and growth promotion to Bacillus bifidus.

Quality Characteristics of Natto Made by Different Ingredients

Natto, Traditional Japanese food fermented by Bacillus Natto, has been well known for a good nutritional food. However it has particular flavor, so most Koreans are not fond of it. That is the reason why, garlic(2%) and ginseng(2%) were added to make Natto, acceptable to Koreans. General soybean Natto(S1), 2% garlic Natto(S2), 2% ginseng Natto(S3) and blacksoybean Natto(S4) were prepared. The proximate composition revealed the most moisture content in S2 among the all samples. The most crude protein, crude fat and ash were found in S4. The non-fibrous and fiber contents were the most in S1 and S3. In the texture characteristics, hardness and gumminess were the highest in S4. The highest springness and cohesiveness were found in S1. Adhesiveness and chewing were the best in S2 and S3. The minerals composition revealed the most calcium content in S3 among the all samples. Fatty acid compositions were mainly consisted of linoleic acid(46.91~48.47%). In the sensory evaluation, S3 showed the best preference, appearance and color. In the aspects of taste and texture, S4 was mostly preferred. Flavor and viscosity of S2 were the best among the all samples. The general soybean Natto(S1) without any addition showed low values in most examinations and tests. In the sensory evaluation, S3 has the best overall acceptability among the all experimental Nattos.

STUDY ON THE ANTIOXIDATIVE ACTIVITY AND EFFECTS ON EXPERIMENTAL HYPERLIPIDEMIA OF NATTO EXTRACT / 营养学报

Objective: To study the antioxidation and effects of water soluble extract from Natto on hyperlipidemia. Methods: The model of experimental hyperlipidemia was induced by high cholesterol diet. 18 rabbits were divided into 3 groups : model group, natto extract group and control group. Results: The natto extract could reduce the blood total cholesterol (TC), triglyceride (TG), low density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), malon-dialdehyde (MDA), atherogenic index (AI) of experimental rabbits 39.88% , 44.54% , 48.84%, 48.25% and 70.20%, respectively, and increase high density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), superoxide dismutase(SOD) 75.81% and 38.32%, respectively. Natto extract could prevent effectively the fatty degeneration of liver cells observed by pathological sections. Conclution: Natto extract can efficiently prevent the formation of experimental hyperlipidemia.