Botanical characteristics, phytochemistry and related biological activities of Rosa roxburghii Tratt fruit, and its potential use in functional foods: a review.

Due to the growing global population, reduction in arable land and effects of climate change, incongruity between food supply and demand has become increasingly severe. Nowadays, with awareness of the elementary nutrients required for human growth, increasing attention is being paid to the health and medical functions of food. Along with increased food production achieved by modern agricultural techniques, underutilised functional foods are an important strategy for solving food security problems and maintaining the nutritional quality of the human diet. Rosa roxburghii Tratt (RRT) is a natural fruit that contains unique functional and nutritional constituents, which are characterised by a high anti-oxidant potential. This review summarises the biological characteristics, chemical composition, health-promoting properties and development status of RRT products to inspire investigations on the use of RRT fruit as a functional food, dietary supplement and pharmaceutical additive. The nutrients and functional ingredients of RRT fruit are described in detail to provide more reference information for nutritionists and pharmacists.

Development of fermented chestnut with Bacillus natto: Functional and sensory properties.

Food fermentation can improve food nutritional value and sensory performance, it is considered as an ecofriendly bioprocessing technology. In this work, a fermented natto chestnut food was firstly developed and its active ingredients and functional properties were systematically studied. Through systematic experimental screening, including a single factor experiment and Box-Behnken design, the fermentation parameters of chestnut were optimized and selected. Under the optimal fermentation conditions, fermentation time 56 h, temperature 38 â„ƒ and 5% inoculum concentration, the fibrinolytic activity of the natto-chestnut reached 6479 IU/g. Meanwhile, higher antioxidant activity of the natto-chestnut was obtained due to the increased contents of total phenolic, total flavonoid and VC. In addition, α-glucosidase inhibition activity was also improved in the natto-chestnut. These results indicated that fermented chestnut could be a new dietary supplement with higher quality and better activities for people's health.

A simple and efficient sample preparation for taxanes in Taxus chinensis needles with natural menthol-based aqueous deep eutectic solvent.

Taxanes are natural anticancer constituents, and the sample preparation from matrix normally depends on organochlorine solvents. In this study, green and natural menthol-based aqueous deep eutectic solvent was synthesized and used for sample preparation for taxanes. Five key parameters were optimized and the optimal preparation conditions were as follows: menthol/1-propanol ratio 1:1 (mol/mol), solid-liquid ratio 1:30 g/mL, extraction time 30 min, ultrasonic power 250 W, and water content 80%. Under the above conditions, the total extraction efficiency of seven main taxanes was 1.25- to 1.44-fold to the conventional methods. In addition, a high-performance liquid chromatography method with C18 column was established for quantitation of seven main taxanes in <25 min, which had excellent linearity (R2  > 0.9986), precision (relative standard deviation < 3.00%), repeatability (relative standard deviation < 3.69%), and recovery (90.26-109.00%). This method performed the extraction, and enrichment processes simultaneously, and it had advantages such as high extraction efficiency, simple operation, low cost, and eco-friendliness. This work indicated that the natural menthol-based deep eutectic solvent aqueous could be an excellent alternative to the sample preparation from Taxus or other plants.