Alginate oligosaccharide ameliorates azithromycin-induced gut microbiota disorder via Bacteroides acidifaciens-FAHFAs and Bacteroides-TCA cycle axes.

Alginate oligosaccharide is a kind of prebiotic with broad application prospects. However, little attention is paid to the recovery effect of alginate oligosaccharide on disordered intestinal microecology caused by azithromycin. Therefore, we evaluated the regulatory effect of alginate oligosaccharide and its compound on azithromycin-disturbed gut microbiota in mice via microbiome-metabolomics analysis. The gut microbiota analysis revealed that alginate oligosaccharide and its compound significantly increased the richness and diversity of the gut microbiota which were reduced by azithromycin, with an obvious enrichment of beneficial bacteria such as the Akkermansia genus and Bacteroides acidifaciens, and a remarkable decrease of pathogenic bacteria such as the Staphylococcus genus, which indicated its impact on the gut microbiota dysbiosis. Additionally, the effect of the alginate oligosaccharide compound on regulating the gut microbiota disorder is more significant than that of alginate oligosaccharide. The favorable effects of alginate oligosaccharide were confirmed by beneficial alterations in metabolic effector molecules, which indicated that alginate oligosaccharide and its compound improved metabolic homeostasis via the Bacteroides acidifaciens-fatty acid esters of hydroxy fatty acids (FAHFAs) axis and increasing the levels of the intermediate products of the tricarboxylic acid cycle (TCA cycle), such as citric acid, fumaric acid and α-ketoglutaric acid. Spearman correlation analysis showed that the contents of these three metabolites were also positively related to Bacteroides acidifaciens and Bacteroides sartorii populations, suggesting the potential regulatory role of the Bacteroides genus in energy balance through the TCA cycle. This study may provide an innovative dietary strategy for the regulation of intestinal microecological disorders caused by antibiotics, and reveal the prospect of alginate oligosaccharide as an intestinal microecological regulator.

Characterization and purification of anthocyanins from black peanut (Arachis hypogaea L.) skin by combined column chromatography.

Black peanut skins as a byproduct from peanut industry contain abundant anthocyanins, evaluated as 8.61±0.27mg/g dry black peanut skins, are currently poorly exploited. In this work, four anthocyanins and three major flavonols were detected and identified by HPLC-PDA-ESI-MS/MS from the acidified water extract of black peanut skins of Arachis hypogaea L. After preliminary removal of flavonols by ethyl acetate (EtOAc), further purification of the anthocyanins was conducted using a combination of Amberlite XAD-7HP and ODS-AQ-HG column chromatography methods. Two most abundant monomeric anthocyanins cyanidin-3-O-sophoroside (5.77±0.42mg) and cyanidin-3-O-sambubioside (4.10±0.17mg) were eventually obtained from 2g dry black peanut skins, and their purities were determined by HPLC-PDA as 97.29% and 98.28% at the yields of 87.47% and 64.27% on the basis of their total amount in the crude extracts, respectively. These sequential treatments can be easily adapted to large-scale fractionation of pure anthocyanin monomers.

Adsorption and desorption properties of macroporous resins for anthocyanins from the calyx extract of roselle (Hibiscus sabdariffa L.).

Adsorption of roselle anthocynins, a natural pigment, onto various macroporous resins was optimized to develop a simple and efficient process for industrial separation and purification of roselle anthocyanins. Nine different macroporous resins (AB-8, X-5, HPD-100, SP-207, XAD-4, LS-305A, DM-21, LS-610B, and LS-305) were evaluated for the adsorption properties of the anthocyanins extracted from the calyx extract of Hibiscus sabdariffa L. The influences of phase contact time, solution pH, initial anthocyanin concentration, and ethanol concentration with different citric acid amounts were studied by the static adsorption/desorption method. The adsorption isotherm data were fitted well to the Langmuir isotherm, and according to this model, LS-610B and LS-305 exhibited the highest monolayer sorption capacities of 31.95 and 38.16 mg/g, respectively. The kinetic data were modeled using pseudo-first-order, pseudo-second-order, and intraparticle diffusion equations. The experimental data were well described by the pseudo-second-order kinetic model. Continuous column adsorption-regeneration cycles indicated negligible capacity loss of LS-305 during operation. The overall yield of pigment product was 49.6 mg/g dried calyces. The content of roselle anthocynins in the pigment product was 4.85%.

Stabilities of immobilized beta-galactosidase of Aspergillus sp. AF for the optimal production of galactooligosaccharides from lactose.

Beta-galactosidase of Aspergillus sp. AF crude homogenate was immobilized in Ca-alginate gel beads and used for the production of galactooligosaccharides (GOS) from lactose. Optimum pH and temperature, thermal and storage stability of the enzyme activity were investigated and compared with those of the free enzyme. The study on the improvement of mechanical strength of the alginate beads was carried out through various methods, which demonstrates that the hardening process, where the alginate beads were treated with 0.225 M CaCl(2) solution after three batches to compensate the lost of calcium in the beads, provided a high mechanical stability for repeated use in large-scale production. The experiment results show that GOS yield increased with the increase of lactose concentration, and also increased with excessive addition of lactose (exceeding its solubility) at the beginning of the reaction. The immobilization of beta-galactosidase of Aspergillus sp. AF crude homogenate is cheap in processing cost and easy to carry out, and the immobilized enzyme possesses high performance for industrial application.