The impact of curcumin on livestock and poultry animal's performance and management of insect pests.

Plant-based natural products are alternative to antibiotics that can be employed as growth promoters in livestock and poultry production and attractive alternatives to synthetic chemical insecticides for insect pest management. Curcumin is a natural polyphenol compound from the rhizomes of turmeric (Curcuma spp.) and has been suggested to have a number of therapeutic benefits in the treatment of human diseases. It is also credited for its nutritional and pesticide properties improving livestock and poultry production performances and controlling insect pests. Recent studies reported that curcumin is an excellent feed additive contributing to poultry and livestock animal growth and disease resistance. Also, they detailed the curcumin's growth-inhibiting and insecticidal activity for reducing agricultural insect pests and insect vector-borne human diseases. This review aims to highlight the role of curcumin in increasing the growth and development of poultry and livestock animals and in controlling insect pests. We also discuss the challenges and knowledge gaps concerning curcumin use and commercialization as a feed additive and insect repellent.

The Credible Role of Curcumin in Oxidative Stress-Mediated Mitochondrial Dysfunction in Mammals.

Oxidative stress and mitochondrial dysfunction are associated with the pathogenesis of several human diseases. The excessive generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and/or lack of adequate antioxidant defenses causes DNA mutations in mitochondria, damages the mitochondrial respiratory chain, and alters membrane permeability and mitochondrial defense mechanisms. All these alterations are linked to the development of numerous diseases. Curcumin, an active ingredient of turmeric plant rhizomes, exhibits numerous biological activities (i.e., antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, anticancer, and antimicrobial). In recent years, many researchers have shown evidence that curcumin has the ability to reduce the oxidative stress- and mitochondrial dysfunction-associated diseases. In this review, we discuss curcumin's antioxidant mechanism and significance in oxidative stress reduction and suppression of mitochondrial dysfunction in mammals. We also discuss the research gaps and give our opinion on how curcumin research in mammals should proceed moving forward.

Assessment of Anti-Inflammatory and Antioxidant Effects of Citrus unshiu Peel (CUP) Flavonoids on LPS-Stimulated RAW 264.7 Cells.

Citrus unshiu is a popular medicinal herb in several Asian countries, in particular South Korea. C. unshiu peel (CUP) has several biologically active compounds, including flavonoids. Hence, this research aimed to label the flavonoids from CUP by HPLC-MS/MS analysis and examine their anti-inflammatory and antioxidant potential on LPS-stimulated RAW 264.7 macrophages. A total of four flavonoids (Rutin, naringin, hesperidin, and poncirin) were characterized, and their contents were quantified from CUP. It showed that the naringin is rich in CUP. Further, treatment with the flavonoids at concentrations of 2.5 and 5 µg/mL had no effect on the cell viability of RAW 264.7 macrophages. On the other hand, it decreased the production and expression of inflammatory mediators and pro-inflammatory cytokines such as NO, PGE2, TNF-α, IL-1ß, iNOS, and COX2 in the LPS-stimulated RAW 264.7 macrophages. In addition, flavonoids treatment inhibited the NF-κB activation by downregulating the p-p65 and p-IκBα proteins expression. Furthermore, reactive oxygen species (ROS) production considerably decreased at the same concentrations while antioxidant enzyme activity increased in the LPS-stimulated RAW 264.7 macrophages. Collectively, our results show that CUP flavonoids have the potential to decrease inflammation and oxidative damage.

Curcumin and Its Modified Formulations on Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD): The Story So Far and Future Outlook.

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a chronic relapsing and remitting inflammatory disorder of the small intestine and colon. IBD includes ulcerative colitis (UC) and Crohn's disease (CD), and it is a major factor for the development of colon cancer, referred to as colitis-associated cancer (CAC). The current treatment of IBD mainly includes the use of synthetic drugs and monoclonal antibodies. However, these drugs have side effects over long-term use, and the high relapse rate restricts their application. In the recent past, many studies had witnessed a surge in applying plant-derived products to manage various diseases, including IBD. Curcumin is a bioactive component derived from a rhizome of turmeric (Curcuma longa). Numerous in vitro and in vivo studies show that curcumin may interact with many cellular targets (NF-κB, JAKs/STATs, MAPKs, TNF-γ, IL-6, PPARγ, and TRPV1) and effectively reduce the progression of IBD with promising results. Thus, curcumin is a potential therapeutic agent for patients with IBD once it significantly decreases clinical relapse in patients with quiescent IBD. This review aims to summarize recent advances and provide a comprehensive picture of curcumin's effectiveness in IBD and offer our view on future research on curcumin in IBD treatment.

Automatic identification of algal community from microscopic images.

A good understanding of the population dynamics of algal communities is crucial in several ecological and pollution studies of freshwater and oceanic systems. This paper reviews the subsequent introduction to the automatic identification of the algal communities using image processing techniques from microscope images. The diverse techniques of image preprocessing, segmentation, feature extraction and recognition are considered one by one and their parameters are summarized. Automatic identification and classification of algal community are very difficult due to various factors such as change in size and shape with climatic changes, various growth periods, and the presence of other microbes. Therefore, the significance, uniqueness, and various approaches are discussed and the analyses in image processing methods are evaluated. Algal identification and associated problems in water organisms have been projected as challenges in image processing application. Various image processing approaches based on textures, shapes, and an object boundary, as well as some segmentation methods like, edge detection and color segmentations, are highlighted. Finally, artificial neural networks and some machine learning algorithms were used to classify and identifying the algae. Further, some of the benefits and drawbacks of schemes are examined.

Sphingopyxis panaciterrulae sp. nov., isolated from soil of a ginseng field.

A Gram-negative, rod-shaped, motile bacterium was isolated from the soil of a ginseng field in Daejeon, South Korea, and characterized in order to determine its taxonomic position. Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis revealed that strain DCY34(T) belonged to the family Sphingomonadaceae, and the highest degree of sequence similarity was found with Sphingopyxis witflariensis W-50(T) (97.1 %), Sphingopyxis ginsengisoli Gsoil 250(T) (97.0 %), Sphingopyxis chilensis S37(T) (96.9 %), Sphingopyxis macrogoltabida IFO 15033(T) (96.8 %), Sphingopyxis alaskensis RB2256(T) (96.7 %) and Sphingopyxis taejonensis JSS54(T) (96.7 %). Chemotaxonomic data revealed that strain DCY34(T) possessed ubiquinone Q-10 as the predominant respiratory lipoquinone, which is common to members of the genus Sphingopyxis. The predominant fatty acids were C18:1ω7c (27.5 %), summed feature 4 (C16:1ω7c and/or C15 :0 iso 2-OH; 18.6 %), C16:0 (15.6 %) and summed feature 8 (C19:1ω6c and/or unknown 18.864; 15.4 %). The major polar lipids were phosphatidylethanolamine, diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylcholine, sphingoglycolipid and an unknown polar lipid. The results of physiological and biochemical tests clearly demonstrated that strain DCY34(T) represented a separate species and supported its affiliation to the genus Sphingopyxis. Based on these data, the new isolate represents a novel species, for which the name Sphingopyxis panaciterrulae sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is DCY34(T) (=KCTC 22112(T)=JCM 14844(T)).