Buckwheat Secondary Metabolites: Potential Antifungal Agents.

Research groups have put significant emphasis on the evaluation of nutritional, health-promoting, and other biological activities of secondary metabolites from buckwheat. Among these phytochemicals, phenolic and lipophilic antioxidants, particularly, phenolic acids, flavonoids, and tocopherols, have been the focus of the latest studies since antioxidant activity has recently been associated with the possibility of inhibiting fungal growth and mycotoxin biosynthesis. The mycotoxin contamination of cereal and pseudocereal grains caused primarily by Fusarium, Penicillium, and Aspergillus species poses a significant hazard to human health. Therefore, efforts to examine the involvement of plant antioxidants in the biosynthesis of mycotoxins at the transcriptional level have emerged. In addition, hydrophobic interactions of buckwheat phenolics with cell membranes could also explain their capacity to reduce fungal development. Eventually, possibilities of enhancing the biological activity of cereal and pseudocereal phytochemicals have been studied, and sourdough fermentation has been proposed as an efficient method to increase antioxidant activities. This effect could result in an increased antifungal effects of sourdough and bakery products. This review reports the main advances in research on buckwheat phenolics and other antioxidant phytochemicals, highlighting possible mechanisms of action and processes that could improve their biological activities.

Importance of microbial defence systems to bile salts and mechanisms of serum cholesterol reduction.

An important feature of the intestinal microbiota, particularly in the case of administered probiotic microorganisms, is their resistance to conditions in the gastrointestinal tract, particularly tolerance to and growth in the presence of bile salts. Bacteria can use several defence mechanisms against bile, including special transport mechanisms, the synthesis of various types of surface proteins and fatty acids or the production of exopolysaccharides. The ability to enzymatically hydrolyse bile salts occurs in a variety of bacteria. Choloylglycine hydrolase (EC 3.5.1.24), a bile salt hydrolase, is a constitutive intracellular enzyme responsible for the hydrolysis of an amide bond between glycine or taurine and the steroid nucleus of bile acids. Its presence was demonstrated in specific microorganisms from several bacterial genera (Lactobacillus spp., Bifidobacterium spp., Clostridium spp., Bacteroides spp.). Occurrence and gene arrangement encoding this enzyme are highly variable in probiotic microorganisms. Bile salt hydrolase activity may provide the possibility to use the released amino acids by bacteria as sources of carbon and nitrogen, to facilitate detoxification of bile or to support the incorporation of cholesterol into the cell wall. Deconjugation of bile salts may be directly related to a lowering of serum cholesterol levels, from which conjugated bile salts are synthesized de novo. Furthermore, the ability of microorganisms to assimilate or to bind ingested cholesterol to the cell wall or to eliminate it by co-precipitation with released cholic acid was also documented. Some intestinal microflora produce cholesterol reductase that catalyses the conversion of cholesterol to insoluble coprostanol, which is subsequently excreted in faeces, thereby also reducing the amount of exogenous cholesterol.

The nine peptidoglycan hydrolases genes in Lactobacillus helveticus are ubiquitous and early transcribed.

Peptidoglycan hydrolases (PGHs) are bacterial enzymes that can hydrolyze the peptidoglycan in bacterial cell wall leading to autolysis. By releasing intracellular enzymes, autolysis of Lactobacillus helveticus has important applications in cheese ripening as its extent varied from strain to strain. Nine genes coding PGHs were previously annotated in the genome of the high autolytic strain L. helveticus DPC 4571. This study was conducted to evaluate the clone diversity of the nine PGHs genes within a collection of 24 L. helveticus strains, highly diverse in terms of origin, biotope and autolytic activity. Pulsed field gel electrophoresis was applied to assess the genomic diversity of the 24 strains. The presence or absence of nine PGHs genes was verified for all L. helveticus strains. Nucleotide and deduced amino acid sequence were compared for six relevant strains. Finally, gene expression was monitored by reverse transcription during growth and by zymogram for 12 strains. The nine PGHs genes are ubiquitous and transcripted early during growth. Zymograms were similar in terms of molecular size of the bands, but exhibited strain to strain variations in the number of bands revealing from 2 to 5 lytic bands per strain.

Sensorically and antimicrobially active metabolite production of Lactobacillus strains on Jerusalem artichoke juice.

BACKGROUND: In the tubers of Jerusalem artichoke (Helianthus tuberosus L.) the main carbohydrate is the well-known prebiotic inulin, which is a good growth substrate for gut microorganisms. Jerusalem artichoke tuber is traditionally consumed boiled or pickled rather than in fermented form. Lactic acid bacteria are traditionally used in the production of fermented foods; nevertheless their behavior and metabolite production are considerably influenced by the substrate. The purpose of this study was to investigate the growth and production of the most important sensorically and antimicrobially active metabolites of different Lactobacillus strains on Jerusalem artichoke juice. RESULTS: All investigated strains grew well (in the range 10(9) cfu mL(-1) ) in the media. The organic acids (lactic acid, 110-337 mmol L(-1) ; acetic acid, 0-180 mmol L(-1) ; and succinic acid, 0-79 mmol L(-1) ), hydrogen peroxide (0.25-1.77 mg L(-1) ), mannitol (0.06-3.24 g L(-1) ), acetoin and diacetyl production of strains varies not only according to the species but also from strain to strain, which will be demonstrated and discussed in the paper. CONCLUSION: Our results showed that lactobacilli can be used for the fermentation of Jerusalem artichoke, which in this form could be used, alone or mixed with other raw food material, as a new synbiotic functional food.