Abstract C. ternatea is often used as a natural food colouring besides improving the aesthetic value of foods. It contains various antioxidants and bioactive compounds, which exert many functions, such as counteracting oxidative stress, anti-proliferative and anti-inflammatory activities. This study evaluated the antioxidant activity of C. ternatea flower extract and its protective effect on bisphenol A (BPA)-induced oxidative injury in female murine reproductive system. DPPH free radical scavenging activity (EC50 12.47 ± 2.96 mg/mL) and total phenolic content (4.59 ± 0.09 mg GAE/g) of C. ternatea flower extract were determined. Then, Institute Cancer Research (ICR) dams were administered with BPA and/or C. ternatea extract for six weeks to study on uterine histomorphology, percentage of pregnancy and offspring development. It was found that the uterus weight to body weight ratio from dam co-administered with BPA and C. ternatea was lower than dam treated with BPA alone, although no histopathological effect was found. However, the percentage of pregnancy and litter size from C. ternatea-fed group were both higher compared to BPA-fed dam. In conclusion, C. ternatea extract showed high antioxidant activity and exert potential protective effects against BPA on the reproduction performance in terms of improving the percentage of pregnancy and litter size.

Abstract The effects of optimization of microwave-assisted extraction (MAE) and microencapsulation on the total xanthone content (TXC), total phenolic content (TPC), and antioxidant activity of mangosteen rind extract were studied. Response surface methodology (RSM) was employed with Box-Behnken design to generate fifteen optimization responses by incorporating three independent variables, namely soaking time, solvent-to-feed (S/F) ratio and extraction time. The highest extraction yield (19.43%) was obtained in the third response. TXC and TPC results fitted well, with high R-squared values (0.83-0.91), into the generated models, but not the antioxidant activity data. The interactive effects of S/F ratio and extraction time significantly increased the yields of TXC (46.62 mg α-mangostin/g crude extract) and TPC (46.30 mg gallic acid equivalent/g crude extract), but longer soaking time showed adverse effect. All the results obtained from the optimized models were validated using experimental data which showed desirability index of 0.88. The optimized parameters of MAE were established as 20:1 S/F ratio and 9 min extraction time, without soaking process. Despite the intact morphology of microcapsules observed, spray drying microencapsulation only preserved TXC partially (63.54%) but denatured more than 85% of TPC. Future investigation on the microencapsulation of mangosteen rind extract is required.

Abstract Palm (Elaeis guineensis Jacquin) kernel cake protein (PKCP) was extracted and hydrolyzed using Alcalase® 2.4L to obtain hydrolysate (PKCPH), then fractionated using size exclusion chromatography. PKCPH consisted of predominantly fraction one (PKCPH1), containing two peptides (4.9 kDa and 6.3 kDa) with functional amide (6.75–7.04 ppm) and amine (1.5–2.0 ppm) groups. PKCP and PKCPH shared similar amino acid profiles. PKCPH1 had moderate amounts of hydrophobic (23.60%) and antioxidant (26.10%) amino acids, with high hydrophobicity index (Ho 79.60), thus exhibiting the highest antioxidant activity in mostly all the antioxidant assays. On the other hand, fraction two, PKCPH2 (58.8 kDa), possessed strong angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitory activity (77.29%), but undetectable antioxidant activity. Furthermore, high viability (87–92%) and negligible cytotoxic activity were revealed with the highest dosages of PKCPH (2 mg/mL) and PKCPH1 (1 mg/mL) in 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT), Salmonella reverse mutation (AMES), alkaline comet and micronucleus (MNi) assays. Besides, in vivo acute oral toxicity test on PKCPH using Sprague Dawley albino rats showed negative outcome according to the consistent body and organ weights as well as normal morbidity. In short, PKCPH is safe for potential applications in the formulation of functional food and nutraceutical products with health benefits.

Abstract The quality attributes, including physicochemical, thermal and rheological properties of commercial bread, pau, multipurpose and cake flours, as well as their corresponding isolated starches were analyzed. Bread flour showed the highest solvent retention capacity (SRC) and gluten performance index (GPI), suggesting better functionality than others. Starch was isolated from all types of flour and fractionated into A-type and B-type starch granules. A-type disk-like starch granule had larger diameter (>10 μm) than B-type spherical starch granule (<5 μm diameter). For bread, pau and multipurpose flours, A-type starch granules contained higher amylose content than B-type and unfractionated starch granules significantly. Results suggested a high degree of crystallinity and high amount of amylose-lipid complexes in A-type starch granules, thus leading to low swelling power, solubility, gelatinization onset (To) and peak (Tp) temperatures. However, cake flour showed contrary properties, where B-type starch granules consisted higher amylose content than A-type starch granules. Furthermore, A-type and unfractionated starch granules of all types of wheat flour exhibited shear thickening behavior at 25-45 oC, but shear thinning behavior at 65 oC. The outcomes would be of benefit to the quality improvement on wheat flour with particular functionalities of their starches for specific applications.