Search results for "Avon"
showing 10 items of 449 documents
Use of Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Caenorhabditis elegans as model organisms to study the effect of cocoa polyphenols in the resistance to oxidative…
2011
Developing functional foods to improve the quality of life for elderly people has great economic and social impact. Searching for and validating ingredients with in vivo antioxidant effects is one of the key steps in developing this kind of food. Here we describe the combined use of simple biological models and transcriptomics to define the functional intracellular molecular targets of a polyphenol-enriched cocoa powder. Cocoa powder supplemented culture medium led to increased resistance to oxidative stress, in both the budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae and the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans, and, in the latter, lifespan was also increased. These effects are fully dependent on the po…
Chemical Profiling of Polyfloral Belgian Honey: Ellagic Acid and Pinocembrin as Antioxidants and Chemical Markers
2017
Chemical profiling of northern Belgian polyfloral honeys was performed to analyse their phenolic compound content (flavonoids and phenolic acids). First, samples were subjected to a standard analysis of their physicochemical properties, and then, the phenolic fraction was isolated and analysed using a HPLC/PAD method. All of the tested honeys showed a common and specific phenolic profile that could be the basis for the differentiation of polyfloral honeys of the Antwerp region from other polyfloral honeys. Chromatographic data indicated a high content of ellagic acid (9.13–13.66 mg/100 g honey), as well as the flavonoid pinocembrin (1.60–1.85 mg/100 g honey) in these honeys. Ellagic acid, a…
Biothiols, taurine, and lipid-soluble antioxidants in the edible pulp of Sicilian cactus pear (Opuntia ficus-indica) fruits and changes of bioactive …
2005
Biothiols, taurine, and flavonols, as well as tocopherols and carotenoids have been assessed in the edible pulp of Sicilian red (Sanguigna), yellow (Surfarina), and white (Muscaredda) cultivars of cactus pear. The yellow cultivar has the highest level of reduced glutathione (GSH, 8.1 +/- 0.78 mg/100 g pulp), whereas the white cultivar showed the highest amount of cysteine (1.21 +/- 0.12 mg/100 g pulp). Taurine accounted for 11.7 +/- 1.0 mg/100 g in the yellow pulp, while lower levels were measured in the others. With the exception of kaempferol in the yellow cultivar (2.7 +/- 0.2 microg/100 g pulp), the edible pulp of cactus pear was not a source of flavonols. Very low amounts of lipid-solu…
Stability and bioaccessibility of EGCG within edible micro-hydrogels. Chitosan vs. gelatin, a comparative study
2016
Micro-hydrogels are very promising systems for the protection and controlled delivery of sensitive bioactives, but limited knowledge exists regarding the impact of this encapsulation on their bioaccessibility. In this work, two different hydrogel-forming biopolymers (gelatin and chitosan) were compared as wall materials for the microencapsulation of a model flavonoid, (−)-epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG). Results showed that gelatin was more adequate as wall material for the encapsulation of EGCG than chitosan, achieving higher encapsulation efficiencies (95% ± 6%), being more effective in delaying EGCG release and degradation in aqueous solution and exhibiting a 7 times higher bioaccessibil…
Anti-inflammatory activity of erycristagallin, a pterocarpene from Erythrina mildbraedii.
2003
Erycristagallin, a pterocarpene isolated from Erythrina mildbraedii, was tested in vitro for its antioxidant properties on the stable 2,2-diphenyl-1-pycryl-hydrazyl (DPPH) free radical and on the arachidonic acid metabolism. In addition, erycristagallin was tested on different experimental models of inflammation, such as the acute and chronic inflammation induced by the application of 12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol 13-acetate (TPA) on mice and the phospholipase A(2)-induced mouse paw oedema test. In the carrageenan-induced mouse paw oedema test, the ethyl acetate extract obtained from E. mildbraedii showed anti-inflammatory activity, and erycristagallin was isolated as the active principle. In v…
Assessment of the anti-inflammatory activity and free radical scavenger activity of tiliroside
2003
Three flavonoids, gnaphaliin, pinocembrin and tiliroside, isolated from Helichrysum italicum, were studied in vitro for their antioxidant and/or scavenger properties and in vivo in different models of inflammation. In vitro tests included lipid peroxidation in rat liver microsomes, superoxide radical generation in the xanthine/xanthine oxidase system and the reduction of the stable radical 1,1-diphenyl-2-pycryl-hydrazyl (DPPH). Acute inflammation was induced by application of 12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol 13-acetate (TPA) to the mouse ear or by subcutaneous injection of phospholipase A(2) or serotonin in the mouse paw. Eczema provoked on the mouse ear by repeated administration of TPA was selec…
Antioxidant Activity of Sicilian Pistachio (Pistacia veraL. Var. Bronte) Nut Extract and Its Bioactive Components
2007
Pistacia vera L. is the only species of Pistacia genus producing edible nuts. This paper investigates the antioxidant potential of a Sicilian variety of pistachio nut by chemical as well as biological assays and measured antioxidant vitamins and a number of antioxidant polyphenols in either the hydrophilic and/or the lipophilic nut extract. In accordance with the majority of foods, the total antioxidant activity, measured as a TAA test, was much higher (50-fold) in the hydrophilic than in the lipophilic extract. Substantial amounts of total phenols were measured. The hydrophilic extract inhibited dose-dependently both the metal-dependent and -independent lipid oxidation of bovine liver micr…
Prophylaxis of Non-communicable Diseases: Why fruits and vegetables may be better chemopreventive agents than dietary supplements based on isolated p…
2019
The World Health Organization (WHO) report from 2014 documented that non-communicable socalled civilization diseases such as cardiovascular disease, chronic respiratory diseases, cancer or type 2 diabetes are responsible for over 50% of all premature deaths in the world. Research carried out over the past 20 years has provided data suggesting that diet is an essential factor influencing the risk of development of these diseases. The increasing knowledge on chemopreventive properties of certain food ingredients, in particular, those of plant origin, opened the discussion on the possibility to use edible plants or their active components in the prevention of these chronic diseases. Health-pro…
Flavonoids from Erythrina schliebenii
2017
Prenylated and O-methylflavonoids including one new pterocarpan (1), three new isoflavones (2–4), and nineteen known natural products (5–23) were isolated and identified from the root, stem bark, and leaf extracts of Erythrina schliebenii. The crude extracts and their constituents were evaluated for antitubercular activity against Mycobacterium tuberculosis (H37Rv strain), showing MICs of 32–64 μg mL–1 and 36.9–101.8 μM, respectively. Evaluation of their toxicity against the aggressive human breast cancer cell line MDA-MB-231 indicated EC50 values of 13.0–290.6 μM (pure compounds) and 38.3 to >100 μg mL–1 (crude extracts).
Dietary polyphenols and type 2 diabetes: Human Study and Clinical Trial
2018
IF 6.015 (2017); International audience; Significant evidence from epidemiological investigations showed that dietary polyphenols might manage and prevent type 2 diabetes (T2D). This review summarizes human studies and clinical trials of polyphenols as anti-diabetic agents. Polyphenols from coffee, guava tea, whortleberry, olive oil, propolis, chocolate, red wine, grape seed, and cocoa have been reported to show anti-diabetic effects in T2D patients through increasing glucose metabolism, improving vascular function as well as reducing insulin resistance and HbA1c level. However, individual flavonoid or isoflavonoid compounds appear to have no therapeutic effect on diabetes, based on the lim…