Phytosterols are natural dietary components and their lowering effect on serum cholesterol level has been well documented. There have been few reports about the effect of less than 1g/day of phytosterol on serum cholesterol level. We attempted to investigate serum cholesterol lowering effect of phytosterol at 2 relatively low doses. In a randomized, double-blind, 3-group parallel protocol, 67 healthy men with a total cholesterol of 221.5 ± 17.0 (mean ± SD, mg/dL) consumed each about 0.04 g/day, 0.29 g/day and 0.45 g/day of phytosterol (as the major free sterol) for 4 weeks. The level of total cholesterol decreased by 1.0%, 0.5% and 7.9% in the control, the low-and the high-phytosterol group, respectively. As for LDL-cholesterol level, these decreases were 1.8%, 1.0% and 9.5%, respectively. The relative reduction rates of total-and LDL-cholesterol levels in the high-phytosterol group were significantly different from the others, whereas no difference between the control and the low-phytosterol group were observed. No significant difference in the levels of VLDL-cholesterol, HDL-cholesterol or triacylglycerol were found among the groups. Apolipoprotein B and RLP-cholesterol levels were also lower in the higher group. These results indicate that a daily intake of about 0.45 g phytosterol beneficially affect the levels of total- and LDL-cholesterol even in healthy subjects with a slightly elevated serum cholesterol level, and that it may be helpful in reducing the risk of CHD.

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Freeze-dried salmon roe was extracted with supercritical carbon dioxide at a pressure range of 9.8-31.4MPa and temperature range 40-80°C. The lipid yield and fatty acid profiles of the extracted lipids were affected by the extracting conditions. From the results affect of carbon dioxide density is estimated. At 80°C the extracts were mostly affected by the extracting pressure. While at 17.7MPa the extracts were affected by the extracting temperature. The lipids obtained, contained triacylglycerides and their derivatives while the lipids not extracted contained triacylglycerides and phospholipids. In other words, two groups of triacylglycerides extracted from the freeze-dried salmon roe were found to be present in the salmon roe. In the first group is triacylglyceride to be extracted with supercritical carbon dioxide. In the other group is triacylglyceride not to be extracted. Less than 30% of astaxanthin, a functional pigment in the salmon roe was extracted. The loss of astaxanthin was less than 10% of the total involved in the process.

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Two antioxidative compounds were isolated from the oil of sesame seeds roasted at 230°C for 15 min and identified as sesaminols (isomers) by MS and NMR analysis. Although sesaminols are present in refined unroasted sesame seed oil, we have demonstrated their presence also in the oil from the roasted sesame seed without refining for the first time. Furthermore, the amounts of sesaminols in sesame seeds were increased by roasting. Sesamol and melanoidin-like browning compounds have been believed to contribute to the antioxidant activity of roasted sesame seed oil, but the present study revealed that sesaminols also play an important role in the antioxidant activity of roasted sesame seed oil.

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Various tissue lipids from the marine bivalves, Megangulus venulosus (M. venulosus) and Megangulus zyonoensis (M. zyonoensis), were analyzed for comparison of major fatty acids and their distribution. The main fatty acid components in this genus in all tissues were found to be 16:0 (11.0-15.2%), 18:0 (4.1-8.6%), 20:5n-3 (13.3-25.6%) and 22:6n-3 (8.1-16.7%), with n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids most abundant. The proportion of 20:5n-3 was higher in M. zyonoensis than in M. venulosus, and 22:6n-3 was higher in M. venulosus than in M. zyonoensis. The proportions of 20:5n-3 and 22:6n-3 were highest in muscle tissue lipids from M. venulosus and M. zyonoensis, at 33.1% and 36.2%, respectively. The distribution of major fatty acid components in neutral (NL) and polar lipids (PL) was determined, with 16:0 and 20:5n-3 shown for NL, and 16:0, 20:5n-3 and 22:6n-3 for PL. The proportion of 22:6n-3 in NL and PL differed significantly, 22:6n-3 being much higher in PL. The main branched fatty acid component, 4,8,12-trimethyltridecanoic acid, was found mainly in PL of viscera tissues from either species. In addition, 2-hydroxypentadecanoic, 2-hydroxyhexadecanoic and 2-hydroxyheptadecanoic acids were also found to be present in the two species and this presence of 2-hydroxy fatty acids in the genus Megangulus is reported here for the first time.

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Investigation of the distribution of calcium ions in the wash system was conducted to clarify the interaction between calcium ions and surfactant, builder and cotton fabric in the range of low water hardness. In the presence of cotton fabric, sodium alkyl ether sulfate (AES) was clearly hard to compound salt with calcium than linear alkyl benzene sulfonate (LAS). Polyoxyethylene alkyl ether (AE) showed the lowest ability to compound with calcium ions. The data also suggest that some of the calcium ions in the solution were adsorbed into cotton fabric prior to compound with surfactant or to be bound by builder in the solutions. The relationship of calcium ion distribution to detergency clearly indicated less calcium to remain in solution with greater detergency. Detergency was greatest for the solution containing both 0.022% AE and 0.015% sodium tripolyphosphate (STPP), and equivalent to that of using 0.023% Zeolite. For greater detergency, AES or AE should be used as surfactant and Zeolite concentration should be at least 0.023%.

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A half ester of arylmethylenesuccinic acids were easily prepared by reaction of aromatic aldehydes with 2-carboxy-1-ethoxycarbonylethyltriphenylphosphorane in DMSO at 40°C in good yield. And also, the conversion of this half esters into the corresponding naphthoates were examined.

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Laboratory displacement tests were performed to study solvent cut by miscible fluid injection in fractured porous media.The porous media used were cylindrical Asmari sandstone cores containing a well-afined artificially formed, vertical fracture.Normal heptane and kerosene were two miscible fluids used.The purpose of this study was to compare the results from one-dimensional theory of miscible displacement in fractured porous media to experimental data.We observe that there is a good agreement between experiments and model predictions.

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