The kinetic mechanism of surfactant-induced protein denaturation is discussed on the basis of not only stopped-flow kinetic data but also the changes of protein helicities caused by the surfactants and the discontinuous mobility changes of surfactant-protein complexes. For example, the α-helical structures of bovine serum albumin (BSA) are partially disrupted due to the addition of sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS). Formation of SDS-BSA complex can lead to only four complex types with specific mobilities depending on the surfactant concentration. On the other hand, the apparent rate constant of the structural change of BSA increases with an increase of SDS concentration, indicating that the rate of the structural change becomes fast as the degree of the change increases. When a certain amount of surfactant ions bind to proteins, their native structures transform directly to particular structures without passing through intermediate stages that might be induced due to the binding of fewer amounts of the surfactant ions. Furthermore, this review brings up a question about two-state and three-state models, N⇌D and N⇌D’⇌D (N: native state, D: denatured sate, D’: intermediate between N and D), which have been often adopted without hesitation in discussion on general denaturations of proteins. First of all, doubtful is whether any equilibrium relationship exists in such denaturation reactions. It cannot be disregarded that the D states in these models differ depending on the changes of intensities of the denaturing factors. The authors emphasize that the denaturations or the structural changes of proteins should be discussed assuming one-way reaction models with no backward processes rather than assuming the reversible two-state reaction models or similar modified reaction models.

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Trans fatty acids (TFA) are considered risk factors for cardiovascular disease (CVD), while the details of distribution and metabolism of the individual isomers are not clear. Here we investigated the accumulation and catabolic rate of TFA positional isomers of octadecenoic acid (18:1) in mice. ICR mice were fed deuterium- and [1-¹³C] stable isotope-labeled trans-9-18:1 (9t-18:1*), trans-10-18:1 (10t-18:1*), or trans-11-18:1 (11t-18:1*) for 2 or 4 weeks, or a TFA mixture (9t-18:1*, 10t-18:1*, and 11t-18:1*) for 3 weeks. Analysis of whole-body tissues by gas chromatography-chemical ionization mass spectrometry revealed the highest 9t-18:1* levels in the heart. Significant differences in the accumulation of the respective trans-18:1 were observed in the heart and erythrocytes, where 9t- > 11t- > 10t-18:1*, but no significant difference was observed in the liver or white adipose tissue (WAT). Mice fed on 11t-18:1 demonstrated accumulation of endogenously synthesized conjugated linoleic acid in the liver, WAT, and heart, but any other metabolites were not found in other groups. Furthermore, we analyzed catabolic rates of single-dose-administered trans-18:1* isomers into [¹³C]-labeled CO₂ using isotope-ratio mass spectrometry, and the 10t-18:1*catabolic rate was significantly higher than those of 9t- and 11t-18:1*. We found that the accumulation and catabolism of trans-18:1 positional isomers varied in these mice. Differential accumulation in tissues suggests that individual TFA positional isomers may play different roles in human health.

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The induction period of crystallization, which is defined as the time required for oil to start to crystallize, is useful indicator of the freeze-thaw stability of food emulsions such as mayonnaise. We investigated the induction period of vegetable oils with low melting points, such as rapeseed and soybean oils, which are commonly employed for mayonnaise production. The induction period was measured by monitoring the temperature of a specimen during storage at low temperature. The induction period depended on the type of oil and lipophilic emulsifier, emulsifier concentration, and storage temperature. The effect of the oil type on the induction period depended on the composition of the oil. Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) analyses of the lipophilic emulsifiers suggested that the melting trend of the emulsifier is strongly related to the induction period.

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Sodium N-acyl prolines (NaNAPro) were synthesized using mixture of fatty acids obtained from coconut, palm, karanja, Sterculia foetida and high oleic sunflower oils via Schotten-Baumann reaction in 58-75% yields to study the synergetic effect of mixture of hydrophobic fatty acyl functionalities like saturation, unsaturation and cyclopropene fatty acids with different chain lengths and aliphatic hetero cyclic proline head group on their surface and cytotoxicity activities. The products were characterized by chromatographic and spectral techniques. The synthesized products were evaluated for their surface active properties such as surface tension, wetting power, foaming characteristics, emulsion stability, calcium tolerance, critical micelle concentration (CMC) and thermodynamic properties. The results revealed that all the products exhibited superior surface active properties like CMC, calcium tolerance and emulsion stability as compared to the standard surfactant, sodium lauryl sulphate (SLS). In addition, palm, Sterculia foetida and high oleic sunflower fatty N-acyl prolines exhibited promising cytotoxicity against different tumor cell lines.

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Ghrelin is a growth hormone-releasing peptide that also displays orexigenic activity. Since serine-3 acylation with octanoylate (octanoylation) is essential for the orexigenic activity of ghrelin, suppression of octanoylation could lead to amelioration or prevention of obesity. To enable the exploration of inhibitors of octanoylated ghrelin production, we developed a cell-based assay system using AGS-GHRL8 cells, in which octanoylated ghrelin concentration increases in the presence of octanoic acid. Using this assay system, we investigated whether fatty acids contained in foods or oils, such as acetic acid, stearic acid, oleic acid, linoleic acid, and α-linolenic acid, have inhibitory effects on octanoylated ghrelin production. Acetic acid did not suppress the increase in octanoylated ghrelin production in AGS-GHRL8 cells, which was induced by the addition of octanoic acid. However, stearic acid, oleic acid, linoleic acid, and α-linolenic acid significantly suppressed octanoylated ghrelin production, with the effect of oleic acid being the strongest. Additionally, oleic acid decreased the serum concentration of octanoylated ghrelin in mice. The serum concentration of des-acyl ghrelin (without acyl modification) was also decreased, but the decrease was smaller than that of octanoylated ghrelin. Decreased octanoylated ghrelin production likely resulted from post-translational ghrelin processing, as there were no significant differences in gene expression in the stomach between oleic acid-treated mice and controls. These results suggest that oleic acid is a potential inhibitor of octanoylated ghrelin production and that our assay system is a valuable tool for screening compounds with suppressive effects on octanoylated ghrelin production.

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The positional distributions of fatty acids (FAs) in fats and oils are principally analyzed by selectively transesterifying the target triacylglycerols (TAGs) at the 1(3) position using Pseudozyma (Candida) antarctica lipase, followed by recovering the resulting 2-monoacylglycerols (MAGs) by chromatography. FA compositions were measured by gas chromatography (GC) after methylating target TAGs and 2-MAGs. The method was collaboratively evaluated by 12 laboratories by analyzing the positional FA distributions in soybean, palm, and sardine oils. The maximum reproducibility relative standard deviations for the major FAs and those at the sn-2 positions of soybean, palm, and sardine oils were 4.41% and 3.92% (18:3n-3), 4.48% and 3.82% (18:0), and 8.93 and 8.24% (14:0), respectively. The values at the sn-2 position were always low. Therefore, these results indicated that the variations were mainly caused by the FA analysis procedure, i.e., the methylation and GC analyses, rather than the enzymatic transesterification and chromatography utilized to prepare 2-MAGs from the target oil.

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To improve the intestinal absorption of fucoxanthin, we evaluated the effects of dietary glyceroglycolipids on the uptake and secretion of fucoxanthin solubilized in mixed micelles by human intestinal Caco-2 cells. Although digalactosyldiacylglycerol and sulfoquinovosyldiacylglycerol suppressed fucoxanthin uptake and secretion, their lyso-types, digalactosylmonoacylglycerol and sulfoquinovosylmonoa cylglycerol, remarkably enhanced them. Thus, some dietary glyceroglycolipids may be potential enhancers of fucoxanthin bioavailability in humans.

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A combination of Novozym 435-catalyzed methanolysis and amidation using racemic N-methyl-5-acetoxytridecan- and tetradecanamides as a substrate proceeded in good enantioselectivity to afford the corresponding (R)-N-methyl-5-acetoxyalkanamides, (S)-N-methyl-5-hydroxyalkanamides, and (S)-N-cyclohexyl-5-hydroxyalkanamides. Both enantiomers of δ-tri- and δ-tetradecalactones were synthesized in over 90% enantiomeric excesses from the corresponding (R)- or (S)-alkanamides. Addition of cyclohexylamine to Novozym 435-catalyzed methanolysis shortened 24-hour reaction time to reach about 50% conversion. Enantiomers of optically active δ-tri- and δ-tetradecalactones had different odors and thresholds.

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Docosahexaenoic acid supplementation has been shown well-established health benefits that justify their use as functional ingredients in healthy foods and nutraceutical products. Structured triacylglycerols rich in 1,3-docosahexenoyl-2-palmitoyl-sn-glycerol were produced from algal oil (Schizochytrium sp) which was prepared by a two-step process. Novozym 435 lipase was used to produce tripalmitin. Tripalmitin was then used to produce the final structured triacylglycerol (STAG) through interesterification reactions using Lipozyme RM IM. The optimum conditions for the enzymatic reaction were a mole ratio of tripalmitin/fatty acid ethyl esters 1:9, 60°C, 10% enzyme load (wt % of substrates), 10 h; the enzymatic product contained 51.6% palmitic acid (PA), 30.13% docosahexaenoic acid (DHA, C22:6 n-3) and 5.33% docosapentanoic acid (DPA, C22:5 n-3), 12.15% oleic acid (OLA). This STAG can be used as a functional ingredient in dietary supplementation to provide the benefits of DHA.

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This study was investigated the chemical composition of volatile oils and aroma evaluation from the tubers of Apios americana Medikus. Theses volatile oils were obtained by the hydrodistillation (HD) and the solvent-assisted flavor evaporation (SAFE) methods. These oils were analyzed by Gas chromatography (GC), GC-mass spectrometry (GC-MS), GC-olfactometry (GC-O), aroma extract dilution analysis (AEDA) and odor activity values (OAV) for the first time. The major compounds in the HD oil were palmitic acid (36.5%), linoleic acid (10.5%) and nonadecanol (5.7%). Meanwhile, in the SAFE oil, the major compounds were 4-hydroxy-4-methyl-2-pentanone (34.2%), hexanal (11.0%) and hexanol (7.9%). Through aroma evaluation, 20 (HD) and 14 (SAFE) aroma-active compounds were identified by GC-O. As a result, the most intense aroma-active compounds in both extraction methods were 1-octen-3-ol and hexanal, both of which showed high odor activity values (OAV).

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