Ostrich oil, a natural bird fat oil, has significant biological activities in preventing various pains and inflammation. The aim of the current study was to develop ostrich oil loaded nanoemulsions to check the anti-inflammatory efficacy. The developed nanoemulsions(F1-F3) were evaluated in vitro for various physicochemical parameters including thermodynamic stability, nanoemulsifying potential, mean droplet size, polydispersity index (PDI), zeta potential (ZP), viscosity (η), refractive index (RI) and transmittance (%T).Optimizednanoemulsions(F2) had mean droplet size (99.8 nm), PDI (0.084), ZP (–84.2 mV), viscosity (43.5cp), RI (1.344) and transmittance (94.1%).TEM photomicrograph of F2 nanoemulsion were spherical in shape with smooth surface, supporting DLS measured droplet size. Furthermore, anti-inflammatory activity of optimized nanoemulsion (F2) in rats was much better as compared to pure ostrich oil.

Buglossoides arvensis is indigenous to India and its seed oil is rich in unique and nutritionally important omega-3 fatty acid namely, stearidonic acid (SDA). It is a non-conventional oil seed plant and needs to be agronomically adapt for commercial utilization. In the present study, oil extracted from the agronomically adapted high yielding cultivar of B. arvensis seeds was analyzed for its oil content, fatty acid (FA) composition, physico-chemical characteristics, total lipids and triacylglycerol molecular species. The oil content, peroxide, acid, iodine, p-anisidine values and tocopherol content of the oil were 18.53% (w/w), 2.06 meq of active oxygen / kg of oil, 2.55 mg KOH/g oil, 217.2 g I₂/100g oil, 10.7 and 774.8 mg/kg oil respectively. Oxidative stability as determined by the induction period was found to be 3.1 h. Polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) content of the oil was 81.3% (of total FA), comprising of α-linolenic acid (ALA; 48.5%), SDA (18.6%), linoleic acid (LA; 10.3%) and γ-linolenic acid (GLA; 3.9%). Profiling of lipid classes showed neutral lipids (89.3%, w/w) as most abundant lipid class followed by glycolipids (7.4%, w/w) and phospholipids (3.3%, w/w). High resolution mass spectrometric analysis of triacylglycerol (TAG) molecular species showed TAGs with C54 carbons in the acyl chain as most abundant. Positional distribution analysis showed GLA and SDA predominantly at the sn-2 position of triacylglycerol. FTIR analysis revealed common characteristics molecular features similar to PUFA rich oils. Overall, the results suggest that B. arvensis seed oil is an excellent ω3-ω6-ω3 or ALA-SDA-GLA source for food and nutraceutical industries.

Monohexadecyl phosphate, neutralized by L-arginine (C16MP-Arg), forms an α-gel (α-type hydrated crystal) with water. In this study, we characterized the behavior of water in the C16MP-Arg α-gel system by means of small/wide angle X-ray scattering (SWAXS), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), and ¹H nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy. An increased water concentration resulted in an increase in the d-spacing of the lamellar bilayers as well as an increased wavenumber for the O-H stretching vibration peak. In addition, the melting enthalpy increased with increasing water concentration, while freezing was not observed below a water concentration of 20 wt%. These results suggest that the overall properties of water changed as a function of its concentration in the sample. ¹H-NMR spin-spin relaxation time (T₂) measurements further suggest that the protons of water and C16MP-Arg can be classified into three components (low-, middle-, and high-T₂ components) as a function of the temperature and concentration. The low-T₂ component mainly arose from the protons of C16MP-Arg alkyl chains, and its mobility increased with increasing temperature. The high-T₂ component arose from the protons of water. The water behaved as “bound water” for the C16MP-Arg headgroups at –30°C and a water concentration of 20 wt%, and the mobility increased with increasing temperature and water concentration. These changes suggest that an increased water concentration results in an increased amount of water being incorporated between the C16MP-Arg lamellar bilayers as well as in spaces surrounded by α-gel domains.

To investigate the potential of application of marine cyanobacterium for concurrent biomass production and ammonium removal, Synechococcus sp. VDW was cultured under different conditions in medium containing varying concentrations of NH₄Cl. Response surface methodology (RSM) was then used to build a predictive model of the combined effects of independent variables (pH, inoculum size, ammonium concentration). At the optimum conditions of initial pH 7.4, inoculum size 0.17 (OD730) and ammonium concentration 10.5 mg L^–1, the maximum ammonium removal and biomass productivity were about 95% and 34 mg L^–1d^–1, respectively, after seven days of cultivation. The result of fatty acid methyl ester (FAME) analysis showed that the major fatty acids were palmitic acid (C16:0), linoleic acid (C18:2 n6 cis), palmitoleic acid (C16:1) and oleic acid (C18:1 n9 cis), which accounted for more than 80% weight of total fatty acids. Further, analysis of neutral lipid accumulation using flow cytometry revealed that the mean of the fluorescence intensity increased under optimal conditions. These results indicate that Synechococcus sp. VDW has the potential for use for concurrent water treatment and production of biomass that can be applied as biofuel feedstock.

In this study, waste peach (WP) liquid culture conditions for the maintenance of high triacylglycerol (TG)-accumulation ability in Lipomyces wild-type strain, obtained from WP plate medium were investigated. As the concentration of WP juice was high, the medium viscosity became high, and TG accumulation ability was suppressed. In a 5-L jar fermenter, the negative influence of viscosity on TG-accumulation ability was significantly improved by an agitation speed of 150 rpm (0.4 vvm). Where a bench scale pilot plant (90-L jar fermenter) was operated at 40 rpm, TG-accumulation ability reached 6.8 mg/10⁸cells. This ability was 85% of that obtained with WP plate medium.

The nutritional components in oat and tartary buckwheat had been assessed to have cholesterollowering effects. However, The effect of oat and tartary buckwheat based-food (OF) on cholesterol-lowering and gut microbiota in hypercholesterole hamsters was still limited studied because they are usually consumed in whole gran as well as after being processed. In this study, normal diets, high fat diet (HFD) with/without OF were fed to hamsters for 30 days respectively and growth parameters, metabolic parameters, and gut microbiota were investigated, respectively. It was found that OF significantly decreased plasma total cholesterol (TC) and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-cholesterol), lowered liver TC, cholesterol ester (CE), and triglycerides (TG) concentrations, and increased fecal weight and bile acids (BA) concentrations, compared with HFD (p < 0.05). Moreover, the concentrations of acetate, propionate, butyrate and total short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) were significantly increased in hamsters fed with OF, compared with HFD (p < 0.05). OF changed the overall structure of gut microbiota. The relative abundances of Erysipelotrichaceae, Ruminococcaceae, and Lachnospiraceae were decreased and the relative abundance of Eubacteriaceae was increased, compared with HFD. These results suggested that OF could reduce the concentrations of plasma lipid by inhibiting cholesterol absorption in liver and promoting excretions of fecal lipid and BA. And it also increased SCFAs and modulated the gut microbiota effectively to exert the hypocholesterolemic effects.

A simple solid base catalyst, ammonium aluminum carbonate hydroxide (AACH), was prepared and its structure was characterized by many technologies, including XRD, FT-IR, SEM, BET and Elemental Analysis. The prepared catalyst was used to catalyze the conversion of glucose into 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) in ionic liquid 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride ([Bmim]⁺Cl^–) and dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) mixtures. Various reaction conditions, including catalyst loading, reaction temperature, reaction duration and solvent, were investigated. A moderated HMF yield of 52.17 % was obtained at the mild reaction conditions (120°C for 4 h). More importantly, the catalyst could be reused for several times without the loss of its significant catalytic activities. After five reaction runs, a HMF yield about 49.34 % was also obtained.

A recent study has shown that the addition of ceramide to adhesive materials of medical sheets or tapes improves or maintains skin barrier functions despite the irritation and damage caused by the repeated removal of the sheet or tape. This fact may imply that ceramide molecules are released from the adhesive material and penetrate the skin. In this study, we investigated whether ceramide molecules are released from a UV-curable acrylic adhesive resin (acResin^®) sheet containing ceramide molecules attached to a cultured skin sample by estimating the local ceramide concentration from the data obtained by synchrotron Fourier transform infrared micro-spectroscopy analysis. Since section samples of uniform thickness could not be prepared, the intensity data of the amide I peak originating from ceramide were normalized by using the intensity data of the ester peak originating from the resin matrix. This analysis enabled the quantification of the change in local ceramide concentrations in the sheet samples. This result indicates that ceramide molecules were released from the acResin^® sheet attached to the cultured skin sheet.

The effects of pH on the freeze-thaw stability of glycated soy protein isolate (SPI) and soy protein isolate hydrolysate (SPH) were studied. The covalent compounds were prepared by conjugating SPI, SPH and dextran under heated Maillard reaction, which the macromolecules were named SPI-D and SPH-D. SDS-PAGE analysis verified that SPI-D and SPH-D form a covalent bond through the Maillard reaction. Afterwards, the effects of pH on the freeze-thaw stability of SPI, SPI-D and SPH-D emulsions were evaluated. The covalent conjugate stabilized emulsions improved the stability of the emulsions to pH stress. After freeze-thaw cycles, SPH-D revealed the lowest particle size, degree of coalescence (CD) and oiling off. The results above were also supported by optical microscopy analysis.

Bacterial flora on the skin surface contains Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) and Staphylococcus epidermidis (S. epidermidis) which causes rough skin and atopic dermatitis and enhances innate immunity, respectively. In this study, minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) was evaluated for six saturated fatty acids and two unsaturated fatty acids against S. aureus and S. epidermidis. The antimicrobial behavior in the liquid medium was categorized into three groups. The first was the selective antibacterial activity group comprising myristic acid (C14:0 fatty acid), palmitoleic acid (C16:1 fatty acid), and oleic acid (C18:1 fatty acid) and preferentially displayed antimicrobial activity for S. aureus (group 1). C16:1 fatty acid displayed high antimicrobial activity only for S. aureus. The second was the non-selective antibacterial activity group which displayed antibacterial activity for both Staphylococci (group 2). Caprylic acid (C8:0 fatty acid), capric acid (C10:0 fatty acid), and lauric acid (C12:0 fatty acid) comprised group 2. The third was the nonantibacterial activity group which did not show significant antimicrobial activity (group 3). Bactericidal activities were confirmed for C12:0 fatty acid and C16:1 fatty acid by evaluating the minimum bactericidal concentration (MBC) on the agar medium. C12:0 fatty acid displayed non-selective bactericidal behavior against S. aureus and S. epidermidis when the fatty acid concentration was above 250 μg mL^–1. These findings suggest that C16:1 fatty acid has the potential to be used as a detergent in skin care and medical products because it can selectively kill only S. aureus.