The tea catechin astringency suppression effect in milk component was examined. Simple sensory comparison, scoring test and paired reference test were used to evaluate the intensity of the astringency catechin. The solutions of catechin-milk component preparations were produced by combining catechin solution (6.26 mg/mL) with milk, 9% skim milk (w/v), 4.5% lactose (w/v), and 3.8% cream solution (v/v), and were allowed to equilibrate for 20 min at 4℃. The astringency suppression effect was about 58-65% in the three samples that exclude lactose, especially skim milk was clearly significant astringency differences other two samples. The high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) was used to evaluate the recovery of free catechin from catechin-milk samples. Catechin was combined with 9% skim milk, 4.5% lactose, and whey. These samples were following acid precipitation and centrifugation, supernatants were recovered and the total catechin content was determined by HPLC. Though the recovery of catechins was markedly decreased about 95% by skim milk, lactose and whey caused decreases of about 5-25%. The influence of various casein proteins on recovery of catechins was examined, α- and β-casein showed equal recovery effects of about 45% when each casein concentration was the same formation for whole milk. β-casein showed the highest recovery of about 35% when each casein concentration was the same molar concentration. These results indicate that the astringency of the catechin is suppressed by the milk component.

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 The reproduction and identification of ancient dairy products in East Asia were conducted based on “SEIMINYOUJYUTU” which is the order ancient document available in East Asia and contains detailed explanation about milk processing, and then the spread pathway of these milk processing techniques into East Asia was discussed in this paper. As the results of reproduction and identification experiments, RAKU was identified as sour milk, KANRAKU could not be identified, ROKURAKU was identified as unmatured type cheese such as KHOROOT of Mongolian pastoralists and KURUT of Turki pastoralists, and SO was identified as butter and butter oil. Since some imprecise descriptions were found in SEIMINYOUJYUTU through the reproduction experiment, it was considered that Kashikyou, the author of SEIMINYOUJYUTU, was the just editor to use various texts which were gathered from different ethnic origins on milk processing and did not conduct processing milk products by themselves. The milk processing such as sour milk (RAKU) making from raw milk, butter (SO) making from sour milk (RAKU) by churning, butter oil (SO) making from butter by heating are wide spread techniques and still used among the current pastoralists in West Asia, South Asia, Central Asia and Inner Mongolia. As the comparison with components in milk products and the milk processing techniques of pastoralists in the Asian continent, it was concluded that the milk processing techniques adopted in SEIMINYOUJYUTU were mainly influenced from the pastoralists in North Asia and/or Central Asia.

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 The number of pet animals having type I allergic symptoms have increased under a change of breeding environments. The type I allergic disease is mainly discussed to be associable to a skewed T helper type 1 (Th1)/T helper type 2 (Th2) cell balance. In recent years, some investigators demonstrated that numerous lactic acid bacteria and their cellular components reduce allergic symptoms via not only shifting the Th1/Th2 balance from a Th2-dominant state to a Th1-dominant state but also inducing of regulatory T cells. On the other hand, lactic acid bacteria and their cell components are found to modulate immune responses via pattern recognition receptors (PRRs) such as Toll-like receptor (TLR) and nucleotide-binding oligomerization domain (NOD). In our studies, it was suggested that Lactobacillus crispatus KT-11 strain reduced allergic symptoms in NC/Nga mice by the adjustment of Th1 and Th2 balance via TLR2, NOD1 and NOD2. It is known that PRRs express on intestinal tract in dogs and cats. Thus, it is expected that lactic acid bacteria may be a pet food materials for a reduction of allergic symptoms.

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