Recent Patents on Food, Nutrition & Agriculture

BACKGROUND: The health benefits of dietary fibers have been proved for a long time. The importance of microbiota has been identified in human health and there is a growing interest to study the factors affecting it. OBJECTIVE: This systematic review was aimed to investigate the impact of fiber and whole grains (WGs) on human gut microbiota in a patent-based review. METHODS: All related clinical trials were systematically searched on PubMed and Scopus search engines from inception up to Feb 2020...

In the near future, it is expected that the prevalence of illnesses related to the increasing life expectancies and quality of life, such as neurodegenerative diseases and cardiovascular diseases related to metabolic disorders, will soar to unprecedented levels, leading to significant socioeconomic costs. In order to address this rising threat, natural products are emerging as a novel strategy for the prevention and therapy of these age- and lifestyle-related diseases, thanks to their high marketability and few side effects...

BACKGROUND: Rapid lifestyle, especially among people living in urban areas, has led to increasing reliance on the processed food market. Unfortunately, harmful effects caused by the excessive use of food additives in such type of industry are often neglected. OBJECTIVE: This proposal investigates in vitro cytotoxic and apoptotic effects of three food preservatives commonly consumed in daily meals; sodium sulphite, boric acid, and benzoic acid. METHODS: The effect of the three preservatives on cell viability was tested on two different cell lines; normal liver cell line THLE2 and human hepatocellular carcinoma cancer cell line HepG2 using MTT assay...

BACKGROUND: Pistacia atlantica Desf. (Anacardiaceae) has various applications for dietetic and medicinal purposes. OBJECTIVE: The aim of the present study was to evaluate antioxidant, antiproliferative and anticholinesterase activities of different extracts from leaf and stem of Pistacia atlantica Desf. METHODS: The antioxidant activity was performed by four methods: DPPH, ABTS, CUPRAC and reducing power assays. Anti-cholinesterase activity was performed against acetylcholinesterase (AChE) and Butyrylcholinesterase (BuChE) enzymes...

BACKGROUND: Pectin is a natural polysaccharide that has been used widely as stabilizer in food emulsion system. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to optimize the yield of pectin extracted from sweet potato residue and investigate its emulsifying properties. METHODS: Response surface methodology (RSM) has been utilized to investigate the pectin extraction from sweet potato peels using citric acid as the extracting solvent. Investigation of the effect of different extraction conditions namely temperature (°C), time (min) and solution pH on pectin yield (%) were conducted...

Characteristic of cassava flour is relatively similar to wheat flour. Cassava flour is potential to substitute 70-80% of wheat flour as the main ingredient for wet noodle production. Unfortunately, cassava flour has no gluten and lower protein content than wheat flour, which is important for the characteristic of a wet noodle. Therefore, transglutaminase (MTGase) is often applied in non-gluten products to improve its texture. This enzyme catalyzes the reaction between lysine and glutamine to form isopeptide cross-links...

No abstract text is available yet for this article.

The demand for alternative protein sources by the livestock industry has increased substantially. Therefore, insects are being promoted as a novel nutrient source in animal feed. As detailed in this review, eleven patents related to feeding insects to terrestrial animals including livestock and companion animals have been commercially applied. Six and eight of the patents have been used to produce poultry and fish, and crustacean feed, respectively. The most promising species for industrial feed production was the black soldier fly (Hermetia illucens), the mealworm (Tenebrio molitor), and the two-spotted cricket (Gryllus bimaculatus)...

BACKGROUND: For screening probiotic strains with viability and stability in non-dairy foods for health benefits, we revised all patents relating to probiotics in food. OBJECTIVE: Screening of potential probiotics from Brazilian Minas artisanal cheese and verify their survival in frozen Brazilian cocoa pulp. METHODS: Isolation and identification of the strains. The potential probiotic characterization involved gastric juice and bile resistance, antibiotic and antimicrobial activity, hydrophobicity, autoaggregation, coaggregation and adhesion assay in HT-29 cells...

BACKGROUND: The clay Montmorillonite (MMT) is among the nanofillers more frequently used in food packaging. The uniform dispersion of nanoparticles in polymers confers considerable improvement of mechanical, thermal, optical, and/or barrier properties in polymer/clay nanocomposites. OBJECTIVE: The aim is to ascertain the state of the art of the use of MMT for packaging purposes, with special emphasis on food applications. METHODS: A literature review was carried out through recent papers and patents that focused on the incorporation of MMT in polymers...

BACKGROUND: Date palm (Phoenix dactylifera L.) is a dominant fruit crop in most of the Arabian countries. Date pits, as a major byproduct which remained after consumption of date flesh proved to be valuable source of energy. OBJECTIVES: The impact of degraded date pits (DDP) on growth performance, intestinal bacterial population and expression profiles of intestinal genes in broilers were determined. METHODS: Solid state degradation system (SSD) was used for the preparation of DDP using Trichoderma reesei...

The present investigation was aimed to evaluate the role of plant growth promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) and Ag-nanoparticles on two varieties (American variety, Poinsett 76 and Desi variety, Sialkot selection) of cucumber plants. Cucumber seeds were inoculated prior to sowing with two strains of PGPR, Pseudomonas putida (KX574857) and Pseudomonas stutzeri (KX574858) at the rate of 106cells/ml. Ag-nanoparticles (5ppm) were sprayed on plant at early vegetative phase, 27 d after sowing. The proline, sugar, protein, phenolics, flavonoids, chlorophyll and carotenoids contents and the activities of phenylalanine ammonia-lyase (PAL), superoxide dismutase (SOD) and catalase (CAT) were determined from leaves of plants at early vegetative phase...

BACKGROUND: The rising concern with environmental preservation has led to increasing interest in biodegradable polymer composites from renewable sources, such as cellulose and its derivatives. The use of nanocellulose is an innovative food packaging trend. DISCUSSION: This paper presents an overview and discusses the state of the art of different nanocellulose materials used in food and food packaging, and identifies important patents related to them. It is important to consider that before marketing, new products must be proven safe for consumers and the environment...

BACKGROUND: Ammoides verticillata Briq belonging to the family Apiaceae is widely used in traditional medicine to prevent and cure various diseases. Plant is used to treat many diseases, including respiratory problems, colds, fever, migraine, trouble gastric and renal infections. As part of our research program on natural compounds with biological properties, the objective of this study was to determine for the first time the antifungal and insecticidal activities of essential oil of Ammoides verticillata...

METHODS: A total of 120 overweight subjects participated in this study. The circulating PCSK9 and vitamin D were measured by ELISA technique. The serum vitamin A and vitamin E amounts were simultaneously measured by HPLC method. The serum small dense LDL-Cholesterol (sdLDL-C) values were evaluated using heparin-Mg2+ precipitation technique. The lipid profile was measured by routine laboratory techniques. RESULTS: The serum vitamin E values correlated significantly to vitamin A (r=0...

Plant development is different from the animal by many fundamental aspects, immobilized cell, rigid cell wall, and the large central vacuole. The plant growth and cell division activities are restricted to the specific area of the shoot and root called meristems, and the plants have highly totipotency ability of differentiation, dedifferentiation and redifferentiation. Growth is one of the primary and conspicuous characteristics of living organisms. Growth is generally defining the irreversible permanent increase in the size of the organ or even single cell, due to both cell division and expansion...

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is one of the main causes of mortality and morbidity worldwide with no suitable treatment. The present study was designed to review the present literature about the protective effects of curcumin and the underlying mechanism against TBI. All published English language papers from beginning to 2019 were selected in this study. The findings indicate that curcumin may be effective against TBI outcomes by modulating the molecular signaling pathways involved in oxidative stress, inflammation, apoptosis, and autophagy...

Endophytic fungi or endophytes as fascinating group of organism that colonize widely the healthy internal tissues of living plants, and do not cause any symptoms of disease in the host cells. Several decades of study and research have rustled the co-existing endophytes with their host plants, which can significantly influence the formation of metabolic products in plants, its ability to produce new interesting bioactive compound, which are of pharmaceutical, industrial and agricultural importance. The analytical results indicate that the endophytic fungi can confer profound impacts on plant communities by enhancing their growth, increasing their fitness, strengthening their tolerances to abiotic and biotic stresses, enhance defense mechanism and promoting their accumulation of secondary metabolites that provide immunity to the victims...

Abiotic stresses affect the plant growth in different ways and at different developmental stages that reduce the crop yields. The increasing world population continually demands more crop yields; therefore it is important to use the low-cost technologies against abiotic stresses to increase the crop productivity. Soil microorganisms survive in the soil and associated with plants in extreme condition. It was demonstrated that these beneficial microorganisms promote the plant growth and development under various stresses...

BACKGROUND: Sphenostylis stenocarpa is an underexploited African indigenous food crop that is enriched in nutritional quality. OBJECTIVE: Exploring the robust genetic base of this landrace can help to maximize the benefit of the agricultural sector on the economy through production that is enhanced by packaging and patent, this as well will increase the quality of food production and promote African campaign on food sustainability. METHOD: Upon this, this research made use of multiple statistics to identify S...