Changes in some nutritional components of Vigna racemosa as influenced by hydrothermal processing techniques

Vigna racemosa is an underutilised hard-to-cook legume in Southwest Nigeria. The seed of V. racemosa was subjected to varying degrees of hydration levels (0%, 10%, 25%, 50% 75% and 100%) before treatment with four hydrothermal techniques, atmospheric boiling, atmospheric steaming, pressure boiling and pressure steaming. The highest percentage reduction of 65.56% in cooking time was achieved at a 100% hydration level when the seeds were processed by boiling at elevated pressure. All the hydrothermal techniques had a significant effect (p<0.05) on the protein content of the seeds. Hydration of the seeds to 100% followed by boiling at elevated pressure caused the least reduction in the protein and mineral element contents. The seed is a good source of important nutrients that are not degraded beyond the levels necessary to meet physiological needs after processing. Widening the scope of utilisation of this legume seed will make critically important nutrients such as protein more available for the teeming populations in developing countries at affordable prices, and thus, alleviating the problem of protein-energy malnutrition (PEM).

Multi-Mineral Element Profiles in Genuine and “Bathing” Cultured Chinese Mitten Crabs (Eriocheir sinensis) in Yangcheng Lake, China

The authentication of high-quality fishery products originating from specific geographical regions is urgently needed worldwide. Chinese mitten crabs (Eriocheir sinensis), originating from Yangcheng Lake, are prime counterfeiting targets for the same reasons. Foreign crabs that are cultured briefly in the lake, known as “bathed” crabs, are illegally marketed as natives, negatively impacting the product quality. To establish a method for distinguishing “bathed” and genuine crabs, in this paper we conduct a comparative investigation by an Agilent 7500ce ICP-MS on multi-mineral element profiling of the third pereiopod from genuine and one month deliberately “bathing” cultured crabs. The profiles of 11 elements were significantly different between the genuine and foreign crabs before and after bathing. The discriminant analysis reached 100% accuracy to separate the genuine and “bathed” crabs into different groups. Bathing culture was unable to converge element profiles between the genuine and foreign crabs. The biogeochemical profiles can be effective for distinguishing “bathed” crabs.

The Evaluation of the Impact of a Saharan Event on Particulate Matter Using Compositional Data Analysis

The proposed approach based on compositional data analysis was applied on simultaneous measurements of the mineral element concentrations of PM10 and PM2.5 from a typical suburban site with and without a Saharan event. The suburban site is located in the city of Rome. The selected mineral elements were Al, Si, Ca, Fe, Ti, Mg, and Sr. The data relating to these elements are reported in a previous study. The considered elements are mainly related to mineral matter. The proposed approach allows statistically validating that the mineral element concentrations of PM during days with a Saharan event differ from those without a Saharan event in terms of mineral element composition and size distribution. In particular, the results showed that the compositional data analysis applied to simultaneous measurements of mineral element concentrations of PM10 and PM2.5 is a helpful technique that can be used to study environmental sites affected by natural sources such as Saharan events. Moreover, the presented technique can be handy in all those conditions where it is important to discriminate whether the occurrence of an exceedance or a violation of the daily limit value established for PM could also be due to natural sources.

NUTRITIONAL QUALITY OF AWARA MADE FROM FERMENTED BANJARA BEANS AND SOYBEAN

Awara, a Nigerian soft cheese analogue produced from soy milk using crude coagulant of citric acid and alum. Soybean and banjara bean were used in this study and were evaluated for their proximate composition, mineral element content, antinutritional factors, in vitro protein digestibility and vitamin content using standard procedures. Results obtained indicated that fermented banjara bean awara had a protein content of 2.15±0.01%, and fermented soybean awara had a protein content of 3.75±0.01%. Fermented banjara beans awara and soybean awara had a fat content of 5.16±0.01% and 17.13±0.01% respectively. There were significant differences in the mineral element content of both non fermented and fermented banjara bean and soybean awara. Level of antinutritional factors showed that both tannin and phytic acid were absent in fermented soybean awara. The in vitro protein digestibility of non-fermented and fermented banjara bean and soybean awara significantly increases with time. Vitamin A contents of fermented banjara and soybean awara increased when compared to non-fermented banjara and soybean awara, while a decrease was observed in non-fermented banjara and soybean awara as compared to fermented banjara bean and soybean awara. It can be concluded from this study that fermented soybean awara which is free of antinutritional factors is a more suitable source of protein and fat as a local cheese in this part of the world.

Fingerprint Approaches Coupled with Chemometrics to Discriminate Geographic Origin of Imported Salmon in China’s Consumer Market

Of the salmon sold in China’s consumer market, 92% was labelled as Norwegian salmon, but was in fact was mainly imported from Chile. The aim of this study was to establish an effective method for discriminating the geographic origin of imported salmon using two fingerprint approaches, Near-infrared (NIR) spectroscopy and mineral element fingerprint (MEF). In total, 80 salmon (40 from Norway and 40 from Chile) were tested, and data generated by NIR and MEF were analysed via various chemometrics. Four spectral preprocessing methods, including vector normalization (VN), Savitzky Golay (SG) smoothing, first derivative (FD) and second derivative (SD), were employed on the raw NIR data, and a partial least squares (PLS) model based on the FD + SG9 pretreatment could successfully differentiate Norwegian salmons from Chilean salmons, with a R2 value of 98.5%. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) and multiple comparative analysis were employed on the contents of 16 mineral elements including Pb, Fe, Cu, Zn, Al, Sr, Ni, As, Cr, V, Se, Mn, K, Ca, Na and Mg. The results showed that Fe, Zn, Al, Ni, As, Cr, V, Se, Ca and Na could be used as characteristic elements to discriminate the geographical origin of the imported salmon, and the discrimination rate of the linear discriminant analysis (LDA) model, trained on the above 10 elements, could reach up to 98.8%. The results demonstrate that both NIR and MEF could be effective tools for the rapid discrimination of geographic origin of imported salmon in China’s consumer market.

Effects of Phytic Acid-Degrading Bacteria on Mineral Element Content in Mice

Trace minerals are extremely important for balanced nutrition, growth, and development in animals and humans. Phytic acid chelation promotes the use of probiotics in nutrition. The phytic acid-degrading strain Lactococcus lactis psm16 was obtained from swine milk by enrichment culture and direct plate methods. In this study, we evaluated the effect of the strain psm16 on mineral element content in a mouse model. Mice were divided into four groups: basal diet, 1% phytic acid, 1% phytic acid + psm16, 1% phytic acid + 500 U/kg commercial phytase. Concentrations of acetic acid, propionic acid, butyric acid, and total short-chain fatty acids were significantly increased in the strain psm16 group compared to the phytic acid group. The concentrations of copper (p = 0.021) and zinc (p = 0.017) in liver, calcium (p = 0.000), manganese (p = 0.000), and zinc (p = 0.000) in plasma and manganese (p = 0.010) and zinc (p = 0.022) in kidney were significantly increased in psm16 group, while copper (p = 0.007) and magnesium (p = 0.001) were significantly reduced. In conclusion, the addition of phytic acid-degrading bacteria psm16 into a diet including phytic acid can affect the content of trace elements in the liver, kidney, and plasma of mice, counteracting the harmful effects of phytic acid.

Structural basis for high selectivity of a rice silicon channel Lsi1

Silicon (Si), the most abundant mineral element in the earth’s crust, is taken up by plant roots in the form of silicic acid through Low silicon rice 1 (Lsi1). Lsi1 belongs to the Nodulin 26-like intrinsic protein subfamily in aquaporin and shows high selectivity for silicic acid. To uncover the structural basis for this high selectivity, here we show the crystal structure of the rice Lsi1 at a resolution of 1.8 Å. The structure reveals transmembrane helical orientations different from other aquaporins, characterized by a unique, widely opened, and hydrophilic selectivity filter (SF) composed of five residues. Our structural, functional, and theoretical investigations provide a solid structural basis for the Si uptake mechanism in plants, which will contribute to secure and sustainable rice production by manipulating Lsi1 selectivity for different metalloids.