Nutrition

Nutrition is a known aspect that plays a pivotal role in the strengthening of the immune system. Populations with poor eating habits have more risk of severe COVID-19. Micronutrients such as vitamins, including vitamins A, B complex, C, D, and E; minerals including, zinc, selenium, magnesium, and copper are mainly present in plant based foods like legumes, fruits, and vegetables to build different types of immune cells that are helpful in supporting the immune system and promote the host health. Insufficient consumption of these nutrients may result to reduce the resistance to infections as well as an increasing in disease load. Garlic, black pepper, and basel leaves are known as ancient herbs which is helpful to boost the immunity. Numerous studies observed that a powerful antioxidant bioflavonoid quercetin and a glutathione may prevent the risk of COVID-19. In conclusion, foods from plant source show a vigorous role to boost the immunity for all aged groups to control COVID-19.

Effects of Raw Material Source on the Properties of CMC Composite Films

Sodium carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) can be derived from a variety of cellulosic materials and is widely used in petroleum mining, construction, paper making, and packaging. CMCs can be derived from many sources with the final properties reflecting the characteristics of the original lignocellulosic matrix as well as the subsequent separation steps that affect the degree of carboxy methyl substitution on the cellulose hydroxyls. While a large percentage of CMCs is derived from wood pulp, many other plant sources may produce more attractive properties for specific applications. The effects of five plant sources on the resulting properties of CMC and CMC/sodium alginate/glycerol composite films were studied. The degree of substitution and resulting tensile strength in leaf-derived CMC was from 0.87 to 0.89 and from 15.81 to 16.35 MPa, respectively, while the degree of substitution and resulting tensile strength in wooden materials-derived CMC were from 1.08 to 1.17 and from 26.08 to 28.97 MPa, respectively. Thus, the degree of substitution and resulting tensile strength tended to be 20% lower in leaf-derived CMCs compared to those prepared from wood or bamboo. Microstructures of bamboo cellulose, bamboo CMC powder, and bamboo leaf CMC composites’ films all differed from pine-derived material, but plant source had no noticeable effect on the X-ray diffraction characteristics, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy spectra, or pyrolysis properties of CMC or composites films. The results highlighted the potential for using plant source as a tool for varying CMC properties for specific applications.

Synthesis of Carbon Nanotubes Using Plant Source and Study their Properties

In this study the normal and activated charcoal were used to prepare normal and activated multi walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) from same plant (Citrus aurantium) which is a source of carbon by Chemical Flame Deposition method (CFDM). The obtained products were analyzed using FESEM, FTIR, XRD, and Raman spectroscopy. The FESEM image of normal charcoal revealed that it has much less nanopores than activated charcoal. The ratios of ID/IG for the normal and activated MWCNTs were 0.85 and 0.91 respectively, which shows that use activated charcoal as a source enhance the disorder and the defects on the carbon nanotubes. The results demonstrate and confirmed that a carbon nanotubes which were prepared from normal and activated charcoal have some disfigurements and have converging diameter nearly (31-88 nm) and (37-70nm) for normal and activated MWCNTs with length about (1-2) μm respectively.

Replacing dietary animal-source proteins with plant-source proteins changes dietary intake and status of vitamins and minerals in healthy adults: a 12-week randomized controlled trial

Purpose A shift towards more plant-based diets promotes both health and sustainability. However, controlled trials addressing the nutritional effects of replacing animal proteins with plant proteins are lacking. We examined the effects of partly replacing animal proteins with plant proteins on critical vitamin and mineral intake and statuses in healthy adults using a whole-diet approach. Methods Volunteers aged 20–69 years (107 female, 29 male) were randomly allocated into one of three 12-week intervention groups with different dietary protein compositions: ANIMAL: 70% animal-source protein/30% plant-source protein; 50/50: 50% animal/50% plant; PLANT: 30% animal/70% plant; all with designed protein intake of 17 E%. We analysed vitamin B-12, iodine, iron, folate, and zinc intakes from 4-day food records, haemoglobin, ferritin, transferrin receptor, folate, and holotranscobalamin II from fasting blood samples, and iodine from 24-h urine. Results At the end point, vitamin B-12 intake and status were lower in PLANT than in 50/50 or ANIMAL groups (P ≤ 0.007 for all). Vitamin B-12 intake was also lower in 50/50 than in ANIMAL (P < 0.001). Iodine intake and status were lower in both 50/50 and PLANT than in ANIMAL (P ≤ 0.002 for all). Iron and folate intakes were higher in PLANT than in ANIMAL (P < 0.001, P = 0.047), but no significant differences emerged in the respective biomarkers. Conclusions Partial replacement of animal protein foods with plant protein foods led to marked decreases in the intake and status of vitamin B-12 and iodine. No changes in iron status were seen. More attention needs to be paid to adequate micronutrient intakes when following flexitarian diets. Clinical trial registry NCT03206827; registration date: 2017–06-30.

Urinary Tract Infection – A Review on Its Prevalence and Recent Advances

The Urinary Tract Infection (UTI) is a seasonal infection prevalent in coastal areas whose intensity varies among various age groups. Escherichia coli is one of the major causative organisms. The current study is to the frequency of UTI in the Coastal region; understand the recent advances in alternative treatment & their efficacy. The known medication for the UTI is quinolones and cephalosporin. Cranberry extract is the only medicine used from a plant source that is expensive and not native to India. The main cause of UTI to spread is a lack of hygiene, sexual intercourse, and inadequate consumption of water. Change in the pH of the urethra during puberty & menopause in women facilitates the growth of opportunistic Uropathogens. Innate immunity can also contribute to the resistance of the body but a recent study says that infection rate varies among individuals considering their age, immunity, and lifestyle. The pathogens causing UTI are developing resistance against multiple drugs. From this study, we understand that Cranberry is the only plant source for the treatment of UTI in combination with antibiotics. There is a need to understand the importance of improving innate immunity and to know the best treatment regime to treat UTI.

The Complementary Roles for Plant-Source and Animal-Source Foods in Sustainable Healthy Diets

There are approximately 100 countries with food-based dietary guidelines throughout the world, each of which aims to encompass the cultural, geographical, and health considerations unique to their country of origin. Common themes throughout these guides emphasize diverse and balanced intake of food groups from both plant- and animal-sources. With the globally recognized need to shift to more sustainable food systems, several countries and international food and health organizations have begun to incorporate sustainability recommendations into their dietary guidance. These sustainability recommendations are often based on food source (i.e., eat more plant-source and fewer animal-source foods), yet food source may not be the only useful or informative comparator for assessing healthy and sustainable diets. The purpose of this narrative review is to examine the roles of plant-source foods and animal-source foods in the context of sustainable healthy diets—with an emphasis on the contributions of the most commonly recommended food groups from global food-based dietary guidelines (i.e., fruits, vegetables, and dairy foods). Overall, plant and animal agriculture have complementary and symbiotic roles in healthy and sustainable food systems, and these abilities are largely dependent on various contextual factors (e.g., geography, production practices, processing methods, consumption patterns)—not just on whether the food originated from the plant or animal kingdom.

Host Bias in Diet-Source Microbiome Transmission in Wild Cohabitating Herbivores: New Knowledge for the Evolution of Herbivory and Plant Defense

We discovered a host bias among cohabitating herbivores (leaf-eating insects and deer), where a significant portion of the herbivorous insect gut microbiome may originate from the diet, while in deer, only a tiny fraction of the gut microbiome is of dietary origin. We speculated that the putative difference in the oxygenation level in the host digestion systems would lead to these host biases in plant-source (diet) microbiome transmission due to the oxygenation living condition of the dietary plant's symbiotic microbiome.

Revealing a significant isotopic offset between plant water and its sources using a global meta-analysis

Isotope-based approaches to study plant water sources rely on the assumption that root water uptake and within-plant water transport are non-fractionating processes. However, a growing number of studies have reported offsets between plant and source water stable isotope composition, for a wide range of ecosystems. These isotopic offsets can result in the erroneous attribution of source water used by plants and potential overestimations of groundwater uptake by the vegetation. We conducted a global meta-analysis to quantify the magnitude of these plant-source water isotopic offsets and explore whether their variability could be explained by either biotic or abiotic factors. Our database compiled 112 studies, spanning arctic to tropical biomes that reported the dual water isotope composition (δ2H and δ18O) of plant (stem) and source water, including soil water. We calculated 2H offsets in two ways: a line conditioned excess (LC-excess) that describes the 2H deviation from the local meteoric water line, and a soil water line conditioned excess (SW-excess), that describes the deviation from the soil water line, for each sampling campaign within each study. We tested for the effects of climate (air temperature and soil water content), soil class and plant traits (growth form, leaf habit, wood density and parenchyma fraction and mycorrhizal habit) on LC-excess and SW-excess. Globally, stem water was more depleted in 2H than soil water (SW-excess < 0) by 3.02 ± 0.65 ‰. In 95 % of the cases where SW-excess was negative, LC-excess was negative, indicating that the uptake of water from mobile pools was unlikely to explain the observed soil-plant water isotopic offsets. SW-excess was more negative in cold and wet sites, whereas it was more positive in warm sites. Soil class and plant traits did not have any significant effect on SW-excess. The climatic effects on SW-excess suggest that methodological artefacts are unlikely to be the sole cause of observed isotopic offsets. Instead, our results support the idea that these offsets are caused by isotopic heterogeneity within plant stems whose relative importance will depend on soil and plant water status and evaporative demand. Our results would imply that plant-source water isotopic offsets may lead to inaccuracies when using the isotopic composition of bulk stem water as a proxy to infer plant water sources.