Development of a functional bread technology based on a grain baking mixture

One of the priority areas for developing the food industry is to increase the production of functional food products. When developing the latter, fruit and berry processing products, grain baking mixes are used. At the same time, there are no baking mixes with the use of bioactivated wheat, characterized by an increased content of macro- and micronutrients, antioxidants, and a reduced amount of phytin. However, the preparation of grain bread based on a baking mixture of bioactivated wheat crushed by the disintegration wave method with a moisture content of 10.0 ± 0.5 % led to the production of products with a sticky, strongly jamming crumb. The aim of the research was to develop a baking mixture of bioactivated wheat and functional grain bread of improved quality based on it. At the first stage of the research, the composition of the baking mixture based on bioactivated wheat grain was selected to obtain the best quality product, at the second stage, the chemical composition of bread was evaluated based on the developed baking mixture. The change in the properties of the dough during fermentation, the quality indicators of bread after 20 hours of storage and its chemical composition were evaluated in accordance with the methods specified in the current standards. The best properties of the dough and the quality of the bread have been observed in a sample obtained on the basis of a baking mixture, in 100 g of which 75 % of the grain products are dry bioactivated wheat crushed by the disintergation-wave method, and 25 % - baking wheat flour of the first grade. As a result of the assessment of the chemical composition of the developed product, it has been found that it belongs to functional food products. The preparation of grain bread using this technology will also allow us to solve one of the tasks of the state policy in the field of healthy nutrition aimed at increasing the production of functional products.

Integrating Multiple and Fine Scale Predictors of Habitat Selection and Landscape Resistance for Amphibian Distribution Modelling at Large Scale

Context – Species distribution modelling is a common tool in conservation biology but two main criticisms remain: (1) the use of simplistic variables that do not account for species movements and/or connectivity and (2) poor consideration of multi-scale processes driving species distributions. Objectives – We aimed to determine if including multi-scale and fine-scale movement processes in SDM predictors would improve accuracy of SDM for low-mobility amphibian species over species-level analysis.Methods – We tested and compared different SDMs for nine amphibian species with four different sets of predictors: (1) simple distance-based predictors; (2) single-scale compositional predictors; (3) multi-scale compositional predictors with a priori selection of scale based on knowledge of species mobility and scale-of-effect (4) multi-scale compositional predictors calculated using a friction-based functional grain to account for resource accessibility with landscape resistance to movement.Results - Using friction-based functional grain predictors produced slight to moderate improvements of SDM performance at large scale. The multi-scale approach, with a priori scale selection led to ambiguous results depending on the species studied, in particular for generalist species.Conclusion - We underline the potential of using a friction-based functional grain to improve SDM predictions for species-level analysis.

Synbiotic Combination of Djulis (Chenopodium formosanum) and Lactobacillus acidophilus Inhibits Colon Carcinogenesis in Rats

Djulis is a functional grain containing prebiotic dietary fiber, which has an anti-cancer potential. This study examined the preventive effect of djulis alone or in combination with Lactobacillus acidophilus on colon carcinogenesis induced by 1,2-dimethylhydrazine (DMH) and dextran sulfate sodium (DSS). Rats were divided into five groups and fed B (AIN-93G, blank), C (AIN-93G, control), D (10% djulis), DLA (10% djulis plus 5 × 106 cfu L. acidophilus/g), and DHA (10% djulis plus 5 × 107 cfu L. acidophilus/g) diets, respectively. All rats except for those in group B received three doses of DMH (40 mg/kg) by intraperitoneal injection and 3% DSS in drinking water. After 10 weeks of feeding, the colon was analyzed for precancerous lesions and biomarkers. DMH and DSS treatment induced aberrant crypt foci (ACF), especially in the distal colon. D, DLA, and DHA significantly reduced the numbers of total ACF, sialomucin-producing ACF (SIM-ACF), and mucin-depleted foci (MDF) in the distal colon compared to C. Additionally, DLA and DHA further downregulated the expressions of proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) and cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) and regulated apoptosis-related proteins. These results suggest that synbiotic combination of djulis and L. acidophilus shows the best inhibitory effect on colon carcinogenesis via regulation of proliferative, inflammatory, and apoptotic pathways.