Effect of the Application Time of Accentuated Cut Edges (ACE) on Marquette Wine Phenolic Compounds

Cold-hardy interspecific hybrid grape varieties (Vitis spp.) have distinctive chemical compositions such as high acidity, a high content of anthocyanin diglucoside and a low condensed tannins content, compared to Vitis vinifera varieties. Considering the importance of phenolic compounds on the quality of red wine, a mechanical maceration technique, accentuated cut edges (ACE), has been evaluated when applied directly to crushed grapes (ACE-C), and 24 h before pressing (ACE-P), to improve the extraction of phenolic compounds. Samples were collected at crushing, bottling, and after five months of aging. Phenolic compounds and color characteristics of the wines were analyzed by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) with diode array and fluorescence detectors and UV-Visible spectrophotometry. The color intensity, non-anthocyanin monomeric compounds and total iron-reactive phenolics content increased after applying ACE, compared to the control (CTL) after aging, and was significantly higher (37%) after ACE-C, compared to ACE-P. However, the concentration of condensed tannins was below the limit of detection in all the samples, indicating that ACE did not help their extraction or further interactions occurred with disrupted cell wall material. Applying ACE at crushing was considered as the optimum time to achieve a higher color stability in Marquette red wines.

Spray-Drying Microencapsulation of Pink Guava (Psidium guajava) Carotenoids Using Mucilage from Opuntia ficus-indica Cladodes and Aloe Vera Leaves as Encapsulating Materials

In this work, the capacity of the mucilage extracted from the cladodes of Opuntia ficus-indica (OFI) and aloe vera (AV) leaves as wall material in the microencapsulation of pink guava carotenoids using spray-drying was studied. The stability of the encapsulated carotenoids was quantified using UV–vis and HPLC/MS techniques. Likewise, the antioxidant activity (TEAC), color (CIELab), structural (FTIR) and microstructural (SEM and particle size) properties, as well as the total dietary content, of both types of mucilage microcapsules were determined. Our results show that the use of AV mucilage, compared to OFI mucilage, increased both the retention of β-carotene and the antioxidant capacity of the carotenoid microcapsules by around 14%, as well as the total carotenoid content (TCC) by around 26%, and also favors the formation of spherical-type particles (Ø ≅ 26 µm) without the apparent damage of a more uniform size and with an attractive red-yellow hue. This type of microcapsules is proposed as a convenient alternative means to incorporate guava carotenoids, a natural colorant with a high antioxidant capacity, and dietary fiber content in the manufacture of functional products, which is a topic of interest for the food, pharmaceutical, and cosmetic industries.

Microemulsion Based Nanostructures for Drug Delivery

Most of the active pharmaceutical compounds are often prone to display low bioavailability and biological degradation represents an important drawback. Due to the above, the development of a drug delivery system (DDS) that enables the introduction of a pharmaceutical compound through the body to achieve a therapeutic effect in a controlled manner is an expanding application. Henceforth, new strategies have been developed to control several parameters considered essential for enhancing delivery of drugs. Nanostructure synthesis by microemulsions (ME) consist of enclosing a substance within a wall material at the nanoscale level, allowing to control the size and surface area of the resulting particle. This nanotechnology has shown the importance on targeted drug delivery to improve their stability by protecting a bioactive compound from an adverse environment, enhanced bioavailability as well as controlled release. Thus, a lower dose administration could be achieved by minimizing systemic side effects and decreasing toxicity. This review will focus on describing the different biocompatible nanostructures synthesized by ME as controlled DDS for therapeutic purposes.

Assessment of Abrasion-Induced Visual Defects in Twin Screw Wet Granulation Using Wall Friction Measurements

Starting point of the presented study were abrasion effects occurring during a twin screw wet granulation (TSG) process of a new chemical entity (NCE) formulation, resulting in gray spots on the final tablets. Several actions and systematic changes of equipment and process parameter settings of TSG process were conducted which reduced the visual defect rate of the tablets, i.e., gray spots on the surface, below the specification limit. To understand the rationale and mechanism behind these improvements, correlations of defect rates and wall friction measurements using a Schulze ring shear tester were evaluated. To check the suitability of the method, a broad range of wall materials as well as powder formulations at various moisture levels were investigated with regard to their wall friction angle. As differences in wall friction angle could be detected, further experiments were conducted using wall material samples made out of different screw materials for TSG. Evaluation of these screw wall material samples gave first hints, which screw materials should be preferred in regard of friction for TSG process. In the finally presented case study, wall friction measurements were performed using the above mentioned NCE formulation with known abrasion issues at TSG processing. The results confirmed that changes which led to a reduced visual defect rate of tablets correlated with a decreased wall friction angle. The results suggest wall friction measurements as a potent tool for equipment selection and establishment of a suitable process window prior to conducting TSG experiments. Graphical abstract

Homogenous Multifunctional Microspheres Induce Ferroptosis to Promote the Anti-hepatocarcinoma Effect of Chemoembolization

Transcatheter arterial chemoembolization (TACE) is one of the main palliative therapies for advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), which is also regarded as a promising therapeutic strategy for cancer treatment. However, drug-loaded microspheres (DLMs), as commonly used clinical chemoembolization drugs, still have the problems of uneven particle size and unstable therapeutic efficacy. Herein, gelatin was used as the wall material of the microspheres, and homogenous gelatin microspheres co-loaded with adriamycin and Fe3O4 nanoparticles (ADM/Fe3O4-MS) were further prepared by a high-voltage electrospray technology. The introduction of Fe3O4 nanoparticles into DLMs not only provided excellent T2-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) properties, but also improved the anti-tumor effectiveness under microwave-induced hyperthermia. The results showed that ADM/Fe3O4-MS plus microwave irradiation had significantly better antitumor efficacy than the other types of microspheres at both cell and animal levels. Our study further confirmed that ferroptosis was involved in the anti-tumor process of ADM/Fe3O4-MS plus microwave irradiation, and ferroptosis marker GPX4 was significantly decreased and ACSL4 was significantly increased, and ferroptosis inhibitors could reverse the tumor cell killing effect caused by ADM/Fe3O4-MS to a certain extent. Our results confirmed that microwave mediated hyperthermia could amplify the antitumor efficacy of ADM/Fe3O4-MS by activating ferroptosis and the introduction of Fe3O4 nanoparticles can significantly improve TACE for HCC. This study confirmed that it was feasible to use uniform-sized gelatin microspheres co-loaded with Fe3O4 nanoparticles and adriamycin to enhance the efficacy of TACE for HCC.

Sodium Caseinate and Acetylated Mung Bean Starch for the Encapsulation of Lutein: Enhanced Solubility and Stability of Lutein

Lutein is a kind of vital carotenoid with high safety and significant advantages in biological functions. However, poor water solubility and stability of lutein have limited its application. This study selected different weight ratios of sodium caseinate to acetylated mung bean starch (10:0, 9:1, 7:3, 5:5, 3:7, 1:9, and 0:10) to prepare lutein emulsions, and the microcapsules were produced by spray drying technology. The microstructure, physicochemical properties, and storage stability of microcapsules were investigated. The results show that the emulsion systems were typical non-Newtonian fluids. Lutein microcapsules were light yellow fine powder with smooth and relatively complete particle surface. The increase of sodium caseinate content led to the enhanced emulsion effect of the emulsion and the yield and solubility of microcapsules increased, and wettability and the average particle size became smaller. The encapsulation efficiency of lutein microcapsules ranged from 69.72% to 89.44%. The thermal characteristics analysis showed that the endothermic transition of lutein microcapsules occurred at about 125 °C. The microcapsules with sodium caseinate as single wall material had the worst stability. Thus, it provides a reference for expanding the application of lutein in food, biological, pharmaceutical, and other industries and improving the stability and water dispersion of other lipid-soluble active ingredients.

Effect of Conditioning on PU Foam Matrix Materials Properties

This article deals with the characterization of the thermal-induced aging of soft polyurethane (PU) foams. There are studied thermal and mechanical properties by means of thermal analysis, tensile, compression and dynamic mechanical vibration testing. It was found in this study, that the increasing relative humidity of the surrounding atmosphere leads to the initiation of the degradation processes. This is reflected in the observed decreased mechanical stiffness. It is attributed to the plasticization of the PU foams wall material. It is in agreement with the observed increase of the permanent deformation accompanied simultaneously with the decrease of Young’s modulus of elasticity. The latter phenomenon is studied by the novel non-destructive forced oscillations vibration-damping testing, which is confirmed by observed lower mechanical stiffness thus indicating the loss of the elasticity induced by samples conditioning. In parallel, observed decreasing of the matrix hardness is confirming the loss of elastic mechanical performance as well. The effect of conditioning leads to the significant loss of the PU foam’s thermal stability.

Nanoencapsulation of Mandarin Essential Oil: Fabrication, Characterization, and Storage Stability

This study evaluates the combined efficiency of whey protein isolate (WPI) with maltodextrin (MD) and gum arabic (GA), as a delivery system for encapsulating Citrus reticulata essential oil (CEO). The wall materials blended at different rates were produced to obtain seven formulations of nanocapsules (NCEO), namely NCEO-GA, NCEO-MD, NCEO-WPI, NCEO-GA/MD, NCEO-GA/WPI, NCEO-MD/WPI, and NCEO-GA/MD/WPI. The interaction between CEO and WPI was simulated by molecular docking. Findings showed that the physicochemical characteristics and storage stability of formulations containing WPI were considerably improved. The NCEO-GA/MD/WPI formulation demonstrated the optimum values of encapsulation efficiency (92.08%), highest glass transition temperature (79.11 °C), high crystallinity (45.58%), high thermal stability (mass loss at 100 °C < 5%), and also had the highest antioxidant activity and lowest peroxide value after storage. This study demonstrated that combining WPI with MD and GA, as wall material encapsulation, can produce nanocapsules with superior properties to those created using polysaccharides individually.