Germination is considered to be an effective process for improving the nutritional quality and functionality of cereals. In this study, changes of nutritional ingredients, antinutritional components, chemical composition, and antioxidant activities of buckwheat seeds over 72 h of germination were investigated, and the reasons for these changes are discussed. With the prolonged germination time, the contents of crude protein, reducing sugar, total phenolics, total flavonoids, and condensed tannins increased significantly, while the levels of crude fat, phytic acid, and the activity of trypsin inhibitor decreased. Phenolic compounds, such as rutin, vitexin, isovitexin, orientin, isoorientin, chlorogenic acid, trans-3-hydroxycinnamic acid, and p-hydroxybenzoic acid increased significantly during the germination process, which may be due to the activation of phenylalanine ammonialyase. The improvement of flavonoids led to significant enhancement of the antioxidant activities of germinated buckwheat. Germinated buckwheat had better nutritional value and antioxidant activities than ungerminated buckwheat, and it represented an excellent natural source of flavonoids and phenolic compounds, especially rutin and C-glycosylflavones. Therefore, germinated buckwheat could be used as a promising functional food for health promotion.

Rhizoma Paridis saponins are bioactive steroidal saponins derived from Paris polyphylla. Optimization of the ionization process was performed with electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry in both positive and negative-ion modes. Negative-ion ESI was adopted for generation of the precursor deprotonated molecules to achieve the best ionization sensitivity for the analytes. Positive ionization was used to choose the most abundant fragment ion. Furthermore, according to the characteristic fragmentation behavior of known steroidal saponins isolated from this plant (polyphyllin D, formosanin C, gracillin, Paris H, Paris VII, and dioscin), 23 constituents were structurally characterized on the basis of their retention time and ESI analyses, including four pairs of naturally occurring isomers. Five of these 23 constituents were new compounds. The analytical method of LC-MS(n) in positive and negative-ion modes has been developed for the direct structural elucidation of steroid saponins of this kind in plant extracts.

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Objective In this case–control study, we retrospectively analyzed the intestinal flora compositions of patients with early-stage chronic kidney disease (CKD). Methods Forty-seven patients with early CKD who were treated at the Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital between March and October 2018 were enrolled, and 150 healthy volunteers were enrolled in the healthy control group. Fresh stool samples were collected. The V3–V4 region of the bacterial 16S rRNA was amplified via PCR. Biterminal sequencing was performed using the Illumina MiSeq platform. The flora compositions were compared between the two groups. Results The Chao1 and Shannon indices showed significantly lower intestinal flora diversity and abundances in the CKD group than in the healthy controls. Beta diversity analysis revealed notable differences in the intestinal flora compositions between the groups. At the phylum level, Actinobacteria and Proteobacteria abundances were significantly higher in the CKD group. Thirty-one species differed significantly between both groups, among which, differences in Ruminococcus and Roseburia displayed the highest diagnostic values for distinguishing CKD patients from healthy controls. Conclusions Intestinal flora compositions are altered in early-stage CKD patients among the Han population in southwestern China.