Five strains of bifidobacteria were screened for b-glucosidase activity using p-nitrophenyl-b-Dglucopyranoside as the substrate, and selected strains were used to ferment soymilk. Enumeration of viable bifidobacteria and quantification of isoflavones using HPLC were performed at 0, 12, 24, 36, and 48 h of incubation. Four strains produced b-glucosidase. B. pseudolongum and B. longum-a displayed the best growth in soymilk, with an increase of 1.3 log 10 CFU/mL after 12 h. B. animalis, B. longum-a, and B. pseudolongum caused hydrolysis of isoflavone malonyl-, acetyl-and b-glucosides to form aglycones, and transformed daidzein to equol in soymilk. Fermentation of soymilk with Bifidobacterium sp. resulted in a significant increase (p < 0.05) in the concentration of aglycones.

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Hydromethanolic extracts of brown, red, and white sorghum whole grains were analysed by LC-MS(n) in negative ESI mode within the range m/z 150-550amu. Besides the flavonoids already reported in sorghum, a number of flavonoids were also identified in the sorghum grain for the first time, including flavanones, flavonols and flavanonols, and flavan-3-ol derivatives. Various phenylpropane glycerides were also found in the sorghum grain, the majority of them are reported here for the first time, and a few of them were detected with abundant peaks in the extracts, indicating they are another important class of phenolic compounds in sorghum. In addition, phenolamides were also found in sorghum grain, which have not been reported before, and dicaffeoyl spermidine was detected in high abundance in the extracts of all three type sorghum grains. These results confirmed that sorghum is a rich source of various phenolic compounds.

Preliminary findings show that Lepidium meyenii (Maca) (3.5 g/d) reduces psychological symptoms, including anxiety and depression, and lowers measures of sexual dysfunction in postmenopausal women independent of estrogenic and androgenic activity.