Chaya is an edible leaf popular in Mexico and Central America because of its high nutritional value. Studies in animal models have demonstrated the beneficial effects of Chaya, which include reduction of circulating lipids and increase in antioxidant activity. However, its hypolipidemic and antioxidant effects have not been demonstrated in humans. Thus, the aim of the present study was to evaluate the effect of Chaya on the lipid profile, lipid peroxidation, inflammation, and peripheral blood mononuclear cell gene expression in a population with dyslipidemia. We performed a single-arm trial in 30 participants with dyslipidemia who consumed 500 mL of Chaya beverage per day over a 6-week period. Interestingly, we observed a significant decrease in serum triglyceride concentration (P < 0.05) and an increase in plasma antioxidant activity and polyphenol concentration (P < 0.005) after 6 weeks of Chaya consumption. This was accompanied by a reduction in the oxidative stress marker MDA (P < 0.0001) and by an increase in the antioxidant enzyme CAT expression in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (P < 0.001). Altogether, our results demonstrate that consumption of Chaya has hypotriglyceridemic and antioxidant effects in subjects with dyslipidemia.

Gold complexes of 1,3-bis-pyridylimidazolium chloride (L 1 ), 1,3-bis-[2,6-diisopropylphenyl]imidazolium chloride (L 2 ) and 1,3-bis-[benzyl]benzimidazolium chloride (L 3 ) were synthesized and characterized by analytical methods. For the complexes, electronic spectral results show that there is a marked difference in the band feature observed in the spectra, ascribed to the greater relativistic effect of gold. In fluorescence studies, the complexes develop emission bands in the visible region (400-600 nm) after excitation at around 350 nm. Au complex-DNA binding was studied, and it was observed that genomic DNA isolated from the U373-GB cell line was fragmented and in some cases degraded by the Au complexes. Furthermore, the intensity of the DNA band increased when concentration of the metal complex was augmented. This study shows that the DNA cleavage is mediated by the Au complex.

Functional ice creams were developed by adding larvae of the insect Tenebrio molitor mixed with a seed (Salvia hispanica) and a pseudocereal (Chenopodium quinoa) to strawberry–cranberry ice cream. The objective was to increase micronutrients, macronutrients, and antioxidants, thus rendering the product a food complement. Four ice cream formulations were manufactured: the control strawberry–cranberry ice cream and three experimental mixtures, one of them with an addition of Tenebrio larvae (HT) and two others with a combination of Tenebrio larvae, chia (HTC), and quinoa (HTQ). The ice creams were submitted to proximate chemical analysis: mineral, fatty acid, vitamin, and one antioxidant (cyanidin 3 glucoside) determination. The strawberry–cranberry ice cream was used as a control formulation to evaluate if there were significant differences among nutrients, to which a Dunnett test with a critical value of α = 0.05% was applied. The three formulations that were studied showed a significant increase in the analyzed micronutrients and macronutrients compared to the control formulation. We observed increases of up to 62% in lipid content in the HTC formulation, while an increase of 41% in the protein content of the HT formulation was observed. We quantified an increase and enrichment of vitamins and minerals in the manufactured products, so that their nutritional value was significantly enhanced. In the determination of cyanidin 3 glucoside, we found that the formulation to which chia had been added showed an increase of 74% as compared to the control ice cream; this is important because anthocyanins are a group of flavonoids that stand out for their antioxidant and antimutagenic capabilities.

The objective was to evaluate the effect of feed inoculation with effective microorganisms (EM®) (mainly containing Lactobacillus spp.,Rhodopseudomona palustrisand Saccharomyces cerevisiae) on rumen fermentation using in vitrogas production technique. We hypothesized that increasing doses and allowing exposure of EM® for up to 48 hours, would improve digestibility and rumen fermentation. The experimental design was a 4×4 completely randomized block design including 4 EM® levels [(0(EM0), 0.5(EM0.5), 1.0 (EM1) and 1.5 (EM1.5) mL EM® / kg DM] and 4 preincubation times [0 (T0), 12(T12), 24(T24), 48 (T48) h], with four repetitions per treatment. Treatments were evaluated using 100ml glass bottles with 0.5g of the diet (20% corn stover, 20% oat hay, 48.8% ground corn, 7% molasses, 1.2% urea, 1% soybean meal, 0.9% mineral premix,1.1% salt, dry matter basis) incubated with sheep ruminal fluid in 3 different occasions. Data were analyzed with PROC MIXED of SAS and orthogonal contrasts to determine the linear and quadratic effects of EM dose and exposure time. Interaction (P < 0.05) of EM x T was observed for in vitrodry matter digestibility (IVDMD), maximum gas volume (Vmax), total volatile fatty acids (VFA), acetate (ACE), propionate (PROP), butyrate (BUT) and ammonia-nitrogen (NH3), IVDMD was higher (P < 0.01, 4.8 and 3.72%) for T48EM1.5 than T12EM0 and T0EM0, PROP was higher (P < 0.05) for T48EM0, T48EM1 and 1.5 than T12EM0. The ACE:PROP ratio was higher (P < 0.05, 17.2%) for T12EM0 than T48EM1.5. IVDMD, PROP and NH3 linearly increased (P < 0.01) with increasing exposure time. EM levels have a quadratic effect (P < 0.01) with maximum response at EM0.5. It was concluded that the addition of 0.5 to 1.5 mL/kg DM of EM® to a sheep diet and increasing preincubation time, up to 48h, improve feed fermentation and digestibility.Project was supported by UNAM, DGAPA, PAPIIT (IT202120).

The objective was to evaluate the potential of methane (CH4) mitigation of high-tannin sorghum (HTS) varieties (V). The experiment was arranged as a completely randomized block design with a 7 × 2 factorial arrangement of treatments, including 6 HTS varieties (BRS72, Dekalb; 81G67, Dupont-Pioneer; QL-BR95, Lucava; 6001, ACA; NYX, Unisem; Red Bird, Warner Seeds; 20.1±3.2 g/kg condensed tannins), a low tannin sorghum (LTS, 0.3 g/kg condensed tannins) and two levels of polyethylene-glycol (PEG; 0 and 1 g). Three independent batch culture runs were conducted using a basal diet (0.5 g) containing 72% sorghum, 18% corn stover and 10% soybean meal. Total gas production (TGP), CH4 production, gas production kinetics and dry matter digestibility (DMD) were evaluated. Data were analyzed with R studio 1.4.1106 using a mixed model and the Tukey instruction for mean comparison. Interaction (V × PEG) was not significant (P = 0.16) for DMD. However, DMD decreased (P > 0.05) 6.1 percentage units with HTS varieties compared to LTS. Furthermore, PEG increased (P > 0.05) DMD by 1.78 percentage units. The V × PEG interaction tended to be significant for TGP (P = 0.09; mL/g DM), where sorghum 81G67 + PEG showed the lowest gas production (486 mL/g DM). Kinetics of gas production were also affected. Fermentation rate was higher (P > 0 .05) for the LTS variety (0.0373 %/h) and lower (P > 0.05) for sorghum 81G67 (0.0317 %/h), while maximum volume of gas was 5.9% higher (P > 0.05) when PEG was included. Methane concentration (%) was lowest (P < 0.05) with QL-BR95 sorghum but CH4 production (mL/g DM) was not affected (P = 0.38) by sorghum variety. Methane concentration and production increased (P > 0.05) 8.9 and 4.1% respectively with PEG inclusion. In conclusion, HTS negatively affected digestibility and rumen fermentation while PEG minimized such effects. Sorghum grain varieties with high tannin content had negligible effects on rumen methanogenesis.