The concentration of advanced glycation end products (AGEs) in foods, which are formed by Maillard reaction, has demonstrated as risk factors associated with many chronic diseases. The AGEs inhibitory activities of five common phenolic acids (protocatechuic acid, dihydroferulic acid, p-coumaric acid, p-hydroxybenzoic acid and salicylic acid) with different chemical properties had been investigated in two food simulation systems (glucose-bovine serum albumin (BSA) and oleic acid-BSA). The results substantiated that the AGEs inhibitory abilities of phenolic acids in the oleic acid BSA system were much better than the glucose-BSA system for their strong reducing powers and structures. Among them, dihydrogenferulic acid showed strong inhibition of AGEs formation in oleic acid-BSA system at 0.01 mg/mL compared to nonsignificant AGEs inhibitory effect in oleic acid-BSA system at 10-fold higher concentration (0.1 mg/mL). This study suggests that edible plants rich in phenolic acids may be used as AGEs inhibitor during high-fat cooking.

The present study aimed to elucidate the photosynthetic performance, antioxidant enzyme activities, anthocyanin contents, anthocyanin biosynthetic gene expression, and vanadium uptake in mustard genotypes (purple and green) that differ in photosynthetic capacity under vanadium stress. The results indicated that vanadium significantly reduced photosynthetic activity in both genotypes. The activities of the antioxidant enzymes were increased significantly in response to vanadium in both genotypes, although the purple exhibited higher. The anthocyanin contents were also reduced under vanadium stress. The anthocyanin biosynthetic genes were highly expressed in the purple genotype, notably the genes TT8, F3H, and MYBL2 under vanadium stress. The results indicate that induction of TT8, F3H, and MYBL2 genes was associated with upregulation of the biosynthetic genes required for higher anthocyanin biosynthesis in purple compared with the green mustard. The roots accumulated higher vanadium than shoots in both mustard genotypes. The results indicate that the purple mustard had higher vanadium tolerance.

The biosynthesis of penicillin G (PG) is compartmentalized, which forces penicillin and its intermediates to cross the membrane barriers. Although many aspects around the penicillin intermediates traffic system remain unclosed, the transmembrane transporter protein involvement has been only predicted. In the present work, detection of PG and isopenicillin N (IPN) in Monascus ruber M7 was performed and functions of mfst gene as a transporter were investigated by the combination of gene deletion (Δmfst) complementation (ΔmfsT::mfsT) and overexpression (M7::PtrpC-mfsT). While, the feeding of PG pathway precursor side chain and amino acids, i.e., phenylacetic acid, D-valine, and L-cysteine was performed for the interpretation of mfsT gene role as an intermediate transporter. The results showed that, the feeding of phenylacetic acid, D-valine, and L-cysteine possessed a significant effect on morphologies, secondary metabolites (SMs) production of all above-mentioned strains including M. ruber M7. The results of UPLC-MS/MS revealed that, ΔmfsT interrupt the penicillin G (PG) production in M. ruber M7 by blocking the IPN transportation, while PG and IPN produced by the ΔmfsT::mfsT have been recovered the similar levels to those of M. ruber M7. Conclusively, these findings suggest that the M. ruber M7 is, not only a PG producer, but also, indicate that the mfsT gene is supposed to play a key role in IPN intermediate compound transportation during the PG production in M. ruber M7.

Monascus vinegar (MV), during whose brewing process Monascus spp. and polished rice (PR) are normally used as the starter and the raw material, respectively, is one of the traditional vinegars in China. In this study, the effects of three raw materials, including PR, unhusked rice (UR), and germinated UR (GR), on MV volatile compounds have been investigated. The results revealed that MV of GR (GMV), and its intermediate Monascus wine (GMW), exhibited the highest amount of aroma, not only in the concentrations but also in the varieties of the aromatic compounds mainly contributing to the final fragrance. Especially after three years of aging, the contents of benzaldehyde and furfural in GMV could reach to 13.93% and 0.57%, respectively, both of which can coordinate synergistically on enhancing the aroma. We also found that the filtering efficiency was significantly improved when UR and GR were applied as the raw materials, respectively. Therefore, GR might be more suitable raw materials for MV.

Monascus species have been used for the production of many industrially and medically important metabolites, most of which are polyketides produced by the action of polyketide synthases that use acetyl-CoA and malonyl-CoA as precursors, and some of them are derived from acetate. In this study the effects of acetic acid, and two kinds of acetates, sodium acetate and ammonium acetate at different concentrations (0.1%, 0.25% and 0.5%) on the morphologies, biomasses, and six major Monascus pigments (MPs) of M. ruber M7 were investigated when M7 strain was cultured on potato dextrose agar (PDA) at 28 °C for 4, 8, 12 days. The results showed that all of the added acetate species significantly affected eight above-mentioned parameters. In regard to morphologies, generally the colonies transformed from a big orange fleecy ones to a small compact reddish ones, or a tightly-packed orange ones without dispersed mycelia with the increase of additives concentration. About the biomass, addition of ammonium acetate at 0.1% increased the biomass of M. ruber M7. With respect to six MPs, all acetate species can enhance pigment production, and ammonium acetate has the most significant impacts. Production of monascin and ankaflavin had the highest increase of 11.7-fold and 14.2-fold in extracellular contents at the 8th day when 0.1% ammonium acetate was supplemented into PDA. Intracellular rubropunctatin and monascorubrin contents gained 9.6 and 6.46-fold at the 8th day, when 0.1% ammonium acetate was added into PDA. And the extracellular contents of rubropunctamine and monascorubramine were raised by 1865 and 4100-fold at the 4th day when M7 grew on PDA with 0.5% ammonium acetate.