Purple sweet potato anthocyanins are kinds of natural anthocyanin red pigments extracted from the root or stem of purple sweet potato. They are stable and have the functions of anti-oxidation, anti-mutation, anti-tumor, liver protection, hypoglycemia, and anti-inflammation, which confer them a good application prospect. Nevertheless, there is not a comprehensive review of purple sweet potato anthocyanins so far. The extraction, structural characterization, stability, functional activity, application in the food, cosmetics, medicine, and other industries of anthocyanins from purple sweet potato, together with their biotransformation in vitro or by gut microorganism are reviewed in this paper, which provides a reference for further development and utilization of anthocyanins.

There has been a growing demand for pulses due to the nutrition, health benefits, and agronomical advantages, along with the recommendation of international organizations to diversify the use of pulses. Lentil, yellow pea, and chickpea were studied for their effect on the quality of the bread when incorporated into refined wheat flour. The pulse grains were roller milled into different particle sizes (small: 44-59 μm, medium: 70-85 μm, and large: 95-104 μm) with similar composition, and each refined pulse flour was incorporated in refined wheat flour at levels of 5, 12.5, and 20% (wt/wt). The flours were characterized for particle size distribution, starch damage, proximate composition, water retention, and dough mixing properties, followed by baking test and texture analysis. The particle size of the pulse flours did not significantly affect the bread volume or the texture, while increasing the pulse flour incorporation decreased the bread specific volume from 5.0 to 3.4 cm 3 /g and the hardness of the bread increased from 3.9 to 9.9 N at the maximum incorporation level. The crust color darkened as pulse flour incorporation was increased, while the effect on crumb color was marginable. Among the three pulses, chickpea performed better compared to lentil and yellow pea, and yellow pea resulted in bread with lower volume at all levels of incorporation. Enriched bread can be produced by incorporating pulse flours at up to 12.5% (wt/wt) without significant effect on the quality of bread, with chickpeas possessing better baking properties than yellow pea or lentil.

Background The key neural pathological characteristics of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) include abnormal synaptic plasticity of the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC). Exercise therapy is widely used to rehabilitate children with ASD, but its neurobiological mechanism is unclear. Methods To clarify whether the structural and molecular plasticity of synapses in the mPFC are related to improvement in ASD behavioral deficits after continuous exercise rehabilitation training, we applied phosphoproteomic, behavioral, morphological, and molecular biological methods to investigate the impact of exercise on the phosphoprotein expression profile and synaptic structure of the mPFC in valproic acid (VPA)-induced ASD rats. Results Exercise training differentially regulated the density, morphology, and ultrastructure of synapses in mPFC subregions in the VPA-induced ASD rats. In total, 1031 phosphopeptides were upregulated and 782 phosphopeptides were downregulated in the mPFC in the ASD group. After exercise training, 323 phosphopeptides were upregulated, and 1098 phosphopeptides were downregulated in the ASDE group. Interestingly, 101 upregulated and 33 downregulated phosphoproteins in the ASD group were reversed after exercise training, and these phosphoproteins were mostly involved in synapses. Consistent with the phosphoproteomics data, the total and phosphorylated levels of the proteins MARK1 and MYH10 were upregulated in the ASD group and reversed after exercise training. Conclusions The differential structural plasticity of synapses in mPFC subregions may be the basic neural architecture of ASD behavioral abnormalities. The phosphoproteins involved in mPFC synapses, such as MARK1 and MYH10, may play important roles in the exercise rehabilitation effect on ASD-induced behavioral deficits and synaptic structural plasticity, which requires further investigation.

Repurposing of waste beer yeast (WBY) that a main by-product of brewing industry has attracted considerable attention in recent years. In this study, the protein and polypeptide were extracted by ultrasonic-assisted extraction and enzymatic hydrolysis with process optimization, which resulted in a maximum yield of 73.94% and 61.24%, respectively. Both protein and polypeptide of WBY were composed of 17 Amino acids (AA) that included seven essential amino acids (EAA), and typically rich in glutamic acid (Glu) (6.46% and 6.13%) and glycine (Gly) (5.26% and 6.02%). AA score (AAS) revealed that the threonine (Thr) and SAA (methionine + cysteine) were the limiting AA of WBY protein and polypeptide. Furthermore, the antioxidant activities of WBY polypeptide that lower than 10 kDa against hydroxyl radical, DPPH radical, and ABTS radical were 95.10%, 98.37%, and 69.41%, respectively, which was significantly higher than that of WBY protein (25–50 kDa). Therefore, the protein and polypeptide extracted from WBY can be a source of high-quality AA applying in food and feed industry. Due to small molecular weight, abundant AA, and great antioxidant activity, WBY polypeptide can be promisingly used as functional additives in the pharmaceutical and healthcare industry.