The extracts from white-, black-, and red-hulled rice were prepared by sequential extraction with six different polar solvents, and their radical-scavenging activities were measured by methods using 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl radical (DPPH*) and tert-butyl hydroperoxyl radical (t-BuOO*). The extracts prepared with highly polar solvents, methanol and deionized water, exhibited higher DPPH* and t-BuOO* scavenging activities in all three cultivars. In addition, the acetone extract from red-hulled rice exhibited a high DPPH* and t-BuOO* scavenging activity, while no such activity was detected for the acetone extracts from white- and black-hulled rice. The major components responsible for the radical scavenging in the acetone extract from red-hulled rice were identified as procyanidins by acidic hydrolysis, vanillin assay, and Sephadex LH-20 chromatography. GPC analysis of the acetylated procyanidins revealed that the average molecular weight is about 5000, in a range of about 500-18,000.

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Previously, we have reported that a serial passage of 83P-5 strain of porcine epidemic diarrhea virus (PEDV) in Vero cells resulted in a growth adaptation of the virus in cultured cells at the 22nd passage. In this study, we further maintained the 83P-5 in Vero cells up to the 100th passage and analyzed changes in the spike (S), membrane (M), and nucleocapsid (N) gene sequences and pathogenicity of the virus at the 34th, 61st, and 100th passage levels. Sequence analyses revealed a strong selection for the S gene of 83P-5 in Vero cells, and virtually all mutations occurring at the 34th and 61st passages had been carried over to the 100th-passaged virus. In contrast, the viral M and N genes showed a strong conservation during the serial passage. Pigs experimentally infected with the 34th- or 61st-passaged virus, but not the 100th-passaged virus, exhibited diarrhea, indicating an attenuation of the 83P-5 at the 100th passage. Interestingly, S protein of the attenuated 100th-passaged 83P-5 showed a remarkable sequence similarity to that of previously reported DR-13 strain of attenuated PEDV that also had been established by serial passage in Vero cells. Further studies will be required to define whether the mutations in the S gene of 83P-5 that had been selected and accumulated during the serial passages are indeed the causalities of the growth adaptation in vitro and the attenuation of virulence in vivo.

A near infrared (NIR) spectral pattern of oil contains information about fatty acid composition, because NIR absorption bands around 1600-1800 nm and 2100-2200 nm are due to the straight carbon chain and c/s double bonds, respectively. This study was undertaken to build a foundation for the rapid determination of the fatty acid composition in oil by an NIR method. First, NIR spectra of pure triglycerides were measured and characterized. Fatty add compositions could be estimated roughly by comparing the spectra of fats and oils (butter fat, pig milk fat, soybean oil and palm oil) with those of pure triglycerides. Secondly, the NIR spectra of these fats and oils were reconstructed by summation of the triglyceride spectra, which are multiplied by factors corresponding to the fatty acid composition of the sample determined by gas chromatography. The calculated spectra agree with the originals, especially for that of soybean oil. However, in order to reconstruct spectra precisely, it may be necessary to reevaluate the loading weight of each triglyceride, which was equal in this study. KEY WORDS: Fatty acid composition, near infrared, spectroscopy.Recently, near infrared (NIR) spectroscopy has been