T he prevalence of malnutrition in one study in a United Kingdom hospital is about 11-44% and it is increasing to 29-61% in the elderly. 1 The risk of undernutrition and malnutrition range from loss of appetite, decreased taste buds, abnormality in digestion and malabsorption, oral care and teeth problems. 2 Malnutrition also affects the immune system, the healing of wounds, loss of muscle mass and increased length of stay in hospital. [3][4][5][6] Nutrition screening in the elderly is important and those who are at risk of malnutrition should be detected early in order to provide appropriate nutrition support in time. Adam et al. 4 reported that medical staff, including doctors and nurses, were concerned about malnutrition in only 19 percent of the total at risk patients in the hospital. Usually, the process to screen for risk of malnutrition takes a lot of time and it is difficult to do because there are a lot of factors: history of body weight, weight change in the past 6 months, body mass index, anthropometry, nutrition chemical data and dietary history. A Mini Nutritional Assessment (MNA) is developed to screen malnutrition in the elderly and it is reported that the MNA is related to malnutrition. 5 MNA has been accepted by 71.3% of dietitians, but is only used to screen malnutrition in the elderly in around 20% of cases, 6 as MNA takes a lot of time (average 15 minutes per person) and is not always easy to measure arm and calf circumference. Mostly, the elderly have no data of current body weight (54.1%) nor of height (25.9%) because they cannot be weighed or stand. 7 In Thailand, Elimitus Professor Comindr S. has developed the Nutrition Alert Form (NAF) which is easy to use and can screen nutrition status in people who do not have body weight by total lymphocyte (commonly blood test) or serum albumin. NAF has been accepted by the Asian Pacific Journal of Nutrition. 8 But, there have been no reports of the use of NAF in the elderly. Therefore, the objective of this research is to study the correlation and concordance between NAF and MNA Abstract OBJECTIVES: This research aimed to study the correlation between a Nutrition Alert Form (NAF) and a Mini Nutritional Assessment (MNA) in evaluating the nutritional status of the elderly and evaluated the relation between NAF, MNA and biochemical nutrition data. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A cross sectional study was conducted in 153 outpatient and inpatient elder at Bangkok Hospital from February to September 2015. The nutrition status of participants was screened by a longevity nurse with MNA and NAF and serum pre-albumin was collected. After that, the dietitian evaluated the nutrition assessment and recalled dietary habit, and the reason of weight change. Statistical analysis of this study used SPSS (Statistical Package for Social Science) version 19.0. Kappa index to analyze the agreement between NAF and MNA. The correlation was analyzed by Spearman's correlation coefficient. RESULTS:The kappa index between the NAF and the MNA (standard) which was moderate: K 0.563 w...

Brahmi (Bacopa monnieri) is a medicinal herb containing bioactive compounds (Bacosides) in the saponin group that enhances memory and prevents dementia. Brahmi is not favored for cooking because it is very bitter. Nowadays, most people consume Brahmi as supplementary food, which makes it more expensive than consuming in food form, not getting fibers and other nutrients. Currently, there are only few studies that work to alleviate in Brahmi. Therefore, this study aimed to find out the saponin quantity in Brahmi after some pretreatments and the effect of these treatments on Bacosides and bitterness. Thus, suitable preparation steps for Brahmi have the highest remaining saponin quantity and are consumable. There were various techniques of preparation, depending on the concentration of salt used in crumpling and 1 time boiling of Brahmi to reduce its bitterness. The salt concentrations used in this study were 0, 10, and 20 % (w/w) compared with the fresh herb. The saponin quantity was analyzed by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). The results showed that the total amount of saponin in boiled Brahmi that crumpled with 0, 10, and 20 % were significantly lower than fresh Brahmi (p < 0.05). Brahmi was crumpled with 10 % salt before boiling had the highest total saponin quantity of 2.69±0.02 g/kg of fresh weight and the highest tasting scores. Thus, the preparation of crumpling with 10 % salt before cooking, was suitable because consumers gained the highest saponin and accepted the taste of food containing Brahmi. HIGHLIGHTS Brahmi have many health benefits not only memory enhancer but also prevention of dementia People used Brahmi as supplementary food because it is very bitter and not favored for cooking Reduce the bitter with non chemical as crumpling with 10 % salt concentration before cooking was highest saponin and accepted the taste of food containing Brahmi