No abstract

Broccoli is found to be a good source of glucosinolates, which can be hydrolyzed by endogenous myrosinase to obtain chemopreventive isothiocyanates (ITCs); among them, sulforaphane (SF) is the most important agent. Studies have shown that cooking greatly affects the levels of SF and total ITCs in broccoli. However, the stability of these compounds during cooking has been infrequently examined. In this study, we proved that the half-lives of SF and total ITCs during stir-frying were 7.7 and 5.9 min, respectively, while the myrosinase activity decreased by 80% after stir-frying for 3 min; SF and total ITCs were more stable than myrosinase. Thus, the contents of SF and total ITCs decreased during stir-frying largely because myrosinase was destroyed. Subsequently, it was confirmed that compared to direct stir-frying, hydrolysis of glucosinolates in broccoli for 90 min followed by stir-frying increased the SF and total ITC concentration by 2.8 and 2.6 times, respectively. This method provides large quantities of beneficial ITCs even after cooking.

No abstract

The abilities of broccoli seed extracts and purified sulforaphane (SF) to scavenge 2,2 0 -azinobis [3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulphonate] (ABTS •+ ), 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH • ) and superoxide anions were studied. The free radical scavenging activities of broccoli seed extracts had no exact correlation with SF content, indicating that SF was not the main antioxidant component. The broccoli seed extracts were separated by high-speed countercurrent chromatography to obtain purified SF, which showed dosedependent free radical scavenging activities in the DPPH • and ABTS •+ assays, but its activities were weaker to those of ascorbic acid. The same trend was observed in the chemiluminescence assay. The results showed that broccoli seed extracts had strong free radical scavenging activities that were not attributable to SF.

To the Editor:We congratulate Geraghty et al 1 and their team for their finding that SII index was an independent predictor of delayed cerebral vasospasm in aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage (aSAH). Delayed cerebral ischemia (DCI) is one of the common complications after aSAH contributing to poor functional outcomes. 2 Until now, cerebral vasospasm is still widely accepted as the primary cause to DCI after aSAH. 3 Therefore, identification of easily accessible and reliable predictors for vasospasm could bring improvement in patient risk stratification and future intervention. However, several issues in this great work still need to be addressed.First, the authors did not set up exclusion criteria during the patient collection. Other conditions, such as thrombocytopenia, lymphoma, infections, or autoimmune disease cancer, might also affect the SII index. These comorbidities should be taken into consideration in the future prospective studies. Second, neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR), another readily available and convenient biomarker, has been reported to independently predict development of DCI (odds ratio [OR] 1.7, 95% CI 1.1-2.5, P = .008) 4 and unfavorable functional outcomes (OR 1.014, 95% CI 1.001-1.027, P = .028). 5 The main difference between SII and NLR is the platelet count when calculating the index. In this study, Geraghty et al reported that NLR also independently predicted vasospasm with an OR of 1.088 (95% CI 1.032-1.147, P = .002) in the multivariable logistic regression analysis. However, in the receiver operating characteristic curves, the authors only compared SII and the multivariable SII model with modified Fisher scale, with the NLR not included. Third, the authors reported the optimal cutoff of SII in the receiver operating characteristic curve for distinguishing between patients with or without vasospasm. It would provide more information if the association between the admission characteristics and SII was analyzed with the aim to detect the predictors of elevated SII.In all, we thank the authors for their original work and their detection of a new promising index for predicting vasospasm in patients with aSAH.