Recent Patents on Food, Nutrition & Agriculture - Volume 7, Issue 2, 2015

Soybeans contain various components with potential health benefits effects, but the impact of soy foods and processed soy foods on human health has gone progressively characterized. Soy foods are the traditional Asian diets; however because of their intended health benefits they have gone popular in Westerners, especially postmenopausal women. There are lots of biologically active soybean constituents that might lead to the possible health benefits of soy, and almost consideration has concentrated on the isoflavones, which have both hormonal and nonhormonal activities. The various other constituents of soybeans (saponins, soy protein or peptides, lecithin, and flavonoids) have differing biological activities. These include hormonal, immunological, bacteriological and digestive effects. This review is the broad assessment of the literature comprehensive the health effects of soy constituents that are of superlative interest. The health benefits of soy foods on four diseases - cardiovascular disease (CVD), non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), obesity and diabetes - are the focus of the review.

The expected prevalence of Alzheimer's disease (AD), the most common neurodegenerative disease triggered by aging, has become a critical problem. Although the cause is clear, accumulation of amyloid-β (Aβ), we still cannot totally cure this disease. Hence, it is essential to prevent the symptoms that have appeared. A number of studies have reported that soybean supplementation prevents cognitive dysfunction. Besides being a rich source of vegetable proteins, soybean contains other functional ingredients such as phytoestrogens, oligosaccharides, and dietary fibers. Especially, recent studies suggested greater functions with green soybean. Comprehensive analysis of gene expression in the brains of mice that ingested soybean using high-density oligonucleotide microarray suggests that an increase of an endogenous Aβ-chaperone, lipocalin-type prostaglandin D2 synthase (Ptgds), leads to suppressed Aβ accumulation, resulting in the prevention of cognitive dysfunction. Here we will review relevant patents and estimated effective components and underlying mechanisms of soybeans, suggested by comparing effects of green and yellow soybean breeds to mice.

Inflammation is an immune response against both internal and external antigens in organisms, particularly in mammals, and includes both uncontrolled chronic and low-grade inflammations. Uncontrolled chronic inflammation often leads to severe diseases such as vascular disease, arthritis, cancer, diabete, allergy, and autoimmunity. On the other hand, low-grade inflammation is recognized as a relationship between obesity and risk of metabolic syndrome. Elevated production of pro-inflammatory cytokines and mediators is commonly observed in patients with uncontrolled or low-grade inflammation-associated diseases. Plants have been generated phytochemicals to overcome inflammations and infections through evolution. Phytochemicals belong to alkaloids, polyphenols, flavonoids, coumarins, and terpenoids. The consumption of soybeans plays a role in immune modulation through their components such as isoflavones, saponins, and anthocyanins. Recently, it was reported that the application of phytochemicals into patients with inflammatory diseases improves their symptoms. Therefore, it is important to identify novel phytochemicals with immunomodulatory activities. This review introduces and discusses recent advances and patents regarding soybean or processed soy food compounds which exhibit immunomodulatory activity in immune diseases, particularly allergy, by mediating the suppression of inflammatory pathways.

Dietary proteins from soybeans have been shown to offer health benefits in vivo and/or in vitro either as intact proteins or in partially digested forms also called bioactive peptides. Upon oral administration and absorption, soy-derived bioactive peptides may induce several physiological responses such as antioxidative, antimicrobial, antihypertensive, anticancer and immunomodulatory effects. There has therefore been a mounting research interest in the therapeutic potential of soy protein hydrolysates and their subsequent incorporation in functional foods and ‘Food for Specified Health Uses’ (FOSHU) related products where their biological activities may assist in the promotion of good health or in the control and prevention of diseases. This mini review discusses relevant patents and gives an overview on bioactive proteins and peptides obtainable from soybeans. Processes for the production and formulation of these peptides are given, together with specific examples of their therapeutic potential and possible areas of application.

Antioxidants are important for plant and animal’s life or health. These are the substances that protect them from the damage produced by unstable molecules called as free radicals. There are various types of antioxidants to be reported both natural as well as synthetic such as melatonin, Vitamin C, glutathione, tocopherols and tocotrienols, BHA and BHT, etc. A new antioxidant 5-O-[6˝-(3- hydroxy-3methyl glutarate) β-D-glucodise was found while studying bioactive antioxidants from plant foods for nutraceutical product development. Antioxidants have been used for increasing shelf life of various food products including extruded product. Antioxidants, their beneficial advantages and the effect of extrusion on antioxidants were reviewed and found to be effective in increasing the shelf life. This review article discusses recent patents, presents importance of antioxidant, phytochemicals and effect of process of extrusion on antioxidants.

Citrus essential oils (CEOs) are gaining popularity in the food industry. This review summarises the chemical compositions of citrus essential oils (monoterpenes, sesquiterpenes and oxygenated derivatives) and explores their antimicrobial activities for use as preservatives in addition to highlight their uses as flavouring and antioxidant agents. The myriad uses of these compounds reflect a global trend towards the increased consumption of natural products. However, challenges such as production technologies, oxidation, chemical contamination by pesticides and consumption induced allergic effects still need to be addressed. Patents identified with CEO uses in food processing and those describe techniques of extraction are presented.

Background: Conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) is a special fatty acid in dairy products with unique antioxidant and anti-cancerous effects. Kefir, a milk product, comprises normalized homogenized cow's milk, the fructose and lactulose syrup as well as a symbiotic starter which has improved probiotic characteristics. The study was aimed to discuss patents and to examine the effect of different safflower oil concentrations on CLA content of the kefir drink prepared by low-fat milk. Material and Methods: Safflower oil was added at 0.1, 0.3 and 0.5% (V/V) to low-fat cow's milk and six formulations of kefir samples were prepared. The CLA content of the kefir products was measured at pH=6.0 and pH=6.8 by gas chromatography. Acid and bile tolerance of bacterial microenvironment in the products were also determined. Results: Substitution of natural fat content of milk with safflower oil resulted in proportional increase in the CLA contents of kefir in a dose dependent manner. The highest concentration of CLA was found under 0.5% (V/V) of safflower oil at pH 6.0 and temperature of 37°C. Adding the Safflower oil into milk used for kefir production, increased CLA content from 0.123 (g/100g) in pure safflower free samples to 0.322 (g/100g) in samples with 0.5% (V/V) of safflower oil. Conclusion: The current study revealed that substitution of safflower oil with natural fat of cow’s milk may help the production of kefir samples with remarkable increase in CLA content of final product.

In this research a comparison has been made between the fatty acid and sterol compositions of Iranian pure butter and three samples of adulterated butter. These samples were formulated using edible vegetable fats/oils with similar milk fat structures including palm olein, palm kernel and coconut oil to determine the authenticity of milk fat. The amount of vegetable fats/oils used in the formulation of the adulterated butter was 10%. The adulterated samples were formulated so that their fatty acid profiles were comforted with acceptable levels of pure butter as specified by the Iranian national standard. Based on the type of the vegetable oil/fat, fatty acids such as C4:0, C12:0 and C18:2 were used as indicators for the adulterated formulations. According to the standard method of ISO, the analysis was performed using gas chromatography. The cholesterol contents were 99.71% in pure butter (B1), and 97.61%, 98.48% and 97.98% of the total sterols in the samples adulterated with palm olein, palm kernel and coconut oil (B2, B3 and B4), respectively. Contents of the main phytosterol profiles such as β-sitosterol, stigmasterol and campesterol were also determined. The β-sitosterol content, as an indicator of phytosterols, was 0% in pure butter, and 1.81%, 1.67% and 2.16%, of the total sterols in the adulterated samples (B2, B3 and B4), respectively. Our findings indicate that fatty acid profiles are not an efficient indicator for butter authentication. Despite the increase in phytosterols and the reduction in cholesterol and with regard to the conformity of the sterol profiles of the edible fats/oils used in the formulations with Codex standards, lower cholesterol and higher phytosterols contents should have been observed. It can therefore be concluded that sterol measurement is insufficient to verify the authenticity of the milk fat in butter. It can therefore be concluded that sterol measurement is insufficient in verifying the authenticity of milk fat.