Search Results (13)

Breast milk serves as the primary source of nourishment for newborns. In cases of low milk production, one approach to address this challenge involves the consumption of lactagogues. Chicken–herb essence, a beverage rich in protein, amino acids, and minerals, presents itself as a viable option to supplement a lactating mother’s diet, particularly in terms of protein intake. This study aimed to evaluate the effects of chicken–herb essence on prolactin and lactoferrin in lactating rats. Furthermore, the study also assessed the lactagogue effect on IgA in offspring. The experimental research method used a completely randomized design. The animal models in this study were female Sprague Dawley rats. The result showed that there was an increase in milk production, as seen from the results of the lactagogue effect. The highest increase in prolactin and lactoferrin was obtained in treatment group II (TG II). The increases in prolactin and lactoferrin of TG II were 214.18 ± 71.99 and 904.02 ± 435.35 pg/mL, respectively. The lactagogue test showed that TG II haspotency as a milk-booster. Testing the blood serum of offspring showed that the highest concentration of IgA was also found in TG II at 398.34 ± 214.85 pg/mL. Full article

Campylobacter jejuni is the leading cause of foodborne bacterial gastroenteritis in humans worldwide. Contaminated chickens and their products are the main sources of human campylobacteriosis. Therefore, this study aimed to detect the genotypic and virulence genes‘ profiles of multi-drug resistant (MDR) C. jejuni isolates and to assess the effects of sub-inhibitory concentrations (SICs) of eugenol and beta-resorcylic acid on the virulence of avian MDR C. jejuni isolates. These isolates were clustered together with the human isolates via enterobacterial repetitive intergenic consensus-PCR (ERIC-PCR) fingerprinting. A total of 345 samples were collected from human stool (100) and different chicken (245) samples in Sharkia Governorate, Egypt. Conventional phenotypic methods identified 113 isolates (32.8%) as C. jejuni, and all C. jejuni isolates were MDR and resistant to erythromycin and ampicillin. The genes virB11, wlaN, and flaA were detected in 52%, 36% and 100% strains, respectively. ERIC-PCR yielded 14 profiles and five main clusters. Interestingly, human and chicken C. jejuni isolates were clustered together in ERIC-PCR clusters II-V, which confirmed the genetic relatedness between the isolates from both origins. Beta-resorcylic acid and eugenol inhibited the invasion of C. jejuni isolates to chicken intestinal cells by 41.66–38.19% and 31.94–29.16%, respectively, and minimized the transcription of flaA, virB11, and wlaN genes in the tested isolates by real-time quantitative reverse transcription PCR (qRT-PCR). In essence, eugenol and beta-resorcylic acid are promising natural antimicrobials for minimizing the virulence of MDR C. jejuni in chickens, thereby managing human campylobacteriosis. Full article

Cognitive decline is an important issue of global public health. Cognitive aging might begin at middle adulthood, the period particularly vulnerable to stress in lifespan. Essence of chicken (EOC) has consistently demonstrated its beneficial effects on various cognitive domains as nutritional supplementation. This study primarily aimed to examine the cognitive enhancement effects of ProBeptigen^® (previously named CMI-168), hydrolyzed peptides extracted from EOC, in healthy middle-aged people under mild stress. Ninety healthy subjects were randomly assigned into the ProBeptigen^® or placebo group for eight weeks. Neurocognitive assessment, event-related potentials (ERPs), and blood tests were conducted before, during, and after the treatment. The ProBeptigen^® group outperformed placebo group on Logical Memory subtests of Wechsler Memory Scale-third edition (WMS-III) and Spatial Working Memory task in the Cambridge Neuropsychological Test Automated Battery (CANTAB). The anti-inflammatory effects of ProBeptigen^® in humans were also confirmed, with progressively declining high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP) levels. Regular dietary supplementation of ProBeptigen^® is suggested to improve verbal short- and long-term memory as well as spatial working memory, and reduce inflammation in middle-aged healthy individuals with stress. The effects of ProBeptigen^® on cognition warrant further investigation. (NCT03612752) Full article

The study tested whether anserine (beta-alanyl-3-methyl-l-histidine), the active ingredient of chicken essence affects exercise-induced oxidative stress, cell integrity, and haematology biomarkers. In a randomized placebo-controlled repeated-measures design, ten healthy men ingested anserine in either a low dose (ANS-LD) 15 mg·kg⁻¹·bw⁻¹, high dose (ANS-HD) 30 mg·kg⁻¹·bw⁻¹, or placebo (PLA), following an exercise challenge (time to exhaustion), on three separate occasions. Anserine supplementation increased superoxide dismutase (SOD) by 50% (p < 0.001, effect size d = 0.8 for both ANS-LD and ANS-HD), and preserved catalase (CAT) activity suggesting an improved antioxidant activity. However, both ANS-LD and ANS-HD elevated glutathione disulfide (GSSG), (both p < 0.001, main treatment effect), and consequently lowered the glutathione to glutathione disulfide (GSH/GSSG) ratio compared with PLA (p < 0.01, main treatment effect), without significant effects on thiobarbituric acid active reactive substances (TBARS). Exercise-induced cell damage biomarkers of glutamic-oxaloacetic transaminase (GOT) and myoglobin were unaffected by anserine. There were slight but significant elevations in glutamate pyruvate transaminase (GPT) and creatine kinase isoenzyme (CKMB), especially in ANS-HD (p < 0.05) compared with ANS-LD or PLA. Haematological biomarkers were largely unaffected by anserine, its dose, and without interaction with post exercise time-course. However, compared with ANS-LD and PLA, ANS-HD increased the mean cell volume (MCV), and decreased the mean corpuscular haemoglobin concentration (MCHC) (p < 0.001). Anserine preserves cellular homoeostasis through enhanced antioxidant activity and protects cell integrity in healthy men, which is important for chronic disease prevention. However, anserine temporal elevated exercise-induced cell-damage, together with enhanced antioxidant activity and haematological responses suggest an augmented exercise-induced adaptative response and recovery. Full article

There has been increasing evidence that consumption of dietary supplements or specific nutrients can influence cognitive processes and emotions. A proprietary chicken meat extraction, Chicken Meat Ingredient-168 (CMI-168), has previously been shown to enhance cognitive function in humans. However, the mechanism underlying the CMI-168-induced benefits remains unclear. In this study, we investigated the effects of CMI-168 on hippocampal neuroplasticity and memory function in middle-aged (9–12 months old) mice. The mice in the test group (termed the “CMI-168 group”) were fed dietary pellets produced by mixing CMI-168 and normal laboratory mouse chow to provide a daily CMI-168 dose of 150 mg/kg of body weight for 6 weeks. The control mice (termed the “Chow group”) were fed normal laboratory mouse chow pellets. CMI-168 supplementation did not affect the body weight gain, food intake, or exploratory behavior of the mice. In the novel object recognition test, the CMI-168 group showed better hippocampus-related non-spatial memory compared to the control Chow group. However, spatial memory examined by the Morris Water Maze test was similar between the two groups. There was also no significant difference in the induction and maintenance of long-term potentiation and dendritic complexity of the hippocampal cornu ammonis region 1 (CA1) neurons, as well as the levels of neuroplasticity-related proteins in the hippocampi of the CMI-168 and Chow groups. Interestingly, we observed that CMI-168 appeared to protect the mice against stress-induced weight loss. In conclusion, dietary supplementation of CMI-168 was found to improve learning and memory in middle-aged mice, independent of structural or functional changes in the hippocampus. The resilience to stress afforded by CMI-168 warrants further investigation. Full article

Essence of chicken is a popular Asian nutritional supplement that is often taken to improve metabolism and general health. Although used as a traditional remedy for combating fatigue and general health, there has been few studies investigating the ergogenic properties of chicken essence and its associated mechanism. We conducted a study to investigate the anti-fatigue and anti-oxidant properties of essence of chicken (EC) after exercise. Six weeks old male Institute of Cancer Research (ICR) mice were divided to four groups (10 mice/group) and were provided different doses of Essence of Chicken (EC): (1) Vehicle (water), (2) EC-0.5X (558 mg/kg), (3) EC-1X (1117 mg/kg), and (4) EC-2X (2234 mg/kg). EC supplementation could improve endurance and grip strength (p < 0.0001) and it had significant effects on the fatigue-related biochemical markers: ammonia, blood urea nitrogen (BUN), and creatine kinase (CK) levels were significantly lowered, while glucose blood levels and lactate clearance were improved after exercise challenge. Muscle and liver glycogen levels, muscle and liver superoxide dismutase (SOD), hepatic catalase (CAT), and glutathione (GSH) levels were observed to increase with EC supplementation. Preliminary in vitro data suggests that EC may have a beneficial effect in muscle mass and strength. No abnormalities were observed from pathohistological examination. Our study suggests that the EC could significantly improve exercise performance and endurance capacity and that the anti-oxidant properties of EC may be an important contributing factor to its anti-fatigue effects. Full article

Beef extract (BE) is a nutritional supplement obtained by cooking beef meat. Compared with traditional chicken essence or clam extract, BE is cheaper to produce and may be used for wound healing, as a chemotherapy supplement, or to prevent fatigue. In this study, we evaluated the potential beneficial effects of BE on exercise performance and the related role of the gut microbiota. Pathogen-free male BALB/c mice were divided into three groups to receive vehicle or BE (0, 12.3, or 24.6 mL/kg) by oral gavage for 28 days. Exercise performance was evaluated using forelimb grip strength, swimming time to exhaustion, and physiological levels of fatigue-related biomarkers (serum lactate, blood urea nitrogen, and glucose levels) after physical challenges. BE supplementation elevated endurance and grip strength in a dose-dependent manner; significantly decreased lactate and blood urea nitrogen levels after physical challenge; and significantly increased muscle glycogen content. The germ-free mice supplemented with BE or an equal-calorie portion of albumin did not show significant differences from the other groups in exercise performance and levels of related biomarkers. Therefore, BE supplementation improved endurance and reduced fatigue, which might be related to BE composition, but had no correlation with the gut microbiota. Full article

High-quality, adequately-powered clinical trials investigating the effect of Essence of Chicken (EC) on cognitive function are lacking. We conducted a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial on healthy adult volunteers to determine the effect of EC on short-term memory, working memory, and selective and sustained attention. As a secondary objective, we evaluated baseline stress as a modifying factor by including treatment, stress and visit as main effects in a three-way ANOVA model. Cognitive function was evaluated at baseline, and Days 7 and 14. Data from 235 participants were analyzed on a per-protocol basis. The three-way interaction effect was significant (p = 0.020) in Digit Span Forward and further analyses showed EC improved test performance in moderate (p = 0.041) and severe stress (p = 0.065) but not in normal and mild stress subgroups. In Digit Span Backward, EC group showed greater improvement compared to placebo (p = 0.028), with 0.60 digits (8.50% improvement from baseline) more recalled on Day 7. No treatment or interaction effects were statistically significant in selective and sustained attention tests. Our findings support EC’s effect in improving mental processes used in working memory among healthy adults and short-term memory among healthy adults experiencing stress in daily life. Full article

Chicken essence (CE) is a popular traditional remedy in Asia, which is believed to improve cognitive functions. CE company claimed that the health benefits were proven with research studies. A systematic review was conducted to determine the cognitive-enhancing effects of CE. We systematically searched a number of databases for randomized controlled trials with human subjects consuming CE and cognitive tests involved. Cochrane’s Risk of Bias (ROB) tool was used to assess the quality of trials and meta-analysis was performed. Seven trials were included, where six healthy subjects and one subject with poorer cognitive functions were recruited. One trial had unclear ROB while the rest had high ROB. For executive function tests, there was a significant difference favoring CE (pooled standardized mean difference (SMD) of −0.55 (−1.04, −0.06)) and another with no significant difference (pooled SMD of 0.70 (−0.001, 1.40)). For short-term memory tests, no significant difference was found (pooled SMD of 0.63 (−0.16, 1.42)). Currently, there is a lack of convincing evidence to show a cognitive enhancing effect of CE. Full article

Chicken extract, which is rich in anserine and carnosine, has been widely taken in Asian countries as a traditional remedy with various aims, including attenuation of psychological fatigue. The effects of consuming BRAND’S Essence of Chicken (EOC) or a placebo on 46 young adults’ responses to a standard psychological “stressor” were considered. Heart rate variability (HRV), cortisol responses, mood and cognition were measured at baseline and after ten days supplementation. EOC resulted in feeling less anxious, depressed and confused and more agreeable and clearheaded. A decrease in HRV was observed after EOC but only in females. Cognition and cortisol levels were not influenced by EOC. Findings suggest that EOC may be a promising supplement to improve mood in a healthy population. Full article

Chicken essence (CE) is a liquid nutritional supplement made from cooking whole chickens. In traditional Chinese medicine, CE is used to support health, promote healing, increase metabolism, and relieve fatigue. However, few studies have examined the effect of CE on exercise performance and physical fatigue. We aimed to evaluate the potential beneficial effects of CE on fatigue and ergogenic functions following physical challenge in mice. Male ICR mice were divided into four groups to receive vehicle or CE by oral gavage at 0, 845, 1690, or 4225 mg/kg/day for 4 weeks. Exercise performance and anti-fatigue function were evaluated by forelimb grip strength, exhaustive swimming time, and levels of physical fatigue-related biomarkers serum lactate, ammonia, glucose, and creatine kinase (CK) after physical challenge. CE supplementation dose-dependently elevated endurance and grip strength. CE supplementation significantly decreased lactate, ammonia, and CK levels after physical challenge. Tissue glycogen content, an important energy source for exercise, was significantly increased with CE supplementation. In addition, CE supplementation had few subchronic toxic effects. The supplementation with CE can have a wide spectrum of bioactivities on health promotion, performance improvement and anti-fatigue. Full article