Search Results (1,107)

To elucidate how quality is reshaped in introduced tea varieties under Guizhou’s unique ecological conditions and to identify quality advantages and flavor differences between exotic and local germplasm resources, this study investigated the quality characteristics of tea plant germplasm from different geographic origins under Guizhou’s ecological conditions. Quality components and volatile aroma compounds were analyzed in four introduced cultivars (CC4H, SLX, SMCY, HJC1) and two local cultivars (QM601, GZSC). Sensory evaluation indicated that CC4H, SMCY, and HJC1 were more suitable for manufacturing premium green tea in the local area. GC-MS identified 147 volatile compounds, with alcohols present at the highest concentrations (1090.69–1499.18 μg/kg). SMCY had the highest total alcohol content. rOAV analysis confirmed that benzaldehyde, (E)-β-damascone, β-ionone, and 1-octene-3-one are the key contributors to the aroma profile. Among the introduced cultivars, SMCY stands out for its floral and aromatic compounds; SLX is notably rich in floral and fruity aldehydes and esters; CC4H has a distinct roasted sweetness, and HJC1 offers the best freshness. The local variety QM601 exhibits synergistic accumulation of tea polyphenols and fruity terpenes, while GZSC maintains its traditional advantage in the balance of phenolic and amino compounds. These findings provide a theoretical basis for the differentiated deployment of tea cultivars in Guizhou’s tea-growing regions. Full article

Plant-derived bioactives offer diverse pharmacological activities, but their development is often limited by poor aqueous solubility, instability, rapid metabolism, and low tissue exposure. This review examines delivery platforms used to address these constraints, including liposomes, solid lipid nanoparticles, nanostructured lipid carriers, phytosomes, niosomes, polymeric and protein-based carriers, extracellular vesicles, and self-assembled polyphenol systems. The platforms are compared according to payload compatibility, loading and release behavior, biological barriers, manufacturing requirements, and formulation-specific safety risks. Though carriers of natural origin offer a sustainable and often less toxic alternative, their ability to induce immunogenicity, organ accumulation, and repeated-dose toxicity require product-specific assessment. The review also discusses sustainable extraction and formulation, emphasizing that green performance depends on the entire process rather than on the feedstock alone. Preclinical studies frequently report improved stability, exposure, or therapeutic activity, whereas human evidence remains limited and is concentrated in early-phase studies of curcumin and silybin formulations and a small number of plant-derived extracellular-vesicle preparations. Translation will require standardized characterization, defined critical quality attributes, scalable Good Manufacturing Practice-compliant production, batch consistency, comparative pharmacokinetic and toxicological studies, and appropriately powered clinical trials. These considerations support rational carrier selection based on the physicochemical properties of the bioactive, intended route and target, release requirements, and strength of the available evidence. Full article

Microorganisms are the core drivers of ripened Pu-erh tea (RpPT) quality formation. However, the mechanisms of the microbiological and flavor chemical changes during the fermentation process remain unclear, which limits the quality control of ripened Pu-erh tea fermentation. A physicochemical analysis revealed that fermentation significantly reduced the contents of water extracts, tea polyphenols, free amino acids, soluble sugars, and most catechins (p < 0.05), while flavonoids and tea pigments were significantly accumulated. Amplicon sequencing revealed that Pantoea and Bacillus were the dominant bacterial genera during the early and late fermentation stages, with maximum relative abundances of 97.89% and 63.66%, respectively. Aspergillus and Thermomyces were the dominant fungal genera, reaching maximum relative abundances of 98.34% and 62.59%, respectively. During fermentation, bacterial diversity initially increased and then declined, whereas fungal diversity dropped sharply and subsequently stabilized. Co-occurrence network analysis indicated that microbial interactions were primarily cooperative, with network complexity gradually diminishing as fermentation progressed. Functional prediction showed enhanced microbial metabolism of amino acids and carbohydrates during the mid-to-late stages. Crucially, the stage-specific microbial communities were significantly correlated with distinct flavor compounds, shaping the final aroma profile of ripened Pu-erh tea. These dynamics explain the variations in tea quality and provide critical insights for optimizing the fermentation process. Full article

Ehretia macrophylla fruit is a traditionally used but underutilized functional resource that is noted for its diverse phytochemical composition, which includes flavonoids and polyphenols. However, the systematic metabolic transformations that occur in the fruit during post-harvest storage—particularly those associated with its traditional processing into dark fruit tea—remain largely unknown, limiting efforts to optimize quality and processing strategies. In the study, to address this gap, we employed a widely targeted metabolomics approach based on ultra-performance liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS/MS) to dynamically profile the fruit metabolome across four storage stages (T0, T4, T8, T12). A total of 1101 metabolites were putatively annotated, and day 8 (T8) emerged as a potential pronounced metabolic inflection point. From T8 onward, 30–40% of metabolites showed differential accumulation, characterized by a gradual rise in nutrition-relevant lipids, amino acids, and vitamins. In contrast, key antioxidant-related metabolites, including phenolics and flavonoids, increased transiently before T8 but declined sharply thereafter. These coordinated shifts correlated with an increased representation of lipid- and alkaloid-related metabolic pathways, whereas flavonoid-associated features showed a relative decline. Collectively, these findings provide insights into the biochemical processes potentially associated with fruit blackening and the marked decline in antioxidant capacity during traditional processing. Our study provides the first metabolic blueprint connecting traditional processing practices with phased metabolic remodeling, offering a scientific foundation for quality assessment and the development of informed post-harvest strategies for processing E. macrophylla fruit. Full article

Plant tissue and cell culture techniques have proven to be a suitable tool for increasing fresh biomass and stimulating the plant secondary metabolite biosynthesis, offering important advantages compared to conventional plant propagation. Medicinal and aromatic plants represent species of interest due to their rich content in bioactive compounds, with various applications in different fields, including the food industry. The micropropagation technique, through the production of a large number of in vitro plants, can ensure, in a short time and with high efficiency, the adequate amount of fresh biomass to cover the need for the extraction of significant active principles for their use in the food industry as natural preservatives and antioxidants, as well as coloring and flavoring agents. This narrative review aims to provide a comprehensive analysis of the strategic micropropagation methods applied to medicinal and aromatic plants, including sustainable approaches (e.g., organic nutrient supplementation of the culture medium), as well as their advantages and limitations. Moreover, this bibliographical study highlights the role of the in vitro multiplication technique in enhancing the accumulation of secondary metabolites such as phenolics, flavonoids, alkaloids, terpenoids, saponins, etc., supporting their use for a more sustainable future in food systems. Finally, the present analysis points towards emerging future directions for exploiting the micropropagation technique on a large scale as a valuable and promising tool to reach its full potential as a source of novel biomolecules. This comprehensive integration serves as a valuable reference for researchers and industry experts in both plant biotechnology and food science and technology. Full article

Tea quality is largely determined by the accumulation of specialized metabolites in fresh leaves, yet the effects of the propagation method on tea quality and its belowground ecological basis remain insufficiently understood. In this study, sexually propagated (SR) and asexually propagated (AR) tea plants were compared by integrating soil physicochemical analysis, leaf quality and physiological measurements, widely targeted metabolomics, and rhizosphere metagenomic profiling. Compared with AR, SR plants exhibited more favorable rhizosphere nutrient conditions, with soil organic matter, total nitrogen, alkali-hydrolyzable nitrogen, and available phosphorus increasing by 23.1%, 18.2%, 27.8%, and 161.5%, respectively, although available potassium decreased by 24.4%. SR leaves also contained higher dry matter, tea polyphenol, and soluble sugar contents, which increased by 11.5%, 58.8%, and 8.6%, respectively. In addition, superoxide dismutase, peroxidase, and indole-3-acetic acid oxidase activities were 30.4%, 92.0%, and 21.7% higher under SR, whereas hydrogen peroxide content remained unchanged. Metabolomic profiling revealed marked differences in leaf metabolic composition between the two propagation types, with differentially accumulated metabolites mainly enriched in flavonoid biosynthesis, phenolic acid metabolism, caffeine metabolism, carotenoid biosynthesis, plant hormone signaling, and α-linolenic acid metabolism. Rhizosphere metagenomic analysis further showed that SR was characterized by higher relative abundances of Actinomycetota, Pseudomonadota, Planctomycetota, Alphaproteobacteria, and Streptomycetales, together with distinct microbial functional profiles related to glycolysis, the tricarboxylic acid cycle, and pyruvate metabolism. Significant correlations were identified between several SR-enriched microbial taxa and quality-related metabolites, particularly flavonoids and phenolic acids. Overall, under the present field conditions, sexual propagation was more favorable than asexual propagation for tea quality formation, as reflected by improved nitrogen and phosphorus availability, greater accumulation of quality-related metabolites, higher antioxidant enzyme activities, and distinct rhizosphere microbial carbon-metabolic potential. These findings provide an integrated soil–microbiome–metabolome perspective for understanding propagation-related differences in tea quality. Full article

Background/Objectives: Rosmarinic acid (RA) is a naturally occurring polyphenolic compound with promising anticancer activity; however, its potential to enhance the therapeutic efficacy of doxorubicin (DOX) against triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) has not been comprehensively characterised. This study investigated the pharmacological interaction and associated cellular responses of RA combined with DOX in MDA-MB-231 breast cancer cells, while including HaCaT human keratinocytes as a non-malignant, non-mammary reference model for comparative cytotoxicity assessment. Methods: Cell viability was assessed using the MTT assay, and pharmacological interactions were evaluated using Chou–Talalay combination index (CI) and dose reduction index (DRI) analyses. Intracellular oxidative activity was evaluated using DCFH-DA fluorescence analyses together with N-acetyl-L-cysteine (NAC) modulation experiments. Apoptosis, cell-cycle distribution, mitochondrial membrane potential (JC-1), Caspase-9 immunocytochemistry, nuclear morphology (NucBlue staining), apoptosis- and proliferation-related gene expression (RT-qPCR; BAX, BCL2, CASP3, CASP9, TP53, CDKN1A, MKI67, and PCNA), and bioinformatic pathway analyses were performed to characterise cellular and molecular responses associated with the combined treatment. Results: After 48 h, RA exhibited IC₅₀ values of 188.4 ± 4.2 µM in MDA-MB-231 cells and 146.6 ± 6.8 µM in HaCaT cells, while DOX showed IC₅₀ values of 1.2 ± 0.08 µM and 2.6 ± 0.15 µM, respectively. The Chou–Talalay analysis demonstrated synergistic interactions in MDA-MB-231 cells, with CI values of 0.86, 0.72, and 0.64 at the effect levels of IC₂₅, IC₅₀, and IC₇₅, respectively; the model-derived DOX DRI value at Fa = 0.50 was 1.8. Combination treatment markedly increased intracellular DCFH-DA fluorescence, whereas NAC pretreatment attenuated this signal and partially restored cell viability, supporting a contributory role of intracellular oxidative stress in treatment-associated cytotoxicity. Increased intracellular oxidative activity coincided with mitochondrial membrane depolarisation, increased apoptotic cell death, accumulation of cells in the sub-G₁ phase, enhanced Caspase-9 immunoreactivity, and pronounced apoptotic nuclear alterations. RT-qPCR analysis demonstrated significant upregulation of BAX, CASP3, CASP9, and TP53, together with downregulation of BCL2, MKI67, and PCNA, resulting in a marked reduction in the BCL2/BAX mRNA expression ratio. A modest but non-significant increase in CDKN1A expression was also observed. Bioinformatic analyses further identified predicted associations with mitochondrial apoptosis and p53-associated signalling pathways. Conclusions: The RA + DOX combination showed synergistic cytotoxic activity in MDA-MB-231 cells, accompanied by increased intracellular oxidative activity, mitochondrial membrane depolarisation, apoptosis, cell-cycle perturbation, and changes in proliferation-related gene expression. These findings indicate associated cellular responses but do not establish a ROS-dependent mitochondrial apoptotic mechanism. The findings provide an exploratory in vitro basis for further investigation of the RA + DOX combination in additional TNBC models, non-malignant mammary epithelial cells, and appropriate in vivo systems. Full article

Background/Objectives: Carbohydrate ingestion is the cornerstone of post-exercise muscle glycogen resynthesis, but high intake rates may be limited by gastrointestinal tolerance and other recovery demands are not addressed. This narrative review aimed to classify nutritional co-strategies by their primary role in glycogen recovery, evaluate the supporting evidence, and develop a constraint-based framework for practical decision-making. Methods: The relevant literature was identified through targeted searches of PubMed/MEDLINE, Scopus, Web of Science, and SPORTDiscus from database inception through May 2026, supplemented by manual reference screening. Evidence was synthesized according to the directness and consistency of glycogen-specific evidence and the primary role of each strategy in acute glycogen recovery, multi-day glycogen accumulation, supportive recovery, or emerging contextual modification. Results: Protein co-ingestion may be most relevant when carbohydrate or total energy provision is suboptimal, whereas direct glycogen-specific evidence for caffeine remains limited and inconsistent, with greater relevance to subsequent performance. Creatine appears more applicable to multi-day glycogen accumulation than to acute post-exercise resynthesis. Fluid and sodium replacement and polyphenol-rich foods primarily support the broader recovery environment, whereas microbiome-targeted and chrononutritional approaches remain emerging contextual modifiers. Conclusions: Nutritional co-strategies should be selected according to the constraint limiting recovery, the available recovery time, and the strength of evidence. This framework may support more individualized and evidence-informed recovery nutrition. Full article

Sugar composition is a critical determinant of fruit quality in fleshy fruits, influencing both organoleptic properties and nutritional value. Akebia trifoliata, an emerging fruit crop, possesses pulp rich in soluble sugars, vitamins, and polyphenols, making it suitable for fresh consumption, medicinal applications, and food processing. However, the molecular mechanisms governing sugar metabolism and accumulation in this species remain largely unexplored. We systematically evaluated the sugar content dynamics across different A. trifoliata germplasms and performed comparative transcriptomic analysis between high-sugar-accumulation (S4) and low-sugar-accumulation germplasms (S19) at three developmental stages (IM: the fruit is hard and immature; MA: the pulp remains firm, but the peel begins to soften and crack; and PM: the fruit is fully mature, and the pulp becomes shiny, translucent, soft, and edible). A total of 10,269 differentially expressed genes were identified with KEGG enrichment analysis, revealing significant enrichment in pathways directly associated with sugar biosynthesis. Through the analysis of weighted gene co-expression networks, a co-expression module significantly correlated with total sugar accumulation was identified, and qRT-PCR was used to verify that the expression levels of 29 candidate genes involved in carbohydrate synthesis were higher in the high-sugar-accumulation type than in the low-sugar-accumulation germplasm. These findings not only advance our understanding of the molecular basis of fruit quality development in this underutilized crop but also lay the foundation for the future breeding of A. trifoliata varieties with high-sugar greater nutritional value and processing qualities for the food industry. Full article

Metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD) is the most prevalent liver disease associated with insulin resistance and hepatic lipid accumulation. Polyphenols have attracted considerable attention for their hepatoprotective and lipid-lowering activities. Our previous studies characterized a bound polyphenol extracted from the inner shell of foxtail millet (BPIS) and identified its major active components. In the present study, we investigated the molecular mechanisms underlying its biological activity using HepG2 cells and Caenorhabditis elegans. BPIS activated AMPK signaling, normalized intracellular glutathione (GSH) levels, and upregulated SLC7A11 and GPX4, suggesting modulation of ferroptosis-related pathways and improved cellular redox homeostasis. BPIS also alleviated endoplasmic reticulum stress by increasing GRP78 expression, inhibiting DRAK2, and regulating the ERK pathway, thereby improving the regulation of key lipid-metabolism-related signaling pathways, including SREBP1c, SCD1, CD36, FASN, and CPT1A. Consistent with these findings, BPIS reduced glucose- and free fatty acid-induced lipid accumulation and improved lipid-related phenotypes in C. elegans. Overall, BPIS attenuated hepatic steatosis through modulation of ferroptosis-related markers, endoplasmic reticulum stress, and lipid metabolism. These findings provide new mechanistic insights into the biological activities of BPIS and support its potential application as a nutraceutical ingredient for the prevention and management of MASLD. Full article

Microbe-derived elicitors can trigger plant immune responses, but elicitors from endophytic Bacillus species remain largely unexplored. Based on preliminary findings that endophytic Bacillus subtilis K1 can elicit grape immune responses, this study aimed to investigate the elicitor proteins produced by K1 and the effect on the control of gray mold in grapes. A novel elicitor protein PeBs1 screened from the genome of K1 could induce a strong hypersensitive response in Nicotiana benthamiana by Agrobacterium-mediated transformation, accompanied by significant reactive oxygen species accumulation and callose deposition. The PeBs1 gene encodes a 15.9 kDa protein consisting of 181 amino acids, which is evolutionarily conserved within the genus Bacillus. Exogenous infiltration with 10 μM purified PeBs1 protein also triggered typical hypersensitive response symptoms in N. benthamiana. Application of the purified PeBs1 to grape berries significantly reduced the incidence of gray mold and boosted the activities of defense enzymes, including peroxidase (POD), polyphenol oxidase (PPO), catalase (CAT), and phenylalanine ammonia-lyase (PAL), while also lowering the malondialdehyde (MDA) content. Meanwhile, PeBs1 treatment markedly increased the contents of total phenols and total flavonoids in grape berries, and significantly up-regulated the transcriptional levels of defense-related genes (VvPAL, VvPPO, VvPR1, VvPR2). This study suggests that PeBs1 from endophytic Bacillus may act as an immune activator to enhance grape resistance against gray mold. The findings provide a basis for exploring potential strategies to manage grape postharvest diseases. Full article

Water deficit stress poses significant challenges to chickpea production, affecting plant growth, physiological parameters, and overall crop yield. This study aimed to identify drought-tolerant chickpea genotypes and evaluate the potential of grape by-product amendments to alleviate water deficit stress. Two trials were conducted. The first one investigated the agronomic evaluation of eight chickpea genotypes (G1–G8) cultivated in three different soils to identify drought-tolerant genotypes and the poorest soil. Three chickpea cultivars, G2 (Nour), G3 (Rebha), and G4 (Bochra), were selected for their identified moderate drought tolerance and their status as widely available commercial genotypes in Tunisia. In the second trial, two grape by-product amendments were tested for their ability to enhance the drought tolerance of the selected chickpea genotypes in the poorest-performing soil. Under water deficit conditions, the stalk amendment increased the relative water content (RWC) of the drought-tolerant genotype Nour by approximately 61% compared with the non-amended treatment and a 90% improvement in SPAD chlorophyll readings in Nour under water deficit conditions. Among the tested genotypes, Nour maintained the highest photosynthetic efficiency under drought, with Fv/Fm reaching approximately 0.62 following stalk amendment, indicating improved preservation of PSII functionality. Polyphenol profiling indicated that both drought stress and soil amendments modulated the accumulation of phenolic compounds. Enhanced polyphenol levels, particularly under stalk amendment and water deficit, suggest activation of antioxidant and protective metabolic pathways involved in plant stress defense. Thus, grape by-products, especially stalk residues, demonstrate potential as sustainable soil amendments to mitigate drought stress effects in chickpea through improvements in plant–water status, photosynthetic efficiency, and stress-responsive metabolism. Full article

This study evaluated the effect of an integrated irrigation practice (IP), including regulated deficit irrigation (RDI), managed through an IoT-based platform, on a pear orchard (Pyrus communis L., cv. ‘Krystali’) compared to the farmer’s standard practice (FP). Tree response was evaluated through the measurement of tree water relations, leaf physiological functions, biochemical parameters, fruit growth and quality, production, and aerial multispectral NDVI imaging. IP achieved 15.8% water savings, significantly enhancing water-use efficiency and increasing yield per tree. However, IP trees exhibited higher crop water stress index (CWSI) values and lower midday stem water potential (Ψstem) than FP, particularly by late July, indicating progressive water stress. Leaf-level responses revealed morphological and biochemical alterations to drought, including increased leaf mass per area (LMA), dry matter content (DM), and accumulation of proline, alongside declines in chlorophyll pigments. Despite these stress indicators, gas exchange parameters were maintained in IP, possibly due to fruit load modulating source–sink relationships and surpassing stomatal limitations. IP reduced vegetative growth, as evidenced by lower winter pruning material mass, but this did not result in improved fruit quality. IP produced smaller fruit with lower antioxidant activity, polyphenolic content and soluble solids content/acidity ratio, although fruit firmness was improved. UAV-derived NDVI successfully detected changes in canopy structure following summer pruning but did not discriminate between irrigation treatments, indicating that moderate water stress affected tree physiology before producing measurable changes in canopy greenness. The study highlights the need for integrating irrigation management with fruit thinning and careful scheduling to optimize both water productivity and marketable fruit quality in water-scarce pear production areas. Full article

(1) Background: Perfluorodecanoic acid (PFDA), a persistent perfluoroalkyl obesogen, promotes adipogenesis, yet whether its effects can be pharmacologically opposed remains unknown. (2) Methods: We examined the interaction between PFDA (50, 75 μM) and the dietary polyphenol curcumin (20, 30 μM) throughout the 8-day 3T3-L1 preadipocyte differentiation protocol, using cell-viability (WST-1) assays with a two-factor interaction analysis, Oil Red O lipid quantification and mRNA profiling of Pparg, Cebpa, Srebf1, and Fasn. (3) Results: PFDA alone increased lipid accumulation and upregulated Pparg, Cebpa, and Fasn, whereas Srebf1 was induced only weakly and only at the higher dose, a pattern compatible with preferential engagement of the PPARγ/C/EBPα program over the SREBP-1c lipogenic pathway at the mRNA level, although the transcripts were not formally compared and no protein-level data were obtained. At two sub-cytotoxic concentrations, curcumin preserved potent antiadipogenic activity, reducing lipid accumulation by up to 67.3% and reversing PFDA-induced gene upregulation. At the viability endpoint the two compounds acted independently: curcumin significantly reduced viability and PFDA significantly increased it, with no statistically detectable interaction between them (two-way ANOVA, interaction p = 0.85). (4) Conclusions: This dissociation shows that a chemical interaction defined at one biological endpoint does not predict its outcome at another, a principle with broad implications for mixture toxicology—and it establishes curcumin as a candidate dietary intervention that intercepts an obesogen’s transcriptional program against environmentally driven metabolic disruption. Full article

Green tea quality is largely determined by the metabolite profile of fresh leaves. However, the time-of-day-dependent dynamics of these metabolites remain largely unknown in Xinyang Maojian (XYMJ), a premium Chinese green tea. In this study, we performed the first integrative transcriptomic and metabolomic analysis of Camellia sinensis cv. Xinyang 10 shoots (one bud and one leaf) sampled at 7:00, 13:00, and 18:00 under field conditions with light intensities of 19.2, 113, and 5.4 klx, respectively. We identified 525 differentially accumulated metabolites and 19,767 differentially expressed genes exhibiting distinct time-of-day-dependent patterns. Physiological measurements confirmed significant fluctuations in starch, soluble sugars, chlorophyll, relative water content, and polyphenols throughout the daytime. A key finding was a daytime carbon allocation trade-off: primary metabolism (starch biosynthesis, glycolysis, TCA cycle) peaked at 13:00, whereas secondary metabolism (flavonoids, theaflavins, phenolic acids, anthocyanins) dominated at 18:00, supported by strong negative correlations between primary and secondary metabolic modules. Chlorophyll and oligomeric catechins peaked at 7:00; theaflavins at 13:00; and starch, soluble sugars, theanine, and organic acids at 18:00. Light-responsive transcription factors (bZIP, NF-Y, HD-Zip, SPL, ARF, MADS) and other regulators (MYB, AP2/ERF, WRKY, NAC, GRAS, bHLH) exhibited time-specific expression, sequentially modulating flavonoid, caffeine, and theanine biosynthesis, along with specific gene modules including SS3/SS4 (starch synthesis), BAM3 (starch degradation), FBA1 (carbon fixation), CYP72A219 (terpenoid metabolism), and L7A (theaflavin biosynthesis). Evening-harvested leaves accumulated higher levels of theanine (umami) and soluble sugars (sweetness), whereas morning leaves were enriched in astringent catechins and flavonols. This multi-omics dissection of time-of-day-dependent metabolism in XYMJ tea provides a scientific basis for time-of-day harvesting strategies and graded processing of tea products. Full article