This study aims to conduct a detailed investigation on four cultivars grown in northwest China, concentrating on the analysis of the bioactive contents, nutrients, heavy metal concentrations, and pesticide residue contents. Those Chinese jujubes consist of 51.99-71.75% edible part, 82.35-89.63% carbohydrates, 4.43-6.01% protein, 0.48-0.63% lipid, 2.80-4.80% polysaccharide, 45.64-88.97 mg/100 g ascorbic acid, 132.16-196.58 mg/100 g phenolics and 101.17-132.04 mg/100 g flavonoids in dry matter. In those four Chinese jujube cultivars, sulfur amino acids are the first limiting amino acids for adults, and aromatic amino acids are for children. The amount of heavy metal and pesticide residue concentrations in those jujubes was way below the limit. All four cultivars were found to have different nutritional values except for the carbohydrates; they had higher rates of carbohydrates and polysaccharide than those previously reported ones from Eastern China; and they are a better source for carbohydrates, vitamin C and functional amino acids.

Millet bran, the by-product of millet processing industry, contains an abundance of phytochemicals, especially polyphenols. The main objective of this study was brewing antioxidant wine from millet bran, as well as the nutritional evaluation. The total polyphenol content of wine samples was determined by Folin-Ciocalteu colorimetric method, and the antioxidant capacity was evaluated by DPPH radical-scavenging capacity, Trolox equivalent antioxidant capacity (TEAC), and ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP). Results showed that millet bran wine (MBW) contained as much as six times of total polyphenols compared with millet wine (MW), and performed considerably stronger antioxidant activity in DPPH, TEAC and FRAP assays. More than sixfold of total amino acids (AA) were found in MBW than in MW. Moreover, the indispensable AA and functional AA were also abundant in MBW. The major polyphenol compounds in MBW were identified using HPLC, including vanillic acid, syringic acid (SA), -coumaric acid (CA) and ferulic acid (FA). They exhibited synergism in the antioxidant assays, especially the combinations of SA and CA, SA and FA. This study not only provides evidence for MBW as a nutraceutical with antioxidant activity, but also opens new avenues in the area of making comprehensive utilization of agricultural by-products.

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Background: The liver is a vital organ in the human body involved in the metabolic processes. Any damage to the liver due to factors such as protein deficiency, viral infection, as well as consumption of alcohol, chemical contaminants, and adulterated foods. High blood cholesterol, high blood pressure, diabetes, lack of exercise, poor diet, obesity and cigarette smoking are major risk factor for stroke, heart attack and coronary heart disease (CHD). In medical science, number of synthetic drugs has discovered and used for treatment of people suffering from liver injury and CHD, but they were not always effective and sometimes difficult to manage by medical therapies and found also to be accompanied with other negative side effects. Objective: The review of the study was to critically review the recent research and studies of epidemiological and randomized control trials to find out the effective cereal protein as an alternative preventive food to reduce the CHD and protect the liver from viral hepatic diseases focusing daily food intake, body weight, liver weight, serum enzyme activities and cholesterols. Methods: A few of data was used from our experiment, a literature search was performed from reliable source of the published research article and reviewed papers, epidemiological and randomized control trials on the effects of cereal protein on animals and human intervention by Google, Google scholar, Redcube, Endnote, in Scopus, SpringerDirect.com, PubMed and Web of Science. Then the data was organized, summarized and analyzed. Results: In medical science, serum enzyme activities aspartate aminotransferase (AST), alanine aminotransferase (ALT), lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) and lipid peroxidation stress malondialdehyde (MDA) are commonly used as biochemical markers of the liver damaging agent. Blood cholesterols (total cholesterol-TC, triglyceride-TG, low density lipoprotein cholesterol-LDLC and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol-HDLC) are used as the marker of heart diseases. The review shows that daily food intake and body weight data is not significantly differed among normal diet, casein (CAS) and cereals protein. The millet and wheat protein increases the liver weight whereas the rice protein lowers the liver weight. The intake of cereals protein significantly reduces the activities of serum AST, ALT, LDH, MDA, TC, TG and LDLC where it increases the HDLC. Conclusion: Experimental, review and randomized controls (RCTs) data confirm that cereal protein appears to be beneficial in reducing the hepatic liver injury and CHD by maintaining body weight, liver weight, blood pressure, serum enzyme activities AST, ALT and LDH, lipid peroxidation stress MDA and cholesterol concentrations both in plasma and liver.

This study was carried out to determine major nutrient profiles changes of tiger nut plant during its growth period. The plant leaves, roots, tuber moisture, starch, fat and protein were analyzed by oven drying, enzymatic hydrolysis, glucose assay, soxhlet extraction and kjeldahl methods. The results show the moisture content was decreased during its growth cycle but varied with different plant organ. For leaves, the starch content was increased with reducing oil content. For roots, oil content was highest (8%) at the 100th day, and it was gradually decreased (3%) till harvest time with non-significant changes of starch content. For tuber, reducing sugar and protein content was insignificant where the starch and oil content increased significantly but the changes were irregular in the middle growing. For optimum macronutrient yields, it is recommended to harvest the plant at 142nd day for starch. The delayed harvesting may lead to increase in oil content while reducing its total starch contents. For the starch purpose, the harvest time could be around 142 days. However, harvest time could require staying longer in soil.