Acrylamide (AA) forms during the heating of starchy foods at high temperature, and is regarded as a potential genotoxic carcinogen. However, with the worldwide concern about the carcinogenicity of AA, how to reduce the toxicity of AA has become a hot research topic. In this study, we further discussed the effects of oral administration of allicin on AA-induced toxicity by determining the hematological, biochemical and immunological parameters in the serum, kidney, liver, and brain of male mice. Our data showed that the orally administered allicin of 5, 10, and 20 mg kg⁻¹ bw d⁻¹ could significantly decrease thiobarbituric reactive substances (TBARS) and myeloperoxidase (MPO) levels, and simultaneously remarkably increased the superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity, glutathione S-transferase (GST) and glutathione (GSH) levels in the kidney, liver, and brain of the AA-treated mice. Furthermore, oral administration of allicin not only significantly decreased aspartate aminotransferase (AST), alanine aminotransferase (ALT), lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), blood urea nitrogen (BUN), tumor necrosis factor α (TNF-α), interleukin (IL)-1β, interleukin (IL)-6, reactive oxygen species (ROS), and 8-hydroxy-desoxyguanosine (8-OHdG), but also increased interleukin (IL)-10 in the serum of AA-treated mice. Therefore, it was concluded that oral administration of allicin had a significant in vivo protective effect against the AA induced toxicity.

Acrylamide is known to be a neurotoxic, genotoxic, and carcinogenic compound. Glycidamide has a close relationship to the toxic mechanism of acrylamide. In order to explore the toxic mechanism of acrylamide, we further discussed the effects of oral administration of allicin on glycidamide-induced toxicity by determining the hematological parameters like AST, ALT, LDH, BUN, creatinine, ROS, and 8-OHdG, and biochemical parameters such as MDA, MPO, SOD, GST and GSH in the kidney, liver, brain and lung of male and female mice for the first time. We found that the same dose of glycidamide had more toxic effects and damage effects to the mice compared to the previous study of acrylamide. It could markedly increase the level of AST, ALT, LDH, BUN, ROS, 8-OHdG, MDA, MPO while decrease the SOD, GST and GSH. However, our data showed the oral administered allicin with a concentration of 5, 10, and 20 mg/kg b.w./day could significantly decrease the damage indexes of AST, ALT, LDH, BUN, ROS, 8-OHdG, MDA, and MPO, while increase the antioxidant indicators of SOD, GST and GSH. Thus allicin could be used as an effective dietary supplement for the chemoprevention of glycidamide genotoxicity internally, and to prevent the tissue damage and toxicity induced by glycidamide.

Furan, a food contaminant formed by heating, is possibly carcinogenic to humans. In this study, we discussed the effect of administration of apigenin on furan-induced toxicity by determining the ROS content, oxidative damage, cytokine levels, DNA damage, and the liver and kidney damage in a mouse model. Our data showed that apigenin administered at 5, 10, and 20 mg kg(-1) bw per day could decrease the toxicity induced by furan to different extents. On one hand, apigenin has the ability to increase the oxidative damage indexes of glutathione (GSH) and glutathione-S-transferase (GST) as well as superoxide dismutase (SOD) activities but decrease myeloperoxidase (MPO) activities and maleic dialdehyde (MDA) content in the liver and kidney of mice treated with furan. On the other hand, it could decrease cytokine levels of tumor necrosis factor α (TNF-α), interleukin (IL)-1β, and interleukin (IL)-6 but increase interleukin (IL)-10 in the serum of furan-treated mice. At the same time, the three concentrations of apigenin elected in this paper all could decrease the ROS content, DNA damage index of 8-hydroxy-desoxyguanosine (8-OHdG), the liver and kidney damage indexes of aspartate aminotransferase (AST), alanine aminotransferase (ALT), and lactic dehydrogenase (LDH), and blood urea nitrogen (BUN) and creatinine content in furan-treated mice to different extents. The protective effects of apigenin against furan-induced toxicity damage were mainly due to its excellent ability to scavenge free radicals and inhibit lipid oxidation. This is important when considering the use of apigenin as a dietary supplement for beneficial chemoprevention of furan toxicity.

Rice quality is a complex indicator, and people are paying more and more attention to the quality of rice. Therefore, we used seven rice varieties for twelve nitrogen fertilizer treatments and obtained eighty-four rice types with seventeen qualities. It was found that 17 quality traits had different coefficients of variation. Among them, the coefficient of variation of chalkiness and protein content was the largest, 44.60% and 17.89% respectively. The cluster analysis method was used to define four categories of different rice qualities. The principal component analysis method was used to comprehensively evaluate 17 qualities of 84 rice. It was found that rice quality was better under low nitrogen conditions, Huanghuazhan and Lvyinzhan were easier to obtain better comprehensive rice quality during cultivation. Future rice research should focus on reducing protein content and increasing peak viscosity.

Taste quality of rice is the key to its value. However, it is greatly affected by rice types and the environment. It is a complex but necessary factor to accurately evaluate the taste quality of various types of rice in different environments. In this study, 7 different types of rice with different taste values were used as materials, and 12 nitrogen fertilizer treatments were applied to obtain 84 different rice taste values. We used protein content, amylose content, and RVA to evaluate changes in the taste value of rice. Rice with high taste value tended to have higher amylose content, peak viscosity, hold viscosity, final viscosity, and breakdown, as well as lower protein content, pasting temperature, and peak time. Protein and amylose contents affected the taste value of rice by affecting the RVA profiles except for setback. For high and low taste-value rice types, protein content could explain 66.8 and 42.9% of the variation in taste value, respectively. In the case of medium taste-value type, protein content was not enough to evaluate the taste quality of rice. Stickiness could explain 59.6% of the variation in taste value. When the protein content of rice was less than 6.61% or greater than 9.34%, it could be used to reflect the taste quality of rice. When the protein content was in between the two, protein content was not enough to reflect the taste quality of rice. Our results suggested that protein content could better reflect the taste quality change for rice, which provided a theoretical and technical basis for the accurate evaluation of the taste value of various types of rice.

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In current studies, histopathologic method, Agilent GeneChip hybridization and Western blot were used to investigate the toxicity of acrylamide (AA) and glycidamide (GA) in male mouse livers. The histopathologic results demonstrated that AA and GA could cause oxidative damage to mouse liver. Middle dose of GA and AA (50 mg/kg b.w./day) could significantly up-regulate the expression of cytochrome P450, as well as genes related to oxidative injury, cancer and inflammation, and significantly down-regulate the expression of genes related to anti-apoptosis, antioncogene and fatty acid synthesis. Middle and high dose (75 mg/kg b.w./day) of GA and AA could both down-regulate the expression of hepatic anti-oncogene Bcl2 and up-regulate the expression of cancer-related gene Rad51 and EGFR protein. The expression of anti-oncogene P21 induced by AA and GA was decreased. Our current study demonstrated that the oxidative damage, immune injury and carcinogenicity of mouse liver samples could be induced by AA and GA at histopathological, entire genome and protein levels.

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