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This study evaluated the effect of different cooking methods including blanching, boiling, microwaving and steaming on the content of vitamins in vegetables. True retention was estimated using the yield expressed as a ratio of the weight of the cooked sample to the weight of the raw sample. The retention of vitamin C ranged from 0.0 to 91.1% for all cooked samples. Generally, higher retention of vitamin C was observed after microwaving with the lowest retention recorded after boiling. Cooked vegetables were occasionally higher contents of fat-soluble vitamins, including α-tocopherol and β-carotene, than that of their fresh counterparts, but it depends on the type of vegetables. Microwave cooking caused the greatest loss of vitamin K in crown daisy and mallow; in contrast, it caused the least loss of vitamin K in spinach and chard. Cooking may cause changes to the contents of vitamins, but it depends on vegetables and cooking processes.

Citral is a major compound of lemongrass (Cymbopogon citratus L.) that has many pharmacological activities such as anti-fungal and anti-bacterial effects. In this study, we investigated the anti-inflammatory effect of citral and defined its mechanism of action in lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-stimulated RAW 264.7 cells. Citral (3-12 microg/mL) significantly inhibited LPS-induced nitric oxide (NO) production in a concentration-dependent manner (IC50: 6.5 microg/mL). Furthermore, it was found that citral effectively inhibited the transcriptional activity and expression of iNOS, and potently suppressed the DNA binding activity and nuclear translocation of NF-kappa B as well as I kappa B phosphorylation in a concentration dependent manner. These results suggest that citral is anti-inflammatory, and its effects may be due to the inhibition of NO production through the suppression of NF-kappa B activation.

In order to investigate the thermal degradation of glucose and maltose solutions after high temperature and high pressure (HTHP) treatment, the samples were treated at temperatures of 110, 120, 130, 140, and 150°C for 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 h in an apparatus for HTHP treatment. Glucose and maltose solutions (20% w/w) were prepared by weighing glucose and maltose and adding distilled water in the desired proportion. Chromaticity, pH, organic acids, 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF), free sugar contents, electron donating ability (EDA), and ascorbic acid equivalent antioxidant capacity (AEAC) were evaluated. With increasing heating temperatures and times, the L-, a-, and b-values decreased. The pH and free sugar contents decreased, and organic acids and HMF contents increased with greater temperatures and times. EDA (%) and the AEAC of the heating sugars increased with the increases in temperatures and times.

Neuroinflammation is implicated for amyloidogenesis. Sulfur compounds extracted from garlic have been shown to have anti-inflammatory properties. Previously, we have investigated that thiacremonone, a sulfur compound isolated from garlic has anti-inflammatory effects. To investigate thiacremonone's potential effect on anti-neuroinflammation and anti-amyloidogenesis, 4 week old ICR mice were given different doses of thiacremonone (1, 3, and 10 mg/kg) in drinking water for 1 month and received intraperitoneal injection of lipopolysaccharide (LPS) (250 μg/kg/day) at last 7 days of treatment. Our data show thiacremonone decreased LPS-induced memory impairment, glial activation, pro-inflammatory mediators' expression, and amyloidogenesis. In an in vitro study, we obtained similar results, with thiacremonone (1, 2, and 5 μg/ml) effectively decreased LPS (1 μg/ml)-induced glial activation and inflammatory mediators generation which are implicated in amyloidogenesis. Our data also demonstrated that thiacremonone inhibited LPS-induced amyloidogenesis in cultured astrocytes and microglial BV-2 cells. NF-κB, a critical transcriptional factor regulating not only inflammation but also amyloid-β generation, was inhibited by thiacremonone via blocking of phosphorylation of IκBα in mice brain as well as cultured astrocytes and microglial BV-2 cells. These results indicated that the anti-inflammatory compound, thiacremonone, inhibited neuroinflammation and amyloidogenesis through inhibition of NF-κB activity, and thus could be applied for intervention of inflammation-related neurodegenerative disease including Alzheimer's disease.

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