Wheat bran (WB) is a major by‐product of wheat processing and is widely used as livestock feed and brewing material. Its development and application have attracted a great deal of interest in both scientific and industrial domains due to the increasing demand for more healthy foods. Hence, using WB‐added flours is seen as an effective means of improving the nutritional quality of flour products. However, the high insoluble dietary fiber content of WB may affect the quality of flour products during processing, mainly in terms of darker color, coarse texture (granular), and reduced volume, leading to limitations in its application. Moreover, some poor‐quality or diseased WB is prone to carrying fungal toxins, pesticides, and heavy metals. This review will summarize the challenges of WB for nutritional fortification in flour products and analyze the reasons for the issues encountered. Finally, it proposed practical solutions to the problems of dark color, coarse texture, small volume, and poor quality of WB, besides foreseeing the upcoming obstacles in WB use.
Novelty impact statement
This review focuses on the challenges of nutritional fortification of wheat bran in flour products and analyzes the reasons for the problems encountered. An overview of current modification methods is presented mainly from physical, chemical and biological perspectives to solve the problems of dark color, coarse texture, small volume, and poor quality of wheat bran.
This study modified native highland barley (HB) flour by heat–moisture treatment (HMT) at different temperatures (90, 110, and 130 °C) and moisture contents (15%, 25%, and 35%). The effects of the treatment on the pasting, thermal, rheological, structural, and morphological properties of the native and HMT HB flour were evaluated. The results showed that HMT at 90 °C and 25% moisture content induced the highest pasting viscosity (3626–5147 cPa) and final viscosity (3734–5384 cPa). In all conditions HMT increased gelatinization temperature (To, 55.77–73.72 °C; Tp, 60.47–80.69 °C; Tc, 66.16–91.71 °C) but decreased gelatinization enthalpy (6.41–0.43 J/g) in the HMT HB flour compared with that in the native HB flour. The HB flour treated at 15% moisture content had a higher storage modulus and loss modulus than native HB flour, indicating that HMT (moisture content, 15%, 25%, and 35%) favored the strengthening of the HB flour gels. X-ray diffraction and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy results showed that HMT HB flour retained the characteristics of an A-type crystal structure with an increased orderly structure of starch, while the relative crystallinity could be increased from 28.52% to 41.32%. The aggregation of starch granules and the denaturation of proteins were observed after HMT, with additional breakage of the starch granule surface as the moisture content increased. HMT could increase the resistant starch content from 24.77% to 33.40%, but it also led to an increase in the rapidly digestible starch content to 85.30% with the increase in moisture content and heating temperature. These results might promote the application of HMT technology in modifying HB flour.
Background
Hyperuricemia increases the risk of gout and cardiovascular complications, and how to manage asymptomatic hyperuricemia is controversial. Randomized controlled trials and comparative studies are needed to guide management and treatment. Studies show that Chinese medicine can decrease uric acid through multiple targets, but many of these studies have been conducted in animals because of the lack of a consistent prescription and mechanism. Therefore, we designed this research to study whether Chinese medicine is truly effective and which target is essential by using an approved prescription of a Fuling-Zexie decoction to further guide large sample experiments to determine whether Chinese medicine can reduce the long-term incidence of gout and cardiovascular events.
Methods
This pilot study is a prospective, double-blinded, randomized, placebo-controlled clinical trial developed from March 2020 to December 2021. Thirty people with asymptomatic hyperuricemia will be recruited and assigned to either the Chinese medicine group or placebo group, and each group will have 15 subjects. During the 12-week observation period, there will be 4 visits. The decline in uric acid is the main outcome measure, and urinary uric acid, inflammatory biomarkers, and other indices that may be involved in lowering uric acid are the secondary outcome measures.
Discussion
This study will probe the effect of Chinese medicine treatment on hyperuricemia and explore possible therapeutic mechanisms. By performing this trial, we hope to provide evidence and data to support further large clinical studies.
Trial registration
ChiCTR2000038575. Registered on September 24, 2020.
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