Supplementation of food with spices containing essential oils may counteract and retard the process of oxidative damage, lipid oxidation and elevate antioxidant activity of the final product.

Silymarin is an over the counter food supplement that is sold as a liver enhancement and liver protection preparation. It is a major constituent of the seeds of Silybum marianum which is composed of a mixture of seven major components and several minor compounds. The seven major components: taxifolin, silychristin, silydianin, silybin A, silybin B, iso-silybin A and iso-silybin B were isolated and purified from the crude mixture of silymarin using preparative high performance liquid chromatography to determine which were the most effective for liver protection. Free radical scavenging, hydroxyl radical antioxidant capacity, oxygen radical antioxidant capacity, trolox-equivalent antioxidant capacity and total antioxidant capacity antioxidant activities were determined for each of the individual purified components as well as the crude silymarin mixture. Taxifolin was the most effective component for scavenging free radicals in the DPPH assay with an EC50 of 32 µM far more effective than all other components which showed EC50 ranging from 115 to 855 µM. Taxifolin was also found to be the most effective antioxidant in the oxygen radical antioxidant capacity (ORAC) assay with a trolox equivalent of 2.43 and the second most effective in the hydroxyl radical antioxidant capacity (HORAC) assay with a gallic acid equivalent of 0.57. Other antioxidants assays did not show significant differences between samples.

Polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) content from seven commercial waterpipe charcoals were determined during the smoking process to estimate how much PAHs would not be trapped by the water trap and could reach the lungs of the smokers. Naphthalene, 2-methylnaphthalene, acenaphthylene, acenaphthene, phenanthrene and fluoranthene were the most abundant PAH compounds produced during smoking. Naphthalene was the highest in all of the smoke contents and levels of 5 to 405 μg/15 minutes could be inhaled by the smoker. The amounts of PAHs produced during the smoking events in absence of tobacco varied greatly among different brands of charcoal. The amount and composition of the emitted PAH were not related to the amount and composition of the original chemicals in the charcoal prior to burning. Our findings suggest that public health agencies should regulate smoked charcoal products alongside tobacco.

Milk thistle dietary supplements that contain silymarin are widely marketed and used in the USA and other countries for liver enhancement and recovery. More recently, silymarin has also been identified as a possible antiviral for the treatment of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection. To assess different brands of commercially sold silymarin, 45 products were collected from local stores and analyzed for their silymarin content, antioxidant activities, and antiviral activity against HCV. Antioxidant activity was measured as radical scavenging activity using DPPH and by estimating their antioxidant capacity as trolox equivalent. Anti-HCV activity was measured in an HCV genotype 1b replication inhibition assay. Samples were found to vary widely in their silymarin content, with some samples having none or very low concentrations while silymarin represented higher than 80% of other samples. Both antioxidant and anti-HCV activity correlated with the overall level of silymarin.

Rumex dentatus L. and Rumex vesicarius L., of the family Polygonaceae, are edible herbs growing wild in Egypt. Their lipoid constituents were examined by both liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry (LC/MS) and by gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS). Their essential oil compositions consisted mainly of thujene, limonene, fenchon, estragole, and anethole but at largely different concentration. Fatty acid compositions were similar among the two species and consisting of palmitic, oleic, linoleic and linolenic acids, with R. vesicarius containing much higher level of omega-3-fatty acids. Both of the crude lipid extracts of the two species showed strong antioxidant activity as a radical quenching agent against 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) systems. Antioxidant activities were mostly associated with the polar lipid fractions. High performance thin layer chromatography (HPTLC), both in the normal and reversed phase, as well as liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry (LC/MS) in the positive and negative electrospray ionization (ESI), showed unique chemical profile for each species that can be useful for species identification and quality control of herbal drug formulations. R. vesicarius was characterized by abundances of flavonoids and R. dentatus was abundant in anthraquinones and chromones.

This study aimed to investigate the biological impact of exposure on domestic light emitting diodes (LED) lighting using the free-living nematode Caenorhabditis elegans as a model. Nematodes were separately exposed to white LED light covering the range of 380-750 nm, blue light at 450 nm and black light at 380-420 nm for one life cycle (egg to adult) with dark exposure as the control. Each light range induced stress to the nematode C. elegans such as reducing the number of the hatched eggs and/or delayed the maturation of the hatched eggs to the adult stage. In addition, it lowered or prevented the ability of adults to lay eggs and impaired the locomotion in the exposed worms. The observed type of biological stress was also associated with the production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) as compared to nematodes grown in the dark. It is concluded that the blue light component of white LED light may cause health problems, and further investigation is required to test commercial brands of white LEDs that emit different amounts of blue light.

The free living nematode Caenorhabditis elegans is a proven model organism for lipid metabolism research. Total lipids of C. elegans were extracted using chloroform, methanol 2:1(v/v). Fatty acids composition of the extracted total lipids were converted to their corresponding methyl esters (FAMEs) and analyzed by gas chromatography/accurate mass quadrupole time of flight mass spectrometry (GCMS-QTOF) using both electron ionization (EI) and chemical ionization (CI) techniques. 28 fatty acids consisting of 12 to 22 carbon atoms were identified, 65% of them were unsaturated. Fatty acids containing 12 to 17 carbons were mostly saturated with stearic acid (18:0) as the major constituent. Several branched-chain fatty acids were identified. Methyl-14-methylhexadecanoate (iso-17:0) was the major identified branched fatty acid. This is the first report to detect the intact molecular parent ions of the identified fatty acids using chemical ionization compared to electron ionization which produced fragmentations of the fatty acids methyl esters (FAMEs).

Twenty-eight different tea samples sold in the United States were evaluated using high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) with fluorescence detection (FLD) for their contamination with polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). Many PAHs exhibit carcinogenic, mutagenic, and teratogenic properties and have been related to several kinds of cancer in man and experimental animals. The presence of PAHs in environmental samples such as water, sediments, and particulate air has been extensively studied, but food samples have received little attention. Eighteen PAHs congeners were analyzed, with percentage recovery higher than 85%. Contamination expressed as the sum of the 18 analyzed PAHs was between 101 and 1337 μg/kg on dry mass and the average contents in all of the 28 examined samples was 300 μg/kg on dry mass. Seven of the congeners were found in all samples with wide ranges of concentrations as follows: fluorene (7–48 μg/kg), anthracene (1–31 μg/kg), pyrene (1–970 μg/kg), benzo(a)anthracene (1–18 μg/kg) chrysene (17–365 μg/kg), benzo(a)pyrene (1–29 μg/kg), and indeno(1,2,3-cd)pyrene (4–119 μg/kg). The two most toxic congeners benzo(a)pyrene and dibenzo(a,h)anthracene were found at high concentrations only in Earl Grey Twinnings, Earl Grey Harney& Sons Fine Teas, and Chai Ultra Spice Black Tea Twinnings. Six PAH congeners are considered as suspected carcinogens (U.S.EPA), formed the basis of the estimation of the toxic equivalent (TEQ), Chai Ultra-Spice Black Tea Twinnings had the highest TEQ (110.9) followed by two grey tea samples, Earl Grey Harney & Sons Fine Tea (57.7) and Earl Grey Twinnings (54.5). Decaffeinated grey teas had the lowest TEQs, decaffeinated Earl Grey Bigelow (9.4) and Green Tea Honey Lemon Decaffeinated Lipton (9.6).