Chlorogenic acid (CGA), an ester formed between caffeic acid and quinic acid, is one of the most abundant phenolic acids and is widespread in fruits, vegetables, cereals and tuber crops. Therefore, the present study was conducted to test the hypothesis that dietary supplementation with CGA could improve intestinal health and regulate intestinal selected microbiota in weaned piglets. A total of twenty-four piglets (21 d of age) were randomly assigned to one of four groups according to their initial BW and sex and fed a basal diet (control group) or a basal diet containing 250, 500 and 1000 mg kg-1 CGA, respectively. The whole trial lasted for 28 d. Dietary CGA supplementation increased (P < 0.05) the duodenal villous height and villous height : crypt depth ratio, but decreased (P < 0.05) the F/G ratio and duodenal crypt depth when compared with the control group. Meanwhile, an increase (P < 0.05) in the jejunal villous height and in the ileal villous height : crypt depth ratio were also observed in CGA-fed piglets. Supplementation with CGA significantly increased (P < 0.05) the activity of serum GSH-Px and the activities of duodenal GSH-Px and CAT, upregulated (P < 0.05) the expression of OCLN in the duodenum and jejunum, and decreased (P < 0.05) the ileal MDA content when compared to the control group. In addition, an increase (P < 0.05) in the population of Lactobacillus and a decrease (P < 0.05) in the population of Escherichia coli were observed in the colon of pigs fed CGA diets. Furthermore, pigs fed CGA diets had higher (P < 0.05) propionic and butyric acid concentrations in the colon. Altogether, our results provide evidence that dietary CGA is beneficial for preserving intestinal morphological integrity and selectively regulating intestinal microbiota, which can provide a means to improve gut health and growth performance post-weaning.

The high accumulation level of HMW-GSs and LMW-GSs as well as 1Bx13 + 1By16 and 1Dx4 + 1Dy12 subunits contributed to the superior gluten quality of Jimai 20. Two highly expressed and 16 specifically expressed LMW glutenin subunits in Jimain 20 had positive effects on dough quality, while 17 specifically expressed subunits in Zhoumai 16 and Jing 411 appeared to have negative effects on gluten quality.

In this work, we use computational design to examine 15 new electrolyte salt anions by performing chemical variations and mutations on the bis(trifluoromethane)sulfonamide (TFSI) anion. On the basis of our calculations, we propose two new anions as potential candidates for magnesium energy-storage systems, which are evolved from TFSI with the substitution of sulfur atoms in TFSI and the modification of functional groups. The applicability of these new anion salts is examined through comprehensive calculations using both first-principles as well as benchmarked classical molecular dynamics. We elucidate the important properties of these anions, including the electrochemical stability window, chemical decomposition, preferred solvation structure, diffusion coefficient, and other dynamical properties for 15 rationally designed molecules. Two of the designed anions are found to successfully avoid the vulnerability of TFSI during ion-pair charge-transfer reactions while retaining comparable or better performance of other properties. As such, our work provides, to our knowledge, the first theoretically designed electrolyte salt for contemporary multivalent batteries and provides guidance for the synthesis and testing of novel liquid electrochemical systems.

The gallotannin penta-O-galloyl-beta-D-glucose (PGG) has many biological activities including in vivo anti-cancer efficacy. We present in this paper a scaled-up protocol for its preparation in high purity from tannic acid by acidic methanolysis with typical yield of 15%. We also describe a method for the analysis of PGG in mouse plasma by HPLC and its application in preliminary pharmacokinetic studies. A liquid–liquid extraction (LLE) protocol was optimized for the extraction of PGG from mouse plasma. The extraction efficiency for PGG at 1 μg/mL in mouse plasma was 70.0 ± 1.3% (n=5). The limit of detection (LOD) for PGG was approximately 0.2 μg/mL. Preliminary pharmacokinetic parameters of PGG following a single i.p. injection with 5% ethanol/saline vehicle in mice were established. The peak plasma PGG concentrations (Cmax) were approximately 3–4 μM at a dose of 0.5 mg per mouse (~20 mg/kg) at 2 h post-injection (Tmax).