Food & Function Blog

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Radiation is often used to treat people with cancer when surgery is not an option. However, using radiation treatment may cause side effects that result from radiation-induced damage to normal tissue. Therefore radioprotective compounds, which can selectively protect normal tissues against radiation injury, are of great interest because not only can they protect the normal tissue, they also allow the use of higher doses of radiation therapy. Ginger (Zingiber officinale) has been shown to display radioprotective effects, and is the subject of a Food & Function review by Manjeshwar Shrinath Baliga and co-workers from Karnataka and New Delhi, India.

In their review, the team highlight that ginger and its phytochemicals dehydrozingerone and zingerone possess radioprotective effects in in vitro tests. The mechanism of this action is proposed to be due to the free radical scavenging, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and anti-clastogenic effects which may contribute towards the observed radioprotection. The observation that zingerone was selective in protecting only the normal cells and not the melanoma cells indicates its potential attractiveness for clinical development.

To read the article in full for free until 21st June, click the link below:

Radioprotective effects of Zingiber officinale Roscoe (Ginger): past, present and future, Manjeshwar Shrinath Baliga, Raghavendra Haniadka, Manisha Maria Pereira, Karadka Ramdas Thilakchand, Suresh Raob and Rajesh Arora, Food Funct., 2012, DOI: 10.1039/c2fo10225k

In their recent Food & Function review, Manuel Coimbra and co-workers from Aveiro, Portugal, provide a critical overview of the potential health impact of coffee melanoidins. When coffee beans are roasted, the coffee components undergo structural changes leading to the formation of melanoidins (high molecular weight, nitrogenous, brown-coloured compounds), which are linked to antioxidant, antimicrobial, anticariogenic, anti-inflammatory, antihypertensive, and antiglycative behaviour. Their health implications are therefore of great interest.

In order to understand the potential benefits of coffee melanoidins, it is important to know their chemical structures. Studies show that polysaccharides, proteins, and chlorogenic acids are all involved in coffee melanoidin formation; however, their exact structures and formation mechansims are yet to be fully understood.

In this paper the authors provide a critical overview of the knowledge obtained so far about the structure of coffee melanoidins, their mechanisms of formation and their potential health benefits. They also highlight that there are still several unanswered questions and further studies are required to understand the relationship between the chemical structure of the different melanoidins and their biological activities.

To read the Food & Function review in full, please click the link below: free until June 14th!

Coffee melanoidins: structures, mechanisms of formation and potential health impacts, Ana S. P. Moreira, Fernando M. Nunes, M. Rosario Domingues and Manuel A. Coimbra, Food Funct., 2012, DOI: 10.1039/c2fo30048f

You may also be interested in this recently published review on ‘Effects of tea and coffee on cardiovascular disease risk‘ from Food & Function Editorial Board member Kevin Croft.  Or, if you are interested in keeping up to date with the latest articles published in Food & Function why not sign up for free table of contents alerts.

In this Food & Function review article, Adrian Cookson and co-workers from New Zealand look at how the mucus layer covering the gastrointestinal tract is influenced by intestinal bacteria and dietary components.

The large bowel provides the ideal environment for the growth of many genera of bacteria, in particular, bifidobacteria and lactobacilli. The complex bacterial community can be altered by introducing fermentable dietary components such as starch, non-starch polysaccharides, and non-digestible oligosaccharides, selectively stimulating the growth of specific strains of bifidobacteria. These dietary components can change the metabolic end products of bacterial fermentation, which in turn are able to modify the expression of mucin genes and proteins leading to an increase in the mucus layer thickness. However, the relationship between dietary components, the adherent bacterial community and host function remains to be fully understood.

The review also discusses the effects of dietary components on the microbial community, through the selective growth stimulation of specific bacterial species, and how this may alter the end-products of bacterial fermentation and ultimately affect the mucus layer.

Read the full article for free until 29th May by clicking the link below.

The interactions between endogenous bacteria, dietary components and the mucus layer of the large bowel, Alicia M. Barnett, Nicole C. Roy, Warren C. McNabb and Adrian L. Cookson, Food Funct., 2012, DOI: 10.1039/c2fo30017f

You may also be interested in… Nuclear translocation of NF-κB in intact human gut tissue upon stimulation with coffee and roasting products, Tanja Sauer, Martin Raithel, Jürgen Kressel, Sonja Muscat, Gerald Münch and Monika Pischetsrieder, Food Funct., 2011,2, 529-540 DOI: 10.1039/C1FO10055F, Paper

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