Pouteria torta epicarp as a useful source of α-amylase inhibitor in the control of type 2 diabetes.

Type 2 diabetes plays a major role in public health, affecting about 400 million adults. One of the used strategies to control type 2 diabetes is the inhibition of α-amylase activity to reduce post-prandial blood glucose levels. Therefore, in past decades, the search of new α-amylase inhibitors has led to the evaluation of natural products as a source of these compounds.

Purification and full characterisation of citreoviridin produced by Penicillium citreonigrum in yeast extract sucrose (YES) medium.

The mycotoxin citreoviridin has been associated with the 'yellow rice' disease, which caused cardiac beriberi in Japan. In Brazil, the consumption of contaminated rice was suspected to be involved in a recent beriberi outbreak. In this work, citreoviridin was produced by Penicillium citreonigrum, cultivated in 500 ml yeast extract sucrose (YES) liquid medium for 8 days at 25ºC, and the toxin extracted with chloroform from the liquid medium and the mycelium.

Are fat acids of human milk impacted by pasteurization and freezing?

The Human Milk Bank undergo human milk to pasteurization, followed by storage in a freezer at -18° C for up to six months to thus keep available the stocks of this product in maternal and infant hospitals. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of processing on the lipid fraction of human milk. A sample of human milk was obtained from a donor and was subdivided into ten sub-samples that was subjected to the following treatments: LC = raw milk; T0 = milk after pasteurization; T30 = milk after pasteurization and freezing for 30 days; T60 = milk after pasteurization and freeze for 60 days, and so on every 30 days until T240 = milk after pasteurization and freezing for 240 days, with 3 repetitions for each treatment.