Near-Infrared Metabolic Profiling for Discrimination of Apricot and Peach Kernels.

Apricot and Peach Kernels are commercial crude drugs used in many formulas of traditional Japanese medicine, Kampo. Although their applications are quite different, it is difficult to distinguish them using conventional methods such as HPLC. The study aimed at near-infrared (NIR) metabolic profiling to discriminate Apricot and Peach Kernels (Armeniacae Semen and Persicae Semen) collected from Japanese markets.

The utility of post-test newborn blood spot screening cards for epigenetic association analyses: association between HIF3A methylation and birth weight-for-gestational age.

Identification of disease-associated epigenetic markers in early life might be useful for pre-emptive intervention to prevent diseases. Epigenome-wide association analyses using newborn blood spot screening cards are an anticipated field of research in Japan. Here, in this study, post-test dried blood spot (DBS) samples were anonymized, with only three attributes of gender, gestational age, and birth weight identified.