Cocoa Flavanols Improve Vascular Responses to Acute Mental Stress in Young Healthy Adults.

Mental stress has been shown to induce cardiovascular events, likely due to its negative impact on vascular function. Flavanols, plant-derived polyphenolic compounds, improve endothelial function and blood pressure (BP) in humans, however their effects during stress are not known. This study examined the effects of acute intake of cocoa flavanols on stress-induced changes on vascular function.

Substantial Depletion of Vicine, Levodopa, and Tyramine in a Fava Bean Protein-Based Nutritional Product.

A commercial fava bean protein isolate and a liquid nutritional product formulated with it were tested by validated HPLC methods for the favism-associated pyrimidine glycoside vicine, the dopamine precursor levodopa, and the biogenic amine tyramine. The vicine, levodopa, and tyramine concentrations in the protein isolate-306, 13.3, and <0.

Dietary flavanols improve cerebral cortical oxygenation and cognition in healthy adults.

Cocoa flavanols protect humans against vascular disease, as evidenced by improvements in peripheral endothelial function, likely through nitric oxide signalling. Emerging evidence also suggests that flavanol-rich diets protect against cognitive aging, but mechanisms remain elusive. In a randomized double-blind within-subject acute study in healthy young adults, we link these two lines of research by showing, for the first time, that flavanol intake leads to faster and greater brain oxygenation responses to hypercapnia, as well as higher performance only when cognitive demand is high.

Polyphenol-Enriched Plum Extract Enhances Myotubule Formation and Anabolism while Attenuating Colon Cancer-induced Cellular Damage in C2C12 Cells.

Preventing muscle wasting in certain chronic diseases including cancer is an ongoing challenge. Studies have shown that polyphenols derived from fruits and vegetables shows promise in reducing muscle loss in cellular and animal models of muscle wasting. We hypothesized that polyphenols derived from plums () could have anabolic and anti-catabolic benefits on skeletal muscle.

Iron Bioavailability from Ferric Pyrophosphate in Extruded Rice Cofortified with Zinc Sulfate Is Greater than When Cofortified with Zinc Oxide in a Human Stable Isotope Study.

Extruded rice grains are often cofortified with iron and zinc. However, it is uncertain if the addition of zinc to iron-fortified rice affects iron absorption and whether this is zinc-compound specific. We investigated whether zinc, added as zinc oxide (ZnO) or zinc sulfate (ZnSO), affects human iron absorption from extruded rice fortified with ferric pyrophosphate (FePP).

The relative bioavailability of the calcium salt of β-hydroxy-β-methylbutyrate is greater than that of the free fatty acid form in rats.

Background: β-Hydroxy-β-methylbutyrate (HMB) supplementation has been demonstrated to enhance muscle protein synthesis and attenuate loss of muscle mass by multiple pathways. The beneficial effects of HMB have been studied by using either the calcium salt, monohydrate, of HMB (CaHMB) or the free acid form (FAHMB).

Objective: The present study was designed to compare the pharmacokinetics and relative bioavailability of the 2 forms of HMB administered as a liquid suspension in male Sprague-Dawley rats.

Direct determination of methionine sulfoxide in milk proteins by enzyme hydrolysis/high-performance liquid chromatography.

A direct and simultaneous HPLC/UV determination of methionine and methionine sulfoxide in enzyme-hydrolyzed milk proteins is described. Protein hydrolysis is accomplished by a three-enzyme (pronase, leucine aminopeptidase, prolidase) 20-h/37 degrees C digestion. A gradient elution reversed-phase HPLC system with UV detection at 214 nm and 280 nm is then used to determine the quantitative releases of methionine sulfoxide, methionine, tyrosine, and tryptophan.

Glutamine in commercial liquid nutritional products.

Total glutamine concentrations in commercial nutritional products have been determined by enzymatic hydrolysis followed by HPLC quantification of free glutamine and free pyroglutamic acid. Hydrolysis was accomplished by a published three-enzyme (Pronase, leucine aminopeptidase, prolidase), 20-h/37 degrees C digestion. Glutamine was determined as its FMOC derivative by reverse phase HPLC-fluorescence, and pyroglutamic acid was determined directly by organic acid HPLC-UV.