Comparison of the relative recovery of polyphenolics in two fruit extracts from a model of degradation during digestion and metabolism

To simulate the effects of digestion and metabolism on the survival of different polyphenolic compounds, extracts of blueberry and apple were deglycosylated by acid hydrolysis, followed by enzymic glucuronidation under neutral conditions, yielding approximately 5% overall recovery of polyphenolics. The major polyphenolics before and after the treatment were compared, to estimate which species are likely to be present in the intestinal lumen, undegraded and available for absorption, after consumption of the fruit. Whereas blueberry extract consisted predominantly of anthocyanins, epicatechin and caffeoyl quinate esters, the major components of the treated extract were quercetin glucuronides and (unglucuronidated) caffeoyl quinates, with only traces of anthocyanidin derivatives. In apple extract, compositional changes were less marked, but caffeoyl quinates, procyanidins and quercetin were enriched at the expense of caffeic acid, epicatechin and catechin. Hydrophobic compounds like phloretin and quercetin were extensively glucuronidated, whereas caffeic acid and caffeoyl quinate were not. These results suggest that the major polyphenolic components of a fruit are not necessarily the most important contributors to any health benefits because the polyphenolic composition in the intestinal lumen and consequently, in the circulation, may be considerably different.     

Book reviews

Australian Urban Planning: New Challenges, New Agendas. Brendan Gleeson and Nicholas Low. Allen & Unwin, Sydney, 2000. ISBN 1865082384 (paperback). 273 pp.; bibliography and index. RRP $35.00.

Australian Urban Planning: New Challenges, New Agendas. Review 2.

Equity, Environment, Efficiency: Ethics and Economics in Urban Australia. Patrick Troy (ed.). Melbourne University Press, Melbourne, 2000. ISBN 0522848923 (paperback). 255pp.; bibliography and index. RRP $43.95.

Asian New Urbanism. William S. W. Lim. Select Books, Singapore, 1998. ISBN 9814022012. 250 pp.. RRP $52.00.

Rethinking Australian Citizenship. Wayne Hudson and John Kane (eds). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2000. ISBN 052159670 (paperback), 052159337 9 (hardback). 274pp.; bibliography and index. RRP $34.95 (paperback), $90.00 (hardback).

Community Participation Methods in Design and Planning. Henry Sanoff. John Wiley, New York, 2000. ISBN 0471355453. 306 pp.; bibliography, additional readings and index. RRP $114.95.

Global Spin: The Corporate Assault on Environmentalism. Sharon Beder. Scribe, Melbourne, rev. edn, 2000. ISBN 090801144 (paperback). 336 pp; bibliography and index. RRP $29.95.     

Fruit‐based functional foods I: production of food‐grade apple fibre ingredients

With the increased consumer interest in fibre‐enriched functional foods, industrial‐scale methods for functional fibre production are demanded. The development of a food‐grade fibre preparation method at lab scale that is feasible for industrial scale‐up is a pre‐requisite. This paper describes two lab‐scale fibre preparation methods that have potential to be scaled up to industrial setting for the production of fruit fibres containing desired bioactives and functionality. The two methods, one aqueous and the other ethanolic, were used to isolate fibres from Granny Smith apples (Malus domestica Borkh cv. ‘Granny Smith’). In the aqueous method, ground apple tissues were suspended in HEPES buffer (20 mM, pH 6.5), and then mechanically ruptured using an Ultra‐Turrax and ring grinder. Between steps, the cell‐wall materials were washed with the HEPES buffer. In the ethanolic method, ground apple tissues were stirred in 72% ethanol at 4 °C, filtered, re‐suspended in 72% ethanol and then washed. Microscopic examination and chemical analysis were performed on the resultant fibres. The aqueous method produced natural and uniform dietary fibres in the form of plant cell walls containing 0.282 g uronic acid per g dried fibre. By comparisons, the ethanolic method produced crude fibres containing only 0.182 g uronic acid per g dried fibre, the lower uronic acid content indicating the presence of impurities. Thus, the aqueous method appeared to be advantageous in terms of the retained pectic polysaccharide content and cost‐effectness for industrial scale‐up. Further characterisation using Folin‐Ciocalteu assay and high performance liquid chromatography indicates that the fibres obtained by the aqueous method contained significant amounts of phenolic compounds (2.6 mg catechin equivalent per g dried fibre). These results suggest that fibres obtained by the aqueous method may be more suitable for functional food applications where fibres with high pectic polysaccharide and beneficial phenolic antioxidants are preferred.     

Producing ice cream using a substantial amount of juice from kiwifruit with green,gold or red flesh

Ice cream prepared using a substantial amount of juice from kiwifruit with green, gold or red flesh may have consumer appeal, through the combination of kiwifruit's unique color, natural flavor and health-promoting constituents. The aqueous fractions from purees of kiwifruit with green, gold and red flesh (AFKWs) were added at 49% v/v to a basic low-fat ice cream mix that contained no commercial flavoring and coloring agents. The resultant ice creams were subjected to comparative product evaluation (e.g. overrun, melting behavior and rheological properties) and chemical analyses of bioactives (e.g. total extractable polyphenol content (TEPC), vitamin C, antioxidant capacity, polyphenol (PP) and carotenoid composition). Results revealed that both the pH pre-adjustment and pre-heating of the AFKW played critical roles in ice cream making. The ice creams retained the PP and vitamin C contents as well as natural color flavor of the kiwifruit used. The rheological properties of all ice creams showed non-Newtonian flow behavior, and the storage modulus G′ decreased in the same pattern following the order of green > gold > red. The melting rate, overrun and vitamin C content of the ice cream with green AFKW were the fastest, lowest and least, respectively. The TEPC and antioxidant capacity in the ice cream with red AFKW were the highest. The amounts of PPs and vitamin C were encouragingly high. Health beneficial compounds, dimethyl-caffeic acid hexoside, caffeic acid derivatives, protocatechuic acid, syringic acid, salicylic acid/ο-coumaric acid, lutein and beta-carotene, were detected in the final products. Thus, there are commercial possibilities for using AFKW which should be further evaluated.     

Evaluation of the extraction efficiency for polyphenol extracts from by‐products of green kiwifruit juicing

The health benefits of fruits are attributable in part to their bioactive components such as phenolics and pectic polysaccharides. By‐products derived from kiwifruit processing can be a good source of such bioactive compounds. Extracts were produced using different concentrations of ethanol in water (0%, 30%, 50%, 74% and 96% v/v) from by‐products (skin, residue and pulp) of the green‐fleshed kiwifruit (Actinidia deliciosa‘Hayward’) juicing process. The amounts of phenolic compounds and uronic acid (UA) as well as the phenolic composition in each extract were determined. Results show that different by‐products contained different concentrations of phenolics and pectic polysaccharides. Based on total phenolic contents, 96% v/v ethanol appeared to be the best extraction medium. The 30% or 74% ethanolic dilution was the second best medium for phenolic extraction from skin and pulp/residue, respectively. Water was a good medium for extracting satisfactory quantities of phenolics as well as the highest concentration of pectic polysaccharides. Phenolic profiling by high‐performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) was used to detect individual phenolic compounds in an extract. Results using HPLC showed that alkali pre‐treatment has improved the extraction efficiency of phenolics as a function of alkali concentration, fruit tissue type, extraction media, by‐product preparation method, and class of polyphenols. As a result more efficient methods for both extraction and characterisation of polyphenols could be evaluated.     

Service-oriented visualization applied to medical data analysis

With the era of Grid computing, data driven experiments and simulations have become very advanced and complicated. To allow specialists from various domains to deal with large datasets, aside from developing efficient extraction techniques, it is necessary to have available computational facilities to visualize and interact with the results of an extraction process. Having this in mind, we developed an Interactive Visualization Framework, which supports a service-oriented architecture. This framework allows, on one hand visualization experts to construct visualizations to view and interact with large datasets, and on the other hand end-users (e.g., medical specialists) to explore these visualizations irrespective of their geographical location and available computing resources. The image-based analysis of vascular disorders served as a case study for this project. The paper presents main research findings and reports on the current implementation status.     

Stability of encapsulated olive oil in the presence of caffeic acid

The aim of this study was to investigate the influence of microencapsulation and addition of the phenolic antioxidant caffeic acid (CA) on the storage stability of olive oil. Olive oil in the absence or presence of 300 ppm CA was encapsulated in 1.5% w/w sodium alginate shells. Encapsulated oil (with/without added CA) and unencapsulated oil were stored at 20 or 37 °C for 30 days and then subjected to stability and quality evaluation based on peroxide value (PV), p-anisidine value (p-AV), Totox value, free fatty acid (FFA), total extractable phenolic content (TEPC), and fatty acid composition. The CA addition increased the stability and TPC of the final oil product. Oxidation changes were generally slower in the encapsulated oil samples. Both encapsulation and addition of CA preserved unsaturated fatty acids (UFAs) including C18:1 (omega-9 FA), C18:2 (omega-6 FA) and C18:3 (omega-3 FA). We conclude that the current oil encapsulation method using alginate microspheres could be a feasible approach to increasing olive oil stability. The addition of CA to olive oil not only provides additional protection to the oil, but also improves the nutritional values of the final oil product in terms of elevated TEPC and desired UFAs.     

Forced unsteady state operation to improve H2 permeability through Pd-Ag membrane during start-up

Hydrogen separation from nitrogen containing gas mixture using Pd-Ag membrane shows a time lag and low hydrogen recovery during start-up period. In this study, forced unsteady state operation using a composition modulation of the feed gas was employed as a new operation method to increase the hydrogen recovery and to shorten the time lag. In this work, the performance of Pd75-Ag25 membrane during the separation of hydrogen from H₂/N₂ mixture under forced unsteady state operation at 623 K was investigated. During natural start-up without forced operation, the hydrogen recovery results in 35% and 14% for H₂/N₂ feed gas compositions of 70%/30% and 50%/50%, respectively, while the time lag in the natural operation results in 195 and 147 min for H₂/N₂ feed gas compositions of 70%/30% and 50%/50%, respectively. The experimental results show that forced unsteady state operation affects considerably on hydrogen recovery from H₂/N₂ mixture and the time lag during start-up. The maximum hydrogen recovery in the forced unsteady state operation is 60%, obtained at switching time 5 min and H₂/N₂ feed gas composition of 70%/30%, while for H₂/N₂ feed gas composition of 50%/50% the hydrogen recovery is not significantly influenced by switching time. The time lag indicates a profound decay trend monotonically by decreasing the switching time for both H₂/N₂ feed gas compositions.     

A simulation of the comminution process of homogenized lithium-ion battery models

The simulation of the comminution process of a lithium-ion battery model and evaluation of the performance of three cylindrical battery models derived from previous studies were achieved in the present study. The finite element method (FEM) was used along with dynamic simulation procedures. The models were classified based on the battery material model parameters used in the analysis, namely type A, B, and C models. The battery material models of type A and C were unable to provide results that were consistent with real-world circumstances. In contrast, the type B model gives a realistic battery dynamic reaction. Additional testing on the type B model was performed in terms of battery shard size, fracture energy, comminution pressures, element displacement, battery element velocity, and device capacity calculation. The simulation results revealed that the type B model in this study is capable of properly predicting the dynamic response of the battery, notably when compared to the other two models. The study in the present research could be used in the future to identify the proper cutting tool geometry, estimate the size of the comminution product, and play an important role in the design and optimization of the comminution machine.

     

Hydrogen absorption and hydrogen-induced reverse segregation in palladium–silver surface

Hydrogen absorption from surface to second subsurface layer of ordered and substitutionally disordered Pd₃Ag(110) was investigated by performing density functional theory-based calculations. Ag segregation to topmost layer was found to be energetically favored for clean surface structure. The absorption of H in the alloy surface, for both ordered and substitutionally disordered structures, is generally characterized by lower activation barrier as compared to pure Pd surface. When H is present in the surface or subsurface regions, our results strongly suggest the tendency of subsurface Pd atoms to segregate to the surface or near surface region. The reverse segregation of Pd, along with the large lattice constant and the modified electronic structure of Pd atoms in Pd₃Ag alloy could help in understanding the experimentally determined high hydrogen permeability of PdAg membranes.