Sources of Information about Dietary Fibre: A Cross-Country Survey

Dietary fibre (DF) has been recognized as a major determinant for improvement of health. Hence the means of information through which people become aware of its benefits are crucial. This work aimed at studying the sources of information about DF, as a means to educate people about aspects related to healthy eating. Factors such as gender, level of education, living environment or country were evaluated as to their effect on the selection of sources and preferences. For this, a descriptive cross-sectional study by means of a questionnaire, applied to a non-probabilistic sample of 6010 participants from 10 countries in different continents (Europe, Africa and America), answered after informed consent by all participants. For the analysis were used several descriptive statistics tools, crosstabs and chi square test to assess the relations between some of the variables under study. The results showed that mostly the information about DF comes from the internet, but the participants recognize that television might be a most suitable way to disseminate information about DF. The results also indicated differences between genders, levels of education, living environments and countries. The internet, the preferred source of information, got highest scores for Hungary, for urban areas, for university level of education and for female gender. The radio, the least scored source of information, was preferred in Egypt, for men and with lower education (primary school). As a conclusion, people get information through the internet due to easy access. However, it is to some extent a risk given the impossibility to control de information made public on the internet. The role of health centers and hospitals as well as schools should definitely be increased, as a responsible way to ensure correct information

Level of information about dietary fibre: a study involving 10 Countries

Introduction: Dietary fibre (DF) is recognized as healthy for long, so that health claims are allowed by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) due to its proved benefits, extended but not only confined to many diseases of the gastrointestinal tract. Objective: This work intended to analyse the level of information about DF in 10 countries, situated in Europe, Africa and South America. Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study was undertaken through a survey based on a questionnaire of self-response applied to a sample of 6010 participants. The data were lately treated by factor and cluster analyses, including validation methodologies. Results: Factor analysis showed that ten of the twelve items used to assess the knowledge about DF could be arranged into two factors: one related to health effects (α =0.854) and the other to the sources (α =0.644). Furthermore, cluster analysis showed that the participants could be divided into three groups: 1) Good knowledge about sources and health effects of DF; 2) Good knowledge about the sources of DF but poor knowledge about the health effects; 3) Poor knowledge about the sources and health effects of DF. Conclusions: The results clearly allowed identifying two factors and three clusters, and the variables that most influenced cluster membership were country, living environment and level of education.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Preliminary in vitro assessment of the potential toxicity and antioxidant activity of Ceiba speciosa (A. St.-Hill) Ravenna (Paineira)

ABSTRACT The bark tea of Ceiba speciosa, a tropical tree of the Malvaceae family, is used in the Northwestern Region of Rio Grande do Sul state, Brazil, to reduce blood cholesterol levels. However, there are no scientific data on the efficacy and safety of this plant. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the in vitro antioxidant and toxic potential of bark extracts of C. speciosa. We performed a preliminary phytochemical analysis by high-performance liquid chromatography-diode array detection (HPLC-DAD) and evaluated the oxidative damage to proteins and lipids, the radical scavenging effect, and genotoxicity of the lyophilized aqueous extract (LAECs) and the precipitate obtained from the raw ethanol extract (Cs1). The phytochemical profile demonstrated the presence of phenolic and flavonoid compounds. The LAECs and Cs1 prevented damage to lipids and proteins at concentrations of 50 and 10 µg/mL. They also showed a scavenging effect on 2,2-diphenyl-1-pricril-hydrazyl (DPPH) radicals in a concentration-dependent manner. Furthermore, no genotoxic effect was observed at concentrations of 10, 5 and 2 µg/mL in the Comet assay. The present study is the first evaluation regarding the characterization of C. speciosa and its safety, and the results demonstrate its antioxidant potential and suggest that its therapeutic use may be relatively safe

Tailoring of Rosuvastatin Calcium and Atenolol Bilayer Tablets for the Management of Hyperlipidemia Associated with Hypertension: A Preclinical Study

Hyperlipidemia is still the leading cause of heart disease in patients with hypertension. The purpose of this study is to make rosuvastatin calcium (ROS) and atenolol (AT) bilayer tablets to treat coexisting dyslipidemia and hypertension with a single product. ROS was chosen for the immediate-release layer of the constructed tablets, whereas AT was chosen for the sustained-release layer. The solid dispersion of ROS with sorbitol (1:3 w/w) was utilized in the immediate-release layer while hydroxypropyl methylcellulose (HPMC), ethylcellulose (EC), and sodium bicarbonate were incorporated into the floating sustained-release layer. The concentrations of HPMC and EC were optimized by employing 32 full factorial designs to sustain AT release. The bilayer tablets were prepared by the direct compression method. The immediate-release layer revealed that 92.34 ± 2.27% of ROS was released within 60 min at a pH of 1.2. The second sustained-release layer of the bilayer tablets exhibited delayed release of AT (96.65 ± 3.36% within 12 h) under the same conditions. The release of ROS and AT from the prepared tablets was found to obey the non-Fickian diffusion and mixed models (zero-order, Higuchi and Korsmeyer–Peppas), respectively. Preclinical studies using rabbit models investigated the impact of ROS/AT tablets on lipid profiles and blood pressure. A high-fat diet was used to induce obesity in rabbits. Bilayer ROS/AT tablets had a remarkable effect on decreasing the lipid profiles, slowing weight gain, and lowering blood pressure to normal levels when compared to the control group

The Combined Effect of Hot Water Treatment and Chitosan Coating on Mango (Mangifera indica L. cv. Kent) Fruits to Control Postharvest Deterioration and Increase Fruit Quality

The synergistic effect of dipping in 55 °C for 5 min of hot water (HW) and 1% chitosan coating during the storage of mango at 13 ± 0.5 °C and 85%–90% relative humidity for 28 days was investigated. The combined treatment significantly suppressed the fruit decay percentage compared with both the single treatment and the control. In addition, the specific activities of key plant defense-related enzymes, including peroxidase (POD) and catalase (CAT), markedly increased. The increase occurred in the pulp of the fruits treated with the combined treatment compared to those treated with HW or chitosan alone. While the control fruits showed the lowest values, the combination of pre-storage HW treatment and chitosan coating maintained higher values of flesh hue angle (h°), vitamin C content, membrane stability index (MSI) percentage, as well as lower weight loss compared with the untreated mango fruits. The combined treatment and chitosan treatment alone delayed fruit ripening by keeping fruit firmness, lessening the continuous increase of total soluble solids (TSS), and slowing the decrease in titratable acidity (TA). The results showed that the combined application of HW treatment and chitosan coating can be used as an effective strategy to suppress postharvest decay and improve the quality of mango fruits

Factor and cluster analysis to knowledge about dietary fibre

The present study was aimed at investigating what are the people’s levels of information about dietary fibre (DF) and how they relate to some fators that result from the people’s perceptions associated with the knowledge about DF. The study consisted of a descriptive cross-sectional survey undertaken on a sample of over 6 thousand participants, original from 10 countries. Statistical techniques like factor analysis and cluster analysis were applied to the data. Factor analysis showed that 10 out of the 12 variables used to measure the knowledge about DF could be grouped into 2 factors: one associated with health effects of DF and the other with its natural sources. The internal consistency of both factors was evaluated by the Cronbach’s alfa (0.854 and 0.644, respectively). Cluster analysis revealed that the participants could be divided into 3 groups: Cluster 1 – Good knowledge both about sources and health effects of DF; Cluster 2 – Good knowledge about the sources of DF but poor knowledge about its health effects; Cluster 3 – Poor knowledge both about sources and health effects of DF. The results were subject to analysis of stability by spliting the data set in 2 halfs. The cluster membership was found associated with living environment and level of education, but not with age, gender or country.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio