A nutraceutical formulated drink from edible bird‟s nest and collagen with high bioavailability properties

Nutraceuticals drinks formulated from phytochemicals or functional foods that contain natural bioactive and chemical compounds contributes to health-promoting, disease-preventing or therapeutic properties. In current trends, there is a high demand for nutraceutical products and functional food, particularly drinks or beverages. Formulation of nutraceutical drink containing Edible Bird Nest‟s (EBN) extract and collagen type II can result in preventing bone health disease as it gives great benefits and improve the bone strength. The aim of this study is to develop a nutraceutical drink from EBN extract and collagen type II for bone health properties with high bioavailability of collagen content. In this study, six different formulation was carried out with different concentrations of EBN extract (0%, 0.03% 0.025%, 0.050%, 0.075%, 1%) and two samples of collagen drink were purchased for benchmarking from market such as Kinohibitsu and Ecolite. All sample were analysed with in vitro bioavailability analysis and sensory analysis using Hedonic Test. Findings indicated that F4 (formulation 4) with 1% of EBN extract and 0.03% collagen type II showed the best results and contribute to high bioavailability of collagen (85.61%) when comparing with formulation of EBN extract with C1 (control 1) 0.03% of collagen type II, without EBN and F1 0.03% of collagen type II, EBN 0.025%. Findings indicated that with the increase in the addition of EBN extract caused significant difference (p<0.05) in absorption of total collagen into the body when compare with C1 and F1. Sensory analysis findings revealed EBN collagen drink of F4 with 1% of EBN extract and 0.03% collagen type II is the most preferred among consumers. It caused significant difference (p<0.05) in appearance, color, aroma, taste and overall acceptability for sensory analysis. In summary, nutraceutical drink of formulation 4 of 1% EBN extract and 0.03% collagen type II has high bioavailability of collagen and consumer acceptability

Expression analysis of adherence-associated genes in pneumococcal clinical isolates during adherence to human respiratory epithelial cells (in vitro) by real-time PCR.

Pneumococcal virulence determinants have been extensively studied but molecular evidence on virulence gene expression pattern is still lacking. We undertook this study to analyze the regulation pattern of adherence-associated genes; psaA, pspC, cbpG, including ply of serotypes 1, 7F, 19F and 23F clinical isolates during the bacterial adherence to human lung epithelial cells (in vitro), by real-time PCR. We were able to harvest the bacterial RNA (0.5-1 μg μL-1) from the infected host cell and analysis showed a consistent upregulation of psaA. Differential expressions were observed for pspC, cbpG and ply genes but the former was mostly upregulated whereas the later two frequently showed either no significant change or a downregulation. Partial nucleotide sequences of psaA, cbpG and ply were highly homologous among the isolates as well as against GenBank sequences (99%) whereas those for pspC were similar (98%) to allelic variants pspC-3 and pspC-5

Molecular dynamics approach on intermolecular interaction between n-icosane and gemini surfactant assisted nanoparticles

Wax molecules tend to aggregate, and form wax solid at low temperature and result in a wax deposition. Chemical wax inhibitors are introduced to prevent wax deposition. However, the performance of chemical wax inhibitors is temperature dependent. Computational method using Molecular Dynamics (MD) simulation is used in this research to investigate how temperature affects wax inhibition using 2,5,8,11 Tetramethyl 6 dodecyn-5,8 Diol Ethoxylate Gemini surfactant (GS) and nanoparticles silicon dioxide (NP1), tin oxide (NP2), and nickel oxide (NP3). Wax-wax interaction of H58⋯H61of n-icosane and wax-solute interaction of hydrogen atom from n-icosane wax and carbonyl oxygen atoms from GS and NPs was investigated via radial distribution function analysis (rdf). The findings revealed that GS/NPs blends have a better chance of wax inhibition than corresponding individuals. Besides that, wax-wax interaction was strongest at 288K, indicating the higher chances of wax formation at low temperature. MD simulation is a promising tool for identifying atoms responsible for the wax formation and inhibition and can be used for chemical wax inhibitor screening for different temperature

Effect of wax inhibitor and sodium cloisite, Na+ nanoparticle on wax deposition of Malaysian crude oil through cold finger analysis

Wax deposits are undesirable as they affect crude oil production. Wax inhibitor which changes crude oil properties like pour point, viscosity and wax appearance temperature (WAT) are used by oil industries. The efficiency of wax inhibitor poly (ethylene-co-vinyl acetate) (EVA), poly (maleic anhydride-alt-1-octadecene) (MA) and sodium cloisite Na+ nanoparticle (NP) is assessed in this research to determine their effects on the wax deposition of Malaysian crude oil. Cold finger analysis was used to identify the best inhibitor to prevent the wax formation. The highest paraffin inhibition efficiency (PIE) obtained was at 80.91% when the crude oil was treated with EVA/NP blend of 1000 ppm EVA and NP of 600 ppm. The minimum amount of wax formed was at 25 °C proving that cold finger temperature plays a crucial role in altering the wax deposition. The van der Waals (vdW) molecular interaction between wax molecules and wax inhibitor was studied with molecular dynamics simulation (MD). The radial distribution function (rdf) value shifted from 2.75 Å to 3.25 Å when EVA/NP blend was used as the inhibitor, supporting the experimental data. The EVA/NP blend offers significant effect in reduction of wax deposit amount

Physical characterization of activated carbon derived from mangosteen peel

Mangosteen fruits have gained some great attention in fruit juice industry and the solid generated could be use as potential source for activated carbon production. In order to determine the potential of using mangosteen husk, the raw mangosteen peel was subjected to ultimate, proximate, biopolymer and thermogravimetric analysis. Furthermore, activated carbon derived from mangosteen peel was prepared by impregnating the sample with different phosphoric acid concentration (10, 20, 30 and 50 %) for 24 h with heating rate of 5 min together with activation duration for 20 min until the desired temperature 850 °C with presence of flushing of nitrogen gas. The sample was characterized by using micrometric ASAP 2010. The results revealed that acid concentration affect the surface area, yield of activated carbon and pore structures. The highest surface area with high micropore volume was obtained at 30 % acid concentration with 731 m 2g -1 and 0.33 cm 3g -1 respectively

Capsular Serotype and Antibiotic Resistance of Streptococcus pneumoniae Isolates in Malaysia

BACKGROUND: Streptococcus pneumoniae is a major causative agent of severe infections, including sepsis, pneumonia, meningitis, and otitis media, that has since become a major public health concern. In this study, the serotypes distribution of pneumococcal isolates was investigated to predict the efficacy of the 7-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV7) among the Malaysian populations. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: A total of 151 clinical isolates were serotyped using multiplex PCR assays. Out of them, there were 21.2% penicillin-resistant, 29.1% penicillin-intermediate, and 49.7% penicillin-susceptible S. pneumoniae strains. Serotypes detected among the Malaysian isolates were 1, 3, 10A, 11A/11D, 12F/12A, 14, 15A, 15B/15C, 16F, 18C/18B/18A/18F, 19A, 19F, 23F, 35B, 35F/47F, 6A/6B, 7C/7B/40, 7F/7A, 9V/9A, and 34. Serotype 19F and 23F were the two most prevalent serotypes detected. Serotypes are highly associated with invasiveness of isolates (p = 0.001) and penicillin susceptibility (p<0.001). Serotype 19F was observed to have increased resistance against penicillin while serotype 19A has high invasive tendency. Age of patients was an important factor underlying the pneumococcal serotypes (p = 0.03) and clinical sites of infections (p<0.001). High prevalence of pneumococcal isolates were detected among children <5 years old at nasopharyngeal sites while elderly adults ≥60 years old were at increased risk for pneumococcal bacteremia. CONCLUSION/SIGNIFICANCE: Current study revealed that a number of serotypes, especially those associated with high penicillin resistance, have been formulated in the PCV7. Therefore, the protections expected from the routine use of PCV7 would be encouraging for the Malaysian. However, it is not possible to predict serotypes that might become predominant in the future and hence continued surveillance of circulating serotypes will be needed

Susceptible and Protective HLA Class 1 Alleles against Dengue Fever and Dengue Hemorrhagic Fever Patients in a Malaysian Population

BACKGROUND: The human leukocyte antigen alleles have been implicated as probable genetic markers in predicting the susceptibility and/or protection to severe manifestations of dengue virus (DENV) infection. In this present study, we aimed to investigate for the first time, the genotype variants of HLA Class 1(-A and -B) of DENV infected patients against healthy individuals in Malaysia. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: This study was carried out with 92 dengue disease patients and 95 healthy controls from three different ethnic groups (Malay, Chinese and Indian) in Malaysia. All patients with clinical and laboratory confirmation of DENV infection were typed for the HLA-A and B loci, using polymerase chain reaction-sequence specific primer techniques. In our total population, a significant increase for HLA-B*53 (P = 0.042, Pc = 1.008) allele and a significant decrease for A*03 (P = 0.015, Pc = 0.18, OR = 5.23, 95% CI = 1.19-23.02) and B*18 (P = 0.017, Pc = 0.408) alleles were noted in DHF patients as compared to healthy donors. We also observed that in the Malay DHF patients, allele B*13 (P = 0.049, Pc = 1.176, OR = 0.18, 95% CI = 0.03-0.90) was present at a significantly higher frequency in this population while allele HLA-B*18 (P = 0.024, Pc = 0.576) was seen to be negatively associated with DHF. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: These are the first findings on genetic polymorphisms in our population and we conclude that: (1) In our total population, HLA-B*53 probably involve in disease susceptibility, while the HLA-A*03 and HLA-B*18 may confer protection from progression to severe disease; (2) In the Malay population, HLA-B*13 and B*18 are probably associated in disease susceptibility and protection, respectively. These results could furnish as a valuable predictive tool to identify ethnically different individuals at risk and/or protection from severe forms of DENV infection and would provide valuable informations for the design of future dengue vaccine