搜索结果：Plant methods

Tenderness and nutritional quality are critical determinants of meat value and consumer acceptance. This review discusses applications of plant cysteine proteases primarily for improving meat texture, with emphasis on their effects on myofibrillar, sarcoplasmic, and connective tissue proteins. Factors governing artificial meat tenderization, including enzyme properties, processing conditions, and delivery methods, are evaluated. The review also examines how protease pretreatment influences in vitro protein digestion and the release of bioactive peptides. Controlled application of plant cysteine proteases can improve meat texture and modify digestive and peptide-release characteristics, although enzyme type, dose, treatment conditions, sensory quality, and physiological validation must be considered for practical implementation.

As oxidative processes are increasingly employed for the removal of trace substances in advanced wastewater treatment, as required by, among others, by the EU urban Wastewater treatment directive, disinfection by-products, particularly bromate are becoming increasingly important. This study presents a comprehensive intra- and interlaboratory evaluation of four ion chromatography (IC) based methods for the determination of bromate in wastewater: conductivity detection (IC-CD), post-column reaction with UV/Vis detection (IC-PCR-UV/Vis), high-resolution mass spectrometry (IC-ESI-HRMS), and inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (IC-ICP-MS). Performance parameters were assessed in ultrapure water and verified across different wastewater matrices, including influent, secondary clarifier effluent, and final effluent of a municipal wastewater treatment plant. IC-CD achieved a LOQ of 1.4 &#xb5;g/L in ultrapure water but exhibited strong matrix dependency in untreated wastewater. In treated wastewater, the verified LOQs were sufficiently low to allow quantification below the regulated drinking water limit (10 &#xb5;g/L). IC-PCR-UV/Vis and IC-ICP-MS demonstrated robust performance across all investigated matrices, with a LOQ of 1.0 &#xb5;g/L and consistently reliable precision (<5%) and recoveries (90-110%), making these methods suitable for both treated and untreated wastewater. IC-ESI-HRMS provided the lowest LOQ (0.07 &#xb5;g/L) though requiring dilution in untreated wastewaters due to matrix effects. Interlaboratory validation confirmed that IC-CD is only suitable for treated wastewater, whereas IC-PCR-UV/Vis is broadly applicable across treated and untreated wastewaters. Overall, IC-PCR-UV/Vis represents the most practical method for routine bromate monitoring in wastewaters. Mass spectrometry-based approaches demonstrated enhanced selectivity and lower LODs, while enabling multi- analyte analysis, albeit with higher instrumental complexity. However, their broader applicability for routine wastewater monitoring requires further interlaboratory evaluation.

Plant-based vegan diets (PBVDs) improve cardiometabolic risk markers, hence are recommended as an adjunct treatment by some cardiologists. To complete a service evaluation, practical measures of dietary adherence are required, and perceptions of patients need to be considered. A single-arm, mixed-methods design was used to assess the feasibility of using two diet indices to assess adherence to a PBVD and the acceptability of adopting a PBVD in a cardiac outpatient setting. Diet adherence was measured via absence of proscribed foods (APF) and a plant-based vegan diet score (PBVD-S). Acceptability of the PBVD was assessed via individual interviews and a food acceptability questionnaire. Twenty patients completed the dietary assessment. After 8 weeks, 55% (n&#x2009;=&#x2009;11) were classified as fully adherent to the PBVD. Mean score for the PBVD-S increased from 20.3&#x2009;&#xb1;&#x2009;8.7 at baseline to 38.9&#x2009;&#xb1;&#x2009;5.8 at Week 8. Mean total cholesterol (TC), body mass index (BMI), body mass, and waist circumference significantly decreased (p&#x2009;<&#x2009;0.001) after 8 weeks on the PBVD. The PBVD-S satisfied the feasibility criteria of alignment with diet education and assessment of adherence. The PBVD was rated as either "moderately" or "extremely" acceptable by 80% of patients. The PBVD-S is a feasible option for assessing adherence and diet quality of a PBVD in a cardiology outpatient setting.

Climate change has increased the incidence of compound stresses, including the co-occurrence of nitrogen deficiency (-N) and high temperature (HT), which severely reduce plant productivity. Studies have primarily focused on single plant tissues to decipher tolerance mechanisms; however, tissue-specific metabolic reprogramming remains poorly examined. This work aimed to examine the distinct metabolic reprogramming in roots and leaves under whole-plant nitrogen deficiency (-N) and high temperature (HT), applied individually or combined. We hypothesized that roots and leaves exhibit complementary metabolic profiles, while combined stress triggers a unique metabolic signature associated with plant growth regulation. Soybean plants were subjected to control, -N, HT, and HT-N conditions, and later whole-plant physiological assessment and untargeted metabolites profiling of roots and leaves were performed and analyzed by machine learning analyses (e.g., t-SNE, UMAP, WGCNA, and random forest regression), qPCR and absolute quantification of identified key metabolites. Combined HT-N stress caused severe growth inhibition, reduced shoot length (67%), root fresh weight (52%), and photosynthetic efficiency (Fv/Fm; by 51%) compared to control. Metabolomic analysis revealed stress specific responses in different tissues, with roots prioritizing N assimilation (accumulating glutamate, proline and aspartate) under -N, while leaves enhanced osmo-protection (accumulating flavonoids) under HT. Under combined HT-N, tissue-specific responses were additive, with roots focusing on amino acid and proline metabolism and leaves on phenylpropanoid and glutathione metabolism. Our machine learning analyses (t-SNE, UMAP), WGCNA and RFR showed distinct tissue-specific metabolic signatures for each stress, and identified glucose, flavonoids, proline, and specific amino acids among key candidate metabolites associated with physiological resilience. Later, exogenous application of proline, quercetin, and L-arginine recovered soybean growth under stress, but in a stress-specific manner. Soybean employs distinct metabolic strategies in roots and leaves to manage multiple stresses. The identified key metabolites represent candidate hubs in the stress response network, offering candidate targets that warrant further investigation for breeding climate-resilient crops.

Food-based enteral formulas are increasingly being used for children with medical complexity and are associated with improved feeding tolerance. However, feed volumes needed to meet energy needs may not be tolerated. This study monitored short-term gastrointestinal (GI) and weight outcomes after initiating a commercial hypercaloric, plant- and food-based, formula in tube-fed children with medical complexities. In this exploratory study, tube-fed children aged 1-13 years were recruited from outpatient clinics at a tertiary care hospital (May 2023-June 2024). Participants received study formula (1.5 kcal/mL) exclusively for 14 days with additional water to meet total fluid needs. Caregivers recorded data about feed administration, as well as any change to GI symptoms and bowel movements, daily. Weight-for-age and BMI-for-age z-scores were compared at baseline and end-of-study using Wilcoxon signed rank tests. The percentage of energy achieved versus prescribed, as well as protein (g/kg/day) intake compared to Dietary Reference Intakes for sex and age, was assessed. Twenty-six participants (median age 5.5 years, 59% male) completed the study. After two weeks on the study formula, a modest increase in mean weight-for-age and BMI-for-age z-scores was observed (p<0.01). There were no significant changes to GI symptoms or bowel movements reported. Participants achieved 100% of prescribed energy for nearly all study days (13&#xb1;1.7 days) and exceeded daily protein requirements. Caregivers (84.6%) reported high satisfaction with the study formula. Short-term administration of a commercial hypercaloric, plant- and food-based formula that met prescribed energy and protein needs was associated with modest weight increase and no changes to baseline GI symptoms or bowel movements. These findings suggest that hypercaloric food-based enteral nutrition products are generally tolerated in stable, medically complex, tube-fed children. Larger, prolonged studies are needed to evaluate long-term tolerance and nutritional adequacy.

The eukaryotic genome has been described as a collection of different phylogenetic histories. For most phylogenomic analyses the primary goal is to identify the species tree, the singular history that underlies and shapes the "gene trees" of individual loci. Discordance among gene trees and with the species tree is expected due to deep coalescence/lineage sorting, while also resulting from various technical causes (e.g., long branch attraction, pseudo-orthology), or, of greater interest, by introgression and horizontal transfer. Where do competing phylogenetic signals reside in gene tree topology space-that part of tree space occupied by the gene trees reconstructed for a particular dataset of taxa and genetic loci? We explored this question in the small (~30 species) leguminous plant genus, Glycine, which has extensive genomic resources due to the inclusion of cultivated soybean (G. max). Glycine genomes are highly duplicated due to relatively recent (~10 million years) ancestral polyploidy and have extensive nuclear-cytoplasmic discordance. We explored Glycine gene tree topology space using a set of 2389 nuclear genes and 61 representative accessions selected from a 570-taxon x 100 gene concatenation supergene tree, reconstructing gene trees for all nuclear loci and from complete plastid genomes and partial mitochondrial genomes. Species trees (ASTRAL) and maximum likelihood (ML) concatenation trees were congruent with one another but were discordant with organellar genome trees, which were incongruent with one another. Individual loci all had unique topologies for the 61-taxon dataset and for a reduced dataset of 27 taxa. No locus tracked either the species tree or the plastome topology in the resulting "flat" gene tree topology space of either dataset, nor did clustering identify any regional differentiation of gene tree topology space populated by loci with similar topologies. Only when the dataset was reduced to six Glycine species, chosen because they have complete genome sequences, and an outgroup was a topological landscape produced in which most loci tracked the species tree topology, with secondary peaks that included, most prominently, the discordant plastome topology. There was no evidence of pseudo-orthology in this landscape, and synteny-based assessment of thousands of loci across these six genomes identified few candidate pseudo-orthologs. Thus, while it is true that the Glycine genome is indeed a collection of different historical signals, those signals are complex and exist at the level of clades within trees rather than as entire gene trees. Although phylogenomic methods can reconstruct the species tree from signals scattered among many loci, even loci with very low resolution, other biologically relevant signals are much more difficult to localize without an explicit starting hypothesis.

Caffeine, a safe methylxanthine, has been widely used for the treatment of skin diseases such as cellulite, hair loss, aging, and psoriasis. However, its skin penetration is low. Transcutol is a biocompatible, nonvolatile permeation enhancer which solubilize large number of drugs and does not change the integrity of the skin structure. In this study, the skin permeability of synthetic and natural caffeine gels was compared by ex vivo experiments. Furthermore, Transcutol P was used as a permeation enhancer, and its impact on skin permeation enhancement was determined. The skin penetration of caffeine from the formulation containing coffee extract, a type of natural caffeine, is higher than that of the formulation containing pure synthetic caffeine. This effect is likely due to the presence of coffee, which can act as a skin permeation enhancer. Additionally, the use of Transcutol P in a formulation containing coffee extract at a concentration of 2.5% caused the highest amount of flux. Therefore, the formulation of gel containing natural caffeine along with 2.5% Transcutol is optimal and can be used for further studies. It can be concluded that the addition of 2.5% Transcutol P in the formulation containing coffee extract resulted in the highest skin permeation.

The tomato plant is considered one of the most important crops in the world, yet it is vulnerable to various diseases that affect crop quality and agricultural productivity. These challenges have driven the need for an efficient and intelligent plant disease detection system. With the development of computer vision and artificial intelligence, this proposed methodology based on deep learning for tomato leaf diseases has been presented. Two public datasets: Taiwan DS with nine classes and Tomato Leaf Diseases Detection Computer Vision Dataset (TLDDCV DS) with seven classes have been used to test this system. This system begins with plant image processing, which includes gamma correction and bilateral filtering, to enhance image quality and clarity while preserving key disease features. Then, a genetic metaheuristic algorithm was used to automatically select the most significant hyperparameters, further optimizing both processing time and accuracy. After that, the tomato leaf disease detection applies the You Only Look Once version 11 Nano (YOLOv11n) model. The YOLOv11n backbone is edited through a Data-efficient Image Transformer (DeiT) to improve the system's capacity for learning global contextual information and long-range dependencies. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed system outperforms existing methods. It achieved an average mAP@50 of 97.8%, mAP@50-95 of 93.4%, precision of 97.3%, recall of 93.8%, and F1-score of 95.5% on the Taiwan dataset. Additionally, it achieved an average mAP@50 of 87%, mAP@50-95 of 48%, precision of 83.9%, recall of 70.3%, and F1-score of 76.4% on the TLDDCV dataset. These results demonstrate the generalizability and effectiveness of the proposed system in real-world agricultural situations.

Metabolic disorders have grown more common, with obesity representing a significant chronic illness that leads to various severe health complications. The Obesity Atlas 2022 predicts one billion obese people by 2030. Contributors to obesity encompass heightened oxidative stress, hyperlipidemia, hunger enhancement, fat accumulation, insulin resistance, and diminished caloric expenditure. Numerous synthetic interventions for obesity are accessible today ; nonetheless, they frequently entail detrimental side effects. This research aimed to investigate the formulation of a prospective anti-obesity drug derived from plant origins. The anti-obesity effectiveness of a polyherbal formulation, derived from the ethanolic extract of both Hugonia mystax and Blumea lacera in a 1:1 ratio, was assessed in female mice with progesterone-induced obesity. The preliminary phytochemical screening of the formulation specifies the presence of phenolic acids, flavonoids, and tannins. In accordance to OECD recommendations, 200 mg/kg and 400 mg/kg were designated after performing acute oral toxicity assessment as a low dose and high dose. During the study, body weight, BMI, abdomen circumference, glucose levels, lipid profile, SGOT, SGPT, atherogenic index, lipid peroxidation (LPO), and glutathione (GSH) levels were evaluated in all groups. The treatment markedly corrected the abnormal levels of these parameters and dramatically restored GSH levels. Metabolic disorders, especially obesity, are increasing globally. Synthetic therapies have negative consequences; therefore, exploration of plant substitutes is encouraged A polyherbal extract of Hugonia mystax and Blumea lacera has shown significant anti-obesity properties in mice. It restored biochemical parameters, likely due to phytochemicals such as polyphenols. Histological examination validated its therapeutic efficacy. The formulation's efficacy in addressing obesity is likely attributable to the presence of polyphenols, saponins, and terpenoids. Histopathological examination of hepatic and adipose tissues further corroborated the anti-obesity efficacy of the polyherbal formulation. Future research will focus on isolating and identifying the active chemicals in both plants to better understand their composition.

The exposure to ultraviolet (UV) radiation is one of the key exogenous processes that contribute to photoaging, oxidative stress, and barrier dysfunction. Naematelia aurantialba is a very rare medicinal and edible fungus which is an organism with a large pharmacological potential, yet there is a gap in understanding the molecular processes involved in the anti-photoaging and soothing repair actions that the fermentation product is known to possess. The aim of this study was to understand the protective role of Naematelia aurantialba fermentation broth (NAF) against UV-induced skin cells damage and the possible molecular mechanisms of damage. The fermentation of Lactobacillus plantarum was used to prepare NAF. Its physicochemical characteristics were measured by use of DPPH, hydroxyl radical scavenging, and elastase inhibition and its biocompatibility by use of erythrocyte hemolysis experiment. We created UVA induced HFF-1 photoaging model, UVB induced HaCaT barrier damage model, and capsaicin induced sensitive model in order to measure cell viability and expression of factors associated with them. It was found that NAF had a large free radical scavenging capacity and elastase activity, and had a great biocompatibility over its interesting concentration (hemolysis rate&#xa0;<&#xa0;5%). Molecularly, NAF activates mitochondrial homeostasis, boosting the gene and protein expression of the SIRT1 and SIRT3 proteins, and thereby strongly prevents the release of the enzyme, matrix metalloproteinase-1 (MMP-1) and suppressed collagenase degradation. At the same time, NAF prevents the capsaicin-induced overexpression of TRPV1 substantially preventing neurogenic inflammation, and increases aquaporin 3 (AQP3) and claudin-1 (CLDN1), mending the skin barrier. The NAF can produce various anti-photoaging, soothing, and barrier repair effects by activating the dermal SIRT1/3- MMP -1 axis, and blocking the epidermal TRP V1 pathway, which justifies its potential as an innovative functional plant raw material.

Systematic phytochemical investigation of whole plant of Salvia kiangsiensis led to the isolation of three undescribed abietane diterpenoids (1-3) and 24 known analogues (4-27), while compounds 2 and 3 belong to the 20-norabietane skeleton. Four derivatives (24a-24d) were also obtained through structural optimization. Their structures were elucidated by a combination of spectroscopic data, chemical methods, and x-ray diffraction. Cytotoxicity screening indicated that 24c, an oxime ester derivative of 24, exerted the most potent activity against the non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) cell line H1975, with higher potency than the positive control cisplatin. Mechanism study revealed that 24c could promote cell-cycle arrest in S phase and induce cell apoptosis.

Arbuscular mycorrhizal symbiosis (AMS) is a universal mutualism in natural ecosystems, governed by a complex transcriptional network. Although ethylene response factors (ERFs) are implicated in regulating AMS, their underlying molecular mechanisms remain poorly understood. This study aims to investigate the molecular mechanism by which ethylene response factor 15 (SlERF15) regulates AMS and phosphate uptake in tomato (Solanum lycopersicum). We used tomato loss&#x2011;of&#x2011;function mutants (erf15#1 and erf15#3), liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS), RT-qPCR, electrophoretic mobility shift assay, yeast one-hybrid assay, and dual-luciferase assays to unveil the molecular basis of SlERF15-mediated AMS and phosphate uptake in tomato. SlERF15 expression was significantly up-regulated in tomato roots during the initial stage of AMS. Mutants lacking the SlERF15 gene exhibited a substantial reduction in arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) colonization, phosphate uptake, and plant growth. Strigolactones (SLs) and abscisic acid (ABA), which serve as positive regulators of AMS establishment, showed reduced accumulation in the mycorrhizal roots of SlERF15 mutants. Mechanistically, SlERF15 acts as a transcription factor that directly binds and activates the promoters of carotenoid cleavage dioxygenases 7 (SlCCD7), carotenoid cleavage dioxygenases 8 (SlCCD8), and 9-cis-epoxy carotenoid dioxygenase (SlNCED1), key genes for SLs and ABA biosynthesis. Moreover, ABA positively regulated the expression of SlERF15 and SLs biosynthesis genes, forming a feedback loop. Our findings demonstrate that SlERF15 functions as a key regulator involved in SLs and ABA signaling to promote AMS in tomato, offering novel insights into the complex phytohormonal regulation network fine-tuning in plant-mycorrhizal fungi interactions.

Psoroptes cuniculi is the most prevalent mite affecting rabbits worldwide. It is the primary cause of otitis in this species and significantly compromises animal welfare, leading to considerable economic losses. In search of alternative control strategies, several plant-derived oils such as olive, cinnamon, oregano, neem, and lemon oils have been evaluated in vitro for their acaricidal potential. In this study, the in vivo efficacy of extra virgin olive oil (EVOO) and linoleic acid (LA) was assessed as alternative treatments against P. cuniculi. Twenty-four rabbits were experimentally infested with 150 mites placed in each auricle. After 139&#xa0;days, animals were randomly allocated into four treatment groups (n&#x2009;=&#x2009;6): 60% EVOO (with 0.1% DMSO in distilled water), 150&#xa0;mg/mL LA, 4&#xa0;mg/mL ivermectin (IV), and 0.1% DMSO in distilled water. Treatments were applied topically on day 0, and a second dose was administered on day 7. The infested area was quantified in vivo using a transparent grid on days 0, 3, 7, 10, and 14 after the first treatment application. A marked reduction in infestation area was observed in the LA, EVOO, and IV treated groups, whereas lesion area increased in the negative control group. By day 14, infestation areas were nearly eliminated in rabbits treated with LA, EVOO, and IV. Final infestation areas were significantly lower than those observed in the negative control group (P&#x2009;&#x2264;&#x2009;0.0001). Post-mortem evaluation on day 15 revealed no statistically significant differences compared with the in vivo measurements, indicating agreement between both assessment methods. No visible signs of irritation, erythema, or inflammation were observed during treatment. These findings demonstrate that EVOO and LA exhibit substantial acaricidal activity against P. cuniculi under controlled experimental conditions and support their potential as alternative treatments for further investigation.

Low-carbohydrate and low-fat diets (LCDs and LFDs) are promoted for cardiometabolic prevention. This study examined associations of LCDs and LFDs with incident dementia and evaluated modification by genetic susceptibility. We included 5301 dementia-free adults aged &#x2265;55 years from the Health and Retirement Study. Overall LCD and LFD indices were constructed based on macronutrient composition rankings assessed using a food frequency questionnaire in 2013-2014. Plant-based, animal-based, healthy, and unhealthy sub-scores were derived to characterize macronutrient sources and quality. Incident dementia was defined using the Langa-Weir algorithm through 2022. Genetic susceptibility was assessed using APOE genotype and Alzheimer disease polygenic risk score (AD-PRS). Cox models estimated hazard ratios (HRs). During the 9-year follow-up, 506 participants developed dementia. Greater LCD score was associated with lower dementia risk (HR per SD increment 0.90, 95% CI, 0.82, 0.99), whereas an overall LFD was not (1.05, 95% CI, 0.96, 1.15). Plant-based and healthy LCDs showed stronger inverse associations (0.85, 95% CI, 0.78, 0.94 and 0.82, 95% CI, 0.74, 0.90), while higher animal-based (1.10; 95% CI, 1.00, 1.20) and unhealthy LFDs (1.13; 95% CI, 1.04, 1.24) were linked to higher dementia risk. Associations were consistent across APOE genotype and AD-PRS strata. Higher plant-based and healthy LCDs were also associated with better global and domain-specific cognitive performance. Adherence to LCDs, particularly plant-based and higher-quality LCDs, was associated with lower dementia risk, consistently across genetic susceptibility strata. These findings underscored the importance of macronutrient quality, in addition to quantity, in promoting cognitive health.

Uranium (U) pollution harms soil and plants. It is still unclear how microbes help plants survive uranium stress in different root and leaf environments. In this study, We examined how soil microbial reassembly affects rapeseed growth and the microbes living in soil, roots, and leaves under uranium stress, and explored the functional compensation mechanisms involved. A pot experiment was conducted with rapeseed grown in three soil backgrounds (original, sterilized, sterilized-inoculated) under control and 150 mg&#x22c5;kg-1 uranium stress. Plant growth, uranium content, and 16S rRNA sequences from four niches (bulk soil, rhizosphere, roots, leaves) were analyzed. Uranium predominantly accumulated in roots, with limited translocation to shoots. Uranium stress increased chlorophyll content but still induced chlorosis. Ecological niche shaped microbial community structure more strongly than soil treatment or uranium stress. Even though the microbial community did not fully return to its original state, it became enriched with uranium-tolerant, growth-promoting bacteria (e.g., Mesorhizobium, Streptomyces, Castellaniella). The reassembled community was associated with alleviated photosynthetic damage and improved phenotype under uranium stress. Niche differentiation primarily drives community assembly, and maximizing function does not require complete structural restoration. The naturally enriched multifunctional consortia under uranium stress provide a promising basis for plant-microbe combined remediation.

Three dimensional (3D) instance segmentation is essential for precision characterization of tree architecture at the branch level, which supports both tree fruit crop breeding and the development of robotic systems for orchard management. Existing methods usually use sparse convolution-based operation, which requires a coordinate quantization preprocess to generate sparse tensors, risking the loss of geometric details for fine-grained downstream phenotyping tasks. To overcome this challenge, we developed the dynamic sparse point-voxel transformer (DSPVFormer) model for the efficient and accurate 3D instance segmentation of high-resolution point clouds for dormant apple trees. Our hybrid DSPVFormer architecture maximizes the use of raw point features by dynamically mapping and aggregating the raw point features into the sparse voxel embeddings, capturing strong geometric features that may be discarded during quantization. Evaluations demonstrate that DSPVFormer achieved statistically significant improvements over baseline models on most instance segmentation metrics, which are further translated into more accurate phenotyping evaluation including branch counting and pruning map generation. These advances directly benefit downstream applications in plant phenotyping and robotic pruning for tree crops such as apples. Meanwhile, experimental results on phenotyping tasks suggested that phenotyping-specific evaluation metrics should be prioritized over upstream computer vision performance metrics to realize the full potential of high-throughput phenotyping for real-world applications.

A novel dispersive solid-phase microextraction approach utilizing a magnetic molecularly imprinted polymer (MMIP) integrated with HPLC-UV detection was developed for the concurrent quantification of catechin and myricetin in herbal extracts and aqueous samples. The sorbent was engineered as a core-shell nanocomposite, consisting of a selective polymer layer deposited onto Fe3O4@SiO2-APTMS magnetic nanoparticles. Dual-template imprinting using catechin and myricetin generated complementary binding cavities within the polymer framework. Experimental variables influencing extraction were systematically screened and subsequently optimized. A Plackett-Burman design was first applied to identify the most influential factors, with pH and sorption time identified as the dominant variables. These parameters were subsequently fine-tuned using a central composite design, and the optimization process was completed in only 30 experimental runs. The sorption characteristics of the imprinted sorbent (MMIP) were compared with those of its non-imprinted counterpart (MNIP). The MMIP demonstrated markedly higher maximum binding capacities (Qmax), reaching 119.3&#xa0;mg&#xa0;g-1 for myricetin and 112.1&#xa0;mg&#xa0;g-1 for catechin, whereas the corresponding values for the MNIP were 32.55 and 32.08&#xa0;mg&#xa0;g-1, respectively. Moreover, the affinity constants (KL&#xa0;=&#xa0;0.760-0.950&#xa0;L&#xa0;mg-1) were approximately 2.3-fold higher for the MMIP, confirming its stronger and more selective interactions with the target analytes. The selectivity coefficients for the targeted flavonoids relative to structurally related compounds, including ferulic acid, p-coumaric acid, melatonin, and curcumin, exceeded 3.5 for the MMIP, whereas the corresponding values for the MNIP were close to 1.1, demonstrating the high molecular recognition capability of the imprinted sorbent. Method validation demonstrated limits of detection (LODs) of 0.33-0.59&#xa0;ng&#xa0;mL-1 and limits of quantification (LOQs) of 1.10-1.96&#xa0;ng&#xa0;mL-1, and excellent linearity over the concentration range of 5.0-5500&#xa0;ng&#xa0;mL-1 (R2&#xa0;>&#xa0;0.998). The method achieved recoveries of 93.96% to 105.69% with RSDs below 5.5%, while the preconcentration factors ranged from 209 to 229. Furthermore, the sorbent retained more than 95% of its extraction efficiency after four consecutive reuse cycles and more than 80% after six cycles, demonstrating excellent stability and reusability. The proposed method was successfully applied to the analysis of six medicinal plant extracts and water samples, showing negligible matrix interference and superior sensitivity, selectivity, and operational simplicity compared with conventional solid-phase extraction methods.

Bee pollen (BP), a plant-derived product collected by honey bees, is increasingly promoted as a functional food due to its content of proteins, essential amino acids, lipids, vitamins, minerals, and bioactive compounds such as polyphenols and flavonoids. These components underpin its antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial, and immunomodulatory properties. This review outlines the nutritional and nutraceutical features of BP while also addressing environmental influences, safety issues, and allergenic potential. However, BP composition is highly variable, depending on botanical origin, geographic conditions, environmental factors, and postharvest handling, all of which affect its quality and safety. BP can therefore be considered a 'double-edged' product at the intersection of nutrition, food safety, and environmental monitoring. Evidence on chemical contaminants (including pesticides, heavy metals, persistent organic pollutants, and pyrrolizidine alkaloids), microbiological hazards, and mycotoxins is critically examined. Its rich nutrient and moisture content also make it prone to microbial contamination and mycotoxin formation, posing potential risks to public health. The review further explores BP as a bioindicator of environmental pollution and highlights its allergenic risks, which may arise from primary sensitization or cross-reactivity with airborne pollen. Processing and storage methods, such as drying, freezing, and fermentation, are also shown to significantly influence BP quality, stability, bioavailability, and microbiological safety. Overall, BP is a promising nutraceutical resource, but its safe use requires an integrated farm-to-consumer control framework based on improved analytical standardization, stronger contaminant monitoring, better allergen characterization, clearer regulatory criteria, preventive environmental monitoring, standardized harvesting and processing conditions, rapid postharvest drying, multi-residue and microbiological screening, harmonized labeling requirements, and full traceability throughout the production chain. &#xa9; 2026 The Author(s). Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Society of Chemical Industry.

Glomalin-related soil proteins (GRSP) are operationally defined soil fractions associated with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) and are widely studied for their contributions to soil structure, carbon dynamics, and ecosystem functioning. Since its discovery, GRSP has attracted considerable attention because of its association with soil aggregation, carbon stabilization, and ecosystem sustainability. Glomalin, has been associated with various soil attributes, including the stability of soil aggregates, the size of soil carbon and nitrogen reservoirs, the sequestration of heavy metals, and the mitigation of diverse plant stresses. While GRSP concentrations in soil have often been correlated with AMF biomass measured through alternative (microscopic) methods, the chemical composition of GRSP extracted from soil remains intricate and not fully understood. This complexity arises from the nonspecific nature of its extraction and purification processes, as well as the diverse array of analytical techniques employed thus far to evaluate it. Current evidence suggests that GRSP contributes to soil organic carbon stabilization primarily through its association with soil aggregates. In this review, we endeavor to synthesize and explore various facets of glomalin, encompassing its composition, production mechanisms, soil-related functions, recalcitrant properties, and its potential role in the sequestration and stabilization of soil carbon.