Research Articles (Food Science)

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Browsing Research Articles (Food Science) by Author "Bowles, Sandra"

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    Intestinal transport characteristics and metabolism of C-glucosyl dihydrochalcone, aspalathin
    (MDPI, 2017) Bowles, Sandra; Joubert, Elizabeth; De Beer, Dalene; Louw, Johan; Brunschwig, Christel; Njoroge, Mathew; Lawrence, Nina; Wiesner, Lubbe; Chibale, Kelly; Muller, Christo
    Insight into the mechanisms of intestinal transport and metabolism of aspalathin will provide important information for dose optimisation, in particular for studies using mouse models. Aspalathin transportation across the intestinal barrier (Caco-2 monolayer) tested at 1–150 µM had an apparent rate of permeability (Papp) typical of poorly absorbed compounds (1.73 × 10⁻⁶cm/s). Major glucose transporters, sodium glucose linked transporter 1 (SGLT1) and glucose transporter 2 (GLUT2), and efflux protein (P-glycoprotein, PgP) (1.84 × 10⁻⁶ cm/s; efflux ratio: 1.1) were excluded as primary transporters, since the Papp of aspalathin was not affected by the presence of specific inhibitors. The Papp of aspalathin was also not affected by constituents of aspalathin-enriched rooibos extracts, but was affected by high glucose concentration (20.5 mM), which decreased the Papp value to 2.9 × 10⁻⁷ cm/s. Aspalathin metabolites (sulphated, glucuronidated and methylated) were found in mouse urine, but not in blood, following an oral dose of 50 mg/kg body weight of the pure compound. Sulphates were the predominant metabolites. These findings suggest that aspalathin is absorbed and metabolised in mice to mostly sulphate conjugates detected in urine. Mechanistically, we showed that aspalathin is not actively transported by the glucose transporters, but presumably passes the monolayer paracellularly.
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    Model development for predicting in vitro bio-capacity of green rooibos extract based on composition for application as screening tool in quality control
    (Royal Society of Chemistry, 2020-03-09) Viraragavan, Amsha; Hlengwa, Nokulunga; De Beer, Dalene; Riedel, Sylvia; Miller, Neil; Bowles, Sandra; Walczak, Beata; Muller, Christo; Joubert, Elizabeth
    Mounting evidence of the ability of aspalathin to target underlying metabolic dysfunction relevant to the development or progression of obesity and type 2 diabetes created a market for green rooibos extract as a functional food ingredient. Aspalathin is the obvious choice as a chemical marker for extract standardisation and quality control, however, often the concentration of a single constituent of a complex mixture such as a plant extract is not directly related to its bio-capacity, i.e. the level of in vitro bioactivity effected in a cell system at a fixed concentration. Three solvents (hot water and two EtOH–water mixtures), previously shown to produce bioactive green rooibos extracts, were selected for extraction of different batches of rooibos plant material (n = 10). Bio-capacity of the extracts, tested at 10 μg ml−1, was evaluated in terms of glucose uptake by C2C12 and C3A cells and lipid accumulation in 3T3-L1 cells. The different solvents and inter-batch plant variation delivered extracts ranging in aspalathin content from 54.1 to 213.8 g kg−1. The extracts were further characterised in terms of other major flavonoids (n = 10) and an enolic phenylpyruvic acid glucoside, using HPLC-DAD. The 80% EtOH–water extracts, with the highest mean aspalathin content (170.9 g kg−1), had the highest mean bio-capacity in the respective assays. Despite this, no significant (P ≥ 0.05) correlation existed between aspalathin content and bio-capacity, while the orientin, isoorientin and vitexin content correlated moderately (r ≥ 0.487; P < 0.05) with increased glucose uptake by C2C12 cells. Various multivariate analysis methods were then applied with Evolution Program-Partial Least Squares (EP-PLS) resulting in models with the best predictive power. These EP-PLS models, based on all quantified compounds, predicted the bio-capacity of the extracts for the respective cell types with RMSECV values ≤ 11.5, confirming that a complement of compounds, and not aspalathin content alone, is needed to predict the in vitro bio-capacity of green rooibos extracts. Additionally, the composition of hot water infusions of different production batches of green rooibos (n = 29) at ‘cup-of-tea’ equivalence was determined to relate dietary supplementation with the extract to intake in the form of herbal tea.