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The present work evaluated kiwi juice addition alongside pasteurization (at 85 °C for 5 min) or microwave treatment (for 3 min) on the quality improvement of sugarcane juice. The juice was treated in the presence of kiwi juice (0-8%), and its physicochemical properties and microbial load were compared with raw juice. The study also highlighted the key enzymes causing sugarcane juice discoloration, peroxidase (POD) and polyphenol oxidase (PPO), by quantifying kiwi juice constituents using GC-MS and monitoring their effects by molecular docking. Kiwi addition considerably raised (p < 0.05) acidity, ascorbic acid (54.28%), and phenolic compounds (32%), and decreased the POD and PPO activity of raw cane juice. Pasteurization in the presence of kiwi, rather than microwave treatment, has significantly (p < 0.05) increased the phenolic compounds and reduced POD and PPO activities until barley was detected. Molecular docking revealed that heptacosane, oleic acid, and melezitose are the primary kiwi components responsible for enzyme inactivation.

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Demand for minimally processed fresh fruit is increasing due to its convenience. However, the distribution of fresh-cut fruits is limited because of their short shelf life. Pineapple, a popular tropical fruit, sold in fresh-cut form has a shelf life of approximately 5-7 days at 4 °C. Chitosan, an edible coating, is commonly used to prolong the shelf life of food products. Similarly, the sugar melezitose has been reported to change during pineapple ripening and may play a role in regulating the shelf life of pineapple. However, the direct effects of this sugar have yet to be studied. The objective of this study was to investigate the effect of chitosan coating with melezitose to prolong the shelf life of fresh-cut pineapple. Full-ripe Bogor pineapples from Okinawa, Japan, were cut into cubes and soaked in either chitosan 1.25%, melezitose 5 mg/L, or chitosan+melezitose and stored for 5 days under dark conditions (23.6 ± 0.5 °C; relative humidity, 40.0 ± 10.4%). None of the treatments significantly altered the weight loss or color changes in the fresh-cut fruit. However, treatment significantly altered the primary metabolites, namely quinic acid, sucrose, and xylitol based on orthogonal projection to latent structures data with the screening from p-value score. Moreover, cell-wall metabolism is possibly affected in pineapple cut fruit treated by chitosan-melezitose as shown from metabolite sets enrichment analysis. This study showed that chitosan added with melezitose might have potential to prolong the shelf-life of fresh-cut pineapple, providing a basis for further post-harvest studies of the whole pineapple fruit.

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Type 2 diabetes (T2D) is a chronic metabolic condition associated with obesity, oxidative stress-mediated inflammation, apoptosis, and impaired insulin signaling. The utilization of phytochemical therapy generated from plants has emerged as a promising approach for the treatment of diabetes and its complications. Kiwifruit is recognized for its substantial content of antioxidative phenolics. Therefore, this work aimed to examine the effect of Actinidia deliciosa (kiwi fruit) on hepatorenal damage in a high-fat diet (HFD) and streptozotocin (STZ)-induced T2D in rats using in vivo and in silico analyses. An increase in hepatic and renal lipid peroxidation was observed in diabetic rats accompanied by a decrease in antioxidant status. Furthermore, it is important to highlight that there were observable inflammatory and apoptotic responses in the hepatic and renal organs of rats with diabetes, along with a dysregulation of the phosphorylation levels of mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR), protein kinase B (Akt), and phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K) signaling proteins. However, the administration of kiwi extract to diabetic rats alleviated hepatorenal dysfunction, inflammatory processes, oxidative injury, and apoptotic events with activation of the insulin signaling pathway. Furthermore, molecular docking and dynamic simulation studies revealed quercetin, chlorogenic acid, and melezitose as components of kiwi extract that docked well with potential as effective natural products for activating the silent information regulator 1(SIRT-1) pathway. Furthermore, phenolic acids in kiwi extract, especially syringic acid, P-coumaric acid, caffeic acid, and ferulic acid, have the ability to inhibit the phosphatase and tensin homolog (PTEN) active site. In conclusion, it can be argued that kiwi extract may present a potentially beneficial adjunctive therapy approach for the treatment of diabetic hepatorenal complications.

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Mature honeys that brew naturally in the hive develop distinct bioactive components, and thus carry a higher premium due to their superior quality. However, how to identify mature honeys remains difficult. Trace oligosaccharides are a likely source of biomarkers to indicate maturity. Here, we profiled trace oligosaccharides in acacia honey by GC-MS and used a metabolomics strategy to screen oligosaccharides that distinguish honeys with different maturities. Turanose content increased gradually in acacia honey samples and was closely related to the days stored in the hive (p < 0.05). To accurately quantify turanose, a UPLC-ELSD method was developed. Using the established method, honeys with ≥1.20 g/100 g of turanose could be classified as mature acacia honey. Based on the preliminary study, 500 commercial acacia honeys were analyzed, and only 77.2 % of these samples had a satisfactory level of turanose. This work offers a potential method to evaluate the quality of honeys.

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Although, 187 years elapsed after the discovery of melezitose, it is a high time to deduce some solid applications as there are only 13 more years left to celebrate a double century of this sugar. The forgotten sugar has multifarious applications; it is used as a metabolic marker to differentiate melezitose fermenting microorganisms, as a carbon source to culture specific microorganisms, as a potential surfactant and excipient to stabilize pharmaceuticals, as a lyoprotectant or cryoprotectant for several industrial applications, as an edibility enhancer in food industry, as a hair smoothening agent in cosmetic industry, and provide protective & nourishing effects in fisheries and aquaculture industries. In entomological research, it is used to study niche differentiation, increased longevity of insects and also as a biocontrol agent. This review brings out the best possible applications of melezitose and present in the form of a mnemonic to remember this forgotten sugar.

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The Giant Willow Aphid (Tuberolachnus salignus, GWA) is an invasive pest insect in New Zealand, which excretes honeydew. European honeybees collect this honeydew and make it into a type of honey that crystallizes in the comb, representing a significant loss to apiarists. This crystallization has been ascribed to high concentrations of oligosaccharides, particularly melezitose. In this research, the first carbohydrate profile of GWA honeydew honey, a sample of GWA honeydew honey was found to contain 37.8% total oligosaccharides of which 27.4% was melezitose, and 2.5% gluconic acid (higher than typical honeydew honeys); 41.2% monosaccharides (lower than typical honeydew honeys); and 0.054% salicylic acid (higher than previous estimates). Melezitose extracted from GWA honeydew honey was not significantly hydrolyzed in crude human-stomach and human-small-intestine simulations and may therefore meet the prebiotic criterion of human indigestibility.

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Past analyses of sugar and amino acid composition of aphid honeydews have been completed using diverse instrumentation. Here we report the use of hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography (HILIC) coupled with a triple quadrupole mass spectrometric (MS/MS) detector for the analysis of seven saccharides (xylose, fructose, glucose, sucrose, trehalose, melezitose and raffinose) and five amino acids (glutamic acid, glutamine, aspartic acid, serine, and asparagine). Limits of quantitation ranged from 0.05 mg/L (melezitose) to 1.0 mg/L (fructose) for sugars and from 0.10 mg/L (glutamic acid) to 3.66 mg/L (asparagine) for amino acids. Sample preparation was fast and simple, requiring only the washing of foils used to collect aphid honeydew with hot (80 °C) water and sonication of samples prior to HILIC/MS/MS analysis for both classes of analytes. No analyte derivatization was required and excellent chromatographic characteristics were observed. For those studying honeydew-mediated interactions in the field, this technique allows for rapid characterization of ecologically important amino acids and sugars.•Composition of seven saccharides in Aphis asclepiadis honeydew including xylose, fructose, glucose, sucrose, trehalose, melezitose,and raffinose, and five standard amino acids including glutamic acid, glutamine, aspartic acid, serine, and asparagine, were analyzed using hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry.•All polar analytes were analyzed without derivatization using HILIC-MS with chromatographic run times of 7 min (sugars) and 10 min (amino acids).

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Down Syndrome is a genetic disorder caused by the presence of all or part of a third copy of chromosome 21. Metabolomics is identification and quantification of small-molecule metabolites (molecular weight <1000 Da) in tissues, cells and physiological fluids within a certain period time. Metabolites are intermediate products of various types of biochemical reactions that participate in bonding metabolic pathways. In this study, metabolites such as 2-Hydroxybutyric acid, 3-Hydroxybutyric acid, ß-Hydroxyisovaleric acid, Uracil, Glutamic acid, Maltose and Melezitose were chosen as the possible determinants/markers for the prenatal screening of Down Syndrome. Quantitative analysis of the metabolites conducted by GCMS method using 5 % phenyl / 95 % dimethylpolysiloxane (30 m ×0.25 mm, 0.25 µm film thickness) capillary column. The oven temperature was held constant at 60 °C for 1 min and ramped at 10 °C /min to 200 °C then ramped at 30 °C/min to 320 °C and hold for 6 min before cool-down, as helium mobile phase and flow rate of 2.8 mL/min and adding Myristic acid-d27 as an internal standard. Our method was validated by parameters of system suitability, stability, linearity, sensitivity, accuracy, precision, selectivity, robustness and ruggedness. The developed and validated method was applied to plasma samples taken from pregnant women with Down Syndrome (study group) and euploid fetuses (healthy group). The levels of these seven metabolites are statistically different (p < 0.05 for all) between the groups. It can be concluded that these relevant metabolites might be used for the prenatal screening of Down Syndrome.

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Aphid species can be polyphagous, feeding on multiple host plants across genera. As host plant species can have large variation in their phloem composition, this can affect aphid fitness and honeydew composition. Previous research showed significant intraspecific genotype variation in the composition of the honeydew carbohydrates of the black bean aphid Aphis fabae, with the ant attractant trisaccharide melezitose showing especially large variation across different genotypes. In this study, we test if variation in melezitose and carbohydrate composition of aphid honeydew could be linked to the adaptation of specific aphid genotypes to particular host plants. To this end, 4 high and 5 low melezitose secreting genotypes of the black bean aphid Aphis fabae were reared on 4 common host plants: broad bean, goosefoot, beet, and poppy. The carbohydrate composition, and in particular melezitose secretion, showed important aphid genotype and host plant interactions, with some genotypes being high melezitose secreting on 1 host plant but not on another. However, the interaction effects were not paralleled in the fitness measurements, even though there were significant differences in the average fitness across the different host plants. On the whole, this study demonstrates that aphid honeydew composition is influenced by complex herbivore-plant interactions. We discuss the relevance of these findings in the context of ant-aphid mutualisms and adaptive specialization in aphids.

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The hemolytic activity and solubilizing capacity of two families of non-reducing trisaccharide fatty acid monoesters have been studied to assess their usefulness as surfactants for pharmaceutical applications. The carbohydrate-based surfactants investigated included homologous series of raffinose and melezitose monoesters bearing C10 to C18 acyl chains prepared by lipase-catalyzed synthesis in organic media. The hemolytic activity was determined in vitro using a static method based on the addition of the surfactants to an erythrocyte suspension and subsequent spectrophotometric determination of the released hemoglobin. The effect of the carbohydrate head group, the acyl chain length and the regioisomeric purity was investigated. In all cases, the carbohydrate monoester surfactants decreased their hemolytic activity (with respect to their critical micelle concentration) when increasing the length of the acyl chain. A very similar behaviour was observed either the carbohydrate head-group (raffinose and melezitose) or regardless of the regioisomeric purity. Interestingly, decanoyl (C10) and lauroyl (C12) monoesters were just marginally hemolytic at their critical micelle concentrations while the longer palmitoyl (C16) and (C18) stearoyl monoesters become hemolytic at concentrations much higher than their respective cmc. The palmitoyl and stearoyl monoesters also displayed higher solubilization capacity than the shorter acyl chain monoesters in a solubilization assay of a hydrophobic dye as a model drug mimic. These results suggest that raffinose and melezitose monoesters with long-chain fatty acids (C16 to C18) are promising surfactants for pharmaceutical applications and could be an alternative to the use of current commercial nonionic polyoxyethylene-based surfactants in parenteral formulations.

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Thermodynamic and transport properties are very useful in providing valuable information regarding the hydration characteristics of saccharides and play a pivotal role in the study of taste behaviour of saccharides in mixed aqueous solutions. The effects of sodium gluconate and other sodium salts on the hydration behaviour and the basic taste quality of saccharides have been studied from measured apparent molar volumes (V2,ϕ), partial molar volumes (V2(°)) at infinite-dilution, and viscosity B-coefficients, of eight monosaccharides, six disaccharides and two trisaccharides in (0.25, 0.50, 1.00 and 1.50)molkg(-1) aqueous sodium gluconate solutions over a temperature range of (288.15-318.15)K and at atmospheric pressure. Partial molar volumes of transfer (ΔtV2(°)) and viscosity B-coefficients of transfer (ΔtB) of saccharides and other parameters such as isobaric expansion coefficients, interaction coefficients (using McMillan-Mayer theory), and dB/dT parameters have also been determined and discussed in terms of solute (saccharide)-cosolute (sodium gluconate) interactions.

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There has been a re-emergence of the use of lectins in a variety of therapeutic venues. In addition lectins are often responsible for the binding of pathogens to cells and for cancer cell clumping that increases their escape from body defenses. It is important to define precisely the activity of inhibitors of lectin-binding that may be used in anti-infection and anti-cancer therapeutics. Here we describe a kinetic assay that measures the activity of saccharide inhibitors of lectin binding using a model system of yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) and lectin (Concanavalin A, Con A) derivatized agarose microbeads that mimics pathogen-cell binding. We show that old methods (part I of this study) used to identify inhibitor activity using only one sugar concentration at one time point can easily provide wrong information about inhibitor activity. We assess the activity of 4 concentrations of 10 saccharides at 4 different times in 400 trials and statistically evaluate the results. We show that d-melezitose is the best inhibitor of yeast binding to the lectin microbeads. These results, along with physical chemistry studies, provide a solid foundation for the development of drugs that may be useful in anti-infectivity and anti-cancer therapeutics.

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