Neuroprotective effects of berry fruits on neurodegenerative diseases

Recent clinical research has demonstrated that berry fruits can prevent age-related neurodegenerative diseases and improve motor and cognitive functions. The berry fruits are also capable of modulating signaling pathways involved in inflammation, cell survival, neurotransmission and enhancing neuroplasticity. The neuroprotective effects of berry fruits on neurodegenerative diseases are related to phytochemicals such as anthocyanin, caffeic acid, catechin, quercetin, kaempferol and tannin. In this review, we made an attempt to clearly describe the beneficial effects of various types of berries as promising neuroprotective agents.

Variation of Sweet Chemicals in Different Ripening Stages of Wolfberry Fruits

Objective To evaluate the variation of sweet chemicals（sugars and betaine） in fruits of six species in genus Lycium L. i.e. Lycium truncatum, L. cylindricum, L. dasystemum, L. dasystemum var. rubricaulium, L. chinense, and L. barbarum harvested at three different ripening stages. Methods A simple and effective method based on UPLC-ELSD was developed for the simultaneous determination of two monosaccharides（glucose and fructose）, two disaccharides（sucrose and maltose）, one sugar alcohol（xylitol）, and betaine in wolfberry fruits（goji berries） of genus Lycium L. Results The six species of wolfberry fruits harvested at the three different ripening stages were evaluated in sugars and betaine contents. Fructose and glucose were the predominant sugars in mature wolfberry fruits. Fructose, glucose, and betaine, as well as total sugar contents, increased continually over the ripening process. L. truncatum and L. dasystemum had higher contents of sugars and betaine than the other species. Conclusion UPLC-ELSD is a simple, reliable and effective method for analysis of the sweet chemicals in wolfberries. Wolfberry fruits at the different ripening stages were significant different in sweetness. L. truncatum and L. dasystemum could be the potential sources of wolfberry fruit sources.

Optical non-destructive techniques for small berry fruits: A review

Small berries including strawberry and blueberry are extensively consumed fruits with great economic values due to their characteristic flavor and appearance as well as potential health benefits.This review elaborated the optical non-destructive techniques viz.Vis-NIR spectroscopy,computer vision system,hyperspectral imaging,multispectral imaging,laser-induced method and thermal imaging,and their applications for quality and safety control of small berry fruits.The discussion regarding the photoacoustic technique,X-ray technique,Terahertz spectroscopy,odor imaging,micro-destructive testing and smart mobile terminal-based analyzer was also presented.Furthermore,we proposed our personal understanding of the technical challenges and further trends for these optical non-destructive techniques:1)owing to the relatively low detection limit,the so-called micro-destructive techniques may be alternative to the traditional non-destructive techniques in both practical and fundamental research;2)we suggest that the research articles like“collecting data first,and then modeling the relevant properties of agricultural products by machine learning”should be less produced in related fields.That's because such research methods are likely to be suspected of“cheating”.It is recommended that some modeling competitions can be carried out in the agricultural engineering field to avoid or reduce the“cheating”model.