Yoshihiro Nomura

Immature mandarin orange is thinned in order to maturation of orange. To use immature mandarin orange as a cosmetic functional material, we investigated the seasonal fluctuation changes in hesperidin and narirutin levels of immature mandarin oranges, and the effects on human skin cells. The contents of hesperidin from Aoshima, Otsu, and Shonan gold, is higher at about a month after flowering. Shonan gold has higher content of narirutin to compere that of Aoshima and Otsu. We found the addition of immature mandarin orange extracts to the human skin fibroblasts and keratinocytes, gene expression level of hyaluronic acid synthase and the hyaluronic acid contents in the medium are higher than that of the control. It was suggested that hesperidin in immature mandarin orange enhances the ability of skin cells to produce hyaluronic acid. Our findings indicate that the immature mandarin orange is a characteristic material on cosmetics and functional foods.

Hong S, et al. J Vet Sci. 2024 Apr;25(3):e35. https://doi.org/10.4142/jvs.23302

Immature mandarin orange is thinned in order to maturation of orange. To use immature mandarin orange as a cosmetic functional material, we investigated the seasonal fluctuation changes in hesperidin and narirutin levels and antioxidant capacity of immature mandarin oranges, and the effects on human skin cells. The contents of hesperidin from Aoshima, Otsu, and Shonan gold, is higher at about a month after flowering. Shonan gold has higher content of narirutin to compere that of Aoshima and Otsu. We found the addition of immature mandarin orange extracts to the human skin fibroblasts and keratinocytes, gene expression level of hyaluronic acid synthase and the hyaluronic acid contents in the medium are higher than that of the control. It was suggested that hesperidin in immature mandarin orange enhances the ability of skin cells to produce hyaluronic acid. Our findings indicate that the immature mandarin orange is a characteristic material on cosmetics and functional foods.

Loss-of-function mutations in carbohydrate sulfotransferase 14 (CHST14) cause musculocontractural Ehlers–Danlos syndrome-CHST14 (mcEDS-CHST14), characterized by multiple congenital malformations and progressive connective tissue fragility-related manifestations in the cutaneous, skeletal, cardiovascular, visceral and ocular system. The replacement of dermatan sulfate chains on decorin proteoglycan with chondroitin sulfate chains is proposed to lead to the disorganization of collagen networks in the skin. However, the pathogenic mechanisms of mcEDS-CHST14 are not fully understood, partly due to the lack of in vitro models of this disease. In the present study, we established in vitro models of fibroblast-mediated collagen network formation that recapacitate mcEDS-CHST14 pathology. Electron microscopy analysis of mcEDS-CHST14-mimicking collagen gels revealed an impaired fibrillar organization that resulted in weaker mechanical strength of the gels. The addition of decorin isolated from patients with mcEDS-CHST14 and Chst14^−/− mice disturbed the assembly of collagen fibrils in vitro compared to control decorin. Our study may provide useful in vitro models of mcEDS-CHST14 to elucidate the pathomechanism of this disease.

Pharmaceutical plants contain several phytochemicals that are sources of myriad biological activities. These biological activities can be explored in multiple fields for the benefit of mankind. Pharmaceutical plants with high ethnobotanical indices (i.e., use value and relative frequency of citation) were reported with the potential to inhibit lettuce elongation through leachates and volatiles. The focus of the study was to assess Chinese pharmaceutical plants for both antioxidants, as well as allelopathic potentials to explore any underlying relationship. The estimation of antioxidative capacity and content of total phenolics (TPC) for the 55 Chinese pharmaceutical plants was conducted by the assays of DPPH radical scavenging activity (DPPH-RSA), oxygen radical absorbance capacity (ORAC) and the means of Folin–Ciocalteu. The estimation of the activity of allelopathy for collected medicinal plants was done by adopting the sandwich method for plant leachates and the dishpack method for volatile constituents, respectively. The fruits of sea buckthorn (Hippophae rhamnoides) had the most remarkable ORAC value (168 ± 7.04 μmol TE/g) and DPPH radical scavenging activity (440 ± 7.32 μmol TE/g) and contained the highest contents of total phenolic compounds (236 ± 7.62 mg GAE/g) in the 55 pharmaceutical plant species according to the results. In addition, sea buckthorn showed dominant allelopathic potential through plant leachates evaluated by using the sandwich method. Star anise (Illicium verum Hook. f.) showed conspicuous allelopathic activity through plant volatiles assessed by the dishpack bioassay method. Among the same plant species, antioxidative ability and total phenolics, in comparison with potential allelopathy of medicinal herbs indicated that volatile allelochemical had a weak active effect (r = 0.407 to 0.472, p < 0.01), with antioxidant capacity by the dishpack method. However, the evaluation by the sandwich method showed a significant positive correlation (r = 0.718 to 0.809, p < 0.001) with antioxidant capacity. Based on these results, a new hypothesis is that the antioxidant activity of plants may have an involvement with the potential allelopathic activity.