Search PubMed⌕ Search

SEARCH · Search PubMed

Results for “MALIC ACID”

Search indexed PubMed citations on genomics, clinical trials, systematic reviews and public health. Explore titles, authors and supplied subject terms, then open the PubMed record.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 451 records · Page 25Linked to original sources

Investigation of the tuber constituents of maca (Lepidium meyenii Walp.).

Lepidium meyenii, known in South America as maca, has received attention worldwide as a powerful energizer that improves physical and mental conditions and increases fertility. Because of these reports, we investigated the secondary metabolites of the tuber of maca. The methanol extract of the tuber of maca contained, in addition to free sugars and amino acids, the following: uridine, malic acid and its benzoyl derivative, and the glucosinolates, glucotropaeolin and m-methoxyglucotropaeolin. Because glucosinolates and their derived products have received increasing attention due to their biological activities, the occurrence of glucosinolate degradation products in the hexane extract was also investigated, and benzylisothiocyanate and its m-methoxy derivative were isolated. The two glucosinolates were semiquantified by HPLC, and benzylisothiocyanate was semiquantified by GC/MS. The methanol extract of maca tuber also contained (1R,3S)-1-methyltetrahydro-beta-carboline-3-carboxylic acid, a molecule which is reported to exert many activities on the central nervous system.

Amino Acids↗

Prestorage heat treatment to maintain nutritive and functional properties during postharvest cold storage of pomegranate.

Heat treatments have been used to extend storability of several fruits, although no information is available about their effects on nutritive and functional properties in pomegranates, which was the objective of this research. Thus, pomegranate fruits were heat treated (dips at 45 degrees C for 4 min) and stored at 2 degrees C for 90 days. Every 15 days, samples were taken and further stored 2 days at 20 degrees C for shelf life study. Arils from heat-treated pomegranates exhibited higher total antioxidant activity than controls, which was correlated primarily to the high levels of total phenolics and to lesser extent to ascorbic acid and anthocyanin contents. Additionally, the levels of sugars (glucose and fructose) and organic acids (malic, citric, and oxalic acids) remained also at higher concentrations in arils from treated fruits. With this simple and non-contaminant technology, the functional and nutritive properties, after long periods of storage, could then be even greater than in recently harvested fruits, thus providing a high content in health-beneficial compounds to consumers after the intake of these fruits.

Anthocyanins↗

The effect of organic acids on the control of porcine post-weaning diarrhoea.

Post-weaning diarrhoea syndrome (PWDS) of piglets is caused mainly by Enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli (ETEC) strains. Six organic acids were tested for their efficacy in the control of PWDS, using a total of 384 weaned piglets, in eight groups, during a 28-day period. One group (negative control) was offered a diet free of antimicrobials, one group (positive control) was offered the same diet medicated with 44 p.p.m. of lincomycin and 44 p.p.m. spectinomycin (Lincospectin 22 premix, Upjohn), and six groups were offered feed supplemented with either 1.0 per cent propionic acid, 1.6 per cent lactic acid, 1.2 per cent formic acid, 1.2 per cent malic acid, 1.5 per cent citric acid or 1.5 per cent fumaric acid. Groups were compared with regard to the appearance of clinical signs, mortality, weight gain and feed conversion. All groups supplemented with organic acids had reduced incidence and severity of diarrhoea, and performed significantly better than the negative control group (P<0.05). At the end of the trial, ETEC strains were detected in the control group not receiving antibiotics but not in the treated group. Organic acids and especially lactic acid are a useful tool in controlling PWDS.

Animal Feed↗

Parabrachial unit activities after the acquisition of conditioned taste aversion to a non-preferred HCl solution in rats.

Abstract In a behavioral experiment, rats reliably acquired a taste aversion to non-preferred 0.01 M HCl that had been previously paired with intraperitoneal injection of 0.15 M LiCl. These rats showed aversions to other acidic solutions such as malic acid and tartaric acid. In a neurophysiological experiment, the neuronal activities of the parabrachial nucleus (PBN) were recorded after the acquisition of conditioned taste aversion (CTA) to 0.01 M HCl in urethane-anesthetized rats. Neuronal responses to the conditioned stimulus (CS) did not change on the whole but decreased in the dorsal region to the brachium conjunctivum. The proportion of HCl-best to NaCl-best units was lower in the CTA group than in controls. The spontaneous firing rate was lower in the CTA group than in controls. Correlation coefficients between the HCl CS and normally preferred tastes (sucrose and NaCl) were more negative and those between HCl and quinine were more positive in the CTA group than in the controls. These results may be explained by the notion that gustatory responses of PBN neurons are concerned with alterations in taste hedonics after the acquisition of conditioned taste aversions.

Animals↗

Intra-oral acid production associated with eating whole or pulped raw fruits.

The hypotheses that raw fruits, whether whole or pulped, were cleared rapidly from the mouth and that the sugars in the whole and pulped fruits are fermented with equal efficiency to acids by the oral microflora were tested in this study. Groups of 7-9 adult subjects chewed 10 g of raw, whole or pulped fruit (apple, banana, orange, pear and pineapple) for 1 min and whole, unstimulated saliva samples were collected during the following 60-min interval. Each saliva sample was assayed for the concentrations of fruit-derived sugars (glucose, fructose and sucrose), fruit-derived acids (malic and citric) and acids which may be produced as a result of bacterial fermentation (acetic, lactic, formic and succinic). We found the fruit-derived sugars were rapidly cleared from the mouth (within 5 min). The major bacterially produced acids were lactic and succinic, which reached maximum concentrations in the 5-min sample. There was no significant difference, within a fruit, in the salivary levels of any of the sugars or acids between the raw whole or raw pulped forms. In light of these findings it seems unwise to assume that fruits may be consumed without consideration of their acidogenic potential.

Acetic Acid↗

[Substrate specificity of phosphoribosyl-aminoimidazole-succinocarboxamide synthetase (SAICAR-synthetase) from Saccharomyces cerevisiae yeast].

The substrate specificity of phosphoribosyl-aminoimidazole-succinocarboxamide-synthetase (SAICAR-synthetase, EC 6.3.2.6) of the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae towards a set of carboxyaminoimidazole ribotide (CAIR) analogs with modifications in the imidazole ring, ribose and phosphate moieties, as well as aspartic acid analogs has been studied. It was found, in particular, that: i) the presence of double charged phosphate group, 2'- and 3'-hydroxyl groups in the ribose fragment and of an amino group in the imidazole ring of the CAIR molecule is not the absolute requirement for the enzymatic reaction; ii) 3'-carboxy-1.2.4-triazole analog of CAIR is a competitive inhibitor of the enzyme; iii) 2'-deoxy-CAIR is a substrate for both yeast SAICAR-synthetase and its avian liver and human erythrocyte counterparts. A new method designed to determine the SAICAR-synthetase activity with the help of bifunctional enzymes possessing, in addition to the SAICAR-synthetase activity, also a phosphoribosyl-aminoimidazole-carboxylase activity, is proposed; this method is based on the use of 2'-deoxy-CAIR. Some aspartic acid analogs (L-malic acid, beta-threo-oxy-, and beta-threo-fluoro-aspartic acids and alanosine) are substrates for yeast SAICAR-synthetase. The possible involvement of malate as an alternative substrate for the SAICAR-synthetase reaction in vivo is discussed. The results of a comparative analysis of already established primary structures of yeast, bacterial, human, and chicken SAICAR-synthetases are presented.

Amino Acid Sequence↗

Astringent subqualities in acids.

Astringency, astringent subqualities (drying, roughing and puckering) and sourness were compared among six acids: hydrochloric, lactic, citric, acetic, fumaric and malic acids. The attribute profiles of organic acids were similar to each other but different from hydrochloric acid, the only inorganic acid, which was the most astringent and the least sour. In a second experiment, two inorganic acids (hydrochloric and phosphoric) and two organic acids (citric and malic) were tested at three concentration levels. At approximately equal levels of overall sensory impact, the inorganic acids were alike in astringency and sourness, receiving higher ratings for roughing and drying, and lower ratings for sourness than the organic acids. Interactions with concentration (differences in psychophysical functions) for the subquality of drying were noted, in addition to the differences in the astringent subqualities of roughing and drying seen across acids in both experiments. The higher level of astringency for inorganic acids suggests that the current model for tannin binding to salivary proteins as an explanation of astringency needs to be extended to include a direct pH-dependent effect.

Adult↗

Changes in organic acids and sugars during early stages of development of acidic and acidless citrus fruit.

Most of the studies on organic acids and sugars in citrus were performed during fruit maturation, and less is known before this stage of development. The aim of our study was to investigate acids and sugars in lemon, lime, and orange from fruit-set toward development. We chose to compare organic acid and sugar accumulation among acidic and acidless varieties within three species. We estimated the acidity by titrimetry and quantified the concentrations of seven organic acids and three sugars by reverse HPLC. During the first 50 days of development, quinic acid was the major organic acid whatever the variety. Afterward, citric acid predominated in acidic varieties, while in acidless, malic acid exceeded it. Fructose substituted citric acid in acidless and could be synthesized either from citric acid or directly from glucose. Our results provided the first complete report on sugar and organic acid accumulation during the early stages of fruit development in several citrus varieties.

Carbohydrates↗

The role of the C4 pathway in carbon accumulation and fixation in a marine diatom.

The role of a C(4) pathway in photosynthetic carbon fixation by marine diatoms is presently debated. Previous labeling studies have shown the transfer of photosynthetically fixed carbon through a C(4) pathway and recent genomic data provide evidence for the existence of key enzymes involved in C(4) metabolism. Nonetheless, the importance of the C(4) pathway in photosynthesis has been questioned and this pathway is seen as redundant to the known CO(2) concentrating mechanism of diatoms. Here we show that the inhibition of phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase (PEPCase) by 3,3-dichloro-2-dihydroxyphosphinoylmethyl-2-propenoate resulted in a more than 90% decrease in whole cell photosynthesis in Thalassiosira weissflogii cells acclimated to low CO(2) (10 microm), but had little effect on photosynthesis in the C(3) marine Chlorophyte, Chlamydomonas sp. In 3,3-dichloro-2-dihydroxyphosphinoylmethyl-2-propenoate-treated T. weissflogii cells, elevated CO(2) (150 microm) or low O(2) (80-180 microm) restored photosynthesis to the control rate linking PEPCase inhibition with CO(2) supply in this diatom. In C(4) organic carbon-inorganic carbon competition experiments, the (12)C-labeled C(4) products of PEPCase, oxaloacetic acid and its reduced form malic acid suppressed the fixation of (14)C-labeled inorganic carbon by 40% to 50%, but had no effect on O(2) evolution in photosynthesizing diatoms. Oxaloacetic acid-dependent O(2) evolution in T. weissflogii was twice as high in cells acclimated to 10 microm rather than 22 microm CO(2), indicating that the use of C(4) compounds for photosynthesis is regulated over the range of CO(2) concentrations observed in marine surface waters. Short-term (14)C uptake (silicone oil centrifugation) and CO(2) release (membrane inlet mass spectrometry) experiments that employed a protein denaturing cell extraction solution containing the PEPCKase inhibitor mercaptopicolinic acid revealed that much of the carbon taken up by diatoms during photosynthesis is stored as organic carbon before being fixed in the Calvin cycle, as expected if the C(4) pathway functions as a CO(2) concentrating mechanism. Together these results demonstrate that the C(4) pathway is important in carbon accumulation and photosynthetic carbon fixation in diatoms at low (atmospheric) CO(2).

Carbon↗