Antioxidant activity of the new black vinegar "IZUMI"

Vinegar - a beneficial food additive: production, safety, possibilities, and applications from ancient to modern times

Vinegar is a natural product derived from fruits or grains after being subjected to food fermentation processes. Vinegar is a beneficial food additive, preservative, and condiment. It is appreciated across the Islamic world following the Prophetic teaching where Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) recommended its utility, saying: "The best of condiments is vinegar". Modern medicine recognizes the health benefits, especially upon metabolism and circulation, mediated by the bioactive constituents of vinegar, including acetic acid, caffeic acid, ferulic acid, chlorogenic acid, gallic acid, p-coumaric acid, catechin, and epicatechin. Using a variety of search engines, including Google Scholar, Sci-Finder, Wiley publications, Springer Link, Scopus, MDPI, Web of Science, and PubMed, a thorough survey of the literature was carried out. To compile a comprehensive data on the various varieties of vinegar, this review highlights and updates the existing information of different vinegar-related topics including production methods, quality assessment using different quantitative analysis tools, preclinical and clinical studies, structure-activity relationship, consumption, and applications from antiquity to the present.

Comparative evaluation of therapeutic efficacy and safety of black peel versus 25% trichloroacetic acid peel in mild to moderate acne vulgaris: a split face study

Introduction

Peeling has withstood the test of time as a simple, minimally invasive method to renew the skin, despite the introduction of more advanced procedures like lasers.

Materials and Methods

Thirty patients (or 60 sites) with age ranging from 15 to 45 years with mild-to-moderate acne vulgaris were included in the study. Assessment at baseline was done by the global acne grading system score for including mild and moderate acne patients.

Results

On grading the improvement according to the 5-point Global Assessment Scale (GAS), it was found that in area A (black peel), 6.7% of patients showed excellent improvement, 86.7% of patients showed good improvement, and 6.7% of patients showed fair improvement. In area B (25%TCA peel), 6.7% of patients showed excellent improvement, 80% of patients showed good improvement, and 13.3% of patients showed fair improvement.

Discussion

None of the patients showed poor or worse outcomes in any of the areas. The difference between the groups was not significant (P = 0.688).

Conclusion

There is a paucity of data in the literature regarding the comparison of black peel with other conventional peels in the treatment of acne vulgaris. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study comparing black peel with TCA peel in the treatment of acne vulgaris.

Acetic acid and the skin: a review of vinegar in dermatology

Vinegar is commonly used as a home remedy for many skin problems. It is important for dermatologists to understand the evidence supporting its use in skin disease, as well as potential adverse effects, so they can properly counsel patients on the safe use of this widely available treatment. Vinegar possesses antimicrobial and antioxidant properties that provide utility in wound care as well as bacterial and fungal infections. There is also evidence to support its use in pruritus, head lice removal, and treatment of striae gravidarum. While generally safe, inappropriate use can result in damage to the skin. In this review, we discuss the evidence supporting vinegar as a treatment for skin disease, as well as adverse events reported from misuse, to provide dermatologists the knowledge to counsel patients on the safe and appropriate use of vinegar.

Health Promoting Properties of Cereal Vinegars

Vinegar has been used for its health promoting properties since antiquity. Nowadays, these properties are investigated, scientifically documented, and highlighted. The health benefits of vinegar have been associated with the presence of a variety of bioactive components such as acetic acid and other organic acids, phenolic compounds, amino acids, carotenoids, phytosterols, vitamins, minerals, and alkaloids, etc. These components are known to induce responses in the human body, such as antioxidant, antidiabetic, antimicrobial, antitumor, antiobesity, antihypertensive, and anti-inflammatory effects. The diversity and levels of bioactive components in vinegars depend on the raw material and the production method used. Cereal vinegars, which are more common in the Asia-Pacific region, are usually made from rice, although other cereals, such as millet, sorghum, barley, malt, wheat, corn, rye, oats, bran and chaff, are also used. A variety of bioactive components, such as organic acids, polyphenols, amino acids, vitamins, minerals, alkaloids, melanoidins, butenolides, and specific compounds such as γ-oryzanol, tetramethylpyrazine, γ-aminobutyric acid, etc., have been associated with the health properties of cereal vinegars. In this work, the bioactive components and the related health effects of cereal vinegars are reviewed, and the most recent scientific literature is presented and discussed.

Comparison of two types of vinegar with different aging times by NMR-based metabolomic approach

Shanxi vinegar (SV) is well known as the most famous vinegar for its distinctive processing technique in China. Aging is the most important process for SV, and we call the vinegar aging more than 1-year Shanxi aged vinegar (SAV) and less than 1-year Shanxi mature vinegar (SMV). In this study, the chemical compositions and in vivo difference between SAV and SMV were compared by NMR based metabolomic profiling technique and multivariate statistical analysis. The results indicated that most of the metabolites exhibited higher concentrations in SAV than those in SMV¸ and the amino acids showed higher concentration ratio than the other compounds. The changes of endogenous metabolites after treatment with SMV and SAV were also investigated. Compared with the chemical differences, the differences of metabolomic changes between SAV and SMV were relatively minor. This study provides a valuable approach for accurately evaluating the differences of food products. PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS: Vinegar is commonly consumed as the important seasoning. SV, which is made from several kinds of cereal by solid-state fermentation techniques, is one of the famous vinegars in China. Aging is the most important process for SV which dividing vinegar into SAV and SMV according to the aging time. Due to the long aging process, the price of SAV is much higher than that of SMV in the market place. However, no investigation was conducted to compare their differences in vivo.

Japanese black vinegar "Izumi" inhibits the proliferation of human squamous cell carcinoma cells via necroptosis

Kurozu (Japanese black vinegar), a traditional product made from unpolished rice, contains beneficial organic materials and minerals. Improved manufacturing processes yielded a new vinegar, Izumi, that contains large amounts of these constituents. Because the antioxidative effects of Kurozu are well understood, we examined Izumi for its anticancer activity against the human squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) cell line HSC-5. HSC-5 cells were treated with Izumi or ordinary grain vinegar adjusted to 4.2% acidicity. MTT assay and the trypan blue dye exclusion test showed that Izumi significantly inhibited the proliferation of HSC-5 cells compared to ordinary grain vinegar. Propidium iodide (PI) flow cytometry and annexin V/PI staining revealed that among cells treated or untreated with Izumi or ordinary grain vinegar there was no difference in the number of apoptotic cells. A new form of necrosis, programmed necrosis or necroptosis, has been proposed. It is mediated by receptor-interacting serine-threonine kinase 3 (RIPK3), key signaling molecule, and results in the release of cellular danger-associated molecular patterns (DAMPs). When HSC-5 cells were treated with Izumi, the cellular level of RIPK3 protein and the amount of high-mobility group protein B1, one of the DAMPs, released into culture media were remarkably increased. These findings indicate that Izumi inhibits the proliferation of human SCC cells via programmed necrosis (necroptosis).

Comparative Analysis of Serum (Anti)oxidative Status Parаmeters in Healthy Persons

Five antioxidant and two oxidative stress assays were applied to serum samples of 43 healthy males. The antioxidant tests showed different inter-assay correlations. A very good correlation of 0.807 was observed between the ferric reducing ability of plasma (FRAP) and total antioxidant status (TAS) assay and also a fair correlation of 0.501 between the biological antioxidant potential (BAP) and TAS assay. There was no statistically significant correlation between the BAP and FRAP assay. The anti-oxidant assays have a high correlation with uric acid, especially the TAS (0.922) and FRAP assay (0.869). The BAP assay has a much lower and no statistically significant correlation with uric acid (0.302), which makes BAP more suitable for the antioxidant status. The total thiol assay showed no statistically significant correlation with uric acid (0.114). The total thiol assay, which is based on a completely different principle, showed a good and statistically significant correlation with the BAP assay (0.510) and also to the TAS assay, but to a lower and not significant extent (0.279) and not with the FRAP assay (-0.008). The oxy-adsorbent test (OXY) assay has no correlation with any of the other assays tested. The oxidative stress assays, reactive oxygen metabolites (ROM) and total oxidant status (TOS), based on a different principle, do not show a statistically significant correlation with the serum samples in this study. Both assays showed a negative, but not significant, correlation with the antioxidant assays. In conclusion, the ROM, TOS, BAP and TTP assays are based on different principles and will have an additional value when a combination of these assays will be applied in large-scale population studies.