Characterization of edible swiftlet’s nest as a prebiotic ingredient using a simulated colon model

A Novel Bacillus amyloliquefaciens Specifically Improving the Solubility and Antioxidant Activities of Edible Bird's Nest

Edible bird's nest (EBN), a most highly priced and valuable foodstuff, contains high percentage of proteins and carbohydrates. However, proteins adhering to these carbohydrates make the EBN hard and tough, which need to be boiled as the bird's nest soup to make the Chinese cuisine. To overcome the hard and tough texture of EBN and improve the digestion degrees, the present study screened and identified a probiotic strain Bacillus amyloliquefaciens YZW02 from 5-year stored EBN sample completely solubilizing EBN for the first time. The 24-h B. amyloliquefaciens fermented EBN contained 20.30-21.48 mg/mL of the soluble protein contents with a recovery rate of 98-100%, DPPH radical scavenging rate of 84.76% and ABTS radical scavenging capacity of 41.05%. The mixed fermentation of B. amyloliquefaciens YZW02 and Bacillus natto BN1 were further applied to improve the low-MW peptide percentages and antioxidant activities. The mixed-fermentation of B. natto BN1 with 4-h cultured B. amyloliquefaciens YZW02 had the lowest percentage (82.23%) of >12-kDa proteins/peptides and highest percentages of 3-12 kDa, 1-3 kDa and 0.1-1 kDa peptides of 8.6% ± 0.08, 7.57% ± 0.09, 1.77% ± 0.05 and 0.73% ± 0.05, with the highest DPPH, ABTS and •OH scavenging capacity of 90.23%, 46.45% and 49.12%, respectively. These findings would provide an efficient strategy for improving the solubility and antioxidant activities of EBNs.

Fractionation and characterisation of sialylated-mucin glycoprotein from edible birds' nest hydrolysates through anion exchange chromatography

Edible bird's nest (EBN) is made up of sialylated-mucin glycoprotein with various health benefits due to its high antioxidative activity. However, as a macromolecule with distinct charged sialic acid and amino acids, fractions with different charges would have varied physicochemical properties and antioxidant activity, which have not been studied. Therefore, this study aimed to fractionate and purify the enzymatic hydrolysed of cleaned EBN (EBNhc) and EBN by-product (EBNhbyp) through anion exchange chromatography (AEC), and determine their molecular weights, physicochemical properties, and antioxidative activities. Overall, 26 fractionates were collected from enzymatic hydrolysate by AEC, which were classified into 5 fractions. It was found that the positively charged fraction of EBNhc (CF 1) and EBNhbyp (DF 1) showed the significantly highest (p < 0.05) soluble protein contents (22.86 and 18.40 mg/g), total peptide contents (511.13 and 800.47 mg/g) and ferric reducing antioxidant power (17.44 and 6.96 mg/g) among the fractionates. In conclusion, a positively charged fraction (CF 1 and DF 1) showed more desired physicochemical properties and antioxidative activities. This research suggests the potential of AEC fractionation as a technology to purify EBN and produce positively charged EBN fractionates with antioxidative potential that could be applied as food components to provide health benefits.

Edible Bird's Nest: The Functional Values of the Prized Animal-Based Bioproduct From Southeast Asia-A Review

Edible Bird's Nest (EBN) is the most prized health delicacy among the Chinese population in the world. Although some scientific characterization and its bioactivities have been studied and researched, no lights have been shed on its actual composition or mechanism. The aim of this review paper is to address the advances of EBN as a therapeutic animal bioproduct, challenges and future perspectives of research involving EBN. The methodology of this review primarily involved a thorough search from the literature undertaken on Web of Science (WoS) using the keyword "edible bird nest". Other information were obtained from the field/market in Malaysia, one of the largest EBN-producing countries. This article collects and describes the publications related to EBN and its therapeutic with diverse functional values. EBN extracts display anti-aging effects, inhibition of influenza virus infection, alternative traditional medicine in athletes and cancer patients, corneal wound healing effects, stimulation of proliferation of human adipose-derived stem cells, potentiate of mitogenic response, epidermal growth factor-like activities, enhancement of bone strength and dermal thickness, eye care, neuroprotective and antioxidant effects. In-depth literature study based on scientific findings were carried out on EBN and its properties. More importantly, the future direction of EBN in research and development as health-promoting ingredients in food and the potential treatment of certain diseases have been outlined.

Prebiotics metabolism by gut-isolated probiotics

There are numerous species of bacteria resides in the lumen of human colon. The word 'colon', resembles colony or the colonization of microbiota of which plays an important role in the fermentation of prebiotics. The standpoint of prebiotic nowadays is well reported for attenuating gut dysbiosis in many clinical studies tested on animals and human. However, because of the huge amount of gut microbiome, the attempt to connect the dots between bacterial population and the host are not plainly discernible. Thus, a need to analyse recent research on the pathways of prebiotic metabolism adopted by commonly studied probiotics i.e. Bifidobacteria and Lactobacillus. Several different substrate-dependent gene expressions are induced to break down oligosaccharide molecules shown by those probiotics. The hydrolysis can occur either by membrane bound (extracellular) or cytoplasmic (intracellular) enzyme of the enteric bacteria. Therefore, this review narrates several prebiotic metabolisms occur during gut fermentation, and metabolite production i.e. organic acids conversion.