Ultrahigh-performance liquid chromatography coupled with ion mobility quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry for separation and identification of hawthorn fruits by multivariate analysis

Inhibition of pancreatic lipase and cholesterol by hawthorn extract: A study of binding mechanisms and inhibitor screening

Inhibiting the activity of pancreatic lipase and reducing intestinal cholesterol absorption are potential strategies to combat obesity. This study investigated the mechanisms by which hawthorn (Crataegus pinnatifida) extract affects pancreatic lipase (PL) and disrupts cholesterol micelle formation. Enriched with bioactive compounds, hawthorn extract (HE) inhibited PL activity through reversible mixed inhibition, with a half-maximal inhibitory concentration (IC50) of 2.92 mg/mL. Infrared spectroscopy, circular dichroism and fluorescence quenching experiments demonstrated that HE binding to PL induces conformational changes in both tertiary and secondary structures. This interaction facilitated the transformation of β-turns to random coils and quenched the fluorescence of the protein through a static quenching mechanism. HPLC, immobilized enzymes and molecular docking studies collectively revealed that rutin, chlorogenic acid, and isoquercitrin in HE exhibited strong binding affinity with PL, serving as key components in inhibiting PL activity. Furthermore, HE increased the particle size of cholesterol micelles while decreasing their solubility, which makes it more difficult for lipases to function in the intestine. Overall, our study suggests that HE may serve as an effective pancreatic lipase inhibitor, presenting potential applications in the development of functional foods for obesity reduction and lipid-lowering.

Effects of hawthorn addition on the physicochemical properties and hydrolysis of corn starch

Hawthorn powder were mixed with corn starch and heated in water to make corn starch-hawthorn mixtures (CS-Haw) and then the physicochemical properties and hydrolysis characteristics of the mixtures were measured. Results showed that the addition of hawthorn powder decreased the viscosity of corn starch, and prolonged the pasting temperature, while the microstructure analysis indicated that hawthorn particles aggregated on the surfaces of starch granules, reducing the chance of starch contacting with water, then delayed the starch gelatinization. The presence of hawthorn powder also reduced the G' value to varying degrees and the loss tangent of CS-Haw was significantly higher than that of corn starch. The addition of hawthorn powder in large amounts also increased the rapidly digestible starch, while decrease the slowly digestible starch and resistant starch. The present research will provide basic theoretical support for the application of hawthorn in healthy starch food processing.