Chaga mushroom: a super-fungus with countless facets and untapped potential

Inonotus obliquus (Chaga mushroom) is an inexpensive fungus with a broad range of traditional and medicinal applications. These applications include therapy for breast, cervix, and skin cancers, as well as treating diabetes. However, its benefits are virtually untapped due to a limited understanding of its mycochemical composition and bioactivities. In this article, we explore the ethnobotany, mycochemistry, pharmacology, traditional therapeutic, cosmetic, and prospective agricultural uses. The review establishes that several secondary metabolites, such as steroids, terpenoids, and other compounds exist in chaga. Findings on its bioactivity have demonstrated its ability as an antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, antiviral, and antitumor agent. The study also demonstrates that Chaga powder has a long history of traditional use for medicinal purposes, pipe smoking rituals, and mystical future forecasts. The study further reveals that the applications of Chaga powder can be extended to industries such as pharmaceuticals, food, cosmetics, and agriculture. However numerous publications focused on the pharmaceutical benefits of Chaga with few publications on other applications. Overall, chaga is a promising natural resource with a wide range of potential applications and therefore the diverse array of therapeutic compounds makes it an attractive candidate for various applications such as plant biofertilizers and active ingredients in cosmetics and pharmaceutical products. Thus, further exploration of Chaga's potential benefits in agriculture and other industries could lead to exciting new developments and innovations.

Cannabis: a multifaceted plant with endless potentials

Cannabis sativa, also known as "hemp" or "weed," is a versatile plant with various uses in medicine, agriculture, food, and cosmetics. This review attempts to evaluate the available literature on the ecology, chemical composition, phytochemistry, pharmacology, traditional uses, industrial uses, and toxicology of Cannabis sativa. So far, 566 chemical compounds have been isolated from Cannabis, including 125 cannabinoids and 198 non-cannabinoids. The psychoactive and physiologically active part of the plant is a cannabinoid, mostly found in the flowers, but also present in smaller amounts in the leaves, stems, and seeds. Of all phytochemicals, terpenes form the largest composition in the plant. Pharmacological evidence reveals that the plants contain cannabinoids which exhibit potential as antioxidants, antibacterial agents, anticancer agents, and anti-inflammatory agents. Furthermore, the compounds in the plants have reported applications in the food and cosmetic industries. Significantly, Cannabis cultivation has a minimal negative impact on the environment in terms of cultivation. Most of the studies focused on the chemical make-up, phytochemistry, and pharmacological effects, but not much is known about the toxic effects. Overall, the Cannabis plant has enormous potential for biological and industrial uses, as well as traditional and other medicinal uses. However, further research is necessary to fully understand and explore the uses and beneficial properties of Cannabis sativa.

Assessing the fate of fatty acid esters of hydroxy fatty acids, diglycerides and monoacetyldiacylglycerides in grilled ruminant meats marinated with unfiltered beer-based marinades

Ruminant meats contain functional lipids including fatty acid esters of hydroxy fatty acids (FAHFA), diglycerides (DG), monoacetyldiglycerides (MAcDG) and medium chain triglycerides (McTG) whose consumption in the normal diet can confer benefits for consumer health. However, very little is known concerning how meat processing techniques such as marination and grilling affect the quantity and quality of these functional lipids in ruminant meats. We used ultra high-performance liquid chromatography coupled to high resolution accurate mass tandem mass spectrometry (UHPLC-HRAM-MS/MS) to show how grilling following marination with either India or Wheat ale unfiltered beer-based marinades affected the quantity and quality of these functional lipids in ruminant meats. We observed MAcDG was completely degraded in grilled meats. Both unfiltered beer-based marinades retained higher (p < 0.05 ) levels of FAHFA, DG and McTG in grilled meats compared to their unmarinated counterparts. Furthermore, India ale-based marinade was more effective (p < 0.05 ) compared to Wheat ale-based marinade in preserving these lipids in marinated grilled beef and moose meat. Significantly, strong correlations between antioxidants, polyphenols and oxygenated terpenes present in the marinades and preserved lipid molecular species appear to suggest that antioxidants, polyphenols, and oxygenated terpenes present in the marinades could be associated with preservation of these functional lipids in the grilled meats. These findings appear to suggest that marination could preserve some of these functional lipids with India ale-based marination proving to be more effective. However, further work is required to better improve the retention of MAcDG in grilled ruminant meats. This could potentially increase consumption of FAHFA, DG, MAcDG and McTG in the diet and thereby promote consumer health.

A multimodal analytical method to simultaneously determine monoacetyldiacylglycerols, medium and long chain triglycerides in biological samples during routine lipidomics

Background

Monoacetyldiglycerides (MAcDG), are acetylated triglycerides (TG) and an emerging class of bioactive or functional lipid with promising nutritional, medical, and industrial applications. A major challenge exists when analyzing MAcDG from other subclasses of TG in biological matrices, limiting knowledge on their applications and metabolism.

Methods

Herein a multimodal analytical method for resolution, identification, and quantitation of MAcDG in biological samples was demonstrated based on thin layer chromatography-flame ionization detection complimentary with C30-reversed phase liquid chromatography-high resolution accurate mass tandem mass spectrometry. This method was then applied to determine the MAcDG molecular species composition and quantity in E. solidaginis larvae. The statistical method for analysis of TG subclass composition and molecular species composition of E. solidaginis larvae was one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA).

Results

The findings suggest that the proposed analytical method could simultaneously provide a fast, accurate, sensitive, high throughput analysis of MAcDG from other TG subclasses, including the fatty acids, isomers, and molecular species composition.

Conclusion

This method would allow for MAcDG to be included during routine lipidomics analysis of biological samples and will have broad interests and applications in the scientific community in areas such as nutrition, climate change, medicine and biofuel innovations.

Graphical abstract

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12944-022-01650-w.

Effects of pH and Temperature on Water under Pressurized Conditions in the Extraction of Nutraceuticals from Chaga (Inonotus obliquus) Mushroom

Currently, there is increased interest in finding appropriate food-grade green extraction systems capable of extracting these bioactive compounds from dietary mushrooms for applications in various food, pharmacological, or nutraceutical formulations. Herein, we evaluated a modified Swiss water process (SWP) method using alkaline and acidic pH at low and high temperature under pressurized conditions as a suitable green food grade solvent to obtained extracts enriched with myco-nutrients (dietary phenolics, total antioxidants (TAA), vitamins, and minerals) from Chaga. Ultra-high performance liquid chromatography coupled to high resolution accurate mass tandem mass spectrometry (UHPLC-HRAMS-MS/MS) was used to assess the phenolic compounds and vitamin levels in the extracts, while inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) was used to determine the mineral contents. Over 20 phenolic compounds were quantitatively evaluated in the extracts and the highest total phenolic content (TPC) and total antioxidant activity (TAA) was observed at pH 11.5 at 100 °C. The most abundant phenolic compounds present in Chaga extracts included phenolic acids such as protocatechuic acid 4-glucoside (0.7–1.08 µg/mL), syringic acid (0.62–1.18 µg/mL), and myricetin (0.68–1.3 µg/mL). Vitamins are being reported for the first time in Chaga. Not only, a strong correlation was found for TPC with TAA (r-0.8, <0.0001), but also, with individual phenolics (i.e., Salicylic acid), lipophilic antioxidant activity (LAA), and total antioxidant minerals (TAM). pH 2.5 at 100 °C treatment shows superior effects in extracting the B vitamins whereas pH 2.5 at 60 and 100 °C treatments were outstanding for extraction of total fat-soluble vitamins. Vitamin E content was the highest for the fat-soluble vitamins in the Chaga extract under acidic pH (2.5) and high temp. (100 °C) and ranges between 50 to 175 µg/100 g Chaga. Antioxidant minerals ranged from 85.94 µg/g (pH7 at 100 °C) to 113.86 µg/g DW (pH2.5 at 100 °C). High temperature 100 °C and a pH of 2.5 or 9.5. The treatment of pH 11.5 at 100 °C was the most useful for recovering phenolics and antioxidants from Chaga including several phenolic compounds reported for the first time in Chaga. SWP is being proposed herein for the first time as a novel, green food-grade solvent system for the extraction of myco-nutrients from Chaga and have potential applications as a suitable approach to extract nutrients from other matrices. Chaga extracts enriched with bioactive myconutrients and antioxidants may be suitable for further use or applications in the food and nutraceutical industries.

Dataset showing the relationship between terpenes, antioxidants and polyphenols in protecting ester and ether linked glycerophospholipids of grilled beef and moose meat marinated with unfiltered beer from oxidation

This article presents the associated data set in the research article entitled “Assessing beer-based marinades effects on ether and ester linked phosphatidylcholines and phosphatidylethanolamines in grilled beef and moose meat” published in Meat Science [1], demonstrating the use of unfiltered beer-based marinades in improving the nutritional quality of grilled ruminant meat by suppressing the degradation of health-promoting ester and ether-linked PC and PE the most predominant glycerophospholipids (GPL) in meat. High throughput lipidomics analysis was conducted using high-resolution accurate mass tandem mass spectrometry (UHPLC—HRAMS/MS-MS) to profile the meat lipids following marination and grilling. The marinades were composed of a combination of unfiltered beers, fruits, herbs and spices. The data presented show the retention levels of ether as well as ester linked PC and PE molecular species; Pearson's correlations for the associations between antioxidants, phenolics, volatile oxygenated terpenes, oxidation status and preserved phospholipid species in the marinated grilled meats. There are many studies demonstrating cooking effects on fatty acid composition of meat phospholipids in the literature. However, information on how marination and grilling affects intact ether and ester linked PC and PE composition in grilled ruminant meats is limited. As such, this dataset provides useful information on the preservation of ruminant meat ester and ether-linked glycerophospholipid composition following marination with unfiltered beer-based marinades and meat preparation via grilling. Specifically, this data demonstrate the preservation of ether and ester linked PC and PE enriched with essential ω3 and ω6 fatty acids from degradation during grilling. For additional insights see [1] DOI: 10.1016/j.meatsci.2020.108271.

The use of XLSTAT in conducting principal component analysis (PCA) when evaluating the relationships between sensory and quality attributes in grilled foods

Multivariate statistics is a tool for examining the relationship of multiple variables simultaneously. Principal component analysis (PCA) is an unsupervised multivariate analysis technique that simplifies the complexity of data by transforming them in a few dimensions showing their trends and correlations. Interests in XLSTAT as statistical software program of choice for routine multivariate statistics has been growing due in part to its compatibility with Microsoft Excel data format. As a case of study, multivariate analysis is used to study the effects of unfiltered beer-based marination on the volatile terpenes and thiols, and sensory attributes of grilled ruminant meats. PCA was conducted to determine the correlations between the abundances of volatile terpenes and thiols and sensory attribute scores in marinated grilled meats, as well as to analyze if there was any clustering based on the type of meat and marination treatments employed.•

XLSTAT PCA output successfully reduced the number of variables into 2 components that explained 90.47% of the total variation of the data set.

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PCA clustered marinated and unmarinated meats based on the presence and abundances of volatile terpenes, thiols and consumer sensory attribute scores.

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PCA could be applied to explore relationships between volatile compounds and sensory attributes in different food systems.

Dataset on improved nutritional quality and safety of grilled marinated and unmarinated ruminant meat using novel unfiltered beer-based marinades

Objective of this data isn brief article is to present the associated data set regarding the revised article entitled “Unfiltered beer based marinades reduced exposure to carcinogens and suppressed conjugated fatty acid oxidation in grilled meats” recommended for publication in Food Control [1]. Grill food safety and quality is a major concern globally. Here in we present data demonstrating the use of novel unfiltered beer based marinades in improving the nutritional quality and safety of grilled ruminant meat. Grilling can lead to the formation of harmful compounds and modify the functional lipids in meats via oxidation, thereby affecting the nutritional quality and safety of the finished product. Lipid oxidation is a deteriorative process involving the degradation of lipid double bonds and the formation of new compounds. Some of these compounds can result in reduced meat quality and off-flavours affecting the sensory, nutritional quality and safety of grilled meat. Unfiltered beers, herbs and spices are known to be excellent sources of antioxidants and polyphenols which can suppress oxidation of functional lipids in grilled meat. Novel unfiltered beer based marinades were developed and used to marinate ruminant meat (beef and moose) prior to grilling. The effect of marination on the fatty acid profile, including saturated, mono- and polyunsaturated fatty acids, of grilled meat was analyzed by gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS). In this data in brief article, we include 3 tables containing the fatty acid composition of unmarinated and marinated grilled ruminant meats (beef and moose), a figure showing the percent distribution of grilled meat fatty acid classes, and 2 figures on Pearson's correlation for the associations between phenolic contents, oxidation status and total conjugated linolenic acid (CLA) content. To the best of our knowledge, there is a paucity of information in the literature on the fatty acid composition of wild Cervid meat following preparation by grilling. Grill food safety and nutritional quality is of significant interest to researchers and consumers in the scientific and general food science communities. This article provides data on the fatty composition of grilled moose meat and could be of value to fill the paucity of information currently available in the scientific community on the observed fatty acid composition of grill moose meat. Furthermore, the article presents data on the effects of beer based marinade formulations on the quality of the fatty acid composition of grilled ruminant meats (beef and moose). The growing awareness of the benefits of dietary fatty acids in enhancing personal and population health by reducing the risk factors for cardiovascular diseases and neurodegenerative disorders means that consumers demand meat products with improved fatty acid composition [2,3]. Cervids such as moose (Alces alces) are popular as superior sources of low-fat lean meat with balanced omega 6:3 essential fatty acids compared to traditional farm raised or domesticated meat animals due to the forage they consume as a normal part of their diet [2,4,5]. Furthermore, session ale beers is currently a global phenomenon derived from unique combinations of grains, hops, fruits and herbs to produce low alcohol by volume beers with unique flavors popular among consumers. Two unfiltered session beers were used as base ingredients to produce two novel marinades infused with unique combination of antioxidant rich herbs and spices as a suitable system for the production of grilled foods with enhanced nutritional and sensory characteristics. Whilst there are a limited number of studies in the literature that have used unfiltered beers to evaluate the effects of these beers on suppression of lipid oxidation in grilled meat, none to the best of our knowledge has evaluated the effect of antioxidant rich unfiltered beer based marinades on fatty acid composition of grilled meat systems [6] [7]. As such, this data set presents the concept of using craft beers (specifically session ales) infused with unique combination of herbs and spices to produce unfiltered beer base marinades with enhanced ability to improve grill food sensory attributes and quality, and demonstrates that novel formulations of popular unfiltered India session ale and wheat ale based marinades infused with unique combinations of herbs and spices could be used to marinate beef and moose meats prior to grilling to preserve meat lipids including anticarcinogenic linoleic acid and essential ω3 and ω6 fatty acids.