Effects Of Betel Nut Processing On Its Quality And Anti-inflammatory Effects Of Food And Drug Homologous Substance

Areca Catechu L.is a kind of palm plant seed,which is used partly for medicinal and fresh food,and more for processing betel nut chewed pieces.More than 700 million people around the world chew betel nut.However,betel nut contains a large amount of cellulose,hemicellulose and lignin,which may cause repeated stimulation of oral mucosa during chewing,causing oral inflammation and cancer in severe cases.At the same time,because arecoline is contained in betel nut and a large number of various food additives are used in the processing,regular consumption will cause throat,oral inflammation and chest discomfort.Firstly,the physicochemical properties of betel nut during processing and storage were studied.Secondly,the combination of food and drug resources was selected by TCM data mining,and its anti-inflammatory effectiveness was predicted by network pharmacology and molecular docking.Then,the extraction conditions of the combination were optimized.Finally,the effectiveness of the combination in improving the inflammation induced by betel nut was tested by the foot swelling experiment of rats.Specific research contents are as follows:1.Study on the influence of areca nut processing and storage process on its quality.For intermediate products and terminal products obtained from each process,determined the texture properties,microstructure,water holding capacity and flavor by using total texture analysis（TPA）,scanning electron microscopy（SEM）,rapid moisture determination（HMD）and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry（GC-MS）.The results showed that the gum viscosity and chewability of betel nut decreased gradually in the stages of soaking,steam explosion and enzymolysis.After enzymolysis,the gum viscosity and chewability of betel nut decreased by about 75%compared with the raw material,increased to 50%of the raw material after drying,and returned to 75%of the raw material hardness after sulking.The hardness of betel nut was the lowest after steam explosion,which was about 17.4%of the hardness of the raw material.After enzymatic hydrolysis and drying,it rose to 45.7%of the hardness of the raw material,and dropped to about 30%after quenching.It can be seen that steam explosion,enzymatic hydrolysis and drying were the key processes affecting the texture characteristics of betel nut.The water holding capacity of betel nut fiber was greatly improved after enzymatic hydrolysis,reaching 1.25 times of the raw materials,and reached the maximum after drying,reaching 1.45times of raw materials.The main reason was that the internal fiber structure of betel nut changed from a dense whole to a network void structure due to the enzymatic hydrolysis.The relative contents of characteristic flavor substances of betel nut changed slightly during storage.The highest content of ethyl maltol was reduced by 3.37%after 21 days,followed by menthol and vanillin by 3.24%.The moisture content decreased from 23.8%to 20.5%on the 14th day of storage,and then changed little,indicating that the flavor and moisture content of betel nut changed little during the 21-day storage.The processing of betel nut had great influence on the quality of the final product.The experiments showed that the enzymatic hydrolysis and drying process were the key steps affecting the hardness and other qualities.2.Screening of food and drug resources with anti-inflammatory effect.The traditional Chinese medicine inheritance computing platform database was used to retrieve the ancient and modern medical records for oropharyngeal discomfort and their prescriptions.A total of 355prescriptions were collected,containing 458 Chinese herbs,and the total frequency of use was4497 times.Among them,22 Chinese herbs were used more than 50 times.Furthermore,K-means clustering algorithm was used to make cluster analysis on the drug association rule,and four core prescriptions were extracted,from which items were selected under the homology list of drugs and foods,and anti-inflammatory effects were clear,processing costs and other factors were taken into account.Finally,the compound prescription of"platycodon-glycyrrhiza-loquat leaf"was determined.Among them,platycodon,glycyrrhiza and loquat leaves were used273,271 and 65 times in 458 traditional Chinese medicines,respectively.Cluster analysis showed that there were 149 core prescriptions including them.3.Prediction of anti-inflammatory effect and mechanism of"platycodon-glycyrrhiza-loquat leaf".Based on Network pharmacology（NP）principle,the paper explored the mechanism and molecular mechanism of the medicinal and food combination"platycodon-glycyrrhiza-loquat leaf"on oral and throat inflammation,and verified it with molecular dock.116 potential active components of"platycodon–glycyrrhiza-loquat leaves"were screened,including 347 targets related to human genes,and 190 targets related to oropharyngitis.Quercetin,EGCG,glycyrrhiza flavone,ursolic acid,kaempferol and so on were the main active components,and the targets were AGE-RAGE signaling pathway,IL-17 signaling pathway,fluid shear stress,atherosclerosis,TNF signaling pathway and so on,which are related to multiple biological processes.Finally,the good binding activity between the target proteins was verified by molecular docking.It was verified that platycodon,glycyrrhiza and loquat leaves selected based on data mining of traditional Chinese medicine were reasonable to treat oral and throat inflammation.4.Extraction of functional components from platycodon,glycyrrhiza and loquat leaves and its application in the processing of betel nut.According to the recommended dosage for adults in Chinese pharmacopoeia,the dosage ratio of three ingredients in“platycodon-glycyrrhiza-loquat leaf”formula was determined as 3:3:4（m/m）,and the water extraction method conforming to the processing of traditional Chinese medicine was adopted.Firstly,the effects of particle size,solid-liquid ratio,extraction time and extraction times on the yield of water-soluble solid were studied by single factor experiment.The extraction conditions were optimized by multi-index comprehensive scoring method combined with Box-Behnken response surface.The dry matter yield of the extract and the active components of the extract were used as the comprehensive evaluation index.Box-Behnken response surface tests were designed and carried out to optimize the composite water extraction process based on three factors:water addition,extraction times and extraction time.The results showed that when the water added was 12 times of the weight of raw material,and the extraction time was 1.5 h for3 times,the comprehensive score of dry matter yield and active component content was the highest and the extraction effect was the best.Under this condition,the yield of water-soluble solids was 38.52%,and the contents of UA and OA,PLD,LQ and GA were 0.43%,0.23%,0.14%and 0.78%,respectively.The above concentrated solution was used to replace the water used in the process of betel nut preparation,sultry and polish respectively.The results show that the concentrated solution can completely permeate into the betel nut products,and the purpose of adding the extract of“platycodon-glycyrrhiza-loquat leaf”into the products without increasing the process,equipment and cost is achieved.5.Effects of"platycodon-glycyrrhiza-loquat leaf"formula extract on acute inflammation induced by betel nut in rats.Designed and implemented the rat paw swelling experiment.Sixty rats were randomly divided into 6 groups:blank control group,positive control group,betel nut group,betel nut+low-dose compound extract group,betel nut+medium-dose compound extract group,betel nut+high-dose compound extract group.The rats were intragastric experiment for 28 days,and the body weight,organ coefficient,foot swelling rate and the level of inflammatory mediators within 6 h after foot injection of inflammatory agent were measured.The results showed that the acute inflammation of the feet of rats in the betel nut group was severe and not easy to recover.Compared with areca nut group,the paw swelling rate of rats in high-dose group was significantly lower than that in blank control group（p<0.05）,which was similar to positive control group.It could significantly（p<0.05）reduce the production of inflammatory mediators prostaglandin E₂（PGE₂）,malondialdehyde（MDA）and nitric oxide（NO）.Down-regulated serum levels of pro-inflammatory tumor necrosis factor-α（TNF-α）,interleukin-1β（IL-1β）,interleukin-6（IL-6）,promoted the release of interleukin-10（IL-10）,and reduced the production of reactive oxygen species（ROS）in liver.The medium dose group also had better effect.These results indicated that the extract of"platycodon-glycyrrhiza-loquat leaf"formula could significantly reduce the acute inflammation of rats exacerbated by betel nut consumption,and was beneficial to alleviate the abnormal indexes of organ coefficients caused by betel nut.