Steve W. Cui

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• Ph.D.
• Principal Research Scientist at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada

Yellow mustard gum (YMG) and fenugreek gum (FG) are both natural hydrocolloids derived from plant seeds. They showed synergistic effects of increased viscosity upon mixing thus expanding their applications. In this study, a synergistic YMG‐FG (7:3) blend of different total gum concentrations (0%, 0.05%, 0.1%, 0.15%, 0.2% and 0.25%, w/w) was used to...

Yellow mustard gum (YMG) is a natural hydrocolloid extracted from the viscous fraction of the seed coat, a by‐product of mustard seeds, and possesses superior emulsifying capacity in emulsions. However, there is no application of YMG for commercial products. The demand for vegan mayonnaise (VM) has increased in recent years and the challenge is to...

BACKGROUND Yellow mustard gum (YMG), which is extracted from the mucilaginous part of yellow mustard bran, has been considered an emerging natural hydrocolloid gum but lacks commercial development and production. To promote the commercial utilization of YMG, this study developed a pilot‐scale YMG production protocol in an economic and environmental...

The growing global interest in healthy and clean ingredients has prompted a shift in the composition of gluten-free products. This study specifically directed its focus towards Bazlama bread due to its simple ingredient list. The aim of this study was to investigate if clean label hydrocolloids can replace xanthan gum to produce high-quality gluten...

Phenolic and amino acid profiles along with organic acid, vitamin and mineral contents, major and minor sugars and enzyme activities of selected honey samples collected in North America were analyzed using different methods and potential markers of their botanical origin were identified. Among the 29 detected phenolic compounds, and some were found...

Essential oils (EOs) have been considered as an alternative to antibiotics for animal production. In the current study, 4 trials were conducted on a commercial broiler farm to investigate the effects of dietary supplementation of an encapsulated cinnamon EO product (NE-OFF) on the bird growth performance, gut health, and gene expression in the ileu...

Dietary nutrients regulate intestinal homeostasis through a variety of complex mechanisms, to affect the host health. Nowadays, various models have been used to investigate the dietary nutrients-intestinal homeostasis axis. Different from the limited flux in animal experiments, limited intestinal cell types and distorted simulation of intestinal en...

The law and mechanism of the interaction between polysaccharides and pattern recognition receptors (PRRs) has been unclear. Herein, three glucomannans with different structures were selected to explore the universal mechanism for PRRs to recognize glucomannans. Screening results showed that the silence of TLR4 but not TLR2 severely blocked the prod...

To understand the structural and immunomodulatory relationships of Dendrobium officinale polysaccharide (DOP), ultrasonic (UDOP-1 and UDOP-2) and alkaline treatments (DADOP-1 and DADOP-2) were used to obtain DOPs of varied Mw and degrees of acetylation (DA). In vivo mice study indicated that the DOP by ultrasonic degradation and deacetylation modif...

Impairment of intestinal epithelium barrier is a hallmark of gut pathology. Cell death can compromise barrier function and impair epithelial restitution directly or indirectly in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Our previous work demonstrated that glucomannan from Aloe vera gel (AGP) protected mice from DSS-induced colitis, with unclear mechanism...

Naringenin is a natural flavonoid that is widely distributed in citrus fruits and pharmacologically demonstrated to licit lipid-lowering activity. However, the clinical relevance of naringenin is limited due to its poor water solubility and inefficient absorption. In this study, we designed and developed naringenin-zein-sodium caseinate-galactosyla...

As potential candidates for treating ulcerative colitis (UC), polysaccharides have been attracting extensive interest in recent years. Cordyceps sinensis (C. sinensis) is a kind of traditional Chinese edible food, and its polysaccharide fractions have been found to be effective in regulating immunity and protecting the kidneys. To determine the pot...

Context: Excess calories from free sugars are implicated in the epidemics of obesity and type 2 diabetes. Honey is a free sugar but is generally regarded as healthy. Objective: The effect of honey on cardiometabolic risk factors was assessed via a systematic review and meta-analysis of controlled trials using the GRADE (Grading of Recommendation...

To understand the mechanisms of immunomodulatory effect, Dendrobium Officinale polysaccharides (DOP) were treated by ultrasound and mild base separately to generate fractions of various weight-average molecular weight (Mw) and degrees of acetylation (DA). The structural features, conformational properties, functional properties and immunomodulatory...

To alleviate the environmental pressure caused by plastic pollution, biodegradable films made from natural polymers are gaining popularity. In the current paper, biodegradable films were successfully prepared by incorporating tea polyphenols (TP) into chitosan-bacterial cellulose (CS-BC) matrix. The effects of different concentrations (2–10% w/w) o...

Starch/water soluble yellow mustard mucilage nanocapsules loaded with thymol and carvacrol (TC) were developed using electrospray atomization. Emulsions were electrosprayed, aiming to generate nanocapsules with a controlled release behavior of TC for antimicrobial packaging applications. To understand the effect of water soluble yellow mustard muci...

Non-starch polysaccharides (NSPs) have been reported to exert therapeutic potential on managing type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). Various mechanisms have been proposed; however, several studies have not considered the correlations between the anti-T2DM activity of NSPs and their molecular structure. Moreover, the current understanding of the role of...

Macrophage activation is involved in the outcome of many diseases and is recognized as one of the best targets for disease intervention. Glucomannans had shown promising immunomodulatory potential. Herein, the activation performance of macrophages by glucomannans from different sources was thoroughly investigated. Glucomannans triggered the immune...

The pectic polysaccharides extracted from flaxseed (Linum usitatissiumum L.) mucilage and kernel were characterized as rhamnogalacturonan-I (RG-I). In this study, the conformational characteristics of RG-I fractions from flaxseed mucilage and kernel were investigated, using a Brookhaven multi-angle light scattering instrument (batch mode) and a hig...

This research aims to prepare capsules emulsion using gallic acid (GA), dextran (DEX), bovine serum albumin (BSA), sodium alginate, and K‐carrageenan (K‐Car) as the biological delivery system of lycopene. The stability and bioaccessibility of lycopene were further improved through encapsulation of covalent complex of sodium alginate and K‐Car. The...

Colitis is generally affected by multiple factors, including the dysbiosis of intestinal microbiota, and may affect organs outside colon through circulation. Pectin, which is an edible polysaccharide widely present in plant cell walls, has been proved in our previous study to possess preventive potentials against acute ulcerative colitis, especiall...

Yellow mustard gum (YMG), a plant mucilage, has been investigated as a natural stabilizer for improving the texture, quality, and shelf life of food products. To expand its applications, synergistic polysaccharide-polysaccharide interactions were examined with two classical gums: κ-carrageenan and locust bean gum (LBG), which have been widely used...

Soy polysaccharide is a new source of hydrocolloids that demonstrated some unique functions, such as improving the emulsifying property of proteins. Citral is an essential oil that shows promise as an alternative to antibiotics for livestock such as chickens. However, a lack of effective delivery methods has limited its application in livestock pro...

This study explored the advantageous effects of purple sweet potato anthocyanin extract (PSPAE) on redox state in obese mice. The normal chow diet (NCD) group, high‐fat/cholesterol diet (HCD) group, and three groups based on HCD and added with low, middle, and high dose of PSPAE (PAL, PAM, and PAH) were raised for 12 weeks. High dose of PSPAE treat...

Highland barley (HB) has become popular due to nutritional benefits, and thermal treatment could broaden its application. In this study, superheated steam (SS) as a novel commercially thermal treatment was compared with other traditional heating (steam and roasting). The physiochemical properties of treated HB kernels and subsequent produced flour...

Fermentation of dietary fibres by gut microbiota has been extensively studied to reduce the risk of colon-related diseases and some metabolic syndromes, such as obesity, diabetes, chronic kidney disease, and inflammation. Focusing the most recent publications, this review summarises various fermentation models of dietary fibre against gut microbiot...

Ferulic acid (FA) of various ratios was successfully tagged onto arabinoxylan (AX) molecule by N,N′-carbonyldiimidazole (CDI) radical grafting reaction. The structural characterization of conjugates was conducted using methylation analysis, UV–vis, FT-IR and ¹H NMR spectroscopy. The linkage patterns of AX before and after conjugation were similar....

Bioactive polysaccharides with immunomodulatory and antivirus effects have been widely investigated. However, due to the complexity of molecular structure and insufficient characterization, the correlation between structure and immunomodulatory/antivirus bioactivities have not been well summarized. This review highlights three most studied polysacc...

Naringenin (NN) is one of the most abundant flavonoids in citrus and grapefruits and has been shown to have antioxidant properties in vitro. The purpose of the study is to examine the antioxidant and anti-aging activities of NN in C. elegans, and to further explore the molecular mechanism. The results showed that NN enhanced the lifespan under norm...

Inhibitory effects of flavonoids on starch digestibility were well known, but the structural mechanism was not clear. This study was focused on the diverse effect of quercetin and rutin on digestibility of Tartary buckwheat starch. Results showed that quercetin and rutin reduced the starch digestion by altering starch structure in bound forms and i...

Purple sweet potatoes extract (PSPE) have been used as a natural food antioxidant with high anthocyanin concentrations. Research investigated the lifespan and the mechanisms of PSPE on female Drosophila melanogaster. Supplementation of PSPE extended the lifespan by 16.3% and had a protective effect on injury by oxidative stress. PSPE treatment enha...

Marine sulfated polysaccharides (SPs) have been widely used as food stabilisers or gelling agents. Recently, accumulated evidence has been collected regarding their bioactivities, including anticoagulant, antiviral and immunoregulatory activities. This review compares the structural characteristics of SPs from algae, marine animals and marine micro...

A polysaccharide from Cordyceps sinensis (NCSP) was reported to attenuate intestinal injury and regulate the balance of T helper (Th)1/Th2 cells in immunosuppressed mice. However, whether it influences Th17 and regulatory T (Treg) cells as well as gut ecology remains unknown. In the present study, the intestinal injury mouse model was also establis...

Cordyceps sinensis is a traditional Chinese edible food with many bioactive constituents. The study aimed to explore the restorative effects of eight fractions, including the raw material. The content of bioactive constituents was measured, and their effects on intestinal restorative activities was evaluated. Results showed that all fractions decre...

This study attempted to prepare ternary conjugate emulsion from bovine serum albumin (BSA), dextran (DEX) and gallic acid (GA) to improve the stability of conjugate emulsion and the bioaccessibility of capsorubin. The release of capsorubin was further delayed by sodium alginate capsules in the intestinal phase. First, protein formed new functional...

Seed coat mucilages are mainly polysaccharides covering the outer layer of the seeds to facilitate seed hydration and germination, thereby improving seedling emergence and reducing seedling mortality. Four types of polysaccharides are found in mucilages including xylan, pectin, glucomannan, and cellulose. Recently, mucilages from flaxseed, yellow m...

Highland barley is an excellent source of dietary fiber and therefore this grain is receiving more and more popularity. The aim of this study was to improve the shelf life of highland barley by inactivating lipolytic enzyme using superheated steam (SS) with proper tempering and effects of SS processing on storage properties were compared. Results i...

Triple helix conformation of polysaccharides is generally believed to be associated with their biological activities. However, the formation mechanisms and analytical methods for the triple helix polysaccharides, to our best knowledge, have not been systematically investigated. This article reviews specifically the literature on the formation and c...

Introduction Purple sweet potato is a nutritive food rich in anthocyanins that possess antioxidant effects. Drosophila melanogaster owns short growth cycle, fast reproduction, less chromosomes, more mutants, small individuals, therefore, which is an appropriate genetic model organism. Objective To investigate the anti-aging activity of Purple Swee...

There are numerous emerging gums that have commercial potential and can be considered to have credentials as natural gums for clean labeling. This chapter focuses on recent advances of three seed coat mucilages: flaxseed gum, yellow mustard gum, and psyllium husk. Studies on their physicochemical and functional properties (rheological properties, e...

Dendronan is a new polysaccharides isolated from Dendrobium officinale (D. officinale). It has an unique structure consisting beta-1,4 d-mannosyl and beta-1,4 d-glucosyl residues in the ratio of ~ 7:1. Dendronan has been studied for its many bioactivities, including immunomodulatory activity, anti-colon cancer activity, and gut health. This chapter...

As the basic skeletal components in numerous living species, polysaccharides are the most abundant natural polymers on earth. Polysaccharides from various resources, e.g. plant, animal and microbes, shows different types of molecular structures, functional and bioactive properties. This chapter focuses on the classification, structural characteriza...

Rosemary extract (RE), a useful component isolated from Rosmarinus officinalis L., was recently reported to protect cells against the harmful effects of ROS. However, the underlying mechanisms of this action remained unknown. We investigated the defensive effect of RE on the oxidative stress injury resulted from high fat diet in hamsters and oleic...

Many pectins and their hydrolysates or derivatives present a range of biofunctional properties including anticancer, immunostimulation, anti-inflammatory, gastroprotection, antibacterial, or antiadhesive activities. The immunostimulating, antibacterial, anti-inflammatory, and prebiotic activities of pectin contribute synergistically to its anticanc...

Four soluble dietary fibers (SDFs) were fortified with corn starch (CS) at different concentrations to match the same viscosity equivalents. The mixtures were subjected to a simulated digestion procedure to study the effects of SDFs on viscosity properties and digestion kinetics of CS. Results showed that SDFs increased the hydration property and d...

Flaxseed gums (FG) previously reported were mostly isolated from hulls and seeds under a relatively low temperature, which led to an incomplete structural and functional understanding of the entire gum. In addition, the influences of processing conditions on the functional properties of FG have rarely been studied. In this study, FG was extracted b...

This work describes enzymatic synthesis and structural characterization as well as selective fermentation of the reuteransucrase-catalyzed gluco-oligomers with different types. The impact of sucrose:maltose concentration ratios (1:2, 1:1, 2:1) on the formation of acceptor-products was investigated. At low sucrose:maltose ratio, the gluco-oligomers...

We investigated the interactions of two main phenolics, rutin and quercetin, with starch, the primary component of Tartary buckwheat. The addition of rutin or quercetin significantly affected the structural and physicochemical properties of the starch, and rutin showed a stronger effect than quercetin, particularly at a dose of 6% (w/w). Rutin bett...

Glucomannans (GMs) from abundant natural resources have excellent processing properties and plentiful bioactivities. In current study, functional properties of GMs with different structural characteristics, including KGM from konjac, DOP from dendrobium, AGP40, ASP-4N, ASP-6N, & ASP-8N from aloe were determined. Results suggested that molecular wei...

The effect of fully deacetylated chitosan (FDCH) edible coating combined with kojic acid (KA) and clove essential oil (CEO) as natural preservatives was investigated on the shelf-life of white prawn shrimp (Litopenaeus vannamei) during 15 days at cold storage. The results indicated that FDCH1:KA0.25:CEO0.25 coating significantly inhibited the incre...

Yellow mustard seeds have been commercially utilized to produce condiments. Yellow mustard bran, the by-product from condiment industries, has been used in processed meat as a natural binder. Previous studies demonstrated that yellow mustard gum (YMG), which is extracted from the mucilaginous part of the bran, exhibited excellent emulsifying and st...

Background Glucomannans (GMs) are a group of hydrophilic polysaccharides, which have been produced from different parts of natural plants. Studies on plant-derived GMs contribute to wide applications of GMs or GMs-added products that have desirable quality and health characteristics. Among those popular GMs, konjac glucomannan (KGM) and acemannan a...

The novel amylopectin-based cyclic architecture was fabricated, arising from the microbial branching enzyme treated waxy rice starch. The recombinant enzyme had a molecular weight of 72.0 kDa, and exhibited optimum activity at pH 7.0 and 75 °C. During the cyclization reaction catalyzed by branching enzyme, the molecular weight of amylopectin rapidl...

Chitosan and kojic acid composite films (CHn-KAm) utilizing three chitosan with differing molecular weights and kojic acid in different ratios were investigated. Results showed that chitosan with higher molecular weights presented higher viscosity, mechanical properties and lower water vapor permeability. Furthermore, kojic acid addition further si...

A water-soluble β-D-glucan was obtained from wild Cordyceps sinensis (C. sinensis) by alkali solution and ethanol precipitation. The structure characteristics were determined using high performance anion exchange chromatography coupled with pulsed amperometric detection (HPAEC-PAD), methylation combined with gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC...

The protective effects against cyclophosphamide (CTX)-induced immunosuppression of three glucomannans from Dendrobium officinale (DOP), Aloe (ASP), and Konjac (KGM) respectively are investigated from the aspects of cellular and humoral immunity. Results showed that glucomannans enhanced the secretion of T helper type 1 (Th1) cytokines and the propo...

The present study mainly elucidated fine structural information of four O-acetyl-glucomannans (AcGMs) from Amorphophallus rivirei (konjac), A. albus, and two local types of A. bulbifer (wild type M and wild type B), which were named as KGM, AGM, MGM, and BGM, respectively. Distributions of sugar units and acetyl groups along the main chain were exa...

In recent years, there is a rising interest in the number of food products containing probiotic bacteria with favorable health benefit effects. However, the viability of probiotic bacteria is always questionable when they exposure to the harsh environment during processing, storage and gastrointestinal digestion. To overcome these problems, microen...

Polysaccharides from sunflower stalk pith (SSP) were extracted by hot water and sodium hexametaphosphate (SHMP). Chemical analyses suggested both fractions dominated in galacturonic acids with a small amount of neutral sugars, indicating their identity as pectins. The weight average molecular weight and intrinsic viscosity for water-extractable pec...

Glucomannans (GMs) from diverse natural plants have great potentiality in enhancing host immune system. Protective effects of three GMs on the intestinal mucosal immunity in colitis mice were investigated and compared in this study. The three GMs (KGM, AGP, and DOP) were achieved from Amorphophallus rivieri, Aloe vera, and Dendrobium officinale, re...

Okara is the byproduct of tofu and soymilk industries. A large amount of okara is produced annually in the world, but only a small amount is fully utilized. The effect of steam explosion (SE) treatment on dietary fiber, protein and physiochemical properties of okara was investigated in this paper. The results showed that untreated okara contained 7...

A water-soluble polysaccharide (JCP-40) from Dendrobium nobile Lindl. was extracted and purified. It was demonstrated as a single symmetrical peak based on HPSEC analysis and had an average molecular weight of 67.5 kDa. Combined with monosaccharide composition analysis, methylation analysis, 1D/2D NMR spectroscopy, the structural features of JCP-40...

BACKGROUND Muffins containing 0, 20, and 30 g of flaxseed were developed for a randomized, controlled cross‐over trial on low‐density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol lowering. The effect of milled flaxseed and storage (−20 °C for 1 and 6 months) of banana and cinnamon muffins on sensory attribute intensities, selected physical properties, bioactive c...

The structure of neutral fraction gum from flaxseed mucilage (FM-NFG) was studied for better understanding of the relationship between primary structure and conformation. Based on methylation/GC–MS, nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy, the structure of FM-NFG was proposed as arabinoxylans. Flaxseed mucilage arabinoxylans contained β-1,4-l...

This study was to identify active pectin fragments of high in vitro anti-proliferation activities against human colon adenocarcinoma Caco-2 cells, using various pectin fragment preparations dominant with rhamnogalacturonan I (RG-I), rhamnogalacturonan II (RG-II), and galacturonic acid oligomers (GAOS). The samples were prepared from citrus high and...

A bioactive polysaccharide from Ganoderma atrum (PSG-1-F0.2) was previously characterized as a hyper-branched acidic β-(1 → 3)-glucan with long β-(1 → 6)-glucose side chains. The conformational properties of PSG-1-F0.2 were systematically investigated by high performance size exclusion chromatography (HPSEC), light scattering, atomic force microsco...

β-D-glucan (GLP20) isolated from Ganoderma lucidum fruiting bodies was successfully fractionated into five fractions with different weight-average molecular weights (Mw) through ultrasonic irradiation. The Mw, radius of gyration (Rg), hydrodynamic radius (Rh) and intrinsic viscosity ([η]) of these fractions in phosphate buffered saline (PBS) aqueou...

Methylation analysis, a powerful tool for primary structure characterization, has been used for decades and is still widely used nowadays (Chandra et al. in Carbohydrate Research 344(16):2188–2194, 2009; Pereira et al in Phytochemistry 71(17–18), 2132–2139 2010; Wu et al. in Food Hydrocolloids 23(6), 1535–1541 2009). As shown in Fig. 6.1, it includ...

As a fundamental characteristic, the molecular weight and molecular weight distribution of polysaccharides are important in relation to many physical properties. Average molecular weight and polydispersity index are required to quantify the molecular weight and its distribution of the polysaccharides.

Polysaccharides are generally degraded into oligosaccharides prior to their structural characterization, while the degradation methods can be classified into two big categories, non-specific degradation and controlled specific degradation.

Monosaccharide composition analysis is critical for understanding the structure of polysaccharides, as it could provide the first clue of the structural information. For example, polysaccharides containing arabinose and xylose are mostly assigned to arabinoxylan family; polysaccharides composed of galactose and mannose mostly belong to galactomanna...

Polysaccharide molecules are constructed by long chains of monosaccharide units bound together via glycosidic linkages. Naturally occurring polysaccharides can be simply classified into four categories according to the source differences: plant polysaccharides, seaweed polysaccharides, animal polysaccharides and microbial polysaccharides (Table 1.1...

As FTIR spectrometer can simultaneously collect high-resolution data over a wide spectral range in a short time, it has been extensively used for carbohydrate analysis (Guo et al in Carbohydr Polym 86(2):831–836, 2011; Guo et al in Food Hydrocolloids 44:320–327, 2015; Kang et al in Food Hydrocolloids 25(8):1984–1990, 2011; Singthong et al in Food H...

Some polysaccharides can be collected directly from the ground endosperm of beans (guar gum) or husks (psyllium). Exudate gums such as gum arabic and gum ghatti can be picked up directly from the tree bark (Kang, Guo, Phillips, & Cui, 2014). However, most of the non-starch polysaccharides need to be extracted by water, mild base or acid solution (G...

Mass spectroscopy has been widely applied for carbohydrate analysis in terms of molecular mass, constituent monosaccharides, linkage types, sequencing of sugar residues, branching features, types of modifying groups, and the quantity.

NMR spectroscopy, as a powerful tool for carbohydrate structural analysis, could provide a complete picture of oligosaccharides structure and their behavior in solution. Structural features including linkage patterns, configuration (α- or β-), sequencing as well as the ratio of different sugar residues all could be obtained. In addition, some confo...