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This study examined the phenolic composition and the antioxidant potencies of black currant juices that had been experimentally clarified with acidic proteases and pectinases to retain the phenolics and which had been subjected to rat intestinal mucosa extract incubation to mimic gut cell mediated biotransformation of phenolics. When compared at equimolar levels of 2.5 microM gallic acid equivalents, the black currant juice samples prolonged the induction time of human low-density lipoprotein oxidation in vitro by 2.6-3.6 times, and the order of antioxidant potency of differently clarified black currant juices was centrifuged juicegelatin silica sol clarified juiceenzymatically clarified juice approximately raw juice. No immediate relationship between the, almost similar, phenolic profiles of the juice samples and their relative antioxidant activities could be established. Incubation of juices with a rat small intestine cell extract for 19 h promoted significant decreases in the contents of the anthocyanin 3-O-beta-glucosides (cyanidin 3-O-beta-glucoside and delphinidin 3-O-beta-glucoside), but did not affect the anthocyanin 3-O-beta-rutinosides (cyanidin 3-O-beta-rutinoside and delphinidin 3-O-beta-rutinoside) of the black currant juice. Black currant juice samples subjected to such intestinal cell extract incubation had approximately 30% decreased antioxidant capacity. Incubation of juices with the rat small intestine cell extracts at neutral pH appeared to decrease the levels of delphinidin glucosides more than the levels of cyanidin glucosides. The results provide an explanation for the predominant detection of anthocyanin rutinosides, and not anthocyanin glucosides, in plasma and urine in in vivo studies and provide important clues to better understand the complex mechanisms affecting dietary phenols in the gut.

Thin-layer chromatography with a flame ionization detector (TLC-FID) was used for monitoring the production of structured phospholipids (ML type: L, long-chain fatty acids; M, medium-chain fatty acids) by enzyme-catalyzed acidolysis between soybean phosphatidylcholine (PC) and caprylic acid. It was found that the structured PC fractionated into two to three distinct bands on both plate thin-layer chromatography (TLC) and Chromarod TLC. These three bands represented PC of the LL type, ML type, and MM type, respectively. The TLC-FID method was applied in the present study to examine the influence of enzyme dosage, reaction temperature, solvent amount, reaction time, and substrate ratio (caprylic acid/PC, mol/mol) on formation of ML-type PC in a batch reactor with Thermomyces lanuginosa lipase as the catalyst. The formation of ML-type PC was dependent on all parameters examined except for the substrate ratio. The ML-type PC content increased with increasing enzyme dosage, reaction temperature, solvent amount, and reaction time. The substrate ratio had no significant effect on the formation of ML-type PC within the tested range (3-15 mol/mol). The formation of MM-type PC was observed in some experiments, indicating that acyl migration is taking place during reaction since the lipase is claimed to be 1,3-specific. The TLC-FID method offers a simple and cheap technique for elucidation of product and byproduct formation during enzyme-catalyzed reactions for production of phospholipids containing mixtures of long- and medium-chain fatty acids.