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The rapid development of the industry has led to the destruction of the earth's ozone layer, resulting in an increasingly serious problem of excessive ultraviolet radiation. Exploring effective measures to address these problems has become a hot topic. Lignin shows promise in the design and preparation of anti-ultraviolet products due to its inherent properties. However, it is important to investigate way to enhance the reactivity of lignin and determine its application form in related products. In this study, phenolic reactions with tea polyphenols were conducted through acid-catalyzed conversion, utilizing organic solvent lignin as the primary material. The phenolic hydroxyl content of the original lignin increased significantly by 218.8 %, resulting in notable improvements in UV resistance and oxidation resistance for phenolic lignin. Additionally, micro-nanocapsule emulsions were formed using phenolic lignin particles as surfactants through ultrasonic cavitation with small-molecule sunscreens. A bio-based sunscreen was prepared with phenolated lignin micro-nanocapsules as the active ingredient, achieving an SPF 100.2 and demonstrating excellent stability. The sunscreen also exhibited strong antioxidant properties and impermeability, ensuring user safety. This research offers a current solution for improving the application of lignin in sunscreens while also broadening the potential uses of plant-based materials in advanced functional products., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Bacterial nanocellulose (BNC), a natural origin biopolymer with multi-dimensional applications has captured a great deal of attention owing to its implausible properties. However, low yield of BNC accompanied with high production cost is challenging its usage in various technological applications. In this study, BNC production has been reported utilizing fermented black tea broth brewed from fresh tea leaves (FBTB F ) as well as from used tea leaves (FBTB U ) as a cost-effective and high-quality BNC yielding medium. The symbiotic combination of bacteria and yeasts (SCOBY) was exploited here to bring fermentation in tea broth. The production yields on dry weight basis were 13.3 g L -1 in FBTB F and 12.8 g L -1 in FBTB U , obtained with 60 g L -1 of glucose in 20 days. The conversion yields of 0.32 and 0.31 g BNC/g sugar were obtained with both the tea broths. The study of produced pellicle using ATR-FTIR, FE-SEM and XRD confirmed its structural, morphological and chemical nature similar to that of BNC. Thus, fermented black tea broth appears to be a potential medium for BNC production. The use of fermented tea broth for the industrial scale production of BNC might significantly reduce its production cost., (Copyright © 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

A majority of the potential health benefits of green tea, including the potential to prevent cognitive decline, have been attributed to epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG). Sunrouge is a green tea cultivar that contains EGCG and several other bioactive components such as quercetin, myricetin, cyanidin and delphinidin. We compared the effects of Sunrouge and Yabukita, the most popular Japanese green tea cultivar, on cognitive function in the senescence-accelerated mouse Prone8. These mice were fed an experimental diet containing Sunrouge extract (SRE) or Yabukita extract (YBE). SRE feeding significantly prevented cognitive decline, whereas YBE feeding had little effect. Moreover, SRE feeding prevented elevation of the amyloid-β42 level while improving the gene expression of neprilysin and decreasing beta-site APP-cleaving enzyme 1 in the brain. These preventive effects of SRE against cognitive decline were attributed to the characteristic composition of Sunrouge and strongly suggest that consumption of this cultivar could protect against age-related cognitive decline.

Although the major green tea catechins can inhibit the activity of carbohydrate-hydrolyzing enzymes, there is a paucity of information describing the potential of other green tea ingredients and numerous green tea cultivars. Herein, we reveled that a green tea cultivar Sunrouge significantly suppressed the postprandial blood glucose level in mice. Unlike the most representative Japanese green tea cultivar, Yabukita, the suppression by Sunrouge was observed clearly during the initial period after oral dosing of starch. Sunrouge also strongly inhibited the carbohydrate-hydrolyzing enzymes α-glucosidase and α-amylase when compared with that of Yabukita and many other cultivars. Liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS)-based metabolic profiling (MP) of 42 Japanese green tea cultivars was performed. Multivariate statistical analysis enabled visualization of the differences among cultivars with respect to their ability to inhibit carbohydrate-hydrolyzing activities. Analysis of metabolites, contributing to the discrimination and prediction of the bioactivity of cultivars, showed that O-methylated catechins, epicatechin-3-O-(3-O-methyl) gallate (ECG3"Me) and epigallocatechin-3-O-(3-O-methyl) gallate (EGCG3"Me), were newly identified α-glucosidase inhibitors. Such ability was also observed in epigallocatechin-3-O-gallate (EGCG), epicatechin-3-O-gallate (ECG), delphinidin-3-O-glucoside and myricetin-3-O-glucoside. The amounts of these compounds in Sunrouge were higher than that in many other cultivars. These results suggest that Sunrouge has high potential for suppressing the elevation of the postprandial blood glucose level, and an MP approach may become a valuable strategy for evaluating the anti-hyperglycemic activity of green tea and for screening its active ingredients.

Tea polyphenols have received much attention from the pharmaceutical and food industries owing to their extraordinary antioxidant and antibacterial characteristics. However, tea polyphenols are very unstable in processing and storage, since they are sensitive to the environmental factors like temperature, light and pH. Therefore, the effective application of tea polyphenols requires a protective mechanism to maintain its activity. The utilization of compounded tea polyphenols, instead of raw materials, can potentially help to improve their stability. This review focuses on the summarization of the compounding technologies for tea polyphenols, including physical technologies, chemical-interfacial technologies and nano-scale compounding technologies. Of which, the emerging nano cellulose bio-carrier, as a promising technology, is particularly proposed., (Copyright© Bentham Science Publishers; For any queries, please email at epub@benthamscience.org.)