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Excessive nitrogen (N) use in agriculture, industry, and household waste leads to widespread N release throughout the environment, causing eutrophication in both freshwater and coastal areas. To better understand N-induced eutrophication and other N-use-related environmental impacts at the local scale, improvements in the spatial resolution of life cycle impact assessment measures are required. Here, we present a method to estimate gridded fate factors (FFs) at a half-degree resolution based on the Integrated Model to Assess the Global Environment-Global Nutrient Model to provide eutrophication indicators for global N-related manufacture, trade, and consumption in life cycle assessment. Across global freshwater systems, our cumulative FFs have a 5th percentile of 0.9 days and a 95th percentile of 184.0 days. Aggregated FFs for administrative units range from 0.3 days to 211.9 days. The hotspots of cumulative FFs are mainly distributed upstream of large reservoirs or lakes. On a global level, advection is the dominant process controlling the FF (69.7% of areas), followed by retention (29.0%), and water consumption (1.3%). N retention dominates in advection-favoring, high-discharge regions due to the high residence times, while water consumption tends to dominate water-scarce zones. The results demonstrate the importance of gridded information to assess eutrophication impacts, as it characterizes N emissions from anthropogenic sources at high spatial resolution in comparison to basin- or country-level assessments. Introducing soil–freshwater N fate complements existing P-related fates to improve global assessments of eutrophication. This article met the requirements for a Gold–Gold Badge JIE data openness badge described at http://jie.click/badges.

Neonicotinoids are the most widely used insecticides worldwide, but there is mounting evidence demonstrating that they have adverse effects on nontarget organisms. However, little is known about the extent of environmental neonicotinoids contamination in China. In this study, a total of 693 honey samples from across China, from both Apis melifera and Apis cerana, were analyzed to examine neonicotinoid concentrations and their geographical distribution, and correlation with the primary plant species from which the honey was obtained. Furthermore, chronic and acute exposure risk and risk ranking for humans eating honey were investigated, and risks to bees were also considered. The results revealed that 40.8% of the samples contained at least one of the five neonicotinoids tested. Honeys from commercial crops were found to be more frequently contaminated with neonicotinoids than those from noncommercial crops. Honey samples from Apis mellifera were more frequently contaminated than those from Apis cerana. The concentrations of neonicotinoids found in honey overlapped with those that have been found to have significant adverse effects on honeybee health. The dietary risk assessments indicated that the levels of neonicotinoids detected in honey were likely to be safe for human consumption.

Brown macroalgae are an important source of polyphenols with multiple health functions. In this work, polyphenol extracts from Lessonia trabeculate were purified and investigated for the antidiabetic activity in vitro and in vivo. The purified polyphenol extracts exhibited good antioxidant activities, α-glucosidase and lipase inhibition activities (IC50 < 0.25 mg/mL). The HPLC-DAD-ESI-MS/MS analysis indicated that the compounds in polyphenol extracts were mainly phlorotannin derivatives, phenolic acid derivatives, and gallocatechin derivatives. In vivo, C57BL/6J rats treated with polyphenol extracts for 4 weeks had lower fasting blood glucose levels, insulin levels, as well as better serum lipid profiles and antioxidant stress parameters, compared with the diabetic control (DC) group. Histopathology revealed that polyphenol extracts preserved the architecture and function of the liver. Short-chain fatty acid contents in rats' fecal samples with polyphenols administration were significantly recovered as compared with the DC group. Furthermore, the gut microflora of rats was investigated with high-throughput 16S rRNA gene sequencing and results indicated that polyphenol extracts had a positive effect on regulating the dysbiosis of the microbial ecology in diabetic rats. All of the results from the study provided a scientific reference of the potentially beneficial effects of L. trabeculate polyphenols on diabetes management.

Apocynum venetum has a long history as a Chinese traditional tea. As one of the major components, polysaccharides from Apocynum venetum leaves were extracted with acid (HCl), distilled water and alkaline (NaOH) to study the effect of the extraction solvents on their chemical composition and biological activities in this work. Monosaccharide composition revealed that polysaccharides from acidic and distilled water extraction were pectic polysaccharides, while those from alkaline extraction consisted of pectin and hemicellulose. Chemical analysis and FT-IR spectra indicated the co-extraction of protein and polyphenol contents in alkaline extracted polysaccharides, which exhibited strongest antioxidant and digestive enzyme inhibition activities. The antioxidant capacities were 185.26–286.30 mg TE/g for DPPH radical scavenging, 409.06–502.00 mg TE/g for ABTS radical scavenging, and 152.12–260.70 mg TE/g sample for reducing power assay, respectively. The lowest IC50 for α-glucosidase and lipase inhibition activities were 16.75 μg/mL and 820 μg/mL, respectively. Further purification of alkaline extracts was carried out and characterized. The results showed that acid hydrolysis could successfully reduce polyphenol and protein contents, and purified polysaccharides showed even higher antioxidant activities and α-glucosidase inhibition activity. These results provide a scientific support for functional application and extraction of polysaccharides from Apocynum venetum leaves.

Sword-leaf dogbane (Apocynum venetum) is a traditional Chinese herb with increasingly recognized potential to enhance health, but no study of stable reference genes in this herb has been reported. Based on a homologous cloning strategy, we have successfully cloned five candidate reference genes from sword-leaf dogbane: glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (AvGAPDH), beta tubulin (AvbTUB), polyubiquitin (AvUBQ), elongation factor 1-alpha (AvEF1α), and actin (AvACTIN). Three distinct algorithms, geNorm, NormFinder, and BestKeeper, were used to estimate the expression stability of candidate reference primer pairs. We found that AvACTIN-2 and AvACTIN-3 presented the highest stability of expression in different tissue samples, and AvGAPDH-2 was most stable under salinity stress. In addition, we illustrated the application of these new reference genes by assaying the expression levels of two hyperoside biosynthesis terminal enzyme genes, flavonoid 3′-hydroxylase (F3′H) and flavonol synthase (FLS), under salinity stress. Our study is the first to report stable expression of internal reference genes in sword-leaf dogbane in multiple experimental sample sets.