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Camellia kucha, a wild tea plant with potent antioxidant potential, has been consumed as local beverage for a long history. It is featured for the presence of theacrine and low content of caffeine. Interestingly, compared with caffeine showed strong stimulant effect, theacrine showed sedation, hypnoses and promoting memory function. In this study, the anti-adipogenic ability of Kucha tea ( KT) and its main components were evaluated in mouse 3T3-L1 cells. The results indicated that KT acted significantly to decrease lipid droplet accumulation. Moreover, KT decreased the expression of major transcription factors of adipogenesis pathway, such as PPAR γ and C/ EBP α. KT also decreased the mRNA and protein levels of fatty acid synthase, fatty acid translocase, steroylcoenzyme A desaturase-1, lipoprotein lipase and acetyl-CoA carboxylase-1. Furthermore, KT suppressed the activation of ERK, p38 and JNK. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Amorphous selenium (a-Se) film is a promising photoconductive material for X-ray flat-panel detectors (FPD) application. However, a-Se tends to be crystalline Se at near room temperature. This remarkable temperature sensitivity limits its practical application. To prevent the near-room-temperature crystallization of a-Se film, we fabricate antimony (Sb)-doped a-Se films using a vacuum evaporation technique equipped with an in situ cooling trap. We experimentally demonstrate that the Sb doping improves the thermal stability of a-Se film while possessing a similar X-ray photoelectric conversion efficiency as the pure a-Se film. After air annealing at 50 °C for 90 min, the X-ray diffraction (XRD) results of the 4.1 at.% Sb-doped a-Se film shows no detectable crystallization diffraction peak. Upon applying an electric field of 10 V µm−1, such Sb-doped a-Se film exhibits dark current density below 1 nA cm−2, while under an X-ray dosage of about 4 mGy, the annealed Sb-doped a-Se film shows a photocurrent density of more than 100 nA cm−2. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Shepherd's purse ( Capsella bursa-pastoris (L.) Medik.), a wild herb as a traditional herbal medicine, has been proved with multiple healthy benefits. In this study, the chemical constituents of shepherd's purse were identified by UPLC-QTOF-MS/MS. The antioxidative and anti-inflammatory potential of shepherd's purse extract (SPE) were also investigated applying lipopolysaccharide- (LPS-) induced inflammation in RAW 264.7 macrophages and a carrageenan-induced mice paw edema model. Twenty-four chemical compounds were identified mainly including phenolic acids and flavonoids. The data also indicated SPE inhibited the productions of NO, PGE 2 , TNF- α , and IL-6 stimulated with LPS. In addition, SPE inhibited the increase of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and upregulated the expression of heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1). We further found that SPE inhibited the phosphorylation of P38 MAPK and activation of NF- κ B. In vivo mice model also indicated that SPE showed strong antioxidative and anti-inflammatory activity.