Here are some unpalatable statistics: A total of 1.8 million Americans have celiac disease and nearly as many –– 1.4 million –– don’t know they have it. And ponder this: Nearly five times as many people have celiac disease today than in the 1950s, with the rate doubling every 15 years since 1974. Adding to the problem is that the average person never even heard of this disease for decades after it was first discovered. Only in recent years has awareness risen and gluten-free diets and food become popular. Another major problem is that this autoimmune disease presents with symptoms common to other maladies –– bloating, vomiting, diarrhea or constipation, fatigue, anemia and joint pain. Despite this gloomy picture, there now is some good news for celiac patients looking for another suitable grain to use in baking bread and cakes and cookies. Sorghum, a gluten-free grain popular in Africa, Central America and South Asia is a safe food ingredient for people with celiac disease, according to scientists. They say that to date the grain mainly has been used in animal feed in the United States. Recently, however, U.S. farmers have begun producing sorghum hybrids that are a white grain, known as “food-grade” sorghum. Reporting in the ACS’ Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, Paola Pontieri and colleagues explain that the unpleasant symptoms, caused by body’s immune system attacking the digestive system, are set off by exposure to gluten, a protein composite found in such grains as wheat, rye and barley. The only treatment is avoiding breads and other foods that contain gluten. Sorghum, they note, is a welcome, alternative grain for people with celiac disease. They say that a recent analysis of the sorghum plant clearly showed that there was no evidence of any genes related to the troublesome gluten protein. And in addition to this positive finding, they noted that sorghum is a highly nutritional grain. What do you think? Would you eat a sorghum pastry? A sorghum cereal? “Sorghum, a Healthy and Gluten-Free Food for Celiac Patients As Demonstrated by Genome, Biochemical, and Immunochemical Analyses,” Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry *Journalists can request a PDF of the journal article by emailing newsroom@acs.org Credit: iStockphoto/Thinkstock Follow us: Twitter, Facebook
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'ACS in the News' publishes daily articles from newspapers, blogs and magazines about the American Chemical Society and its 38 peer-reviewed journals. Click on the links below to view the published article. Full-text articles can also be found in the attached document at the bottom of the page. Huffington Post (New York, N.Y.: 26.6 million monthly unique users) “The Secrets in Smoke” January 29, 2010 In 1854, the essayist Henry David Thoreau published an ode to a morning fire: "Light-winged Smoke, Icarian bird... Lark without song, and messenger of dawn." Scientists, of course, saw the hazing blue of wood smoke - or any smoke derived from burning plant material - as something less poetic. In particular, the smoke from dried leaves of the tobacco plant attracted serious attention from chemists by the end of the 19th century. Since then researchers have identified an astonishing 4,000-plus chemical compounds in tobacco smoke. Only a small proportion of these are hazardous, although we've learned from experience, that's more than enough. But what makes that number so interesting is that it tells us - shouts at us, really - that plant smoke is incredibly, amazingly complicated. I mean, why would nature turn a burning leaf into such an explosion of chemical notes and signals? As it turns out, a paper published this week in the American Chemical Society's Journal of Natural Products offers some real insight into that question. The study by scientists in South Africa and Europe, builds on earlier work showing that some elements in the smoke from forest fires contains materials that literally encourage seeds to propagate, to begin regrowing the forest. In fact, researchers have discovered that by creating "smoke water" - bubbling wood smoke into water - that the result will stimulate many seeds to begin sprouting. Times of India (New Delhi, India: daily circulation 3.15 million) “Indian scientists to interact with international experts” January 29, 2010 The Udai Pratap College in association with the Laser and Spectroscopy Society of India, Banaras Hindu University (BHU) will be organising a three-day international workshop on spectroscopic signatures of molecular complexes and ions in our atmosphere and beyond at the KN Uduppa auditorium, BHU from February 2-4. Talking to reporters on Friday, convener Dr Vipin Bahadur Singh said the the workshop will emphasise on the importance of the rapidly expanding area of knowledge and provide an opportunity to younger Indian scientists to interact with leading international experts. About 25 distinguished experts from India and abroad would take part in the workshop. There would be plenary talks, oral presentation and poster presentation. Among the foreign experts, Dr Leforestier from France, Dr Fusakazu Matsushima from Japan and Dr Joseph Francisco from the U.S. Sacramento Bee (Sacramento, Calif.: daily circulation 279,032) “Can We Achieve a Sustainable Future? The Role of Green Chemistry” February 1, 2010 Sustainability at its core means survivability, and green chemistry hopes to ensure that we’ll be happy, healthy, and here in the future. Dr. Robert Peoples, director of the ACS Green Chemistry Institute, leads a lively dialog about green chemistry’s role in weaning us off petroleum and tackling the challenges of global sustainability. Discovery News (Silver Spring, Md.: 3.2 million monthly unique users) “Forget Gingko: Try Blueberries for Improved Memory” January 29, 2010 There may be a simple way to ease the memory lapses and brain slips that typically accompany old age: Eat more blueberries. In a small study, older adults who drank a couple cups of blueberry juice a day improved their scores on a learning and memory task by 20 percent. Studies in animals have linked blueberries with brain function, but this is one of the first such studies in people. The results, while still preliminary, suggest that blueberries might just live up to their reputation as "superfoods." For the next 12 weeks, participants drank three glasses of blueberry juice a day, for a total of between two and two and a half cups. The exact amount they drank depended on body weight. During the last week of the study, participants took the memory tests again. Out of a possible score of 20 on the paired-words task, the average score was about 9 before the juice drinking began. Three blueberry-filled months later, average scores rose to about 13, the researchers reported in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry. That's a 20 percent improvement. United Press International (Washington D.C.: 2 million monthly unique users) “Ginkgo: Risk of seizures in epileptics” January 30, 2010 An herbal remedy may raise the risk of seizures in people with epilepsy, German researchers warn. Eckhard Leistner and Christel Drewke of Institut fur Pharmazeutische Biologie, Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universitat, say the remedy -- pills or teas from the leaves or raw or roasted seeds of Ginkgo biloba used to treat an array of maladies including Alzheimer's disease and blood vessel blockages -- contains potentially toxic ginkgotoxin that may affect a chemical signaling pathway in ways that trigger epileptic seizures. The researchers reviewed 10 studies and they say there is evidence Ginkgo can interact with anti-seizure medications and reduce their effectiveness. The review is published in the Journal of Natural Products. Charlotte News & Observer (Charlotte, N.C.: daily circulation 187,633) “Science Briefs” February 1, 2010 The platypus found in Australia is among the few mammals that produce venom. Now researchers in Japan know a little more about what makes it so painful. Using high-performance liquid chromatography and other techniques, the team Masaki Kita of the University of Tsukuba, Daisuke Uemura of the Nagoya University and colleagues analyzed venom samples and identified about a dozen peptides, small chains of amino acids that are building blocks of proteins. Their findings are in The Journal of the American Chemical Society. In earlier laboratory studies, the researchers found that crude venom caused cultured nerve cells to take up calcium ions slowly and continuously. This gave a hint as to how the venom acts, because calcium flux into nerve cells is linked to the sensation of pain. One of the peptides identified, called heptapeptide-1, was shown to increase calcium ion flux by itself. New Scientist (London, England: weekly circulation 170,000) “Nanoprinter could have cells lining up to be tested” January 31, 2010 Borrowing a trick from the office photocopier may make it possible for a nanoscale printer to precisely manipulate biological cells for use in artificial tissue… This process produces an imbalance in the quantities of positive and negative ions in the printed ink, but the team realised that by switching the polarity of the voltage, they could solve that problem and also print intricate patterns of positive or negative charge onto the substrate (Nano Letters). Science Daily (Rockville, N.J.: 3.6 million monthly unique users) “Hospital Scanner Could Curb Nuclear Waste Threat” February 1, 2010 Medical equipment used for diagnosis of patients with heart disease and cancer could be a key weapon in stopping nuclear waste seeping into the environment, according to new research. A team of scientists from the Universities of Manchester and Leeds have joined forces with experts in nuclear medicine at Manchester Royal Infirmary, using medical gamma-ray cameras to track radioactive isotopes in soil samples from a US civil nuclear site. The research was published in a special edition of the American Chemical Society journal Environmental Science and Technology. Medical News Today (U.K.: 928,500 monthly unique users) “New Computational Tool For Cancer Treatment” February 1, 2010 Many human tumors express indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase (IDO), an enzyme which mediates an immune-escape in several cancer types. Researchers in the Molecular Modeling group at the SIB Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics and Dr. Benoît J. Van den Eynde's group at the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research Ltd (LICR) Brussels Branch developed an approach for creating new IDO inhibitors by computer-assisted structure-based drug design. The study was presented in the January 2010 online issue of the Journal of Medicinal Chemistry. … From the Blogs Herbal Remedies “Dates Lower The Risks Of Heart Attack And Protect Arteries” January 27, 2010 According to the findings of a research leaded by Prof. Michael Aviram of the Technion’s Rappaport Faculty of Medicine and the Rambam Medical Center (Israel), eating 100 g of Medjool dates a day is linked to numerous wonderful health benefits which we frequently neglect. The results of this interesting study were published the last autumn in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry. Health News “Herbal remedy’s epilepsy warning” February 1, 2010 People with epilepsy should be warned that using a popular herbal remedy may increase the risk of seizures, researchers say. German scientists, writing in the Journal of Natural Products, said they had found 10 written reports of seizures linked to ginkgo biloba. They said they were convinced the herb could have a "detrimental effect."
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Plants are amazing chemical factories. They take sunlight and use it and carbon dioxide to make energy for themselves. They also make oxygen, which we breathe. But they also make substances that can help heal us. Traditional Chinese medicine, for instance, makes use of herbs that are thought to have healing properties. And some drug companies use plant substances to make medicines — the breast cancer drug tamoxifen comes from the bark of the Pacific Yew tree. Now comes word that plants could be even more useful. Researchers are reporting an advance in re-engineering photosynthesis to transform plants into solar-driven “bio-factories.” The result? The plants end up making ingredients, not only for medicines, but also for fabrics, fuels and other products, when exposed to sunlight. Poul Erik Jensen and colleagues point out that photosynthesis does more than generate oxygen and energy. It also produces a wealth of natural chemical compounds, many of which have potential uses in medicines and other commercial products. However, evolution has cordoned off those functions into separate areas of the plant’s cells. Chloroplasts, the packets of chlorophyll that make plants green, generate the energy, sugar and oxygen. Another structure, the “endoplasmic reticulum,” produces a wide range of natural chemicals. Their report describes how they moved an entire metabolic pathway needed to make natural bioactive chemicals to the chloroplast. “This opens the avenue for light-driven synthesis of a vast array of other natural chemicals in the chloroplast,” they say. In a nutshell, they could make cool compounds by just shining light on some cells. What do you think? Could this have a real impact on how we make many chemicals? Do you think this could be scaled-up easily? What are some challenges that this research could face? “Redirecting Photosynthetic Reducing Power toward Bioactive Natural Product Synthesis,” ACS Synthetic Biology *Journalists can request a PDF of the journal article by emailing newsroom@acs.org. Credit: iStockphoto/Thinkstock Follow us: Twitter, Facebook
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What would you say if someone told you that one of the best things you could eat with a nice glass of certain red wines would be a fatty burger? It wouldn’t hurt to try it with filet mignon, either, but there is something special about that burger that will probably surprise you. According to a report in ACS’ journal Langmuir, lipids (fats) in certain foods match up well with wines high in tannins (polyphenols, or antioxidants) to produce a smooth-tasting beverage. Such wines are Cabernet Sauvignon, Petite Sirah, Montepulciano, Tempranillo, Petit Verdot and Nebbiolo, all reds. This interaction is critical to the taste of the wine because the fats interfere with the tannins’ ability to mix with saliva and create a bitter taste, says Julie Géan, Ph.D., who is the study team leader. So any foods with a significant amount of lipids would work well with these high-tannin red wines. Studies have shown that tannins from red grape seeds and skins are known to play an important part in taste since they contribute to red wine astringency, a dry and rough sensation in the mouth. “Based on our study, we can assume that fats present in meat, fish and cheese could interact with tannins when you drink wine,” said Géan, who is with Université Bordeaux, Pessac, France. This study is unique because of its close examination of interactions between the tannins and the lipids and their effect on the wine taste and “feel,” she said. Researchers had studied astringency and the tannin-saliva interaction widely, but little was known about interactions between tannins and lipids and their implications for tasting wine. In addition, the influence of food on the flavor and dryness of wine is well known by consumers, but has not been examined at the molecular level, according to Géan. That is, we know that cheese goes well with a nice Petite Sirah, but we just haven’t known why –– until this study. So with what you now know, how about trying a glass of red with a double cheeseburger? Red Wine Tannins Fluidify and Precipitate Lipid Liposomes and Bicelles. A Role for Lipids in Wine Tasting? Click here for the abstract. *Journalists can request a PDF of the journal article by emailing newsroom@acs.org
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Here’s an item from this week’s PressPac that we thought you’d enjoy. The PressPac features summaries of articles appearing in our peer-reviewed journals and Chemical & Engineering News. To get the entire PressPac in your inbox, email us at newsroom@acs.org. Long stigmatized because of its “high”-inducing cousins, hemp — derived from low-hallucinogenic varieties of cannabis — is making a comeback, not just as a source of fiber for textiles, but also as a crop packed with oils that have potential health benefits. A new study, which appears in ACS’ Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, details just how many healthful compounds hempseed oil contains. Maria Angeles Fernández-Arche and colleagues note that for millennia, people around the world cultivated cannabis for textiles, medicine and food. Hemp has high levels of vitamins A, C and E and beta carotene, and it is rich in protein, carbohydrates, minerals and fiber. In the early 20 th century, many countries banned cannabis because some varieties contain large amounts of the high-inducing compound THC. And although Colorado recently legalized recreational marijuana use — and some states have passed medical marijuana laws — the drug remains illegal according to U.S. federal law. But the European Union has legalized growing low-THC versions of hemp, and it’s making its way back into fabrics and paper. With increasing interest in plant oils as a source of healthful compounds, Fernández-Arche’s team wanted to investigate hempseed oil’s potential. They did a detailed analysis of a portion of hempseed oil. They found it has a variety of interesting substances, such as sterols, aliphatic alcohols and linolenic acids, that research suggests promote good health. For example, it contains α-linolenic acid, which is an omega-3 fatty acid that some studies suggest helps prevent coronary heart disease. The findings could have implications in the pharmaceutical, cosmetic, food and non-food industries, they state. "Hemp (Cannabis sativa L.) Seed Oil: Analytical and Phytochemical Characterization of the Unsaponifiable Fraction" Click here for the abstract. *Journalists can request a PDF of the journal article by emailing newsroom@acs.org. Credit: American Chemical Society Follow us: Twitter, Facebook
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