Neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease, are associated with cognitive impairment and impaired brain glucose metabolism, posing significant challenges for the public health. We previously demonstrated that cyanidin 3-O-β-galactoside (Cy3Gal) from black chokeberry alleviated cognitive impairment in aging mice through regulating brain energy metabolism in a direct way. However, the indirect mechanisms in mitigating brain glucose hypometabolism remain underexplored. Here, we utilized a bilaterally intracerebroventricular injection of streptozotocin (ICV/STZ, 3 mg/kg bw)-induced brain glucose hypometabolism model to investigate the effects of Cy3Gal on cognitive impairment alleviation. Our findings revealed that Cy3Gal administration significantly improved memory deficit and cognitive impairment in ICV/STZ-administrated mice. Subsequently, Cy3Gal showed excellent abilities in inhibiting astrocyte overactivation, regulating neurotransmitters metabolism, and promoting synaptic plasticity. Furthermore, Cy3Gal enhanced brain glucose metabolism by improving glycolysis and the TCA cycle. Additionally, Cy3Gal modulated levels of gut microbiota-derived metabolites, including acetate, butyrate, histidine, glutamine, serine, valine and isoleucine, which were closely linked to brain glucose metabolism. The in vitro results further demonstrated that these metabolites played an important role in the neuron-astrocyte energy metabolism, which accounted for the alleviation of glucose hypometabolism. Overall, our findings suggest that Cy3Gal mitigates ICV/STZ-induced cognitive impairment by modulating gut microbiota-derived short-chain fatty acids and amino acids, which in turn improves brain glucose metabolism.

Unhealthy diets are associated with various diseases that can disrupt brain energy metabolism, which significantly increased the risk of cognitive impairment and chronic neurodegenerative diseases. Early intervention with nutritional supplements may have long-lasting positive effects on diet-related glucose metabolism and potentially mediate the progression of neurodegeneration in middle-aged and elderly people. We previously reported that cyanidin 3-O-β-galactoside (Cy3Gal), an anthocyanin from black chokeberry (Aronia melanocarpa (Michx.) Elliott), alleviated cognitive impairment in aging mice through regulating brain energy metabolism. However, it remains unclear whether Cy3Gal can also exert beneficial effects in mice fed with a high-fat/high-sugar diet. Here we revealed that Cy3Gal treatment conserved the health of neurons and synapses, as well as cognitive function of mice. Furthermore, we observed that Cy3Gal effectively improved glucose uptake and metabolism of skeletal muscle by enhancing glycolysis both in vivo and in vitro models, which is essential for maintaining a stable glucose supply to the brain. Additionally, Cy3Gal significantly increased the levels of glucose-derived tricarboxylic acid cycle intermediates in the mice brain (P < 0.05), and regulated the activities of mitochondrial respiratory chain complexes (P < 0.01). The positive influence on peripheral and brain bioenergetics explained how the Cy3Gal exerted neuroprotective effect. In conclusion, our study illustrated that early dietary intervention of Cy3Gal had significant advantages in terms of neuroprotection and cognition under the challenge of HFHS diet-induced glucose metabolism disorder.

In order to explore the effect of different distillation methods on the key aroma compounds of whisky, the aroma composition of base whisky produced by two different distillation methods: double distillation in pot stills and continuous distillation in tower stills, and whisky aged with oak chips was detected by headspace-solid phase microextraction (HS-SPME) coupled with gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). The characteristic aroma compounds were determined by odor activity values (OAVs), and the effect of distillation methods on the characteristic aroma of whisky was investigated by sensory evaluation. The results demonstrated that the distillation methods led to significant differences in the raw materiallike, fermented and distilled aromas of base whisky. Pot-distilled whisky retained more aroma characteristics of the raw material. The difference in fermented aroma was mainly reflected by the ethyl ester content. More medium-chain and longchain fatty acid ethyl esters were retained during pot distillation, while more short-chain fatty acid ethyl esters contributing to the fermented aroma were retained during tower distillation. The aroma differences brought about by the distillation methods affected the change of aroma compounds during subsequent aging. After aging, more fermented aroma compounds in pot-distilled whisky were lost, but the distilled aroma and the aged aroma from oak chips were more prominent. Although the aged aroma could attenuate the aroma difference between base whisky produced by different distillation methods, the effect of the distillation methods on the aroma was still evident. The choice of the appropriate distillation process is essential for the production of whisky.

In order to explore the effect of polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) membrane pervaporation technology on the concentration of freeze-dried rose hydrolat (Rosa damascene), headspace solid phase microextraction (HS-SPME) and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) were used to analyze the volatile aroma components of freeze-dried rose hydrolat, and its sensory properties and applicability were evaluated by sensory analysis. The results showed that 54 aroma components were detected in rose hydrolat, and its characteristic aroma components including phenylethyl alcohol, citronellol and geraniol accounted for more than 90% of the total, indicating great utilization value. After two osmotic concentration cycles, the rose aroma became more intense and typical, and the content of benzene ring compounds significantly increased, characterized by total odor activity value (OAV) of rose aroma substances increased by 20.47%. The sensory flavor profile analysis also showed similar results: the proportion of floral aroma intensity (M value) increased from 37% to 51%, which was consistent with the result of partial least squares regression (PLSR) validation analysis. Additionally, it was found that the aroma intensity of freeze-dried rose hydrolat obtained after secondary osmosis was similar to that of rose essence sold in the market, and still higher than that of rose soda water sold in the market after 100-fold dilution, demonstrating its potential as a flavor enhancer in daily chemicals and beverages.