Aya Samy Eweys Khalil

The effect of fermentation by Saccharomyces cerevisiae on biological properties of cinnamon (Cinnamomum cassia) was investigated. The study demonstrated that the extract of S. cerevisiae-fermented cinnamon (S.C.FC) has antioxidants higher than non-fermented one. The optimum results for antioxidant yield were noted with 10 CFU S. cerevisiae/10 g cinnamon and 70 mL of dHO at pH 6 and incubated for 3 d at 35 °C. Under optimum conditions, ABTS, DPPH, and HO radical-scavenging activity increased by 43.8, 61.5, and 71.9%, respectively. Additionally, the total phenols and flavonoids in S.C.FC were increased by 81.3 and 415% compared by non-fermented one. The fermented cinnamon had antimicrobial activity against L. monocytogenes, S. aureus, E. coli, S. typhi, and C. albicans. Also, the anti-inflammatory properties were increased from 89 to 92% after fermentation. The lyophilized extract of S.C.FC showed positive effect against Huh7 cancer cells which decreased by 31% at the concentration of 700 µg/mL. According to HPLC analysis, p-hydroxybenzoic acid, gentisic acid, catechin, chlorogenic acid, caffeic acid, and syringic acid were increased by 116, 33.2, 59.6, 50.6, 1.6, and 16.9%, respectively. Our findings suggest the applicability of cinnamon fermentation using S. cerevisiae as a useful tool for processing functional foods to increase their antioxidant and anti-inflammatory content.

Cinnamaldehyde is an excellent natural antioxidant with high antioxidant activity, but its function in food or human digestive tract under acidic conditions remains to be studied. The effects of cinnamaldehyde in the presence of lactic acid on oxidative stress of Caenorhabditis elegans and the underlying molecular mechanisms were investigated in the present study. Results showed that cinnamaldehyde with or without lactic acid exhibited good antioxidant ability, represented by high SOD and CAT activities in C. elegans, while lactic acid exerted no effect on the antioxidant enzymes. Trace elements, like Cu, Fe, or Se, are important for the activities of antioxidant enzymes. Data of metal elements analysis revealed that cinnamaldehyde made big differences on the levels of Mn, Cu, Se of worms compared with single lactic acid treatment. Moreover, mechanistic study suggested that in the presence of lactic acid, cinnamaldehyde could enhance the expressions of akt-2, age-1 to increase the antioxidant activities. In addition, we found that lactic acid was able to change the metabolic profile of cinnamaldehyde in C. elegans, characterized by nucleosides and amino acids, which were involved in the purine metabolism, the biosynthesis, and metabolism of some amino acids, etc. This study provides a theoretical basis for further revealing the functional activity and mechanism of cinnamaldehyde under acidic conditions.

This study designed to investigate effect of fermentation by on antioxidant and anticancer properties of aqueous solution. The optimum condition to produce high antioxidant activity was 10 CFU /10 g cinnamon at pH6 after 3 days of incubation at 35 °C. Fermented cinnamon showed an increase in ABTS, DPPH and HO by 24.63, 58.31 and 60.27%, respectively over the control. Also, the total phenolic and flavonoid contents were increased, 8.15 to 11.40 mg GAE/g and 0.43 to 2.61 mg QE/g, respectively. The gallic acid, p-hydroxybenzoic acid, catechin and chlorogenic acid were increased by 37, 404, 11 and 98%, respectively. Also, anticancer activity was developed after fermentation. The increased antioxidant activity of fermented cinnamon could be attributed to the increase of some phenolics and flavonoids. Hence, cinnamon fermentation using L. is able to enhance its antioxidant and anticancer activities without producing toxic substances.