Blackcurrant, blueberry, and muscadine grape juices were efficiently sorbed, concentrated, and stabilized into dry granular ingredient matrices which combined anti-inflammatory and antioxidant fruit polyphenols with sweet potato functional constituents (carotenoids, vitamins, polyphenols, fibers). Total phenolics were highest in blackcurrant-orange sweet potato ingredient matrices (34.03 mg/g),...

Our overall objective is to identify genes from cDNA libraries of either grape or heterologous plants that, when up regulated in grape, will disrupt infection, spread or symptom development by the xylem-limited bacteria, Xylella fastidiosa (Xf). Hence, we are interested in the effect of the genetic disruption of Pierce’s disease (PD) symptoms on the movement or establishment of the bacterium in...

Micropropagated plantlets derived from three different grape rootstock genotypes namely, Dogridge (Vitis champini), SO4 (V. berlandieri×V. rupestris) and ARI-H-144 (V. vinifera×V. labrusca) were subjected to randomly amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) and inter simple sequence repeats (ISSR) analyses in order to evaluate their genetic stability and/or detect likely existing variations among in vi...

BACKGROUND Postprandial hyperglycemia is an early defect of type 2 diabetes and one of primary anti-diabetic targets. Treatment of postprandial hyperglycemia can be achieved by inhibiting intestinal α-glucosidase, the key enzyme for oligosaccharide digestion and further glucose absorption. Grape pomace is winemaking byproduct rich in bioactive food compounds such as phenolic antioxidants. This ...

The aims of this study were to investigate the effects of hesperidin, a citrus flavonoid, on human root dentin demineralization and collagen preservation, and compare it with chlorhexidine and grape seed extract. Specimens were assigned to different treatment groups: hesperidin, chlorhexidine and grape seed extract. Specimens were subjected to pH cycling by demineralization for 14 h, incubation...

Monoterpenoids are a diverse class of natural products and contribute to the important varietal aroma of certain Vitis vinifera grape cultivars. Among the typical monoterpenoids, linalool exists in almost all grape varieties. A gene coding for a nerolidol/linalool (NES/LINS) synthase was evaluated in the role of linalool biosynthesis in grape berries. Enzyme activity assay of this recombinant p...

During grape berry (Vitis vinifera L.) ripening, sucrose transported from the leaves is accumulated in the berry vacuoles as glucose and fructose. To study the involvement of invertase in grape berry ripening, we have cloned two cDNAs (GIN1 and GIN2) from berries. The cDNAs encode translation products that are 62% identical to each other and both appear to be vacuolar forms of invertase. Both g...

We used differential screening to isolate ripening-associated cDNAs from a Shiraz grape (Vitis vinifera L.) berry cDNA library. A rapid increase in the mRNA levels of a number of cDNAs not present in unripe fruit occurred in grape berries at the onset of ripening. The putative translation products of some of these clones had homologs in other species that are involved in cell wall structure. Th...

Terpenoids represent one of the major classes of natural products and serve different biological functions. In grape (Vitis vinifera), a large fraction of these compounds is present as nonvolatile terpene glycosides. We have extracted putative glycosyltransferase (GT) sequences from the grape genome database that show similarity to Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) GTs whose encoded proteins g...

Many plants, including some of the commonly consumed herbs and spices in our daily food, can be safely and effectively used to prevent and/or treat some health concerns. For example, caffeine the active ingredient found in coffee beans (Coffea), shows biological activity in the treatment of the central nervous system (CNS) disorders, indole-3-carbinol, and 3,3'-diindolylmethane are both broccol...