Royal Project Foundation

Thermal aging is an effective strategy for improving the functional properties of fruit-based ingredients via physicochemical modifications. This research investigates the effect of thermal aging on the physicochemical, antioxidant, and Maillard conjugation properties of dried lychee pulp aged at 50, 60, 70, and 80 °C for 20 days under controlled relative humidity. Comprehensive analyses were performed, including total phenolic content (TPC), total flavonoid content (TFC), individual phenolic profiles, saccharide composition, free amino acid content, degree of glycation (DG), peptide molecular weight distribution, and antioxidant activity assessed by ABTS, DPPH, and FRAP assays. The results demonstrated that aging at moderate temperatures (60–70 °C) significantly enhanced TPC, TFC, and antioxidant activity, alongside an increased degree of glycation, peaking at approximately 47% at 70 °C. Principal component analysis (PCA) confirmed strong correlations between these compositional changes and antioxidant responses. In contrast, aging at 80 °C led to the degradation of thermolabile phenolics, sugars, and amino acids, resulting in reduced antioxidant activity compared with non-aged samples. Overall, the results highlight a temperature-dependent balance between constructive Maillard conjugation and thermal degradation, identifying 60–70 °C as an optimal aging range for improving the functional quality of dried lychee pulp. These findings provide mechanistic insight into thermal modulation of fruit bioactivity and support the potential application of controlled thermal aging in the development of value-added functional food ingredients.

Edible insect honeybee brood and natural honey are rich in proteins and saccharides, with inherent bioactive properties such as antioxidant activity. To enhance their antioxidative potential under simple thermal conditions, this research employed spontaneous aging via a moist-dried heating process, primarily driven by the Maillard reaction. Honeybee brood bio-peptides (HBb-BPs), produced through Rhizopus oligosporus fermentation, were mixed with honey in varying ratios of 70:30, 50:50, and 30:70 (%w/w). The mixtures underwent interaction under controlled conditions (60 °C for 20 days at ~75% relative humidity). A comparative analysis was performed on the mixtures before and after the thermal interaction, focusing on chemical characterization and antioxidant activity (ABTS, DPPH, and FRAP assays). Results revealed that the post-process mixtures exhibited significantly enhanced antioxidant activity, with higher honey concentrations correlating to greater antioxidative effects. Furthermore, allulose and mannose were detected after processing, while levels of fructose, glucose, and free amino acids decreased. These changes likely indicate the formation of complex compounds, molecular rearrangements, and the production of phenolic compounds that contributed to the increased antioxidative capacity. This study highlights the pivotal role of the Maillard reaction in augmenting antioxidant activity, elucidates changes in sugar–amino acid interactions, and validates the effectiveness of the moist-dried heating process. These findings provide valuable insights for potential future applications of this simple and scalable method.

Soy protein is considered to be a high-quality protein with a range of important biological functions. However, the applications of soy protein are limited due to its poor solubility and high level of allergenicity. Its peptides have been of interest because they exert the same biological functions as soy protein, but are easier to absorb, more stable and soluble, and have a lower allergenicity. Moreover, recent research found that an attachment of chemical moieties to peptides could improve their properties including their biodistribution, pharmacokinetic, and biological activities with lower toxicity. This study therefore aimed to acquire scientific evidence to support the further application and safe use of the soybean oligopeptide (OT) conjugated with allulose (OT-AL) or D-mannose (OT-Man). The anti-inflammation, cytotoxicity, and genotoxicity of OT, OT-AL, and OT-Man were investigated. The results showed that OT, AL, Man, OT-AL, and OT-Man at doses of up to 1000 µg/mL were not toxic to HepG2 (liver cancer cells), HEK293 (kidney cells), LX-2 (hepatic stellate cells), and pre- and mature-3T3-L1 (fibroblasts and adipocytes, respectively), while slightly delaying the proliferation of RAW 264.7 cells (macrophages) at high doses. In addition, the oligopeptides at up to 800 µg/mL were not toxic to isolated human peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) and did not induce hemolysis in human red blood cells (RBCs). OT-Man (200 and 400 µg/mL), but not OT, AL, Man, and OT-AL, significantly reduced the production of NO and the expression of inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) and cyclooxygenase-2 (COX2) stimulated by lipopolysaccharide (LPS) in RAW 264.7 cells, suggesting that the mannose conjugation of soy peptide had an inhibitory effect against LPS-stimulated inflammation. In addition, the secretion of interleukin-6 (IL-6) stimulated by LPS was significantly reduced by OT-AL (200 and 400 µg/mL) and OT-Man (400 µg/mL). The tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) level was significantly decreased by OT (400 µg/mL), AL (400 µg/mL), OT-AL (200 µg/mL), and OT-Man (200 and 400 µg/mL) in the LPS-stimulated cells. The conjugation of the peptides with either AL or Man is likely to be enhance the anti-inflammation ability to inhibit the secretion of cytokines. As OT-Man exhibited a high potential to inhibit LPS-induced inflammation in macrophages, its mutagenicity ability was then assessed in bacteria and Drosophila. These findings showed that OT-Man did not trigger DNA mutations and was genome-safe. This study provides possible insights into the health advantages and safe use of conjugated soybean peptides.

The vector-transmitted Citrus Greening (CG) disease, also called Huanglongbing, is one of the most destructive diseases of citrus. Since no measures for directly controlling this disease are available at present, current disease management integrates several measures, such as vector control, the use of disease-free trees, the removal of diseased trees, etc. The most essential issue in integrated management is how CG-infected trees can be detected efficiently. For CG detection, digital image analyses using deep learning algorithms have attracted much interest from both researchers and growers. Models using transfer learning with the Faster R-CNN architecture were constructed and compared with two pre-trained Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) models, VGGNet and ResNet. Their efficiency was examined by integrating their feature extraction capabilities into the Convolution Block Attention Module (CBAM) to create VGGNet+CBAM and ResNet+CBAM variants. ResNet models performed best. Moreover, the integration of CBAM notably improved CG disease detection precision and the overall performance of the models. Efficient models with transfer learning using Faster R-CNN were loaded on web applications to facilitate access for real-time diagnosis by farmers via the deployment of in-field images. The practical ability of the applications to detect CG disease is discussed.

β-Thalassemia is characterized by ineffective erythropoiesis leading to chronic anemia. Thus, increased iron absorption from the duodenum and via blood transfusions is required to maintain normal blood hemoglobin (Hb) levels and iron chelators in the removal of excessive iron. Certain agents are also needed for the improvement of stress erythropoiesis and iron dysregulation. Green tea extract (GTE), which is rich in epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG), is known to possess radical scavenging and iron-chelating activities. We aimed to assess the effects of green tea extract on erythroid regulators, iron mobilization and anti-lipid peroxidation in the liver, spleen, and kidneys of iron-loaded β-globin gene knockout thalassemic (BKO) mice. Our results indicate that treatments of green tea extract and/or deferiprone (DFP) diminished levels of plasma erythropoietin (EPO) and erythroferrone (ERFE), and consistently suppressed kidney Epo and spleen Erfe mRNA expressions (p < .05) in iron- loaded BKO mice when compared with untreated mice. Coincidently, the treatments decreased plasma ferritin (Ft) levels, iron content levels in the liver (p < .05), spleen (p < .05), and kidney tissues of iron-loaded BKO mice. Furthermore, lipid-peroxidation products in the tissues and plasma were also decreased when compared with untreated mice. This is the first evidence of the orchestral role of green tea extract abundant with epigallocatechin-3-gallate in improving ineffective erythropoiesis, iron dysregulation and oxidative stress in iron-overloaded β-thalassemic mice.

Abstract Chrysanthemum chlorotic mottle viroid (CChMVd) and chrysanthemum stunt viroid (CSVd) are limiting factors for chrysanthemum cultivation and cause economic losses throughout the world. Chrysanthemum leaves were collected from Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai provinces of Thailand during 2019–2021. Both viroids were detected by using reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT‐PCR) and molecularly characterized. Six CChMVd and five CSVd amplicons were detected, cloned and sequenced. BLAST analysis revealed that CChMVd shared 93%–99% identical and CSVd shared 95%–99% identical with the representative species retrieved from GenBank, Moreover, the nucleotides at the position 82–85 of the tetraloop region were keys for CChMVd clusters resulting to the distinct clade of either symptomatic or non‐symptomatic strains. The phylogenetic analysis of individual viroid represented that six CChMVd variants were closely related to Korea and China variants and clustered in the symptomatic clade of the Asia cluster. For CSVd, five variants in the present study were grouped with CSVd from Dahlia spp. of Japan. Predicted secondary structure of both viroids showed the distribution of sequence variations. The predicted secondary structure showed sequence variants of CChMVd were distributed on most of the secondary structure, whereas sequence variants of CSVd were frequently found in pathogenic, variable and terminal right domains. This study provides phylogenetic relationship of CChMVd and CSVd Thai variants along with their sequence variability.

Abstract The Royal Project Foundation has focused on different non-profit activities in Thailand. One of the foundation’s focus areas is social development, which includes population structure, drug problems, educational development, and community organization. As a result, social data has been collected using a variety of data sources and forms. Thus, this paper has studied a data service platform’s case study of the Royal Project Foundation’s social and community information to understand and identify the organization’s needs. Our research focuses on gathering requirements, designing, and implementing data collection systems. In the data collection and data quality process, a web-based electronic data collection and data management platform, REDCap, is used to determine the scope, detailed business requirements, stakeholder identification, and constraints.

The optimum crude protein (CP) and metabolizable energy (ME) levels were determined in a Bresse capon diet. In each trial, 120 Bresse cockerels aged 4 wk were castrated using the laparoscopic vacuum testectomy technique and allotted to four dietary groups according to a 2 2 factorial complete randomized design. Trial 1 (age 5-10 wk) consisting of a high CP diet (21%) promoted significantly higher final body weight (FBW), body weight gain (BWG), average daily gain (ADG), CP and ME intake with a better feed conversion ratio (FCR) than a low CP diet (19%), while a high ME diet (3.3 kcal ME/g) resulted in significantly lower feed intake (FI) and CP intake but promoted better FCR than a low ME diet (3.0 kcal ME/g). There was no interaction between the CP and ME levels for all parameters (p > 0.05). Trial 2 (age 11-13 wk) resulted in the high CP diet (19%) promoting significantly (p < 0.05) better FBW, BWG, FCR, ADG, CP intake, percentage of carcass, breast, thigh, liver, drumstick and breast moisture content than the low CP diet (17%). In contrast, the low ME diet (3.0 kcal/g) significantly (p < 0.05) provided higher FI, FBW, thigh moisture and fat, BWG, ADG, CP intake, breast moisture content and fat but lower abdominal fat, thigh meat and breast shear force than the high ME diet (3.3 kcal/g). There were interactions between the main factors on FI, FCR, ME intake and thigh meat. In conclusion, the optimum diet for Bresse capon aged 5-10 wk should contain 21% CP with 3.3 kcal ME/g and for age 11-13 wk should contain 19% CP with 3.0 kcal ME/g to achieve the best performance of the tested parameters.

The prevalence of Brugia malayi was surveyed in three highly endemic provinces in southern Thailand as part of an ongoing evaluation of the effectiveness of two rounds of mass drug administration (MDA). Prior to MDA IV, and thereafter every 6 months up to 18 months, including MDA V at 12 months, nocturnal blood sampling was assayed for microfilaria (mf) and IgG4 antibodies in 200 subjects from Nakorn Srithammarat and Surathani provinces. From an additional 300 subjects from Narathiwatt province, daytime blood was also examined for IgG4 antibodies for 1 year. Subjects who tested positive, with reciprocal IgG4 titres above 100, were dichotomized in the 'good compliant' or 'uncertain compliant' groups. Stool samples were examined for intestinal parasites from all 500 subjects simultaneously. Only two subjects (1%) tested positive for mf, while 98 subjects (19.6% of 500) tested positive for IgG4. In general, the good drug-compliant subjects were less likely to exhibit the IgG4 response than subjects in the uncertain compliant group. Only six subjects (1.2%) exhibited lymphoedema while 68 subjects (13.6%) had a total of 105 parasitic infections, with female instances of protozoan infections exceeding male instances of helminth infections. It was concluded that the two MDA rounds were highly successful in not only in reducing mf to negligible levels but also in lowering antifilarial IgG4 titres in the good compliant subjects. The IgG4 assay is a sensitive and cost-effective surveillance tool for the early detection of brugian infections that is not contingent on nocturnal blood collections.