Lycii Fructus was used as natural products with therapeutic properties for a long time. Betaine is a natural amino acid and one of the major constituents of Lycii Fructus. It is reported that this fruit plays a role in reducing blood levels of homocysteine, a toxic byproduct of the amino acid metabolism. This study was used to establish infra based on oriental medicine through the analysis of c...

Alterations in dopaminergic circuitry play a critical role in food reward and may contribute to susceptibility to obesity. Ingestion of sweets releases dopamine in striatum, and both sweet preferences and striatal D2 receptors (D2R) decline with age and may be altered in obesity. Understanding the relationships between these variables and the impact of obesity on these relationships may reveal ...

The aim of the study was to investigate the representation of taste in human prefrontal cortex (PFC), in particular, to compare the representation of a pleasant and an aversive taste using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS), so as to obtain further understanding of the taste preference mechanism. The pleasant stimulus used was sweet taste (10% sucrose), and the unpleasant stimulus wa...

Despite distinct peripheral and central pathways, stimulation of both the olfactory and the gustatory systems may give rise to the sensation of sweetness. Whether there is a common central mechanism producing sweet quality sensations or two discrete mechanisms associated independently with gustatory and olfactory stimuli is currently unknown. Here we used fMRI to determine whether odor sweetnes...

Sweetness, a creamy texture and aroma, along with desirable kernel color, good germination, and high yield, are the important traits for sweet corn. Various recessive mutants in corn expressed in the endosperm e.g. sugary1 (su1), sugary enhancer (se), shrunken2 (sh2), brittle1 (bt) etc., which improve quality traits such as sweetness, flavor and nutritive value have been used either singly or i...