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Quercetin is a plant-derived flavonoid, popularly used as a nutritional supplement . Clinical studies reveal that it holds many anti-inflammatory as well as antioxidant properties and thus is known to have a vast range of health benefits.

When experimented with mice, it was found that quercetin increased energy expenditure in them, but for short intervals only. Thus it came to be deduced that exercise tolerance in mice for affected by quercetin as it lead to increased mitochondrial biogenesis.

Health Benefits :

A grape is a non- climacteric berry , belonging to the genus Vitis. It is mainly found growing on the perennial and deciduous woody vines in groups of 6 to 300. This fruit is found in varied colors such as dark blue, yellow, crimson, black, green, pink and white. ‘White' grapes are mainly green in color but are too light to differentiate at times. They are a product of the evolution of the purple grape.

Malpighia emarginata is a tropical shrub belonging to the Malpighiaceae family. It is commonly also referred to as Acerola , Wild Crapemyrtle Barbados Cherry and West Indian Cherry . It is a small evergreen tree with branches spread across a short trunk . It usually grows up to a height of 6.6–9.8 ft but sometimes reaches to 20 ft. The leaves are 2–8 cm long and ovate-lanceolate in shape with short petioles . Their arrangement is opposite , elliptic-lanceolate margins undulating with sides in the top dark green and glossy.

Protease is also known under alternative names, peptidase and proteinase . They are primarily enzyme s involved in the process of proteolysis causing the catabolism of protein through the hydrolysis of the peptide bonds , linking amino acids forming a polypeptide chain of proteins. They function best under acidic conditions except alkaline proteases which are less compatible in acidic environs. Proteases are broadly classified under six major heads as follows:

•  Aspartate proteases

•  Metalloproteases

•  Serine proteases

Polygonum cuspidatum, also referred to as Japanese Knotweed and Reynoutria japonica is a large, herbaceous plant , perennial in nature. Japan , China and Korea are its native countries. It belongs to the family Polygonaceae , and consists of hollow stems with distinctly raised nodes which makes it look like a bamboo. The plants of these species are much smaller, though the stems might sometime reach a height of 3–4 m each in the growing season. Its leaves are broad and oval in shape with a truncated base upto14 cm long.

Papain is essentially a cysteine protease enzyme ( EC 3.4.22.2 ) found in papaya . They contain amino acids which are stabilized by three disulfide bridges . In their 3D structure, two distinct structural domains can be seen with a cleft between each. The active site is contained by the cleft which in turn consists of a catalytic triad that likened to chymotrypsin . This catalytic triad is formed of 3 amino acids - cysteine-25, histidine-159, and asparagine-158.

Function :

Oats are Angiosperms belonging to the order-poales, family-poaceae and genus-avena and known under the binomial name, Avena Sativa. Oats are mainly grown in the temperate zones as they require low summer heat and greater tolerance of rain . Oats are perenial plant s, and are often planted in autumn for late summer harvest. They are also grown in the spring for early autumn harvest. A. byzantina is considered to be the wild ancestor of Avena sativa and is a hexaploid .

E ssentially a water- soluble enzyme , Lipase catalyzes the hydrolysis reaction taking place in the ester bonds of water–insoluble, lipid substrates. They are classified under the subclass, esterases . Lipase is an important enzyme as it aids in the digestion process along with the transport as well as processing of dietary lipids - particularly the. triglycerides , fats and oils in most living beings. Some g enes encoding lipases are also found in few viruses. Researches reveal that there are many types distinctive lipase enzymes found in nature.

Lactase or LCT forms a part of the β-galactosidase family of enzymes . It is a glycoside hydrolase , primarily responsible for the hydrolysis reaction of the disaccharide lactose into galactose and glucose monomers . Lactase enzymes are mainly found along the border membrane s of differentiated enterocyte lining the villi of the small intestine in the human body. The human body encodes the lactase enzyme by LCT gene . The temperature optimum for lactase activity to take place is about 25 °C.

Uses & Benefits :

Lactobacillus bulgaricus comes from the class of Bacilli, order Lactobacillales, family Lactobacillus of the division Firmicutes. A non-motile organism Lactobacillus bulgaricus is extremely helpful for people suffering from lactose intolerance.

Health benefits

Prevention against colon cancer: Certain strains of L. Bulgaricus have been found to contain anti-mutagenic effects because of their tendency to bind with hetertocyclic amines.