Austrian researchers reported that supplementation of red clover extract in postmenopausal women reduced symptoms of depression and anxiety by about 80 percent following 90 days of supplements containing 80 milligrams of red clover isoflavones.

The study authors wrote:

"Although clinical data regarding phytoestrogens and mood disorders is still scarce, the present series determined that red clover derived isoflavones were effective in reducing depressive and anxiety symptoms among postmenopausal women."

While more clinical and experimental research are still necessary, the researchers agreed on the potential of red clover isoflavones against depression and anxiety.

Daily consumption of 40 grams of dark chocolate significantly changed a person's metabolism and the metabolism of the gut microflora.

Such were the findings of scientists from the Nestlé Research Center (NRC), BASF and Berlin-based Metanomics GmbH.

"The daily consumption of dark chocolate resulted in a significant modification of the metabolism of healthy and free living human volunteers with potential long-term consequences on human health within only 2 weeks treatment.

This was observable through the reduction of levels of stress-associated hormones and normalization of the systemic stress metabolic signatures.

Therefore, subtle changes in dietary habits are likely to modulate the metabolic status of free-living individuals that might be associated with long- term health consequences, in particular via the activity of the symbiotic bacterial partners."

I surely hope this isn't another way of promoting Nestlé products.

The use of antibiotics in animal feed is strictly regulated as it has been linked to the emergence of antibiotic resistant microorganisms. This prohibition has been reported, however, to raise production costs by an estimated 3.5% to 5%.

In a new research, scientists explore the use of a natural-occurring biopolymer known as chitosan as an effective alternative to growth-promoting antibiotics in the diet of ruminants. Apart from its proven antimicrobial activity, chitosan is a viable alternative as it is biodegradable, renewable and a non-toxic compound.

...in vitro trials obtained highly promising results, based on an improvement on the energy efficiency of the rumen fermentation process with fermentations aimed at the production of propionic acid and a reduction in the production of methane during this process of up to 50%.

In vivo trials also showed when chitosan was administered directly to the animals, improvements in energy efficiency of the rumen fermentation process were also obtained as in the in vivo trials, without
affecting the digestibility of the ration.

Source

Tel Aviv researcher Prof. Michael Gurevitz is looking on ways to use scorpion venom as an alternative to the pain killer morphine.

The novel pain killer out of peptide toxins found in scorpion venom interact with sodium channels in nervous and muscular systems — and some of these sodium channels communicate pain.

According to Prof. Gurevitz:

"The mammalian body has nine different sodium channels of which only a certain subtype delivers pain to our brain. We are trying to understand how toxins in the venom interact with sodium channels at the molecular level and particularly how some of the toxins differentiate among channel subtypes.

If we figure this out, we may be able to slightly modify such toxins, making them more potent and specific for certain pain mediating sodium channels."

If everything works well, pain killers from scorpion toxins would provide novel pain killers of high specificity that have no side effects.

Moringa oleifera is a vegetable crop cultivated in many Africa, Central and South America, the Indian subcontinent, and South East Asia. In a new study, it appears that this plant is not only useful as a food source, but extracts from its seeds can also be used as a http://www.uu.se/news/news_item.php?typ=pm&id=935">flocculant in a form of low-cost water treatment.

An indigenous water treatment method uses Moringa oleifera seeds in the form of a water-soluble extract in suspension, resulting in an effective natural clarification agent for highly turbid and untreated pathogenic surface water. Efficient reduction (80.0% to 99.5%) of high turbidity produces an aesthetically clear supernatant, concurrently accompanied by 90.00% to 99.99% (1 to 4 log) bacterial reduction. Application of this low-cost Moringa oleifera protocol is recommended for simplified, point-of-use, low-risk water treatment where rural and peri-urban people living in extreme poverty are presently drinking highly turbid and microbiologically contaminated water.

The procedure is obviously not a total solution to the threat of waterborne disease, but a 90.00% to 99.99% bacterial reduction is already a big step, especially in the developing world where billions still rely on untreated surface water sources for their daily water needs. The article describing the step by step extraction and treatment procedure is free to download.