Furfural health benefit and research review, what are its uses?

Furfural is an industrial chemical derived from a agricultural byproducts, including oat and wheat bran, corncobs, and sawdust. The name furfural comes from the Latin word furfur, meaning bran, referring to its common source.

Acerola cherry flavor
Volatile components have been isolated from acerola fruit. One hundred fifty constituents have been identified in the aroma concentrate, from which furfural, hexadecanoic acid, 3-methyl-3-butenol, and limonene are the major constituents.

Studies
Influence of furfural concentration on growth and ethanol yield of Saccharomyces kluyveri.
J Environ Sci (China). 2007;19(12):1528-32. College of Resources and Environment, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100094, China.
Furfural is an important inhibitor in ethanol fermentation process using lignocellulosic hydrolysates as raw materials. In order to find out the furfural concentration range in which furfural inhibits the fermentation process, we used one strain Saccharomyces kluyveri selected from soil and cultured in several different furfural content media under low glucose concentration condition. Experiment results showed that microorganism growth was stimulated and dry cell weight decreased when furfural concentration in the medium was 0.25 mg/ml. Furfural had negative effect on cell growth when its concentration was above 1.00 mg/ml. At the same time, the strain grew better and had a higher glucose consumption rate in 5% original glucose concentration condition than in 3% original glucose concentration condition. The results showed that appropriate exaltation of original glucose concentration in stalk hydrolysates will increase the strain resistance to furfural.

Temporal quantitative proteomics of Saccharomyces cerevisiae in response to a nonlethal concentration of furfural.
Proteomics. 2009 Dec; Key Laboratory of Systems Bioengineering, Ministry of Education and Department of Pharmaceutical Engineering, School of Chemical Engineering and Technology, Tianjin University, Tianjin, PR China.
Furfural, one of the main inhibitory compounds in lignocellulosic hydrolytes, inhibits the growth and ethanol production rate of yeast. To get a global view of the dynamic expression pattern of proteins in Saccharomyces cerevisiae during the fermentation with the introduction of 8 g/L furfural, the protein samples were taken before the addition of furfural, during the initial phase of furfural conversion and immediately after the conversion of furfural for comparative proteomic analysis with iTRAQ on a LC-ESI-MS/MS instrument. A comparison of the temporal expression pattern of 107 proteins related to protein synthesis between the reference cultures and the furfural-treated cultures showed that a temporal downregulation of these proteins was retarded after the addition of furfural. The expression levels of 20 enzymes in glucose fermentation and 5 enzymes in the tricarboxylic acid cycle were reduced by furfural, with notably delayed temporal downregulations of Glk1p, Tdh1p, Eno1p and Aco1p, which is correlated to the reduced ethanol formation rate and glucose consumption rate by 66.7 and 60.4%, respectively. In the presence of furfural, proteins catalyzing the upper part of the super pathway of sulfur amino acid biosynthesis were repressed at all time points, which is related to the inhibited growth of furfural-treated yeast. The expressions of 18 proteins related to stress response showed increased trends, including several highly induced heat shock proteins and proteins related to cellular signaling pathways.

Contact allergy to furazolidone
Contact Dermatitis. 1990 Apr;  de Groot AC, Conemans JM. Department of Dermatology, Carolus Hospital, BD's-Hertogenbosch, The Netherlands.
A case of occupational contact allergy to furazolidone, used as an animal feed additive and as an antimicrobial drug in veterinary medicine, is described. The patient did not react to furazolidone 2% pet. Using PEG-400 and alcohol as patch test vehicles resulted in positive patch test reactions. No cross-reactions were observed to other nitrofuran derivatives (nitrofurazone, nitrofurantoin) or to furfural. The literature on contact allergy to nitrofurans is reviewed.

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