Abstract Paeonia ostii is the representative of oil-utilized peony, its roots (PR) and leaves (PL) are discarded as by-products, resulting in a waste of resources. The exploration of extraction process of active ingredients from PR/PL is beneficial to the comprehensive utilization. In this work, the optimum process of Ultrasound-Assisted Extraction (UAEo) of total flavonoids content (TFC) from PR and PL was determined by single factor and response surface methodology. The results showed that UAEo was 80 min, 1:5 g/mL, 250 W, 33.83 mg Rutin/g dw for PR and 60 min, 1:10 g/mL, 250 W, 25.85 mg Rutin/g dw for PL. Then, Homogenization-Assisted Extraction (HAE), Homogenization-Ultrasound-Assisted Extraction (HUAEo) and Ultrasound-Homogenization-Assisted Extraction (UHAEo) were further analyzed. The highest PR(PL)-TFC by HUAEo at homogenization 5 min was 49.58 ± 0.25 mg/g with an increase of 46.6% (33.02 ± 0.04 mg/g with an increase of 27.7%). The highest PR/PL-total phenolic content by the HUAEo reached 77.84 ± 0.52 mg/g dw and 146.62 ± 2.77 mg/g dw for homogenization 3 min. However, there was no significant difference between HUAEo and UHAEo. In conclusion, the TFC increased with the extension of HAE time, and the combined extraction was higher yield than the single extraction.

The Lactobacillus acidophilus group is a phylogenetically distinct group of closely related lactobacilli. Members of this group are considered to have probiotic properties and occupy different environmental niches. Bacteria generally sense and respond to environmental changes through two component systems (TCSs) which consist of a histidine protein kinase (HPK) and its cognate response regulator (RR). With the use of in silico techniques, the five completely sequenced L. acidophilus group genomes were scanned in order to predict TCSs. Five to nine putative TCSs encoding genes were detected in individual genomes of the L. acidophilus group. The L. acidophilus group HPKs and RRs were classified into subfamilies using the Grebe and Stock classification method. Putative TCSs were analyzed with respect to conserved domains to predict biological functions. Putative biological functions were predicted for the L. acidophilus group HPKs and RRs by comparing them with those of other microorganisms. Some of TCSs were putatively involved in a wide variety of functions which are related with probiotic ability, including tolerance to acid and bile, production of antimicrobial peptides, resistibility to the glycopeptide antibiotic vancomycin, and oxidative condition.