Frank Rowland Dunshea

University of Melbourne | MSD · Faculty of Veterinary and Agricultural Sciences

Phenolic compounds, present in plants, provide substantial health advantages, such as antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties, which enhance cardiovascular and cognitive well-being. Australia is enriched with a wide range of plants with phytopharmacological potential, which needs to be fully elucidated. In this context, we analyzed leaves of a...

Assessment of emotional responses from coffee consumers is a vital and potential digital tool to obtain straight and novel information about the acceptability of specialty coffee and their optimal way of postharvest processing. This research combined sensory and biometric responses of Australian coffee consumers towards spontaneous fermented and un...

The food sector's interest in sustainability and the demand for novel bioactive compounds are increasing. Many fruits are wasted every year before ripening due to various climatic conditions and harsh weather. Unripe mangoes, grapes, and black lemons could be rich sources of phenolic compounds that need to be fully elucidated. Using fruit waste as...

There is a growing demand for specialty coffee with more pleasant and uniform sensory perception. Wet fermentation could modulate and confer additional aroma notes to final roasted coffee brew. This study aimed to assess differences in volatile compounds and the intensities of sensory descriptors between unfermented and spontaneously fermented coff...

Alginates, hydrophilic anionic polysaccharides with notable bioactivity and biocompatibility, have drawn significant attention, particularly due to their extensive use in the pharmaceutical industry and associated health benefits. Brown seaweeds serve as the primary source of alginates. However, extraction methods, especially traditional ones, face...

Climate change is associated with an increased frequency and intensity of heat waves, posing a threat of heat stress to pig production. Heat stress compromises the efficiency of pig production partly due to causing oxidative stress, intestinal dysfunction, and inflammatory responses. Superoxide dismutase is an antioxidant enzyme reported to reduce...

Seaweeds, serving as valuable natural sources of phenolic compounds (PCs), offer various health benefits like antioxidant, anti‐inflammatory properties, and potential anticancer effects. The efficient extraction of PCs from seaweed is essential to harness their further applications. This study compares the effectiveness of different solvents (ethan...

Phenolic compounds are vital bioactive constituents that benefit human health. Native Australian flora offers a substantial potential source of new bioactive phenolic compounds for medicinal, nutraceutical, and potential phytopharmaceutical applications. Native Australian fruits are enriched with beneficial phytochemicals, especially phenolic compo...

The global goat meat sector is advancing and contributes to long-term food security, especially in meeting the protein demands of the growing human population in developing countries. Spanning all countries, Australia, is the largest exporter of goat meat, although it has negligible consumption. However, Australia does potentially have a secure fut...

Dairy cattle predicted by genomic breeding values to be heat tolerant are known to have less milk production decline and lower core body temperature increases in response to elevated temperatures. In a study conducted at the University of Melbourne’s Dookie Robotic Dairy Farm during summer, we identified the 20 most heat-susceptible and heat-tolera...

Grape marc is a waste product produced during the winemaking process. The enormous volume of wine production worldwide creates a significant amount of grape marc each year. It is rich in nutrients and has excellent antioxidant properties. Lactic acid fermentation is a popular food preparation method, and by using grape marc as a substrate for ferme...

Postharvest fermentation could bring significant changes in the chemical profile of coffee beans so that the nutritional aspects. This study comprehensively evaluated the effects of indigenous fermentation on coffee beans in green and roasted status by quantifying the phenolic compounds and estimating their bioaccessibility, crude absorbability, an...

Polyphenols, especially flavonoids, are well-known for their bioactive antioxidant properties. Therefore, this study aimed to analyze Australian black (ripe) and green olives (unripe) for phenolic and non-phenolic metabolites, antioxidant activities, and pharmacokinetic properties. Liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry coupled with quadrupole-tim...

Context Developing strategies to reduce carcass fatness is vital to the profitability of animal production, particularly in a market where excessive backfat causes price penalties. Studies have shown that betaine supplementation has inconsistent effects on carcass fatness, which are due in part to variability in the betaine dose, duration of supple...

Mushrooms have a long history of use as food and medicine. They are rich in various nutrients and bioactive compounds, particularly phenolic compounds. In this study, ten mushroom species were selected, and solvent extraction using 80% ethanol was used to extract phenolic compounds. Total phenolic content (TPC), total flavonoid content (TFC) and to...

This meta-regression analysis was conducted to identify the relationship between fibretype cross-sectional area (CSA) and frequency (%) and meat quality traits, especially tenderness (sensory and Warner-Bratzler Shear Force, WBSF). Literature searches were conducted using specific keywords which resulted in 32 peer-reviewed manuscripts that contain...

Pulses are edible seeds belonging to the Leguminosae family for human consumption and consist of various species such as common beans (Phaseolus vulgaris L.), peas (Pisum sativum), lentils (Lens culinaris), chickpeas (Cicer arietinum L.), and faba beans (Vicia faba). Pulses are sustainable sources of nutritional compounds, especially containing alm...

Brown seaweed is rich in phenolic compounds and has established health benefits. However, the phenolics present in Australian beach-cast seaweed are still unclear. This study investigated the effect of ultrasonication and conventional methodologies using four different solvents on free and bound phenolics of freeze-dried brown seaweed species obtai...

Simple Summary Heat stress elicits metabolic and physiological responses in ruminants as they attempt to maintain thermal balance. Dietary betaine is an osmolyte that can reduce physiological responses to heat (such as core temperature). In this experiment, we examined the effects of dietary betaine supplementation and mild heat stress in response...

In recent studies, marine macroalgae (seaweeds) have been highlighted as excellent sources of acquiring many bioactive polymers and metabolites with vast chemical and biological values, which has attracted increasing research interests in seaweeds. Among a diversity of seaweed-derived bioactive constituents, polysaccharides have been affirmed to po...

Dairy cattle predicted by genomic breeding values to be heat tolerant are known to have less milk production decline and lower core body temperature increases in response to elevated temperatures. In a study conducted at the University of Melbourne’s Dookie Robotic Dairy Farm during summer, we identified the most 20 heat-susceptible and 20 heat-tol...

Abstract: This study investigated the health-promoting effects and prebiotic functions of mango peel powder (MPP) both as a plain individual ingredient and when incorporated in yoghurt during simulated digestion and fermentation. The treatments included plain MPP, plain yoghurt (YA), yoghurt fortified with MPP (YB), and yoghurt fortified with MPP a...

Storing rumen fluid (RF) has the potential to standardize subsequent in vitro feed fermentation studies. The first phase of this experiment aimed to evaluate the effect of two RF storage methods on gas composition and dry matter disappearance (DMD) in wheat grain and lucerne hay under in vitro fermentation. The storage methods were as follows: (1)...

Mushrooms have been an acclaimed food for their unique flavor and medicinal properties since ancient times. Modern research shows that mushrooms are rich in various nutrients and biologically active substances. In recent years, researchers have become increasingly interested in mushrooms because they contain important secondary metabolites, such as...

Twenty-four Merino lambs were allocated to three dietary treatment groups to determine the effects of a dietary starch and protein binding agent and heat stress on methane (CH4) emissions and rumen parameters. The diets were a wheat-based diet (WD), a 2% Bioprotect™ (Bioprotect™, RealisticAgri, Rutland, UK) treated wheat-based diet (BD), and a maiz...

The rapid growth of the global population and changes in lifestyle have led to a significant increase in food waste from various industrial, agricultural, and household sources. Nearly one-third of the food produced annually is wasted, resulting in severe resource depletion. Food waste contains rich organic matter, which, if not managed properly, c...

Background: Lentil (Lens culinaris M.) is a legume widely consumed worldwide. It is rich in bioactive compounds, including polyphenolic compounds that contribute to positive health benefits. Methods: This study aimed to determine the phenolic content and antioxidant activity of black, red, green, and brown whole lentils. Towards this end, the le...

In recent decades, plant bioactive phenolic compounds gained much attention due to their various health benefits. Therefore, this study aimed to analyze native Australian river mint (Mentha australis), bush mint (Mentha satureioides), sea parsley (Apium prostratum), and bush tomatoes (Solanum centrale) for their bioactive metabolites, antioxidant p...

Native Australian fruits and spices are enriched with beneficial phytochemicals, especially phenolic compounds, which are not fully elucidated. Therefore, this study aimed to analyze native Australian mountain-pepper berries (Tasmannia lanceolata), rosella (Hibiscus sabdariffa), lemon aspen (Acronychia acidula), and strawberry gum (Eucalyptus olida...

Sesame (Sesamum indicum L.) is a worldwide cultivated oil crop that belongs to the family Pedaliaceae. Sesame seeds possess high nutritional value, enriching fats, proteins, carbohydrates, and vitamins. Various phytochemical constituents are found in sesame seeds and/or oil, such as phenolic acids, flavonoids, phytosterols, tocopherols, phospholipi...

This study evaluated the effects of heat stress (HS) and dietary nano chromium picolinate (nCrPic) on metabolic responses of sheep to an intravenous glucose tolerance test (IVGTT), an intravenous insulin tolerance test (ITT) and an intramuscular adrenocorticotropin hormone (ACTH) challenge in sheep. Thirty-six sheep housed in metabolic cages were r...

In recent years, carotenoids, as photosynthetic pigments, have drawn increasing interest due to their health benefits. This is because carotenoids have possessed enormous potential in lowering the risk of cardiovascular, cataracts, macular degradation and malignant tumours. Although many carotenoids can be produced via chemical synthesis, the commo...

Avocados (Persea americana M.) are highly valued fruits consumed worldwide, and there are numerous commercially available varieties on the market. However, the high demand for fruit also results in increased food waste. Thus, this study was conducted for comprehensive profiling of polyphenols of Hass, Reed, and Wurtz avocados obtained from the Aust...

Fermentation is critical for developing coffee physicochemical properties. This study 14 aimed to assess the differences in quality traits between fermented and unfermented coffee with 15 four grinding sizes of coffee powder using multiple digital technologies. A total of N = 2 coffee 16 treatments (i) dry processing, (ii) wet fermentation with gri...

Heat stress causes functional and metabolic alterations in different cells and tissues. There are several pathomorphological changes and biomarkers associated with head load in adaptive and productive organs of livestock. Heat stress-induced histopathological alterations in livestock were categorized as degenerative changes (fatty degeneration, ste...

Heat stress (HS) is well known to influence animal health and livestock productivity negatively. Heat stress is a multi-billion-dollar global problem. It impairs animal performance during summer when animals are exposed to high ambient temperatures, direct and indirect solar radiations, and humidity. While significant developments have been achieve...

Phytochemicals play a pivotal role in human health and drug discovery. The safety evaluation of plant extracts is a prerequisite to ensure that all phytochemicals are safe before translational development and human exposure. As phytochemicals are natural, they are generally considered safe, although this is not always true. The objective of this st...

The biological effects of oxidative stress and associated free radicals on farm animal performance, productivity, and product quality may be managed via dietary interventions—specifically, the provision of feeds, supplements, and forages rich in antioxidants. To optimize this approach, it is important first to understand the development of free rad...

The export fodder industry is one of the important agricultural sectors in Australia. More than $500 million fodders are exported to the global market per year. Australian oaten hay is one of the major fodders exported overseas (e.g., Japan, China and the United Arab Emirates). However, scientifically, there is a lack of data to suggest how to best...

Farm livestock identification and welfare assessment using non-invasive digital technology have gained interest in agriculture in the last decade, especially for accurate traceability. This study aimed to develop a face recognition system for dairy farm cows using advanced deep-learning models and computer vision techniques. This approach is non-in...

Polyphenols are considered vital bioactive compounds beneficial for human health. The Australian flora is enriched with polyphenols which are not fully characterized yet. Thus, the main objective of this study was to identify and characterize the Australian native sandalwood nuts, wat-tle seeds, lemongrass, and old man saltbush for phenolic compoun...

Connective tissue is considered to influence the toughness of pork, but most studies on connective tissue focus on the loin muscle. Cooking loss, Warner-Bratzler shear force (WBSF), texture profile analysis (hardness, springiness, chewiness, resilience and cohesiveness), total and insoluble collagen content, the percentage of type III collagen rela...

This study investigated the potential health benefits and functional properties of mango peel powder (MPP) as a source of antioxidants and alpha-glucosidase inhibitors in yoghurts with probiotic bacteria. The study involved plain yoghurt (PY, control), yoghurt fortified with 2% mango peel powder (MY), and yoghurt fortified with 2% MPP and 1% of eac...

Digitally extracted biometrics from visible videos of farm animals could be used to automatically assess animal welfare, contributing to the future of automated veterinary support systems. This study proposed using non-invasive video acquisition and biometric analysis of dairy cows in a robotic dairy farm (RDF) located at the Dookie campus, The Uni...

The kiwifruit is cultivated globally due to its diversity of phytochemicals, especially phenolic compounds, which have antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and anti-cancer medical effects. However, only the pulp of the kiwifruit is consumed, while the peels and cores—which are also rich in phytochemicals—are usually wasted. Meanwhile, detailed informatio...

Many human diseases, including age-related degenerative diseases, converge onto mitochondrial dysfunction and cellular oxidative stress. The importance of botanical compounds to develop new therapeutic approaches for treating oxidative stress-related diseases has been recognized. However, there is a major gap in our understanding of their bioactivi...

Glaucoma is caused by many genetic and environmental factors, which converge into oxidative stress in the affected ganglion nerve cells in the eye. Many studies have emphasized the antioxidant potential of Australian plant-derived compounds; however, their toxicological effects have not been extensively investigated to uncover their potential for d...

Polyphenols are vital bioactive constituents that have beneficial effects on human health. The aim of this study was to characterize the biologically active phenolic metabolites in Australian native commercial fruits (Kakadu plum, Davidson’s plum, quandong peach, and muntries) and their antioxidant, α-glucosidase, and acetylcholinesterase inhibitio...

Coffee is the most widely used beverage globally and contains many bioactive compounds, including phenolic compounds, alkaloids, triterpenes, organic acids, amino acids, hormones, and fatty acids. The main objective of this study was the comparative profiling of Australian, Colombian, Ethiopian, and Peruvian C. arabica using LC-ESI-QTOF-MS/MS. In t...

It has been well-established that dark cutting (DC) is a multifactorial issue that is associated with numerous animal and management factors. However, there is limited understanding of the feedlot-based factors that contribute to the influence of DC. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of climate, animal, and feedlot factors on the inc...

The gastrointestinal tract of humans is a complex microbial ecosystem known as gut mi-crobiota. The microbiota is involved in several critical physiological processes such as digestion, absorption, and related physiological functions and plays a crucial role in determining the host's health. The habitual consumption of specific dietary components c...

Seaweeds are rich in phenolic compounds such as phlorotannins and have antioxidant, antibacterial, and anti-inflammatory activities. As exogenous bioactive compounds, seaweed polyphenols exist in the form of aglycone, esters, glycosides, and polymers. Most of them are not directly absorbed in the human digestive tract but undergo extensive modifica...

Seaweeds are macroscopic marine algae that are allocated into three categories based on the seaweed color (green, brown and red seaweeds). Seaweeds are known for its nutrition and beneficial non-nutritive compounds. Seaweeds have ample nutrition content including carbohydrates, minerals, proteins, and vitamins. Green seaweeds have a high concentrat...

Pumpkin (Cucurbita moschata) is consumed worldwide with a diverse array of phytochemicals, including phenolics, that have therapeutic properties such as anti-inflammatory, antibacterial, antioxidant, and neuroprotective effects. Nevertheless, detailed information on polyphenol content in pumpkin processing is still limited. Therefore, the present w...

Driven by increasing food security concerns, microalgae have drawn attention due to their resource-efficient production and high nutritional value. Microalgae are highly diverse and contain significant amounts of various bioactive compounds, including bioactive peptides, PUFA, vitamins, phenolics, carotenoids, sterols, and so on. These bioactive co...

Evidence suggests that camel milk (CM) can have insulin-like actions, although the mode of action is not understood. Using the pig as a monogastric model, this pilot experiment examined the effects of CM consumption on metabolic responses to an in vitro glucose tolerance test (IVGTT). Twenty female Large White x Landrace pigs were individually hous...

Plants play a pivotal role in drug discovery, constituting 50% of modern pharmacopeia. Many human diseases, including age-related degenerative diseases, converge onto common cellular oxidative stress pathways. This provides an opportunity to develop broad treatments to treat a wide range of diseases in the ageing population. Here, we characterize a...

Livestock welfare assessment helps monitor animals' health status to maintain productivity, identify injuries and stress, and avoid deterioration. It has also become an important marketing strategy since it increases consumer pressure for a more humane transformation in animals’ treatment. Common visual welfare practices by professionals and veteri...

The objective of this study was to investigate the effects of reducing the fermentability of grains on thermoregulatory responses in heat stressed (HS) lambs. To achieve this, wheat grain treated with a commercial starch binding agent, Bioprotect, is compared to maize, which has already demonstrated effects in ameliorating heat stress-induced therm...

Chicory and lucerne possess high feed value for poultry being good sources of protein and fiber. In addition, they are rich in polyphenols that help the body build an integrated antioxidant system to prevent damage from free radicals and positively modulate microbial populations in the gastrointestinal tract. These health-promoting effects of polyp...

Temporal dominance of sensations (TDS) is a widely used method to assess dynamic sensory perception. While TDS has been studied more extensively with trained panels, there is growing interest in testing the method with consumers. However, little is known about how consumers interpret the notion of “dominance” to decide which attribute they should s...

Lettuce varieties are rich in phytochemicals with strong antioxidant properties, mainly due to the presence of many phenolic compounds. The health effects of these phenolic compounds are dependent on their bioaccessibility, bioavailability and bioactivities. This study aimed to evaluate the differences in the content and bioaccessibility of phenoli...

Pumpkin (Cucurbita moschata) is one of the well-known edible plants that contains several phytoconstituents, including polyphenols. The properties of medicinal values in pumpkin have been demonstrated, such as anti-diabetic, antioxidant, anti-carcinogenic, anti-inflammatory, hypolipidemic, and hypoglycemic. As functional compounds in pumpkins and t...

Tomatoes (Solanum lycopersicum) are highly involved in diets consumed worldwide, and are rich in bioactive compounds including phenolics, carotenoids and vitamins. In this study, four different varieties of fresh tomato pulp (Oxheart, Green Zebra, Kumato and Roma) were used to estimate the bioaccessibility of target phenolic compounds during in vit...

BACKGROUND Sensory biometrics provide advantages for consumer tasting by quantifying physiological changes and the emotional response from participants, removing variability associated with self‐reported responses. The present study aimed to measure consumers' emotional and physiological responses towards different commercial yoghurts, including da...

Narrow leaf plantain, white clover, perennial ryegrass, and tall fescue are non-conventional edible plants having widespread existence in many temperate and Mediterranean regions worldwide. These edible plants represent valuable food resources, and genetic and genomic approaches to improving and utilising these plants for human consumption are ongo...

Sesame (Sesamum indicum L.) is an oilseed crop and rich in various bioactive compounds including phenolics, phytosterols and vitamins. In this study, phenolic compounds were extracted from three varieties of sesame seeds (black, brown, and white) to determine the antioxidant activities and bioaccessibility of selected phenolic compounds during in v...

Grapes (Vitis Vinifera) are one of the world's most utilised and prized fruit. Grapes are a great source of antioxidants due to the abundance of phenolic compounds. Grape pulp is the main part of the grape being consumed. The pulp of five Australian grown grapes – Dawn Seedless (DS), Calmeria (CG), Golden Globe (GG), Menindee Seedless (MS), and Tho...

Bioaccessibility and bioactivity of phenolic compounds in coffee beans relate to roasting and digestion process. This study aimed to estimate phenolic content, antioxidant potential, bioaccessibility, and changes in short chain fatty acids (SCFAs) production during in vitro digestion and colonic fermentation of commercial roasted (light, medium and...

The digestibility and bioavailability of plant protein are the key factors for meeting human nutritional needs and particularly when looking for alternatives for animal-based proteins. Legumes have great nutritional value, containing rich sources of proteins, carbohydrates, fibres, and other bioactive compounds. However, some antinutritional compou...

Packaging creates the first impression from consumers when selecting commercial food or beverages. Different packaging components are important as they contain all areas of interest related to branding, shape, design, and nutritional information, which could determine willingness to purchase and success of products in the market. However, tradition...

Yogurt, readily available in plant and dairy-based formulations, is widely consumed and linked with health benefits. This research is aimed to understand the sensory and textural spectrum of commercially available dairy and plant-based yogurts. In a preliminary study, qualitative focus group discussions (4 groups; n = 32) were used to determine per...

This chapter is an attempt to collect and synthesize information pertaining to climate change associated feed production constraints for livestock and also addresses in detail the various concepts associated with climate resilient livestock production. The chapter would give an overview on the subject and the information generated and presented sho...

New and emerging non-invasive digital tools, such as eye-tracking, facial expression and physio-logical biometrics, have been implemented to extract more objective sensory responses by panelists from packaging and, specifically, labels. However, integrating these technologies from different company providers and software for data acquisition and an...

Feeding fibre and branched-chain amino acids (BCAA) to sows during late gestation and lactation, respectively, have been shown to improve litter weights at weaning. Therefore, supplementing primiparous sow diets with lucerne chaff, a feedstuff high in fibre, BCAA and tryptophan, may improve the performance of their progeny. Experiment 1 investigate...

Genetic selection of pigs over recent decades has sought to reduce carcass fat content to meet consumer demands for lean meat in many countries (e.g.: Australia). Due to the impacts of genetic changes, it is unknown whether the carcass fat measures are still responsive to energy intake. Thus, the present experiment aimed to quantify the relationshi...

Genetic selection of pigs over recent decades has sought to reduce carcass fat content to meet consumer demands for lean meat in many countries (e.g.: Australia). Due to the impacts of genetic changes, it is unknown whether the carcass fat measures are still responsive to energy intake. Thus, the present experiment aimed to quantify the relationshi...