Phytic acid (PA), extracted from oilseeds, legumes, cereals, nuts, and pollen by acid solutions under heating and/or stirring and then purified, has shown beneficial health and physiological effects ...due to its pronounced antioxidant activity and ability to chelate Fe
3+
ions. Publications on PA have increased, especially the ones reporting its effect on disease prevention and treatment. Moreover, recent studies have suggested the PA efficacy as a foodborne pathogens inhibitor. Therefore, due to its countless proven properties, phytic acid has gained greater attention than its common classification as just an antinutrient. Past and current studies have been reviewed to provide an overview on PA structure, sources, biosynthesis, extraction, purification, and applications.
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BFBNIB, DOBA, GIS, IJS, IZUM, KILJ, KISLJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Consumers are increasingly looking for healthy foods without the addition of synthetic additives. The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficiency of coffee extracts as a natural antioxidant in ...fresh pork sausage. Firstly, the conditions for obtaining coffee green extracts were optimized (Central Composite Rotatable Design 2
, variables: extraction time, ethanol-water ratio, and sample-solvent ratio) in an ultrasound bath (70 °C). The response variables were the bioactive compounds levels and antioxidant activity. Valid models were obtained (
≤ 0.05, R
> 0.751), with higher bioactive content and antioxidant activity in the central point region. Extracts of Robusta and Arabica coffee green (RG and AG) and medium roast (RR and AR) obtained, and central point (10 min, an ethanol concentration of 30%, and a sample-solvent ratio of 10 g/100 mL) and optimized (14.2 min, 34.2%, and 5.8 g/100 mL) parameters were characterized. The RG presented a significantly (
≤ 0.05) higher content of caffeine (3114.8 ± 50.0 and 3148.1 ± 13.5 mg/100 g) and 5-CQA (6417.1 ± 22.0 and 6706.4 ± 23.5 mg/100 g) in both extraction conditions, respectively. The RG and RR coffee presented the highest antioxidant activity. Two concentrations of RG and RR coffee extracts were tested in fresh pork sausage. The Robusta coffee extract presented the highest antioxidant activity in both roasted and green states. However, when applied to a meat product, the extract prepared with RG coffee showed better results, with efficiency in replacing synthetic antioxidants (content of malonaldehyde/kg of sample below 0.696 ± 0.059 in 20 days of storage), without altering the sensory attributes of the product (average scores above 7.16 ± 1.43 for all attributes evaluated). Therefore, the RG coffee extract was a suitable alternative as a natural antioxidant applied to fresh pork sausage.
Honey is a highly consumed natural product, not only for its taste and nutritional value, but also for its health benefits. Owing to characteristics that are essentially or exclusively related to the ...specific region or particular local environment and flora, honey can be classified as a premium product generally perceived as a high‐quality and valued product because of its desirable flavor and taste. Consequently, honey has been a target of adulteration through inappropriate/fraudulent production practices and mislabeling origin. Globally, authentication of honey covers 2 main aspects: the production, with main issues related to sugar syrup addition, filtration, thermal treatment, and water content; and the labeled origin (geographical and/or botanical) and “organic” provenance. This review addresses all those issues, focusing on the approaches to detect the different types of honey adulteration. Due to the complex nature of honey and to the different types of adulteration, its authentication has been challenging and prompted the development of several advanced analytical approaches. Therefore, an updated, critical, and extensive overview on the current and advanced analytical methods targeting markers of adulteration/authenticity, including nontarget fingerprint approaches will be provided. The most recent advances on molecular, chromatographic, and spectroscopic methodologies will be described, emphasizing their pros and cons for the identification of botanical and geographical origins.
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BFBNIB, FZAB, GIS, IJS, KILJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, SAZU, SBCE, SBMB, UL, UM, UPUK
Species identification in meat products has grown in interest in recent years since these foodstuffs are susceptible targets for fraudulent labelling. In this work, a real-time PCR approach based on ...SYBR Green dye was proposed for the quantitative detection of pork meat in processed meat products. For the development of the method, binary meat mixtures containing known amounts of pork meat in poultry meat were used to obtain a normalised calibration model from 0.1 to 25% with high linear correlation and PCR efficiency. The method revealed high specificity by melting curve analysis, being successfully validated through its application to blind meat mixtures, which confirmed its adequacy for pork meat determination. The fully applicability of the method was further demonstrated in commercial meat products, allowing verification of labelling compliance and identification of meat species in processed foods.
► Species-specific PCR identification in meat products. ► A novel SYBR Green real-time quantitative PCR assay for pork determination. ► Validation and application of the method to analyse real processed foods. ► Authentication of poultry meat foods.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK
The SnRK (Snf1-Related protein Kinase) gene family plays an important role in energy sensing and stress-adaptive responses in plant systems. In this study, Chlamydomonas CKIN family (SnRK in ...Arabidopsis) was defined after a genome-wide analysis of all sequenced Chlorophytes. Twenty-two sequences were defined as plant SnRK orthologs in Chlamydomonas and classified into two subfamilies: CKIN1 and CKIN2. While CKIN1 subfamily is reduced to one conserved member and a close protein (CKIN1L), a large CKIN2 subfamily clusters both plant-like and algae specific CKIN2s. The responsiveness of these genes to abiotic stress situations was tested by RT-qPCR. Results showed that almost all elements were sensitive to osmotic stress while showing different degrees of sensibility to other abiotic stresses, as occurs in land plants, revealing their specialization and the family pleiotropy for some elements. The regulatory pathway of this family may differ from land plants since these sequences shows unique regulatory features and some of them are sensitive to ABA, despite conserved ABA receptors (PYR/PYL/RCAR) and regulatory domains are not present in this species. Core Chlorophytes and land plant showed divergent stress signalling, but SnRKs/CKINs share the same role in cell survival and stress response and adaption including the accumulation of specific biomolecules. This fact places the CKIN family as well-suited target for bioengineering-based studies in microalgae (accumulation of sugars, lipids, secondary metabolites), while promising new findings in stress biology and specially in the evolution of ABA-signalling mechanisms.
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IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, UL, UM, UPUK
•Mitochondrial genes were exploited to differentiate Apis mellifera subspecies.•Specific PCR assay identified A. m. iberiensis (A lineage) honeybees in honeys.•High resolution melting analysis ...differentiated the M- from C-lineage honeybees.•The entomological origin of European honeys was successfully established.•C-lineage honeybees are predominant in studied honeys.
Honey is the natural sweet substance produced by Apis mellifera honeybees in Europe. Depending on the country/region, the A. mellifera subspecies native to Europe belong to three different lineages: A (A. m. iberiensis), M (A. m. iberiensis and A. m. mellifera) and C (A. m. ligustica and A. m. carnica). In this work, two DNA-based approaches were developed with the aim of entomological authentication of European honeys. A cytb specific PCR assay was proposed to identify A-lineage honeybees, while a second method based on real-time PCR coupled to high resolution melting analysis targeting the COI gene was developed to differentiate C- and M-lineages honeybees. The proposed methodologies were validated successfully with honeys of known origin and applied to the entomological authentication of 20 commercial samples from different European countries. The results highlight the predominance of honeys from C-lineage honeybees in Europe, except in Iberian Peninsula countries (honey from A-lineage honeybees).
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
Honey is a natural product highly consumed due its known association with health benefits. Monofloral honeys are perceived as better quality products, being the most appreciated by consumers, thus ...attaining higher market values. Therefore efficient tools are needed as alternatives to the classical microscopic analysis presently used for the botanical origin identification of honey. In the present work, the use of DNA-based methods for the botanical species identification of honey is proposed. For this purpose, five DNA extraction methods (the kits NucleoSpin Plant (methods A and B) and DNeasy Plant Mini Kit, and the in-house CTAB-based and Wizard methods) combined with three different sample pre-treatments were applied to four honey samples (3 monofloral honeys of Calluna vulgaris, Lavandula spp. and Eucalyptus spp. and one multifloral honey). The 15 DNA extraction protocols were compared in terms of DNA integrity, yield and purity, as well as capacity of amplification targeting universal and adh1 specific genes of C. vulgaris. The results demonstrated the superior efficacy of the Wizard method in terms of DNA quality and amplification capacity, when combined with the sample preparation treatment with a mechanical disruption step of pollen to improve DNA yield. Although with considerable lower DNA yields, the CTAB and DNeasy methods were also successful because both were able to clearly amplify heather DNA from the monofloral heather honey.
•DNA-based methods were combined with sample pre-treatments applied to honey.•The 15 DNA extraction protocols applied to 4 honey samples were compared.•Results of DNA integrity, yield, purity and amplification capacity were compared.•PCR amplification was carried out targeting universal and adh1 heather specific genes.•The Wizard method exhibited the best performance for DNA quality and amplification.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK