Polyphenolic content, antioxidant activity and metal composition of traditional blackberry products

In this study, commercially available traditional blackberry products, namely blackberry wines and blackberry elixirs from Coastal Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, were investigated as sources of bioactive compounds, essential nutrients and metals. Samples were analysed for pH, total polyphenols and monomeric anthocyanins content, individual phenolic acids (gallic acid, chlorogenic acid, caffeic acid and p-coumaric acid), antioxidant activity (DPPH and ABTS), reducing power (RPA), total nitrogen and phosphorus as well as metals (K, Na, Ca, Mg, Fe, Mn, Cu, Zn, Co, Cr, Cd). The results of this study showed that the studied traditional blackberry products are rich sources of polyphenols and their consumption could increase the daily intake of dietary antioxidants in humans. In addition, both groups of traditional blackberry products could be considered safe for health and good additional sources of essential minerals such as manganese and potassium. The concentrations of the analysed undesirable toxic and potentially toxic metals in the studied blackberry products were below the maximum allowable concentrations defined by various regulations for wines and fruit wines

REINVENTING THE TRADITIONAL PRODUCTS - THE CASE OF BLACKBERRY WINE

Blackberry wine is traditionally produced in the continental parts of Croatia and consumed in moderate quantities as a dessert wine. It is often used as a popular remedy for anaemia and iron deficiency, as well as for alleviating sleep disorders, because of its mineral composition comprising among other elements, iron and magnesium. Besides minerals, blackberry wine is a good natural source of strong antioxidants, such as phenolic acids, anthocyanins, flavonols, catechins and other flavonoids. For a long time, fruit wines in Croatia were mainly produced by traditional methods in small scale. Therefore, the wines were of inconsistent characteristics and often lower quality. Small and medium scale producers are now implementing the more appropriate modern production technologies to achieve good fermentation control and produce high-quality blackberry wine. Consumers are looking for a fruit wine with traditional, geographically unique characteristics, as well as appropriate enological properties, sensory attributes and high added value (e.g. wine rich in bioactive compounds). This is in accordance with the trends in the food industry and food markets (functional, organic) that are geared towards the development of new products with the high added value associated with health or well-being of environment and society. This work aims at reinventing the traditional product blackberry wine, through the prism of claims and requirements for functional and organic foods

Chemical Constituents of Fruit Wines as Descriptors of their Nutritional, Sensorial and Health-Related Properties

Functional foods are foods that provide positive health effects apart from the provision of essential nutrients. Along with nutraceuticals, they represent the top trends in the food industry. Fruit wines are considered functional foods. When assessing the fruit wine quality, a wide range of descriptors are taken into consideration, namely physicochemical and sensorial properties of fruit wine. Furthermore, within the context of the new food products development (e.g. functional products), functional properties of fruit wines are also taken into consideration. Functional properties are determined by the content of the biologically active components, such as polyphenols, vitamins and micro- and macrominerals. It is also important to consider the food-safety issues regarding the fruit wines consummation, that is, the presence of pesticides, mycotoxins and biogenic amines in different fruit wines. This chapter aims to give an overview of various factors used to evaluate the quality and the functional properties of fruit wines

REINVENTING THE TRADITIONAL PRODUCTS - THE CASE OF BLACKBERRY WINE

Blackberry wine is traditionally produced in the continental parts of Croatia and consumed in moderate quantities as a dessert wine. It is often used as a popular remedy for anaemia and iron deficiency, as well as for alleviating sleep disorders, because of its mineral composition comprising among other elements, iron and magnesium. Besides minerals, blackberry wine is a good natural source of strong antioxidants, such as phenolic acids, anthocyanins, flavonols, catechins and other flavonoids. For a long time, fruit wines in Croatia were mainly produced by traditional methods in small scale. Therefore, the wines were of inconsistent characteristics and often lower quality. Small and medium scale producers are now implementing the more appropriate modern production technologies to achieve good fermentation control and produce high-quality blackberry wine. Consumers are looking for a fruit wine with traditional, geographically unique characteristics, as well as appropriate enological properties, sensory attributes and high added value (e.g. wine rich in bioactive compounds). This is in accordance with the trends in the food industry and food markets (functional, organic) that are geared towards the development of new products with the high added value associated with health or well-being of environment and society. This work aims at reinventing the traditional product blackberry wine, through the prism of claims and requirements for functional and organic foods

Polyphenol content and antioxidant activity of phytoestrogen containing food and dietary supplements: DPPH free radical scavenging activity by HPLC

Soy, red clover, chaste tree, hop and flax have all been found to contain a wide range of phytoestrogenic compounds, and a large number of dietary supplements contain their extracts as principal ingredients. This study is aimed to evaluate the total polyphenolic content and antioxidant activity of phytoestrogen-containing food and formulated dietary supplements. The HPLC-DPPH method was applied for DPPH free radical scavenging activity testing of various phytoestrogen-containing samples. Polyphenol content and antioxidant activity in dietary supplements were higher than in functional food samples; multiple-botanical-source preparations showed higher polyphenol content and antioxidant activity than the mono-botanical counterparts. Furthermore, the correlation between polyphenol content and antioxidant activity was strongly statistically significant, so it might be concluded that antioxidant activity is proportional to the content of these secondary metabolites. The most striking batch-to-batch deviations were represented by one chaste berry-based product (RSD 41.3 %) and one red clover derived product (RSD 57.9 %). The results of this study contribute to a better understanding of the phenolic profile and antioxidant properties of phytoestrogen containing food and dietary supplements

Solid Phase Microextraction – An Innovative Approach to Bioanalytical Research

Tijekom posljednja tri desetljeća mikroekstrakcija čvrstom fazom donijela je značajan napredak u bioanalitičkim istraživanjima. Razlog tome su brojne modifikacije tehnike koje su omogućile njezinu primjenjivost za raznovrsne i složene biološke uzorke, ali i ekološku prihvatljivost. Tehnika se primjenjuje u kombinaciji s različitim analitičkim instrumentima među kojima se posebno ističu tekućinska i plinska kromatografija. Ovo pregledno istraživanje usmjereno je na najnovija dostignuća i načine primjene mikroekstrakcije čvrstom fazom. Nadalje, posebno su istaknuta nova, inovativna rješenja koja trenutačno nemaju komercijalnu primjenu.In last three decades, the solid-phase microextraction technology has brought significant progress in bioanalytical research due to the versatility of this fast and solvent-free approach to biological sample preparation. It has been widely used in combination with various analytical instrumentation, even if most of the work has been done by coupling the extraction technique with liquid or gas chromatography. This review focuses on the new developments and advances in solid-phase microextraction-based techniques. Furthermore, some interesting, new innovations that fail to go beyond academic research are also reported

Thermoanalytical, Spectroscopic and Chromatographic Approach to Physicochemical Compatibility Investigation of 5-Aminosalicylates and Folic Acid

Fixed-dose combinations have shown to be a great alternative to traditional polytherapy; however, development of such formulation requires thorough physicochemical compatibility investigation of active pharmaceutical ingredients to provide a stable, safe and therapeutically effective product. In this work, differential scanning calorimetry, X-ray powder diffraction, isothermal stress testing followed by Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy and chromatographic analysis as well as dissolution studies were used for physicochemical compatibility investigation of folic acid and balsalazide or olsalazine. Balsalazide and olsalazine as well as their blend were successfully characterised regarding their physicochemical properties using the mentioned techniques. Differential scanning calorimetry gave ambiguous results due to premature degradation of balsalazide. On the contrary, other techniques have implied the absence of any chemical reactions or physical changes in prepared blends. Obtained result imply that folic acid is compatible with both balsalazide and olsalazine which goes in favour of developing proposed fixed-dose combinations. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

Oleuropein in olive leaf, branch, and stem extracts: stability and biological activity in human cervical carcinoma and melanoma cells

Olive leaves as a main byproduct of olive oil and fruit industry are a valuable source of phytochemicals such as polyphenols, with multiple biomedical effects. Apart from leaves, olive branches and stems make up a significant amount of olive waste. It is well known that the drying process and long-term storage affect the stability and concentration of polyphenols present in raw materials. For that matter, two different means of storing olive waste, at room temperature and +4 °C, were compared by determining the content of the polyphenol oleuropein (OLE) in olive leaf, branch, and stem extracts (LE, BE, and SE) by HPLC-DAD method. Total phenols (TPC), o-diphenols (o-DPC), and total flavonoids (TFC) content in extracts were assessed by UV-Vis measurements. LE prepared from leaves stored at +4 °C had the highest OLE content, 30.7 mg g–1 of dry extract (DE). SE from stems stored at +4 °C was the richest in TPC and TFC (193 mg GAE/g DE and 82.9 mg CE/g DE, respectively), due to the higher purity of the extract. The biological activity of extracts was determined on cervical cancer (HeLa), melanoma (A375), metastatic melanoma (A375M) tumor cell lines, and on spontaneously immortalized cell line of keratinocytes (HaCaT), using the MTT assay. The data show that all extracts had a similar dose-dependent effect on cell viability in HeLa cells, while the effect of LE on melanoma A375 and A375M, and HaCaT cells was cell-line dependent

Primjena smjernica za profilaksu venske tromboembolije u kliničkoj praksi: retrospektivno istraživanje u dvjema hrvatskim bolnicama

The aim of this study was to evaluate the implementation of the 9th edition of the American College of Chest Physicians (ACCP9) guidelines for prevention of venous thromboembolism in nonsurgical patients in clinical practice in one university and one general Croatian hospital. A retrospective study was conducted at Zadar General Hospital from Zadar and Dubrava University Hospital from Zagreb. Medical charts of all patients admitted to Medical Departments in two periods, before and after implementation of the ACCP9 guidelines, were analyzed. The ACCP9 guidelines were made available to all physicians through the hospital electronic information system immediately after the publication. The Hospital Drug Committees promoted implementation of the guidelines during their periodical clinical visits. Overall, 850 patients were included in the study in two periods. There was no statistically significant difference in the number of high-risk patients receiving thromboprophylaxis after the guidelines implementation in either hospital. In both periods, a signifi-cantly higher number of high-risk patients received thromboprophylaxis in Dubrava University Hos-pital in comparison with Zadar General Hospital (31.7% vs. 3.8% and 40.3% vs. 7.3%, respectively; p<0.001). This study revealed insufficient implementation of evidence-based thromboprophylaxis guidelines in clinical practice in two Croatian hospitals.Cilj ovoga retrospektivnog istraživanja bio je procijeniti primjenu 9. izdanja smjernica American College of Chest Physicians (ACCP9) za prevenciju venske tromboembolije u nekirurških bolesnika u kliničkoj i općoj bolnici u Republici Hrvatskoj. Istraživanje je provedeno u Općoj bolnici Zadar i Kliničkoj bolnici Dubrava u Zagrebu. Analizirana je medicin-ska dokumentacija svih bolesnika hospitaliziranih na internističke odjele u razdoblju prije i nakon implementacije smjernica ACCP9. Smjernice su bile dostupne svim liječnicima putem bolničkih informatičkih sustava. Bolnička povjerenstva za lijekove su ­tijekom periodičkih kliničkih vizita promovirala primjenu smjernica u kliničkoj praksi. U razdoblju prije i nakon implementacije smjernica u istraživanje je uključeno ukupno 850 bolesnika. Niti u jednoj bolnici nije bilo statistički značajne razlike u broju visoko rizičnih bolesnika koji su dobili tromboprofilaksu nakon implementacije smjernica. U oba razdoblja je broj ­visoko rizičnih bolesnika koji su dobili tromboprofilaksu bio značajno veći u Kliničkoj bolnici Dubrava u odnosu na Opću bolnicu Zadar (31,7% prema 3,8% i 40,3% prema 7,3%; p<0,001). Rezultati istraživanja ukazuju na nedostatnu implementaciju smjernica za tromboprofilaksu u dvjema hrvatskim bolnicama

Size exclusion chromatography as green support for forced degradation study of adalimumab

Size exclusion chromatography (SEC) has become a powerful tool for analysing size variants of biologic drugs in their native form. Modern SEC can be defined by the use of chromatographic columns packed with sub-3 μm particles, allowing an increase in method throughput compared to that of conventional SEC. We performed the forced degradation study of adalimumab, the first genetically engineered fully humanised immunoglobulin G1 monoclonal antibody, and evaluated tha possibilities of an advanced SEC column packed with sub-3 μm particles for elucidation of the degradation pathway. Our results revealed the main adalimumab degradation products to be antibody fragments. Acidic and basic conditions had the most intensive effect on the degradation of the adalimumab while the drug exhibits relative stability under thermal and photolytic stress conditions. The AGREE and AGREEprep calculators were used for the evaluation of the environmental performance of the forced degradation procedure. The results of the green score evaluation are presented as round pictograms with a circle in the centre that shows the overall score of 0.81 and 0.61, respectively. Both pictograms are highlighted in green, indicating the eco-friendly conditions