Suitability of borago officinalis for minimal processing as fresh-cut produce

Borage (Borago offcinalis L.) is a wild vegetable appreciated as a folk medicine and for culinary preparations. The introduction of borage as a specialized cultivation would allow for the diversification of vegetable crops and would widen the offerings of raw and minimally processed leafy vegetables. Thus, the aim of the research was to evaluate the quality and shelf-life of fresh-cut borage stored at different temperatures. Borage plants were grown during the autumn-winter season and immediately minimally processed after harvest. Fresh-cut borage leaves packed in sealed bags were stored at 2 or 6 °C for 21 d. Weight loss, total soluble solids (TSS), titratable acidity (TA), ascorbic acid, nitrates, leaf color characteristics and overall quality were determined through the storage period. Borage plants were deemed suitable for minimal processing. Storage temperature significantly influenced the rate of quality loss. Borage leaves had an initial nitrate content of 329.3 mg kg-1 FW that was not affected by temperature or storage. TSS and TA were higher in leaves stored at 6 °C. TSS, TA and ascorbic acid content increased during storage. Minimally processed borage leaves stored at 2 °C had lower weight loss and leaf color modifications during storage and a longer shelf life than those stored at 6 °C, so were still marketable after 21 d of storage

SUSTAINABILITY OF SHORT FOOD SUPPLY CHAINS: ANALYSIS OF RAW MATERIAL SUPPLY IN MILAN PUBLIC SCHOOL CATERING

The demand of short food supply chains is becoming more pressing by consumers, especially in the largest school catering. The implementation of the short chain in a large catering company of Milan, is described in this practical contribution. Several aspects of short food chains sustainability: legal, commercial and economic sustainability, hygienic and gastronomic sustainability, are discussed

The effect of butanol isomers on the formation of carbon particulate matter in fuel-rich premixed ethylene flames

Abstract The effect of the butanol isomers on carbon particulate matter formation was studied by substituting up to 20% of the total carbon of ethylene, fed to premixed flames with different equivalence ratios, with the four butanol isomers. Soot and condensed-phase nanostructures were tracked by means of particle size distribution (PSD) measurements and laser induced emission spectroscopy, namely fluorescence and incandescence. Butanol isomers, especially t-butanol, significantly reduced the total amount and the size of the soot particles, whereas a negligible effect was detected on condensed-phase nanostructures. PSDs were measured along with the aromaticity and functionalities of the carbon particulate matter thermophoretically sampled in the highest equivalence ratio condition. No significant differences were found among the different butanol isomers neither in the soot aggregate size, as measured by size exclusion chromatography, nor in the aromaticity, as evaluated by Raman and UV–vis spectroscopy, of the particulate matter. Conversely, FTIR analysis showed that carbon particulate matter produced from 1-butanol and t-butanol-doped flames contained larger amounts of oxygen in form of C = O, C–O–C and OH functionalities. However, most of the differences in the oxygen functionalities disappeared after dichloromethane (DCM) treatment, suggesting that these oxygenated moieties belong to the condensed-phase nanostructures, soluble in DCM, rather than to soot particles

Particle formation in premixed ethylene-benzene flames: An experimental and modeling study

Abstract In this work soot formation was studied in laminar premixed flames of binary ethylene-benzene mixtures varying throughout the composition range from pure ethylene to pure benzene keeping constant the equivalence ratio (φ = 2) and obtaining a very similar maximum temperature (Tmax around 1750 K). In such way, it was possible to study for the first time the effect of binary aliphatic-aromatic fuel mixtures composition on the sooting behavior in comparable combustion conditions. In-situ optical techniques (laser induced incandescence and fluorescence) and ex-situ particle size distribution (PSD) measured downstream of the flame front, as well as modeling by means of a multi-sectional method, were applied. PSD profiles showed that particles with sizes less than 10 nm decrease as benzene percentage in the feed mixture increases, disappearing for benzene percentages above 30%. Conversely, large aggregates grow towards sizes larger than 100 nm when benzene concentration is increased. A non-linear effect of the benzene content in the binary fuel mixture on soot particle concentration was observed by laser induced incandescence, and confirmed by the multi-sectional model. In particular soot formation was found to increase more than linear up to 50% then leveled off to reincrease linearly from 80% to 100%. On the contrary, particles smaller than 10 nm at the end of the flame rapidly decreased for benzene percentages larger than 30%. From reaction rate analysis, the formation of gas-phase polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) and high-molecular mass aromatics precursors was found to be significantly large already for fuel mixtures featured by low benzene amounts (from 10 up to 40–50%). The enhanced aromatic precursor formation, combined with the abundance of acetylene mainly coming from the dehydrogenation of ethylene as predominant component of the binary fuel mixture, appeared to be responsible for the non-linear effect of ethylene-benzene composition on particle formation, particularly significant up to 40–50% of benzene. This finding has a considerable importance as regards the exploitation of highly-aromatic fuels as well as to foresee the soot emission for effect of the aromatic presence in natural and synthetic fuels used in practical combustion systems

Catalysis in Supramolecular Systems: the Case of Gel Phases

Supramolecular gels are a fascinating class of materials, originated by the self-assembly of low molecular weight molecules. Underpinned by non-covalent interactions, they find application in a diverse range of fields. Among these, supramolecular gels can be considered as organized, non-conventional reaction media, able to influence reactivity in a radically different way, compared with what happens in solution. This short review will focus on this aspect, covering literature from 2010 onwards, addressing the application of supramolecular gels as reaction media. In particular, in the first section we explore organocatalytic reactions in gel phase, with wide synthetic relevance, such as aldol and Mannich reactions as well as Friedel Crafts or ester hydrolysis processes. Subsequently, focus is laid on metal-catalysed reactions, among which relevance is given to widely used reactions like cross-coupling and click reactions. Then, the final sections describe the use of supramolecular gels as reaction media for photo- and biocatalysed processes

DBS-Based Eutectogels: Organized Vessels to Perform the Michael Addition Reaction**

Supramolecular eutectogels were obtained from the gelation of 1,3 : 2,4-dibenzylidene-D-sorbitol (DBS) in cholinium chloride-based deep eutectic solvents (DES), differing for the nature of the hydrogen bond donor. Ethylene glycol, diethylene glycol, triethylene glycol, glycerol and urea were tested. Soft materials were fully characterized, determining critical gelation concentration, gel-sol transition temperatures and mechanical properties. Furthermore, to have information about the organization of the gelator in the tridimensional network, resonance light scattering, circular dichroism and microscopy investigations were performed. Eutectogels were used as organized “vessels” to perform the L-proline catalyzed Michael addition reaction. The probe reaction was carried out in gel phase and in DES solution. Data collected shed light on the effect that gel microenvironment exerts on the outcome of the reaction. In general, gel phases allowed having comparable or even better results than the ones collected in DES solution, with better results obtained in soft materials with the highest organization, as accounted for by the presence of larger aggregates and the occurrence of stronger intermolecular interactions. In turn, this accounts also for the effect of substrates structure that indicates that better yields could be obtained in the presence of more flexible nucleophile and dienones, having more extended π-surface

Experimental measurement of an effective temperature for jammed granular materials

A densely packed granular system is an example of an out-of-equilibrium system in the jammed state. It has been a longstanding problem to determine whether this class of systems can be described by concepts arising from equilibrium statistical mechanics, such as an ``effective temperature'' and ``compactivity''. The measurement of the effective temperature is realized in the laboratory by slowly shearing a closely-packed ensemble of spherical beads confined by an external pressure in a Couette geometry. All the probe particles considered in this study, independent of their characteristic features, equilibrate at the same temperature, given by the packing density of the system.Comment: 22 pages, 7 figures, more informations at http://www.jamlab.or

Aspetti dell'alimentazione di alcune specie di selaci del Canale di Sicilia

I Selaci occupano gli ultimi livelli delle reti trofiche marine: si tratta infatti di carnivori che, spesso, predano risorse utili anche all'uomo. Numerose specie demersali (squali, razze e torpedini) si alimentano, infatti, con organismi di interesse commerciale come Aristeidi, Peneidi, Cefalopodi e Pesci ossei. Le abitudini alimentari dei Selaci demersali del Canale di Sicilia sono quasi completamente sc onosciute; esistono in letteratura i lavori di Capapé relativi alle acque tunisine, che si limitano ad una descrizione puramente qualitativa delle diete ma che hanno tuttavia evidenziato preferenze verso Crostacei Decapodi, Cefalopodi e Teleostei. Lo studio dei contenuti stomacali dei Selaci può fornire dunque elementi utili alla comprensione delle reti trofiche demersali, all'indagine sull'esistenza di competizione tra le diverse specie e allo studio dell'interferenza con prede di valore commerciale