Cuisine in transition? Organic residue analysis of domestic containers from 9th-14th century Sicily

From the 9th to 14th centuries AD, Sicily experienced a series of rapid and quite radical changes in political regime, but the impact of these regime changes on the lives of the people that experienced them remains largely elusive within the historical narrative. We use a multi-faceted lipid residue approach to give direct chemical evidence of the use of 248 everyday domestic ceramic containers from Islamic and post-Islamic contexts in western Sicily to aid our understanding of daily habits throughout this period of political change. A range of commodities was successfully identified, including animal fats, vegetable products, fruit products (potentially including wine) and plant resins. The study highlights the complexity of residues in early medieval Mediterranean society as, in many cases, mixtures of commodities were observed reflecting sequential cooking events and/or the complex mixtures reflective of medieval recipes. However, overall, there were no clear changes in the composition of the residues following the imposition of Norman control over the island and through subsequent periods, despite some differences between urban centres and rural sites. Thus, lending to the idea that post-Islamic populations largely flourished and benefited from the agricultural systems, resources and recipes left by their predecessors

Organic residue analysis shows sub-regional patterns in the use of pottery by Northern European hunter–gatherers

The introduction of pottery vessels to Europe has long been seen as closely linked with the spread of agriculture and pastoralism from the Near East. The adoption of pottery technology by hunter–gatherers in Northern and Eastern Europe does not fit this paradigm, and its role within these communities is so far unresolved. To investigate the motivations for hunter–gatherer pottery use, here, we present the systematic analysis of the contents of 528 early vessels from the Baltic Sea region, mostly dating to the late 6th–5th millennium cal BC, using molecular and isotopic characterization techniques. The results demonstrate clear sub-regional trends in the use of ceramics by hunter–gatherers; aquatic resources in the Eastern Baltic, non-ruminant animal fats in the Southeastern Baltic, and a more variable use, including ruminant animal products, in the Western Baltic, potentially including dairy. We found surprisingly little evidence for the use of ceramics for non-culinary activities, such as the production of resins. We attribute the emergence of these subregional cuisines to the diffusion of new culinary ideas afforded by the adoption of pottery, e.g. cooking and combining foods, but culturally contextualized and influenced by traditional practices

Les Houches 2011: Physics at TeV Colliders New Physics Working Group Report

We present the activities of the "New Physics" working group for the "Physics at TeV Colliders" workshop (Les Houches, France, 30 May-17 June, 2011). Our report includes new agreements on formats for interfaces between computational tools, new tool developments, important signatures for searches at the LHC, recommendations for presentation of LHC search results, as well as additional phenomenological studies.Comment: 243 pages, report of the Les Houches 2011 New Physics Group; fix three figure

Influence of porosity on lipid preservation into the wall of archaeological pottery

International audiencePorosity of archaeological pottery is a key parameter used to assess its ability to trap lipids during the use of the pot and to preserve them over time. Mercury intrusion porosimetry and gas chromatography were used to study the distribution of porosity and the preservation of lipids in different chrono-cultural contexts. The data obtained show that the porosity pattern, related to the raw materials and the savoir-faire of the potters, influences the amount of lipids accumulated in the pottery. A significant overall porosity together with a high level of small pores is generally favourable for the preservation of lipids, but variations related to the environmental context are observed

1H NMR-based metabolomics combined with HPLC-PDA-MS-SPE-NMR for investigation of standardized Ginkgo biloba preparations

Commercial preparations of Ginkgo biloba are very complex mixtures prepared from raw leaf extracts by a series of extraction and prepurification steps. The pharmacological activity is attributed to a number of flavonoid glycosides and unique terpene trilactones (TTLs), with largely uncharacterized pharmacological profiles on targets involved in neurological disorders. It is therefore important to complement existing targeted analytical methods for analysis of Ginkgo biloba preparations with alternative technology platforms for their comprehensive and global characterization. In this work, 1H NMR-based metabolomics and hyphenation of high-performance liquid chromatography, photo-diode array detection, mass spectrometry, solid-phase extraction, and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (HPLC-PDA-MS-SPE-NMR) were used for investigation of 16 commercially available preparations of Ginkgo biloba. The standardized extracts originated from Denmark, Italy, Sweden, and United Kingdom, and the results show that 1H NMR spectra allow simultaneous assessment of the content as well as identity of flavonoid glycosides and TTLs based on a very simple sample-preparation procedure consisting of extraction, evaporation and reconstitution in acetone-d6. Unexpected or unwanted extract constituents were also easily identified in the 1H NMR spectra, which contrasts traditional methods that depend on UV absorption or MS ionizability and usually require availability of reference standards. Automated integration of 1H NMR spectral segments (buckets or bins of 0.02 ppm width) provides relative distribution plots of TTLs based on their H-12 resonances. The present study shows that 1H NMR-based metabolomics is an attractive method for non-selective and comprehensive analysis of Ginkgo extracts

Interpreting ancient food practices:Stable isotope and molecular analyses of visible and absorbed residues from a year-long cooking experiment

Chemical analyses of carbonized and absorbed organic residues from archaeological ceramic cooking vessels can provide a unique window into the culinary cultures of ancient people, resource use, and environmental effects by identifying ingredients used in ancient meals. However, it remains uncertain whether recovered organic residues represent only the final foodstuffs prepared or are the accumulation of various cooking events within the same vessel. To assess this, we cooked seven mixtures of C3 and C4 foodstuffs in unglazed pots once per week for one year, then changed recipes between pots for the final cooking events. We conducted bulk stable-isotope analysis and lipid residue analysis on the charred food macro-remains, carbonized thin layer organic patina residues and absorbed lipids over the course of the experiment. Our results indicate that: (1) the composition of charred macro-remains represent the final foodstuffs cooked within vessels, (2) thin-layer patina residues represent a mixture of previous cooking events with bias towards the final product(s) cooked in the pot, and (3) absorbed lipid residues are developed over a number of cooking events and are replaced slowly over time, with little evidence of the final recipe ingredients

Flavonoids in prevention of diseases with respect to modulation of Ca-pump function

Flavonoids, natural phenolic compounds, are known as agents with strong antioxidant properties. In many diseases associated with oxidative/nitrosative stress and aging they provide multiple biological health benefits. Ca2+-ATPases belong to the main calcium regulating proteins involved in the balance of calcium homeostasis, which is impaired in oxidative/nitrosative stress and related diseases or aging. The mechanisms of Ca2+-ATPases dysfunction are discussed, focusing on cystein oxidation and tyrosine nitration. Flavonoids act not only as antioxidants but are also able to bind directly to Ca2+-ATPases, thus changing their conformation, which results in modulation of enzyme activity

Investigating the formation and diagnostic value of ω-(o-alkylphenyl)alkanoic acids in ancient pottery

Long-chain ω-(o-alkylphenyl)alkanoic acids (APAAs) derived from the heating of unsaturated fatty acids have been widely used for the identification of aquatic products in archaeological ceramic vessels. To date, little attention has been paid to the diagnostic potential of shorter chain (&lt; C20) APAAs, despite their frequent occurrence. Here, a range of laboratory and field experiments and analyses of archaeological samples were undertaken to investigate whether APAAs could be used to further differentiate different commodities. The results provide new insights about the conditions for the formation of APAAs and enable the proposition of novel criteria to distinguish different natural products.</p

Relationships Between Lipid Profiles and Use of Ethnographic Pottery: an Exploratory Study

Investigating the organic content of archaeological pottery has largely focused on identifying food commodities, but their use and mode of processing still need to be thoroughly investigated. The present study aims to explore the diversity of organic residue absorption patterns, over a wider range of functions than previously stud- ied by experimentation, by analysing ceramics still in use today. A field survey in Bedik Country, Senegal, where the use of pottery is still alive, was conducted to document the uses of ceramics and to interview potters and users of the vessels. As a preliminary study, nine ceramics whose use was recorded were investigated through 59 samples for their absorbed molecular profiles, lipid concentrations, and the preservation of triglycerides and C18 unsaturated fatty acids. The interpretations were first carried out as a blind test and then compared with the actual use. Lipid concentrations and molecular profiles indicated a diversity of contents, and the com- parison of samples taken along the vertical transects of the vessels resulted in pot- tery function hypotheses that were broadly aligned with the actual uses. Cooking pots for fat-rich products were successfully identified, but the various documented patterns showed that lipid accumulation in ceramics is more complex than expected. Although caution is required to adopt this approach for archaeological pots, the ves- sel for fermenting plant products has been identified. Last, this work pointed out that ceramics can be used for a wider range of purposes than those usually considered for archaeological pottery, such as steaming or cooking non-food products

Influence of lipophilicity and stereochemistry at the C-7 position on the cardioprotective and antioxidant effect of ginkgolides during rat heart ischemia and reperfusion

The extent to which the cardioprotective effect of ginkgolides is related to their lipophilicity rather than to their anti-platelet activating factor (PAF) effect was addressed in isolated rat hearts submitted to ischemia and reperfusion. A new derivative of ginkgolide C (1), the 7-alpha-O-(4-methylphenyl) ginkgolide C (4) was synthesized and compared to 7-O-(4-n-methylphenyl) ginkgolide C (2) that had the same absolute configuration at C-7 as 1 for its lipophilicity, anti-PAF activity, and cardioprotective and antioxidant effects. Using reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography HPLC, 4 and 2 were found to be significantly more lipophilic (i.e., log k(w) of 3.42 +/- 0.05 and 3.64 +/- 0.07, respectively) than 1 (1.15 +/- 0.03) and the strong PAF inhibitor ginkgolide B (GkB; 1.65 +/- 0.03). The anti-PAF activities (IC50 values in mu M) were 8.2, 17.1, and 2.2 for 4, 1, and GkB, respectively, while 2 was inactive. In preischemic and/or reperfused hearts perfused with ginkgolides at 0.7 mu M: (i) 2 and 4 were more efficient in improving postischemic hemodynamic and metabolic recovery than 1, (ii) a key-step in cardioprotection Occurred during ischemia where 2 and 4 limited myocardial ATP depletion and contracture development, (iii) a strong anti-lipoperoxidant effect was observed with 2 and 4, but not 1. In vivo administration of 2 to rats (4 mg/kg/day for 20 days) was more effective than that of I regarding ischemic heart protection, suggesting a positive role for lipophilicity. It was concluded that a high lipophilicity is not an absolute prerequisite for a strong anti-PAF effect for ginkgolides, whereas it appears essential for cardioprotection. (c) 2005 Wiley-Liss, In