Chlorophylls and Carotenoids in Food Products from Olive Tree

This chapter provides an updated overview about the chlorophyll and carotenoid pigments present in olive fruits and their products, table olive, and olive oil. The metabolism of these pigments during growth and ripening of the olive fruit is described. General aspects related to photosynthetic tissues and non-carotenogenic fruits, varieties and the presence of exclusive pigments, the total pigment content, and their relative proportions are highlighted. Chlorophyll and carotenoid changes during the processing of green table olives according to the main styles of preparation are described. Different reaction mechanisms depending on the removal of the bitter components by alkaline hydrolysis or by slow diffusion in brine, as well as the development of the fermentation process, are discussed. The chlorophyll degradation associated with the green staining alteration is specifically mentioned. Changes in the pigment profiles and in their concentrations associated with the virgin olive oil (VOO) elaboration are also described. Recent research works related to thermal degradation kinetics and prediction mathematical model for VOO storage are summarized. The role of the chlorophylls in the photo-oxidation of VOO is also pointed out. Finally, the pigment profiles as authenticity and freshness indices for VOO quality are emphasized

Carotenoid composition of strawberry tree (Arbutus unedo L.) fruits

41 páginas; 5 figuras; 1 tablaThe carotenoid composition of strawberry tree (Arbutus unedo) fruits has been characterised in detail and quantified for the first time. According to the total carotenoid content (over 340 μg/g dw), mature strawberry tree berries can be classified as fruits with very high carotenoid content (>20 μg/g dw). (all-E)-Violaxanthin and 9Z-violaxanthin were found to be the major carotenoid pigments, accounting for more than 60%, responsible for the bright colour of the flesh of ripe fruits. In addition other 5,6-epoxide carotenoids, such as (all-E)-neoxanthin, (9′Z)-neoxanthin (all-E)-antheraxanthin and lutein 5,6-epoxide, together with (all-E)-lutein, (all-E)-zeaxanthin and (all-E)-β-carotene were found at high levels (>5–20 μg/g dw). The LC–MS (APCI+) analysis of the xanthophyll fraction in their native state (direct extract) revealed that most of them (>90%) were totally esterified with saturated fatty acids (capric, lauric, myristic, palmitic and stearic). Monoesters, homodiesters and heterodiesters of (all-E)-violaxanthin and 9Z-violaxanthin were the major pigments.This work was supported by funding from the Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (Spanish Government, Project AGL2010-14850/ALI) and the Consejería de Economía, Innovación, Ciencia y Empleo (Junta de Andalucía, Project P08-AGR-03477). Raúl Delgado Pelayo holds a predoctoral grant from Junta de Andalucía (Proyecto de Excelencia P08-AGR-3477). Authors are members of the IBERCAROT Network, funded by CYTED (ref. 112RT0445).Peer reviewe

Los pigmentos como marcadores de trazabilidad del aceite de oliva

XIV Simposium Científico-Técnico del Aceite de Oliva= XIV Scientific-Technical Symposium of Olive Oil. (Jáén, 13-15 mayo, 2009). EXPOLIVA 2009.Se discute la utilidad de los pigmentos clorofílicos y carotenoides como marcadores químicos para la trazabilidad del aceite de oliva en los siguientes puntos: 1.-Marcadores para rastrear el origen varietal del aceite: la presencia de pigmentos exclusivos tales como derivados clorofílicos desesterificados y/o xantofilas esterificadas se puede aplicar para diferenciar aceites de las variedades Arbequina y Blanqueta. Así mismo, el contenido total en pigmentos y los porcentajes de las xantofilas violaxanteno y luteína son de utilidad como variables clasificatorias en un modelo de rastreo del origen varietal. 2.- Marcadores de condiciones térmicas en el procesado y/o almacenamiento: el porcentaje de ciertos pigmentos clorofílicos oxidados como pirofeofitina “a” puede indicar malas prácticas de procesado y/o almacenamiento. Se propone la aplicación de un modelo matemático para predecir la formación de pirofeofitina “a” en aceite de oliva virgen, en función del tiempo y temperatura de almacenamiento como herramienta para su trazabilidad. 3.-Marcadores de adulteración en el producto envasado: la presencia de pigmentos ajenos a la oliva o la alteración de las relaciones cuantitativas entre ciertos pigmentos se proponen como marcadores de adulteración.Sergio Alcañiz (Ayudante de Laboratorio) Dirección General de Investigación por la financiación de los Proyectos de Investigación: OLI97-2151 AGL 2000-0699 AGL 2004-07623-C03-02 AGL 2007-66139-C02-01.Peer reviewe

Examining the immune signatures of SARS-CoV-2 infection in pregnancy and the impact on neurodevelopment: Protocol of the SIGNATURE longitudinal study.

The COVID-19 pandemic represents a valuable opportunity to carry out cohort studies that allow us to advance our knowledge on pathophysiological mechanisms of neuropsychiatric diseases. One of these opportunities is the study of the relationships between inflammation, brain development and an increased risk of suffering neuropsychiatric disorders. Based on the hypothesis that neuroinflammation during early stages of life is associated with neurodevelopmental disorders and confers a greater risk of developing neuropsychiatric disorders, we propose a cohort study of SARS-CoV-2-infected pregnant women and their newborns. The main objective of SIGNATURE project is to explore how the presence of prenatal SARS-CoV-2 infection and other non-infectious stressors generates an abnormal inflammatory activity in the newborn. The cohort of women during the COVID-19 pandemic will be psychological and biological monitored during their pregnancy, delivery, childbirth and postpartum. The biological information of the umbilical cord (foetus blood) and peripheral blood from the mother will be obtained after childbirth. These samples and the clinical characterisation of the cohort of mothers and newborns, are tremendously valuable at this time. This is a protocol report and no analyses have been conducted yet, being currently at, our study is in the recruitment process step. At the time of this publication, we have identified 1,060 SARS-CoV-2 infected mothers and all have already given birth. From the total of identified mothers, we have recruited 537 SARS-COV-2 infected women and all of them have completed the mental health assessment during pregnancy. We have collected biological samples from 119 mothers and babies. Additionally, we have recruited 390 non-infected pregnant women

RICORS2040 : The need for collaborative research in chronic kidney disease

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a silent and poorly known killer. The current concept of CKD is relatively young and uptake by the public, physicians and health authorities is not widespread. Physicians still confuse CKD with chronic kidney insufficiency or failure. For the wider public and health authorities, CKD evokes kidney replacement therapy (KRT). In Spain, the prevalence of KRT is 0.13%. Thus health authorities may consider CKD a non-issue: very few persons eventually need KRT and, for those in whom kidneys fail, the problem is 'solved' by dialysis or kidney transplantation. However, KRT is the tip of the iceberg in the burden of CKD. The main burden of CKD is accelerated ageing and premature death. The cut-off points for kidney function and kidney damage indexes that define CKD also mark an increased risk for all-cause premature death. CKD is the most prevalent risk factor for lethal coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and the factor that most increases the risk of death in COVID-19, after old age. Men and women undergoing KRT still have an annual mortality that is 10- to 100-fold higher than similar-age peers, and life expectancy is shortened by ~40 years for young persons on dialysis and by 15 years for young persons with a functioning kidney graft. CKD is expected to become the fifth greatest global cause of death by 2040 and the second greatest cause of death in Spain before the end of the century, a time when one in four Spaniards will have CKD. However, by 2022, CKD will become the only top-15 global predicted cause of death that is not supported by a dedicated well-funded Centres for Biomedical Research (CIBER) network structure in Spain. Realizing the underestimation of the CKD burden of disease by health authorities, the Decade of the Kidney initiative for 2020-2030 was launched by the American Association of Kidney Patients and the European Kidney Health Alliance. Leading Spanish kidney researchers grouped in the kidney collaborative research network Red de Investigación Renal have now applied for the Redes de Investigación Cooperativa Orientadas a Resultados en Salud (RICORS) call for collaborative research in Spain with the support of the Spanish Society of Nephrology, Federación Nacional de Asociaciones para la Lucha Contra las Enfermedades del Riñón and ONT: RICORS2040 aims to prevent the dire predictions for the global 2040 burden of CKD from becoming true

Treatment with tocilizumab or corticosteroids for COVID-19 patients with hyperinflammatory state: a multicentre cohort study (SAM-COVID-19)

Objectives: The objective of this study was to estimate the association between tocilizumab or corticosteroids and the risk of intubation or death in patients with coronavirus disease 19 (COVID-19) with a hyperinflammatory state according to clinical and laboratory parameters. Methods: A cohort study was performed in 60 Spanish hospitals including 778 patients with COVID-19 and clinical and laboratory data indicative of a hyperinflammatory state. Treatment was mainly with tocilizumab, an intermediate-high dose of corticosteroids (IHDC), a pulse dose of corticosteroids (PDC), combination therapy, or no treatment. Primary outcome was intubation or death; follow-up was 21 days. Propensity score-adjusted estimations using Cox regression (logistic regression if needed) were calculated. Propensity scores were used as confounders, matching variables and for the inverse probability of treatment weights (IPTWs). Results: In all, 88, 117, 78 and 151 patients treated with tocilizumab, IHDC, PDC, and combination therapy, respectively, were compared with 344 untreated patients. The primary endpoint occurred in 10 (11.4%), 27 (23.1%), 12 (15.4%), 40 (25.6%) and 69 (21.1%), respectively. The IPTW-based hazard ratios (odds ratio for combination therapy) for the primary endpoint were 0.32 (95%CI 0.22-0.47; p < 0.001) for tocilizumab, 0.82 (0.71-1.30; p 0.82) for IHDC, 0.61 (0.43-0.86; p 0.006) for PDC, and 1.17 (0.86-1.58; p 0.30) for combination therapy. Other applications of the propensity score provided similar results, but were not significant for PDC. Tocilizumab was also associated with lower hazard of death alone in IPTW analysis (0.07; 0.02-0.17; p < 0.001). Conclusions: Tocilizumab might be useful in COVID-19 patients with a hyperinflammatory state and should be prioritized for randomized trials in this situatio

Examining the immune signatures of SARS-CoV-2 infection in pregnancy and the impact on neurodevelopment: Protocol of the SIGNATURE longitudinal study

The COVID-19 pandemic represents a valuable opportunity to carry out cohort studies that allow us to advance our knowledge on pathophysiological mechanisms of neuropsychiatric diseases. One of these opportunities is the study of the relationships between inflammation, brain development and an increased risk of suffering neuropsychiatric disorders. Based on the hypothesis that neuroinflammation during early stages of life is associated with neurodevelopmental disorders and confers a greater risk of developing neuropsychiatric disorders, we propose a cohort study of SARS-CoV-2-infected pregnant women and their newborns. The main objective of SIGNATURE project is to explore how the presence of prenatal SARS-CoV-2 infection and other non-infectious stressors generates an abnormal inflammatory activity in the newborn. The cohort of women during the COVID-19 pandemic will be psychological and biological monitored during their pregnancy, delivery, childbirth and postpartum. The biological information of the umbilical cord (foetus blood) and peripheral blood from the mother will be obtained after childbirth. These samples and the clinical characterisation of the cohort of mothers and newborns, are tremendously valuable at this time. This is a protocol report and no analyses have been conducted yet, being currently at, our study is in the recruitment process step. At the time of this publication, we have identified 1,060 SARS-CoV-2 infected mothers and all have already given birth. From the total of identified mothers, we have recruited 537 SARS-COV-2 infected women and all of them have completed the mental health assessment during pregnancy. We have collected biological samples from 119 mothers and babies. Additionally, we have recruited 390 non-infected pregnant women.This work has received support from the Fundación Alicia Koplowitz to realize the epigenetic wide association study and to the clinical assessment to the children. This work has also received public support from the Consejería de Salud y Familias para la financiación de la investigación, desarrollo e innovación (i + d + i) biomédica y en ciencias de la salud en Andalucía (CSyF 2021 - FEDER). Grant Grant number PECOVID- 0195-2020. Convocatoria financiada con Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional (FEDER) al 80% dentro del Programa Operativo de Andalucía FEDER 2014-2020. Andalucía se mueve con Europa. NG-T received payment under Rio Hortega contract CM20-00015 with the Carlos III Health Institute.Peer reviewe

4to. Congreso Internacional de Ciencia, Tecnología e Innovación para la Sociedad. Memoria académica

Este volumen acoge la memoria académica de la Cuarta edición del Congreso Internacional de Ciencia, Tecnología e Innovación para la Sociedad, CITIS 2017, desarrollado entre el 29 de noviembre y el 1 de diciembre de 2017 y organizado por la Universidad Politécnica Salesiana (UPS) en su sede de Guayaquil. El Congreso ofreció un espacio para la presentación, difusión e intercambio de importantes investigaciones nacionales e internacionales ante la comunidad universitaria que se dio cita en el encuentro. El uso de herramientas tecnológicas para la gestión de los trabajos de investigación como la plataforma Open Conference Systems y la web de presentación del Congreso http://citis.blog.ups.edu.ec/, hicieron de CITIS 2017 un verdadero referente entre los congresos que se desarrollaron en el país. La preocupación de nuestra Universidad, de presentar espacios que ayuden a generar nuevos y mejores cambios en la dimensión humana y social de nuestro entorno, hace que se persiga en cada edición del evento la presentación de trabajos con calidad creciente en cuanto a su producción científica. Quienes estuvimos al frente de la organización, dejamos plasmado en estas memorias académicas el intenso y prolífico trabajo de los días de realización del Congreso Internacional de Ciencia, Tecnología e Innovación para la Sociedad al alcance de todos y todas

Pigment changes during processing of green table olive specialities treated with alkali and without fermentation

24 páginas, 2 figuras, 1 tablaGreen table olive preparations including an alkaline treatment, but not preservation by natural fermentation, such as Castelvetrano-style, are gaining importance in international trade. One of the main highly valued characteristics for this product is a bright green colour, as similar as possible to the fresh fruit. Large proportions of Cu–chlorophyll complexes have been quantified in commercial products of Castelvetrano-style table olives thus in the present work the changes in the chlorophyll and carotenoid composition of olive fruits during this processing style were investigated. The high alkaline pH of the process was the most important feature governing the subsequent transformation of the chlorophyll pigments initially present in the fresh fruit. During processing, the main transformations of pigments were due to allomerization and solvolysis reactions of chlorophylls a and b, which affected the isocyclic ring of the chlorophyll structure but not the Mg atom that remained, and did not change substantially the pigment colour and, consequently, the fruit colour. No Cu–chlorophyll derivatives were detected. Then, even though the intense alkali treatment of the olives may cause such damage in the fruit cells that enables contact between the chlorophyll derivatives and the endogenous Cu of the fruit, the absence of acidic conditions during the olive processing did not lead to the previous reaction of Mg replacement by 2H, which is necessary for the following insertion of Cu. With respect to the carotenoid fraction, any noticeable change took place.This work was supported by the Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia (Spanish Government, AGL 2012-39714/ALI), and Junta de Andalucía through financial support to the group AGR 148-2011. We thank Sergio Alcañiz-García for the technical assistance. The authors are members of the IBERCAROT Network, funded by CYTED (ref. 112RT0445).Peer reviewe

Clorofilas y Carotenoides en aceitunas de la variedad gordal. Factores asociados con la alteración Mancha Verde

Durante la maduración y post-recolección de los frutos, la degradación celular está acompañada de la oxidación de los ácidos grasos insaturados que forman parte de los componentes lipídicos de las membranas. Esta reacción está ; catalizada por el enzima lipoxigenasa. El color y el aroma del aceite de oliva virgen podría verse afectado por la ausencia o presencia de este tipo de enzimas oxidativas, durante el tiempo que los frutos permanecen almacenados en trojes antes de la molturación.Los pigmentos que dan color a la aceituna y posteriormente al aceite de oliva son clorifilas y carotenoides. Estos componentes en determinadas condiciones pueden sufrir oxidación y degradarse a productos incoloros. En esta reacción median los radicales libres formados por la acción de la lipoxigenasa sobre los ácidos grasos insaturados con sistema ciscis 1,4 pentaideno (6) (7).Aunque no se conoce exactamente los mecanismos de esta catálisis de co-oxidación, si se sabe que se requiere la presencia del sustrato específico de la lipoxigenasa.Es un hecho conocido que, durante el almacenamiento, los frutos suelen sufrir alteraciones que llegan a provocar la desintegración de las paredes celulares. Estas reacciones se inician después de la recolección con la autolisis o autodescomposición de la materia orgánica, que poco a poco va reemplazando a la respiración y a la madurez organizada. La célula vegetal pierde su resistencia vital y, con ella, el control sobre los compuestos químicos presentes, cuya distribución y reactividad había regulado anteriormente para conservar las características de los tejidos vivos.Al acometer el presente estudio, en el aceite de oliva virgen, se ha tratado de dilucidar cómo inciden sobre el contenido y clase de pigmentos, el estado de madurez en que se recolectan los frutos, tiempo de almacenamiento en trojes y el proceso de