Black Trumpet, Craterellus cornucopioides (L.) Pers.: Culinary Mushroom with Angiotensin Converting Enzyme Inhibitory and Cytotoxic Activity

Nutritional value and chemical composition, including the content of vitamins, fatty acids, 5'-nucleotides and nucleosides and amino acids, as well as biological activities, including antioxidant, angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitory and cytotoxic activity of black trumpet (Craterellus cornucopioides (L.) Pers.) were tested in vitro. C. cornucopioides was low in energy, fat and carbohydrate contents, but rich in dietary fibre, especially β-glucan as well as niacin and α-tocopherol. The content of essential and non-essential free amino acids was 1.49 and 5.48 mg/g dry weight (dw). The nucleosides and 5'-nucleotides were determined at 1.84 and 3.99 mg/g dw, respectively. The share of unsaturated fatty acids (UFAs) was 75.92% with oleic acid as the major UFA. Cyclohexane and dichloromethane extracts expressed significant cytotoxic activity against selected cell lines, human epithelial cervical cancer cells (HeLa), adenocarcinomic human alveolar basal epithelial cells (A549), colorectal cancer cells (LS174) and normal MRC-5 human embryonic lung fibroblast cells (IC50 of 78.3-155.6 μg/mL). ACE inhibitory activity of the aqueous extract was strong with an IC50 of 0.74 μg/mL. It can be concluded that black trumpet is a good source of nutrients, such as vitamins, dietary fibres, amino acids, nucleotides and fatty acids, which contribute to the overall nutritional value of this fungus with potential for ACE inhibitory activity and use in anti-hypertensive diet

The selection of an LNG terminal location by evaluating its potential impact on marine environments, safety, and costs

In this paper, a new multi-step approach for the selection of an LNG terminal location (for offshore terminal, onshore terminal, or floating storage regasification unit – FSRU) was presented based on the holistic evaluation of the impacts of the potential LNG terminal. The first step was to divide the entire observed area of the Adriatic Sea of the Republic of Croatia into smaller areas by using the geographic information system (GIS) and then selecting areas where the installation of an LNG terminal was technically feasible based on the pre-elimination criteria. Potential LNG terminal areas were selected by taking into account all pre-elimination criteria, and 14 areas were selected by using pre-elimination criteria in a GIS smart chart tool that enabled the analysis of spatial data. The second step involved analyzing the elimination criteria of the 14 areas selected in the first step by pre-elimination criteria analyses. Six potential LNG terminal micro-locations were selected based on the defined elimination criteria. In the third step, these six micro-locations were evaluated by experts by using 38 specific sub-criteria classified into five distinct groups: economic (11 sub-criteria), ecological (13 sub-criteria), safety (4 sub-criteria), traffic connection (6 sub-criteria), and gas needs (4 sub-criteria). The fourth step involved making a multi-criteria expert analysis of the six locations selected in the previous step (for onshore terminals, offshore terminals, and FSRU) for the analysis of three different scenarios by the PROMETHEE (Preference Ranking Organization METhod of Enrichment Evaluation) method. In every scenario, one group of sub-criteria was selected as the most important according to its cumulative relationship with the other groups of criteria (scenario 1 – economic group; scenario 2 – ecological group; scenario 3 – safety group). A different importance (weight) was given to each of the sub-criteria. The methodology presented in this paper can also be used for decision-making processes for other marine and coastal activities, where incorporating an ecosystem approach is necessary for taking into account safety and project costs; however, the selection of pre-elimination criteria, elimination criteria, and sub-criteria should be carefully adjusted to other situations or activities