Potential health benefits of blueberry and raspberry pomace as functional food ingredients: Dietetic intervention study on healthy women volunteers

The fruit juice industry generates pomace as a valuable by-product especially rich in polyphenols, dietary fibers, vitamins, minerals, and unsaturated fatty acids. In the cookies used in this study, 30% of the gluten-free flour was replaced with dried and ground blueberry and raspberry pomace, rich source of polyphenols, dietary fibers, linoleic and alpha-linolenic acid. In order to examine whether the addition of blueberry and raspberry pomace in cookie formulation can have beneficial effects on certain blood parameters and anthropometric measurements, the designed cookies were tested in 20 healthy, normally fed female subjects, aged 30–50 years (41.35 ± 8.58 years) over four-week dietetic intervention study. Significant changes in the composition of fatty acids serum phospholipids, decrease in LDL-cholesterol level (20.16%), increase in adiponectin level (25.52%) and decrease in ALT and AST values were observed, thus indicating that inclusion of cookies containing blueberry and raspberry dried and ground pomace to usual diet might have positive effects on certain cardiovascular risk factors and liver function indicators

Analysis of the influence and optimization of concentration of organic acids on chemical and physical properties of wheat dough using a response surface methodology and desirability function

In order to improve physical and chemical properties of dough produced from wheat flour of suboptimal quality (protein content 10.7% dry basis, dough energy 4.0 cm2), optimal doses of ascorbic and citric acid were evaluated using a response surface methodology and desirability function. The paper brings the analysis of the main effects as well as their interactions. The effect of organic acids was evident in relation to pH lowering and decrease in free thiol groups, which consequently changed the physical properties of dough (increased dough energy, extensibility and resistance). The well known oxidative effect of ascorbic acid which is manifested as increase in dough energy and resistance, was enhanced by the addition of citric acid i.e. their synergistic action. Contribution of citric acid was the donation of hydrogen ions which changed the pH, lowered the content of free -SH groups and increased protein aggregation. Ascorbic acid individually significantly increased energy (linear regression coefficient b1 = 4.010-4) but higher effect was exerted by the addition of ascorbic and citric acid mixture as seen through higher interaction regression coefficient (b12 = 0.076). Dough resistance was significantly affected only by ascorbic acid due to its oxidizing action whereas dough extensibility was affected by both acids (main effects) at all applied doses and their mixtures. The effect on dough extensibility depends on the dose of acids but resistance decreased with quadratic increase of acid doses. Second-order polynomials were used in modeling of responses (dough energy, resistance and extensibility) which showed a good fit with experimental data as shown by high values of the coefficients of determination R2 for energy, resistance and extensibility (0.953, 0.976 and 0.996, respectively). Based on F value, it could be concluded that the model gave good prediction of experimental data while p-values for all responses showed that the models were significant at significance of 90%. The obtained models were used to optimize the doses of ascorbic and citric acid in order to maximize dough energy and extensibility. Significant increase of dough energy by 4.7 times and extensibility by 1.5 times was achieved by the set of optimum conditions of 97 mg/kg citric and 100 mg/kg ascorbic acid. The obtained results are applicable in semi-industrial and industrial facilities for flour processing

Chromatographic lipophilicity as a predictor of antiproliferative activity of 17-picolyl and 17-picolinylidene androstane derivatives toward prostate cancer

The present study describes the quantitative retention - (anticancer) activity relationship analysis of a series of 17-picolyl and 17-picolinylidene androstane derivatives based on the chromatographic data obtained by reversed-phase high performance liquid chromatography (C18-RP-HPLC) in a mobile phase consisting of 90% of methanol and 10% of water. The obtained retention factor or chromatographic lipophilicity factor (logk0.90) was correlated with the antiproliferative activity of studied compounds (IC50) toward androgen-receptor negative prostate cancer cell line (AR-neg. PC-3). Correlation analysis was carried out by applying non-linear artificial neural networks (ANNs) method. Statistical validation showed that the obtained ANNs can successfully predict the IC50 values of structurally similar androstane derivatives

Mycotoxins in maize: Annual variations and the impact of climate change

The presence of aflatoxins (AFs), ochratoxin A (OTA), zearalenone (ZEA), deoxynivalenol (DON), and fumonisins (FUMs) was examined in maize samples from the Republic of Serbia. The maize samples were collected during the period 2012-2016, and analyzed every year after harvest using validated Enzyme Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA) method. The obtained results were considered regarding the weather conditions parameters recorded during the investigated maize growing seasons. Significant differences in weather-related parameters recorded in the five-year period resulted in different mycotoxin profiles between the investigated years. Obtained results indicate that the presence of ZEA and DON in maize is characteristic of years with abundant precipitation, while AFs and OTA mainly occur in maize during hot and dry years. Furthermore, FUMs were detected with different contamination frequency in maize samples from every year. Based on the findings obtained in this study, as well as on noted changes in weather conditions in the recent years it could be assumed that maize from Serbia may become susceptible to problems concerning mycotoxins. Therefore, there is a necessity for monitoring and research related to the mycotoxins occurrence in maize from Serbia

Progress in vegetable proteins isolation techniques: A review

Novel vegetable proteins, like those extracted from abundant raw materials (grass) or agri-food by-products and waste streams (oilseed meals), are expected to be used as replacers for animal-derived proteins, due to higher production efficiency, reduced life cycle environmental impact and possibility to meet consumers' dietary or cultural preferences. Although having a versatile functionality (emulsifying, foaming, gelling, texturizing agents), application of proteins is limited since their properties highly depend on their structure and composition, environmental factors (pH, ionic strength, presence of other micro- and macro-molecules in food matrices) and isolation method and conditions. The objective of this article is to review the current techniques used to isolate the proteins from vegetable raw materials and comment on the influence of extraction method and conditions (pH, ionic strength, extraction media temperature, extraction time, etc.) on protein properties (yield, purity, appearance, solubility, denaturation degree, emulsification efficiency, etc.). The utilization of novel technologies such as ultrasound assisted extraction, electro-activation technique and approaches (enzyme-assisted extraction) to improve protein extraction yield or functionality was also discussed