Effects of processing on polyphenolic and volatile composition and fruit quality of clery strawberries

Strawberries belonging to cultivar Clery (Fragaria x ananassa (Duchesne ex Weston)), cultivated in central Italy were subjected to a multi‐methodological experimental study. Fresh and defrosted strawberries were exposed to different processing methods, such as homogenization, thermal and microwave treatments. The homogenate samples were submitted to CIEL*a*b* color analysis and Head‐Space GC/MS analysis to determine the impact of these procedures on phytochemical composition. Furthermore, the corresponding strawberry hydroalcoholic extracts were further analyzed by HPLC‐DAD for secondary metabolites quantification and by means of spectrophotometric in vitro assays to evaluate their total phenolic and total flavonoid contents and antioxidant activity. These chemical investigations confirmed the richness in bioactive metabolites supporting the extraordinary healthy potential of this fruit as a food ingredient, as well as functional food, highlighting the strong influence of the processing steps which could negatively impact on the polyphenol composition. Despite a more brilliant red color and aroma preservation, nonpasteurized samples were characterized by a lower content of polyphenols and antioxidant activity with respect to pasteurized samples, as also suggested by the PCA analysis of the collected data

Classic vs laparoscopic approach in colorectal cancer. Experience of a tertiary center, Surgery No 3 Clinic, Cluj-Napoca

Clinica Chirurgie 3, Cluj-Napoca, România, Al XIII-lea Congres al Asociației Chirurgilor „Nicolae Anestiadi” și al III-lea Congres al Societății de Endoscopie, Chirurgie miniminvazivă și Ultrasonografie ”V.M.Guțu” din Republica MoldovaIntroducere: Cancerul colorectal este unul dintre cele mai frecvente cancere și cu tendință în creștere la nivel global. Majoritatea studiilor recente au demonstrat non inferioritatea și chiar o ușoară superioritate în abordul laparoscopic prin prisma rezultatelor obținute și a supraviețuirii la distanță. Material și metode: Au fost selectate retrospectiv 2186 de cazuri din baza de date completată prospectiv a Clinicii Chirurgie 3 pentru perioada ian 2013-dec 2018 (6 ani). Din acestea s-au exclus 76 cazuri laparoscopie/laparotomie exploratorie, 154 cazuri colostomii, 51 derivații interne; în final au fost analizate 1905 cazuri de cancer colorectal. Rezultate: Din 1905 cazuri s-au efectuat rezecții laparoscopice la un număr de 310 (16.27%) și clasice la un număr de 1595 cazuri (83.73%). Au fost analizați între cele două loturi următorii parametri: pregătire preoperatorie, durata operației, pierderi sangvine, complicații postoperatorii (fistulă, abces, hemoragie, ocluzie, complicații generale), supurații de plagă, zile spitalizare, necesar antibiotic, mobilizare postoperatorie, mortalitate. Concuzii: Abordul laparoscopic prezintă avantaje privind recuperarea postoperatorie, pierderi sangvine, zile spitalizare, necesar antialgice/antibiotic, lipsa supurațiilor de plagă. Dezavantajele sunt curba de învățare, aparatura specifică și dificultatea păstrării principiilor oncologice.Introduction: Colorectal cancer remains one of the most frequently diagnosed malignant pathologies with a continuously increasing rate worldwide. Most of the recent studies have shown the non-inferiority and slight superiority in the laparoscopic approach through obtained results. Material and methods: 2186 cases were selected retrospectively from a prospectively completed database of the Surgical no 3 Clinic in Cluj-Napoca over the course of 6 years (ian 2013 – dec 2018). Out of these cases, 76 cases were excluded for exploratory laparoscopy/laparotomy, 154 which underwent only colostomy, and 51 which underwent internal derivation. At the end of the study, 1905 cases were eligible. Results: Out of 1905 cases, 310 underwent a laparoscopic approach (16.27%) and 1595 cases underwent a classic approach (83.73%). Between the two approaches, a series of parameters were analyzed: preoperative care, duration of the surgery, intraoperative blood loss, postoperative complications (fistula, abscess, hemorrhage, occlusion, general complications), antibiotic necessity, postoperative mobilization, mortality, prevalence of surgical site infection. Conclusions: The laparoscopic approach proves many advantages regarding postoperative care, blood loss, hospitalization care, necessity of antibiotics and painkillers, and surgical site infection, cosmetic advantages. Disadvantages are the learning curve, specific instruments requirements, difficulty of maintaining the oncology principles

Corrigendum: Ethnopharmacological Approaches for Therapy of Jaundice: Part II. Highly Used Plant Species from Acanthaceae, Euphorbiaceae, Asteraceae, Combretaceae, and Fabaceae Families

In the original article, there was a mistake in the legend for Figure 4 as published (the spelling of isosilibin was incorrect). The correct legend appears below. In the original article, there was a mistake in Figure 4 as published (CH3 group was missing in the Silybin structure). The corrected Figure 4 appears below. The authors apologize for these errors and state that this does not change the scientific conclusions of the article in any way

Ethnopharmacological Approaches for Therapy of Jaundice: Part I

Jaundice is a very common symptom especially in the developing countries. It is associated with several hepatic diseases which are still major causes of death. There are many different approaches to jaundice treatment and the growing number of ethnomedicinal studies shows the plant pharmacology as very promising direction. Many medicinal plants are used for the treatment of jaundice, however a comprehensive review on this subject has not been published. The use of medicinal plants in drug discovery is highly emphasized (based on their traditional and safe uses in different folk medicine systems from ancient times). Many sophisticated analytical techniques are emerging in the pharmaceutical field to validate and discover new biologically active chemical entities derived from plants. Here, we aim to classify and categorize medicinal plants relevant for the treatment of jaundice according to their origin, geographical location, and usage. Our search included various databases like Pubmed, ScienceDirect, Google Scholar. Keywords and phrases used for these searches included: “jaundice,” “hyperbilirubinemia,” “serum glutamate,” “bilirubin,” “Ayurveda.” The first part of the review focuses on the variety of medicinal plant used for the treatment of jaundice (a total of 207 medicinal plants). In the second part, possible mechanisms of action of biologically active secondary metabolites of plants from five families for jaundice treatment are discussed

Natural products in diabetes research: quantitative literature analysis

The current study aimed to identify which natural products and which research directions are related to the major contributors to academic journals for diabetes therapy. Bibliometric data were extracted from the Web of Science online database using the search string TOPIC=(natural product* OR natural compound* OR natural molecule* OR phytochemical* OR secondary metabolite*) AND TS=(diabet*) and analysed by a bibliometric software, VOSviewer. The search yielded 3694 publications, which were collectively cited 80,791 times, with an H-index of 117 and 21.9 citations per publication on average. The top-contributing countries were India, the USA, China, South Korea and Brazil. Curcumin, flavanone, resveratrol, carotenoid, polyphenols, flavonol, flavone and berberine were the most frequently cited natural products or compound classes. Our results provide a brief overview of the major directions of natural product research in diabetes up to now and hint on promising avenues for future research.Atanas G. Atanasov acknowledges the support of the Polish KNOW (Leading National Research Centre) Scientific Consortium ‘Healthy Animal – Safe Food’, decision of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education No. 05-1/KNOW2/2015. Dongdong Wang acknowledges the Cultivation project for clinical medicine of the integrated traditional Chinese and western medicine and Cultivation project for education team of internal medicine of the integrated traditional Chinese and western medicine in the first-term subjects with special support in the first-class universities in Guizhou province (Qin Jiao Gao Fa No. 2017-158). Javier Echeverría gratefully acknowledges funding from CONICYT (PAI/ACADEMIA No. 79160109).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Women and Illegal Activities: Gender Differences and Women's Willingness to Comply Over Time

In recent years the topics of illegal activities such as corruption or tax evasion have attracted a great deal of attention. However, there is still a lack of substantial empirical evidence about the determinants of compliance. The aim of this paper is to investigate empirically whether women are more willing to be compliant than men and whether we observe (among women and in general) differences in attitudes among similar age groups in different time periods (cohort effect) or changing attitudes of the same cohorts over time (age effect) using data from eight Western European countries from the World Values Survey and the European Values Survey that span the period from 1981 to 1999. The results reveal higher willingness to comply among women and an age rather than a cohort effect. Working Paper 06-5

Global economic crisis and corruption

© 2014, Springer Science+Business Media New York. We study the effects of the 2008–2009 global economic crisis on the household experience of bribing public officials. The data come from the Life in Transition-2 survey, conducted in 2010 in 30 post-socialist economies of Central and Eastern Europe and Central Asia. We find that households hit by crisis are more likely to bribe and, among people who bribe, crisis victims bribe a wider range of public officials than non-victims. The crisis victims are also more likely to pay bribes because public officials ask them to do so and less likely because of gratitude. The link between crisis and bribery is stronger in the poorest countries of the region. Our findings support the conjecture that public officials misuse sensitive information about crisis victims to inform bribe extortion decisions