Antioxidants from lamiaceae herbs

One of the important trends in the food industry today is the demand for natural antioxidants from plant material. Synthetic antioxidants such as butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT), and butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA) now being replaced by natural antioxidants because of their possible toxicity and due to a suspected action as promoters of carcinogens. Natural antioxidants may show equivalent or higher antioxidant activity than endogenous or synthetic antioxidants. Thus, great effort is being devoted to the search for alternative and cheap sources of natural antioxidants, as well as to the development of efficient and selective extraction techniques. Supercritical fluid extraction (SFE) with carbon dioxide is considered to be the most suitable method for producing natural antioxidants to be used in food industry. The supercritical extract does not contain residual organic solvents as in conventional extraction processes, which makes these products suitable for use in food, cosmetic and pharmaceutical industry. The chapter presents information about antioxidant activity and chemical composition of herb spices which belong to the Lamiaceae family like rosemary, sage, thyme, hyssop, oregano and basil. The attention will be focused on antioxidant activity of supercritical extracts from selected Lamiaceae herbs, in comparison with the activity of synthetic antioxidants. This chapter also includes the various reports on antioxidant activity of extracts from Lamiaceae herbs obtained by conventional methods (distillation and solvent extraction) and by supercritical fluid extraction with carbon dioxide, in several food products: animal and vegetable fats and oils, meat, poultry and fish products

Alpine thermal events in the central Serbo‑Macedonian Massif (southeastern Serbia)

The Serbo-Macedonian Massif (SMM) represents a crystalline belt situated between the two diverging branches of the Eastern Mediterranean Alpine orogenic system, the northeast-vergent Carpatho-Balkanides and the southwest-vergent Dinarides and the Hellenides. We have applied fission-track analysis on apatites and zircons, coupled with structural field observations in order to reveal the low-temperature evolution of the SMM. Additionally, the age and geochemistry of the Palaeogene igneous rocks (i.e. Surdulica granodiorite and dacitic volcanic rocks) were determined by the LA-ICPMS U–Pb geochronology of zircons and geochemical analysis of main and trace elements in whole-rock samples. Three major cooling stages have been distinguished from the late Early Cretaceous to the Oligocene. The first stage represents rapid cooling through the partial annealing zones of zircon and apatite (300–60 °C) during the late Early to early Late Cretaceous (ca. 110–ca. 90 Ma). It is related to a post-orogenic extension following the regional nappe-stacking event in the Early Cretaceous. Middle to late Eocene (ca. 48–ca. 39 Ma) cooling is related to the formation of the Crnook–Osogovo–Lisets extensional dome and its exhumation along low-angle normal faults. The third event is related to regional cooling following the late Eocene magmatic pulse. During this pulse, the areas surrounding the Surdulica granodiorite (36 ± 1 Ma) and the slightly younger volcanic bodies (ca. 35 Ma) have reached temperatures higher than the apatite closure temperature (120 °C) but lower than ca. 250 °C. The geochemistry of the igneous samples reveals late- to post-orogenic tectonic setting during magma generation