Yield, Quality and Phytochemicals of Organic and Conventional Raspberry Cultivated in Chihuahua, Mexico

Raspberry production represents an alternative for farmers in the temperate zones of Mexico. Due to the environmental impact caused by conventional agriculture, there is currently greater demand for organic food in the national and international market. To achieve this need, new fertilization techniques based on organic amendments are being tested. In the present study, yields and quality were evaluated over a 3-year period (2015, 2016 and 2017) as well as the phytochemical compounds of the production in 2017, with management of organic versus conventional fertilization of raspberry crop in open field in Cuauhtémoc, Chihuahua, Mexico. During the three years of study, the conventional fertilization system obtained higher yields, compared to the organic one, with values of 2,698 and 2,351 g per linear meter in 2015, 2,423 and 1,301 g per linear meter in 2016 and the data for 2017 were 3,077 and 2,550 g per linear meter, respectively. Regarding quality, the results showed no statistical differences between the two systems of production about colour, firmness, total soluble solids, titratable acidity and pH of the fruit. Differently the composition of phytochemicals, phenols, flavonoids, total anthocyanins and antioxidant capacity was better under the organic management. In conclusion, the conventional system showed higher yields, the quality of the fruits was not different between the two systems, while the levels of phytochemicals were higher with the organic farming. Therefore, it is important to continue the research in order to improve soil fertility and achieve higher yields under the organic management

Yield, quality, and phytochemicals of two strawberry cultivars in response to foliar calcium nanofertilization

ABSTRACT Objective: To evaluate the foliar application of Calcium (Ca2+) nanofertilizer on the yield, fruit quality, total phytochemicals and capacity of two strawberry cultivars 'Monterrey' and 'Albion' of fragaria x annanassa Duch. Design/methodology/approach: Three foliar calcium treatments were established (two commercial foliar fertilizers, one nanofertilizer). The doses used were 2.5, 5 and 7 mEq/L and were applied at the stages of beginning of flowering, full flowering, end of flowering, fruit setting and active production. The design of the experiment was randomized blocks in four repetitions, each repetition consisted of one square meter; equivalent to 16 plants. An analysis of variance was performed and the Tukey test at 5% was applied for comparison of means. Results: The results indicate that doses of 2.5 mEq/L for the 'Monterrey' cultivar and 5 mEq/L for the 'Albion' cultivar favored the increase in total phenolics, total flavonoids, total anthocyanins, antioxidant capacity and the highest performance by obtaining 13.00 kg/m2 and 12.59 kg/m2 respectively. Findings/conclusions: Which indicates that the use of nano-calcium as a foliar fertilizer could be a competent tool that helps improve the bioactive compounds of strawberry fruits and yields.Objective: to evaluate the foliar application of Calcium (Ca2+) nanofertilizer on the yield, fruit quality, total phytochemicals and capacity of two strawberry cultivars 'Monterrey' and 'Albion' of Fragaria x annanassa Duch. Design/ Methodology/ Approach: three foliar calcium treatments were established (two commercial foliar fertilizers, one nanofertilizer). The doses used were 2.5, 5 and 7 mEq L-1 and were applied at the stages of beginning of flowering, full flowering, end of flowering, fruit setting and full production. The design of the experiment was randomized blocks in four replicates, each replicate consisted of a 1 m2 area, with 16 plants. An analysis of variance was performed and the Tukey´s test (p≤0.05) was applied for comparison of means. Results: the results indicated that doses of 2.5 mEq L-1 for the 'Monterrey' cultivar and 5 mEq L-1 for the 'Albion' cultivar favored increases in total phenols, total flavonoids, total anthocyanins, antioxidant capacity and higher yields, by obtaining 13 kg m-2 and 12.59 kg m-2 from those cultivars, respectively. Findings/ Conclusions: this indicates that the use of nano-calcium as a foliar fertilizer could be a suitable alternative that helps improving the bioactive compounds and yields of strawberry fruits

Aceites esenciales de plantas nativas del Perú: Efecto del lugar de cultivo en las características fisicoquímicas y actividad antioxidante

Los aceites esenciales (AE) son usados como conservantes en la industria de alimentos, debido a sus características fisicoquímicas y actividad antioxidante. El objetivo de esta investigación fue determinar rendimiento (R), gravedad específica (GE), índice de refracción (IR), actividad antioxidante (AA) y composición química de AE de huacatay (Tagetes minuta), poleo (Minthostachys mollis), romero (Rosmarinus officinalis L.) y sachaculantro (Eryngium foetidum L.), plantas recolectadas de 52 distritos de la región Amazonas, Perú. Para cada AE se usó análisis de varianza de efectos fijos con tres repeticiones y análisis de clúster. La actividad antioxidante se determinó con el método del radical libre 2,2-difenil-1-picrilhidracilo (DPPH) y sus componentes más abundantes fueron identificados con cromatografía de gases acoplada a espectrometría de masas. Las diferencias en R, GE e IR fueron significativas entre distritos. La AA no mostró diferencia significativa entre los distritos, pero entre las plantas sí. Entre los componentes volátiles más abundantes se identificó 1–adamantanol (44,42%) en huacatay, β–felandreno (20,85%) en poleo, β–mirceno (34,59%) en romero y α–pineno (23,41%) en sachaculantro. Se concluye que el lugar geográfico afecta significativamente las propiedades fisicoquímicas de los AE

Aceites esenciales de plantas nativas del Perú: Efecto del lugar de cultivo en las características fisicoquímicas y actividad antioxidante

Los aceites esenciales (AE) son usados como conservantes en la industria de alimentos, debido a sus características fisicoquímicas y actividad antioxidante. El objetivo de esta investigación fue determinar rendimiento (R), gravedad específica (GE), índice de refracción (IR), actividad antioxidante (AA) y composición química de AE de huacatay (Tagetes minuta), poleo (Minthostachys mollis), romero (Rosmarinus officinalis L.) y sachaculantro (Eryngium foetidum L.), plantas recolectadas de 52 distritos de la región Amazonas, Perú. Para cada AE se usó análisis de varianza de efectos fijos con tres repeticiones y análisis de clúster. La actividad antioxidante se determinó con el método del radical libre 2,2-difenil-1-picrilhidracilo (DPPH) y sus componentes más abundantes fueron identificados con cromatografía de gases acoplada a espectrometría de masas. Las diferencias en R, GE e IR fueron significativas entre distritos. La AA no mostró diferencia significativa entre los distritos, pero entre las plantas sí. Entre los componentes volátiles más abundantes se identificó 1–adamantanol (44,42%) en huacatay, β–felandreno (20,85%) en poleo, β–mirceno (34,59%) en romero y α–pineno (23,41%) en sachaculantro. Se concluye que el lugar geográfico afecta significativamente las propiedades fisicoquímicas de los AE

Evaluation of Cooking Quality, Nutritional and Texture Characteristics of Pasta Added with Oat Bran and Apple Flour

This study reports the effect of the addition of oat bran and apple flour on the cooking quality, digestibility, antioxidant, nutritional and texture characteristics of a spaghetti-type pasta. Pasta samples were prepared by substituting 50% of durum wheat semolina with oat bran (OBP) or apple flour (AFP). AFP presented higher cooking loss and water absorption index than the control pasta prepared with 100% durum wheat semolina (WSP). The supplementation of pasta with oat bran increased the total dietary fiber content (16.43% w/w, dw), while apple flour decreased the protein content (11.16% w/w, dw). There was no significant difference in the resistant starch content among all pasta samples. The pasta samples made with 50/50 durum wheat semolina/oat bran and 50/50 durum wheat semolina/apple flour increased the antioxidant activity by ≈46% and ≈97%, respectively. The OBP and AFP samples had a similar texture to the control pasta. A 50% replacement of durum wheat semolina with oat bran in a pasta formulation decreased the caloric content and digestibility of its starch components. These attributes found in the oat bran pasta and apple flour pasta make them a healthy choice for the diet of people with specific nutritional needs

Elaboration and Characterization of Active Apple Starch Films Incorporated with Ellagic Acid

Apple starch films were obtained from apples harvested at 60, 70, 80 and 90 days after full bloom (DAFB). Mechanical properties and water vapor permeability (WVP) were evaluated. The apple starch films at 70 DAFB presented higher values in the variables of tensile strength (8.12 MPa), elastic modulus (3.10 MPa) and lower values of water vapor permeability (6.77 × 10−11 g m−1 s−1 Pa−1) than apple starch films from apples harvested at 60, 80 and 90 DAFB. Therefore, these films were chosen to continue the study incorporating ellagic acid (EA). The EA was added at three concentrations [0.02% (FILM-EA0.02%), 0.05% (FILM-EA0.05%) and 0.1% (FILM-EA0.1%) w/w] and compared with the apple starch films without EA (FILM-Control). The films were characterized by their physicochemical, optical, morphological and mechanical properties. Their thermal stability and antioxidant capacity were also evaluated. The FILM-Control and FILM-EA0.02% showed a uniform surface, while FILM-EA0.05% and FILM-EA0.1% showed a rough surface and insoluble EA particles. Compared to FILM-Control, EA modified the values of tensile strength, elasticity modulus and elongation at break. The antioxidant capacity increased as EA concentration did. EA incorporation allowed obtaining films with higher antioxidant capacity, capable of blocking UV light with better mechanical properties than film without EA

International Nosocomial Infection Control Consortiu (INICC) report, data summary of 43 countries for 2007-2012. Device-associated module

We report the results of an International Nosocomial Infection Control Consortium (INICC) surveillance study from January 2007-December 2012 in 503 intensive care units (ICUs) in Latin America, Asia, Africa, and Europe. During the 6-year study using the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) U.S. National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN) definitions for device-associated health care–associated infection (DA-HAI), we collected prospective data from 605,310 patients hospitalized in the INICC's ICUs for an aggregate of 3,338,396 days. Although device utilization in the INICC's ICUs was similar to that reported from ICUs in the U.S. in the CDC's NHSN, rates of device-associated nosocomial infection were higher in the ICUs of the INICC hospitals: the pooled rate of central line–associated bloodstream infection in the INICC's ICUs, 4.9 per 1,000 central line days, is nearly 5-fold higher than the 0.9 per 1,000 central line days reported from comparable U.S. ICUs. The overall rate of ventilator-associated pneumonia was also higher (16.8 vs 1.1 per 1,000 ventilator days) as was the rate of catheter-associated urinary tract infection (5.5 vs 1.3 per 1,000 catheter days). Frequencies of resistance of Pseudomonas isolates to amikacin (42.8% vs 10%) and imipenem (42.4% vs 26.1%) and Klebsiella pneumoniae isolates to ceftazidime (71.2% vs 28.8%) and imipenem (19.6% vs 12.8%) were also higher in the INICC's ICUs compared with the ICUs of the CDC's NHSN