Assessment of Microelements Content in Organic Soft Albanian Wheat Genotypes

The increase of micro-element content in wheat seed to reduce human malnutrition is a challenge for all agronomists during plant breeding. The objective of the current study was to assess the micro-element content as Cu, Fe, Mn, Cd, Zn and Cr in 20 accessions and 10 lines of soft wheat grown under organic farming system in Albanian region. The Cu, Fe and Zn contents were determined by flame atomic absorption spectrometry (FAAS) and the Mn, Cd and Cr contents were determined by electrothermal atomic absorption spectrometry (ETAAS). The obtained results showed significant variations in micro-element contents in different wheat grains genotypes. Higher levels of Cu, Zn, Fe and Mn (6.79%253B 46.42%253B 66.78 and 34.87 mg%252Fkg, respectively in wheat lines) were observed in the present study. These values were higher compared to data reported in previous studies which are performed in the conventional farming system. The concentrations of Cd as a potential toxic element were below the EU limits in all the analyzed samples. The present study showed that the analyzed wheat samples could be considered as a valuable source of micro-elements in human diet

Functional components and lipid quality assessment in vegetable foods: analytical and technological approaches

Lipids are important components that contribute very significantly to nutritional and technological quality of foods because they are the least stable macro-components in foods, due to high susceptibility to oxidation. When rancidity take place, it makes food unhealthy and unacceptable for consumers. Thus, the presence of antioxidants, naturally present of added to foods, is required to enhance shelf life of foods. Moreover, antioxidant like phenolic compounds play an important role in human health enhancing the functionality of foods. The aim of this PhD project was the study of lipid quality and lipid oxidation in different vegetable foods focusing on analytical and technological aspects in order to figure out the effects of lipid composition and bioactive compounds (phenolic compounds, omega-3 fatty acids and dietary fiber) addition on their shelf life. In addition, bioavailability and antioxidant effects of phenolic compounds in human and animals, respectively, were evaluated after consumption of vegetable foods. The first section of the work was focused on the evaluation of lipid quality impact on technological behaviour of vegetable foods. Because of that, cocoa butter with different melting point were evaluated by chromatographic techniques (GC, TLC) and the sample with the higher melting point showed the presence of fatty acids, triglycerides, 2-monoglycerides and FT-IR profile different from genuine cocoa butter, meaning an adding of foreign fat (lauric-fat) not allowed by the law. Looking at lipid quality of other vegetable foods, an accelerated shelf life test (OXITEST®), was used to evaluate of lipid stability to oxidation in tarallini snacks made up using different lipid matrices (sunflower oil, extravirgin olive oil and a blend of extravirgin olive oil and lard). The results showed a good ability of OXITEST® to discriminate between lipid unsaturation and different cooking times, without any samples fat extraction. In the second section, the role of bioactive compounds on cereal based food shelf life was studied in different bakeries by GC, spectrophotometric methods and capillary electrophoresis. It was examined the relationships between phenolic compounds, added with flour, and lipid oxidation of tarallini and frollini. Both products showed an increase in lipid oxidation during storage and antioxidant effects on lipid oxidation were not as expected. Furthermore, the influence of enrichment in polyunsaturated fatty acids on lipid oxidation of pasta was evaluated. The results proved that LC n-3 PUFA were not significantly implicated in the onset of oxidation in spaghetti stored under daylight and accelerated oxidation in a laboratory heater. The importance of phenolic compounds as antioxidant in humans and rats was also studied, by HPLC/MS in the latter section. For this purpose, apigenin and apigenin glycosides excretion was investigated in six women’s urine in a 24 hours study. After a single dose of steamed artichokes, both aglicone and glucuronide metabolites were recovered in 24 h urine. Moreover, the effect of whole grain durum wheat bread and whole grain Kamut® khorasan bread in rats were evaluated. Both cereals were good sources of antioxidants but Kamut® bread fed animals had a better response to stress than wheat durum fed, especially when a sourdough bread was supplied

Effect of different extraction solvents on carotenoids recovery in tomato products

FoodOmics: Food to Life. The scientific forum where academic and industrial scientists involved in food and nutrition research will discuss about the most recent advances in the “omics” approach

Phospholipids in cereals, nuts and some selected oilseeds

The importance of PLs is also related to their many industrial applications principally based on their surfactant properties; in particular, in the food industry, when combined with proteins, PL are used as emulsifiers or emulsion stabilizers. In addition to their biological and technological role, PL are used for several biomedical applications, such as emulsification in pharmaceuticals and the preparation of liposomes for cosmetics and drug delivery [7]. There are several analytical methods available for analysis of phospholipids. TLC, capillary electrophoresis and high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) can be used to analyze the different class of phospholipids. In this chapter we will discuss the isolation and PL composition of different cereals, nuts and some selected seeds

Determination of free and bound phenolic compounds in soy isoflavone concentrate using PFP fused core column

In the last years, the consumption of soy-based foods has increased due to the health benefits related to soy bioactives like phenolic compounds. Thus, in the present study, a new chromatographic method using reverse-phase high performance liquid chromatography coupled to diode array detection (RP-HPLC/DAD) was developed using a fused core pentafluorophenyl (PFP) column. The established method allowed the determination of twenty-one free phenolic compounds and eleven bound phenolics in a soy isoflavone concentrate. The method was validated in terms of precision and recovery. Intra and inter-day precision were less than 5% (% RSD) and the recovery was between 97.4% and 103.6%. Limits of quantification (LOQs) ranged between 0.093 and 0.443 \u3bcg/mL. Because of that, PFP stationary phase can be easily applied for routine determination of phenolic compounds in soy based foods

Phenolic compounds in the potato and its byproducts: An overview

The potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) is a tuber that is largely used for food and is a source of different bioactive compounds such as starch, dietary fiber, amino acids, minerals, vitamins, and phenolic compounds. Phenolic compounds are synthetized by the potato plant as a protection response from bacteria, fungi, viruses, and insects. Several works showed that these potato compounds exhibited health-promoting effects in humans. However, the use of the potato in the food industry submits this vegetable to different processes that can alter the phenolic content. Moreover, many of these compounds with high bioactivity are located in the potato’s skin, and so are eliminated as waste. In this review the most recent articles dealing with phenolic compounds in the potato and potato byproducts, along with the effects of harvesting, post-harvest, and technological processes, have been reviewed. Briefly, the phenolic composition, main extraction, and determination methods have been described. In addition, the “alternative” food uses and healthy properties of potato phenolic compounds have been addressed

Influence of egg products and drying temperatures on egg pasta quality

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Influence of drying temperatures on the quality of pasta formulated with different egg products

The effect of egg products and drying temperatures on dried egg pasta quality has been considered. Two diagrams of temperature and three egg products were used to develop dried egg pasta. Analyses of furosine and color indexes have been carried out on pasta samples to evaluate the impact of ingredients and drying temperatures on pasta quality. The results confirmed that high drying temperatures caused higher nutritional losses compared with low drying temperatures; in fact, these samples showed a furosine content from 3.3 to 4.7 times higher than the other ones. In addition, the cholesterol oxidation increased 1.6\u20132 times when high temperature was applied. The only exception has been noticed on pasta formulated with eggs from hens bred with organic method; in fact, the higher tocopherols amounts in these egg products compared with egg products from conventional breeding limited the cholesterol oxidation

Effect of fermentation on the content of bioactive compounds in tofu-type products

Tofu is part of Asian cuisine and may be the most popular food made from soy. Due to the influence of processing on some compounds (fatty acids, tocopherols, phospholipids, sterols and phenolic compounds) content of soy food products, soybean flour, traditional tofu and tofu obtained by soymilk fermentation were studied. Fermentation was performed using lactic acid bacteria, such as Lactobacillus casei and Lactobacillus acidophilus. Fermentation by lactic acid bacteria plays an essential role in the reduction of isoflavones glycosides/aglycone ratio (from 0.14 to 0.89 in traditional and fermented tofu, respectively) and in the higher bioavailability of isoflavones, however it does not significantly affect soybean fatty acids and tocopherols. This behaviour suggests the use of these microorganisms to enhance the added value of soybean products, and promote the selection of tailor made starter culture able to growing well in soy milk and contemporary to produce bioactive compounds for specific consumer's categor

How Lactobacillus plantarum shapes its transcriptome in response to contrasting habitats

Triplets of Lactobacullus plantarum strains were isolated from nine contrasting habitats. Without any passage through other culture media, isolation and cultivation were on model media that strictly reproduced the chemical and physical conditions and stressors of the habitats of origin. Here, we demonstrated how L. plantarum regulates and shapes its transcriptome in response to contrasting habitats. Firstly, multivariate clustering analysis of transcriptional data (RNA-Seq), complemented with metabolomics and phenomics, grouped the strains according to the habitats of origin. Subsequently, selected strains from each habitat switched to repeated cultivation on MRS medium and transcriptomes homogenized into a unique cluster. Adaptation to this common medium mainly relied on activation of genes for phage- and prophage-related proteins and transposases. Finally, the comparison of growth across model media and with respect to MRS medium showed that 44% of the overall 3112 gene transcripts changed depending on the specific habitat. Regulation and shaping of transcriptomes mainly concerned carbohydrate acquisition, pyruvate catabolism, proteolytic system and amino acid, lipid and inorganic ion transport and metabolism, with contrasting responses for contrasting habitats. Pathways reconstruction demonstrated how the large genome size of L. plantarum imparts transcriptome and metabolic flexibility as the basic mechanism for a nomadic lifestyle