Assessment of Virgin Olive Oil Adulteration by a Rapid Luminescent Method

The adulteration of virgin olive oil with hazelnut oil is a common fraud in the food industry, which makes mandatory the development of accurate methods to guarantee the authenticity and traceability of virgin olive oil. In this work, we demonstrate the potential of a rapid luminescent method to characterize edible oils and to detect adulterations among them. A regression model based on five luminescent frequencies related to minor oil components was designed and validated, providing excellent performance for the detection of virgin olive oil adulteration

Metabolomics in Alzheimer's disease: The need of complementary analytical platforms for the identification of biomarkers to unravel the underlying pathology

Alzheimer's disease is a complex neurodegenerative disorder characterized by a multi-factorial etiology, not completely understood to date. In this context, the application of metabolomics is emerging in the last years because of its potential to monitor molecular alterations associated with disease pathogenesis and progression, as well as to discover candidate diagnostic biomarkers. However, the huge heterogeneity and dynamism of the human metabolome makes impossible the simultaneous determination of the entire set of metabolites from complex biological samples. Thus, the most common strategy to get a comprehensive overview of the organism's phenotypic expression is the combined use of complementary metabolomic platforms. In this review, we summarize the advantages and limitations of the most important analytical techniques usually employed in metabolomics, including nuclear magnetic resonance, direct infusion mass spectrometry and hyphenated approaches based on the coupling of orthogonal separation mechanisms (i.e. liquid chromatography, gas chromatography, capillary electrophoresis) with mass spectrometry. Moreover, the suitability of metabolomics to unravel the complex pathology underlying to Alzheimer's disease is also presented. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

Evolution of physicochemical parameters during the thermal-based production of água-mel, a traditional Portuguese honey-related food product

The purpose of this work was to investigate the physicochemical changes occurring during the thermal-based production of água-mel, a traditional Portuguese honey-related food product. The refractive index, color parameters (hue angle, H°; chroma, C*), and the content of total reducing sugars, glucose, fructose, total brown pigments, and 5-hydroxymethylfurfural were monitored along the entire production process, and their evolution was kinetically modelled. Thermal processing caused a gradual decrease in sugars, which was accompanied by the formation of brown pigments and 5-hydroxymethylfurfural, increased concentration of soluble solids as evaluated through refractive index measurements, as well as the appearance of darker colors. In particular, a zero-order kinetic model could explain the changes in H° and reducing sugars, while the evolution of refractive index, brown pigments, 5-hydroxymethylfurfural, C*, fructose, and glucose were best fitted using a first-order kinetics model.This research was funded by FCT—Foundation for Science and Technology (UIDB/04020/2020) and Proyectos de Cooperación Transfronteriza en la Eurorregión Alentejo-Algarve-Andalucia (“Caracterización de mieles y productos derivados (água-mel) en el suroeste de la península ibérica. Estudio de su potencial biológico”)info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Potential of Ultraviolet-Visible Spectroscopy for the Differentiation of Spanish Vinegars According to the Geographical Origin and the Prediction of Their Functional Properties

High-quality wine vinegars with unique organoleptic characteristics are produced in southern Spain under three Protected Designations of Origin (PDO), namely “Jerez”, “Condado de Huelva” and “Montilla-Moriles”. To guarantee their authenticity and avoid frauds, robust and low-cost analytical methodologies are needed for the quality control and traceability of vinegars. In this study, we propose the use of ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy in combination with multivariate statistical tools to discriminate Spanish wine vinegars according to their geographical origin, as well as to predict their physicochemical and functional properties. Linear discriminant analysis provided a clear clustering of vinegar samples according to the PDO with excellent classification performance (98.6%). Furthermore, partial least squares regression analysis demonstrated that spectral data can serve as accurate predictors of the total phenolic content and antioxidant activity of vinegars. Accordingly, UV-Vis spectroscopy stands out as a suitable analytical tool for simple and rapid authentication and traceability of vinegars

An Overview on the Application of Chemometrics Tools in Food Authenticity and Traceability

The use of advanced chemometrics tools in food authenticity research is crucial for managing the huge amount of data that is generated by applying state-of-the-art analytical methods such as chromatographic, spectroscopic, and non-targeted fingerprinting approaches. Thus, this review article provides description, classification, and comparison of the most important statistical techniques that are commonly employed in food authentication and traceability, including methods for exploratory data analysis, discrimination, and classification, as well as for regression and prediction. This literature revision is not intended to be exhaustive, but rather to provide a general overview to non-expert readers in the use of chemometrics in food science. Overall, the available literature suggests that the selection of the most appropriate statistical technique is dependent on the characteristics of the data matrix, but combining complementary tools is usually needed for properly handling data complexity. In that way, chemometrics has become a powerful ally in facilitating the detection of frauds and ensuring the authenticity and traceability of foods.This research has received funding from the Junta de Andalucía within the framework of the Programa Operativo FEDER 2014-2020 (UHU-202063). R.G.-D. is recipient of a Miguel Servet fellowship (CP21/00120) funded by the Instituto de Salud Carlos III

La política urbanizadora de los lágidas y la helenización de Egipto

Alejandro Magno de Macedonia admirador de la cultura helénica que su maestro Aristóteles supo transmitirle al realizar la conquista de Oriente y fundar numerosas ciudades consideró que las nuevas entidades se convertirían en focos de expansión de las tradiciones de la ciudad griega en Asia. A la muerte del rey macedonio los vastos territorios conquistados que habían conformado un gran imperio, se dividieron entre sus principales generales constituyéndose los reinos helenísticos. De ellos hemos elegido Egipto que quedó bajo la dinastía Lágida iniciándose su gobierno con Ptolemeo I. Es propósito del presente trabajo mostrar: 1- La dinastía Lágida o Ptolemaica a diferencia de los demás reyes helenísticos no llevó a cabo en Egipto una política urbanizadora. 2- La helenización del país se realizó en gran media a pesar de no contar con el marco tradicional de la ciudad.Facultad de Humanidades y Ciencias de la Educació

Hollow-Fiber Liquid-Phase Micro-Extraction Method for the Simultaneous Derivatization, Extraction, and Pre-concentration of Organotin Compounds from Packed Fruit Juices

Organotin compounds are widely employed as pesticides and fungicides in agriculture and as stabilizers for the industrial manufacture of polyvinyl chloride and other polymers. Accordingly, these endocrine disruptors can be found in a variety of foods and beverages. In the present study, we describe the optimization of a hollow-fiber liquid-phase micro-extraction approach for the simultaneous derivatization, extraction, and pre-concentration of butyltin species from commercial fruit juices with the aim of investigating their migration from the packaging. The best extraction efficiencies were achieved by using hexane as the acceptor solvent and a polypropylene fiber length of 2 cm, whereas the agitation speed, extraction temperature, and total extraction time were set at 1100 rpm, 25 ºC, and 10 min, respectively. Using these optimal conditions, the method was satisfactorily validated in terms of linearity (5–1000 µg L−1), limits of detection (0.8–1.8 µg L−1), recovery (80.5–92.1%), intraday precision (10.2–13.1%), inter-day precision (11.0–15.5%), matrix effect (83.2–91.8%), accuracy (85.2–95.2%), specificity, and carryover. The application of this technique to commercial samples obtained from a local market demonstrated that levels of organotin species in packed fruit juices are negligible, in agreement with the limits established by the European Food Safety Authority (0.14 mg of total organotin compounds per kg of food).Open Access funding provided by Universidad de Huelva/ CBUA thanks to the CRUE-CSIC agreement with Springer Natur

Vitamina e y aceites vegetales

<font face="Helvetica" size="1"><p align="left">An interest in vitamin E has increased in recent years due to its potent antioxidant properties and its role in preventing age-related diseases, cardiovascular diseases or Alzheimer. This work describes the biogenesis, bioavailability, nutritional requirements, activity and properties of vitamin E. Vegetable oils constitute one of the main sources of vitamin E dietary intake and an extensive bibliographic revision of this vitamin in vegetable oils is carried out from four points of view: antioxidant properties, health benefits, effects of external agents and effects of processing on vitamin E content and analytical techniques used for its analysis.</p></font><br><br><font face="Helvetica" size="1"><p align="left">El inter&eacute;s por la vitamina E ha aumentado en los &uacute;ltimos a&ntilde;os debido a su potente poder antioxidante y a su papel frente a enfermedades relacionadas con la edad, trastornos cardiovasculares o Alzheimer. En este trabajo se detallan la biog&eacute;nesis, biodisponibilidad, requerimientos nutricionales, actividad y propiedades de la vitamina E. Los aceites vegetales constituyen una de las fuentes principales de aporte de vitamina E a trav&eacute;s de la dieta, por lo que se lleva a cabo una amplia revisi&oacute;n bibliogr&aacute;fica desde cuatro puntos de vista: vitamina E y propiedades antioxidantes, beneficios para la salud debidos a la ingesti&oacute;n de aceites vegetales, efecto de agentes externos y procesado sobre el contenido de vitamina E y t&eacute;cnicas anal&iacute;ticas utilizadas para su an&aacute;lisis.</p></font

Mechanistic Insights into Alzheimer’s Disease Unveiled through the Investigation of Disturbances in Central Metabolites and Metabolic Pathways

Hydrophilic metabolites are closely involved in multiple primary metabolic pathways and, consequently, play an essential role in the onset and progression of multifactorial human disorders, such as Alzheimer's disease. This review article provides a comprehensive revision of the literature published on the use of mass spectrometry-based metabolomics platforms for approaching the central metabolome in Alzheimer's disease research, including direct mass spectrometry, gas chromatography-mass spectrometry, hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry, and capillary electrophoresis-mass spectrometry. Overall, mounting evidence points to profound disturbances that affect a multitude of central metabolic pathways, such as the energy-related metabolism, the urea cycle, the homeostasis of amino acids, fatty acids and nucleotides, neurotransmission, and others