Olive oil and oxidative stress

In addition to the fatty acid profile of olive oil, which is high in the monounsaturated oleic acid and appears to be beneficial in reducing several risk factors for coronary heart disease and certain cancers, extra virgin olive oil contains a considerable amount of phenolic compounds, e.g. hydroxytyrosol and oleuropein, that are responsible for its peculiar taste and for its high stability. A body of evidence demonstrates that olive oil phenolics are powerful antioxidants. Although most of these studies have been carried out in vitro, some in vivo experiments confirm that olive oil phenolics are dose-dependently absorbed and that they retain their biological activities after ingestion. These data could in part explain the lower incidence of coronary heart disease in the Mediterranean area, where (extra virgin) olive oil is the principal source of fat.La composición del aceite de oliva virgen extra se caracteriza por su contenido en ácidos grasos, fundamentalmente monoinsaturados (ácido oleico) beneficiosos para reducir el riesgo de enfermedad coronaria, y en componentes menores, particularmente polifenoles (p.e. hidroxitirosol y oleuropeína) responsables de su sabor y estabilidad. Diversos estudios demuestran el poder antioxidante de los compuestos fenólicos del aceite de oliva (virgen extra). Aunque la mayoría de ellos se han realizado in vitro, algunos in vivo parecen confirmar que los polifenoles se absorben dependiendo de la dosis y que retienen las actividades biológicas después de su ingestión. Estos resultados pueden explicar en parte la menor incidencia de enfermedad coronaria en los países del área Mediterránea, donde el aceite de oliva (extra virgen) es la principal fuente de grasas

A transition towards sustainable food systems in Europe

A growing number of voices – among others the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC, 2017) - have highlighted the need to change the overarching infrastructure of food-related policies. They claim that the European Union does not have a food policy . For example, the General Food Law addresses food safety issues, but not nutrition. Regulations aimed at reducing the environmental impacts of food production are not built in connection with how food is consumed. There are regulations that encourage production systems to improve product quality, but the link to sustainability is not clear. There are rules that regulate information and communication to consumers, but a reference to sustainability is missing. Common Agricultural Policy grants subsidies to 'green' production processes, but most of them concern primarily production actors. Distribution of financial resources over these instruments is largely disproportionate. Often these payments are not linked to clear outcomes and impacts. How could a food policy contribute to shaping sustainable food systems in Europe? It is time for policy makers, academics, and civil society to take a step back and reflect upon appropriate policies infrastructures for transition toward food sustainability. This challenge implies a pervasive process that addresses in a consistent and coherent way the multidimensionality of food – environmental, social, economic, health, ethical and resilience implications - and takes into consideration the reciprocal influences between production, distribution and consumption and their links with broader socio-ecological and socio-technical systems. This process should reorganize food-related policy instruments around societal goals and put in place the necessary instruments to enable the social and institutional change, overcoming barriers. This report proposes a conceptual framework and carries out an assessment of the existing policy infrastructure with the purpose of suggesting points of entry for policy-led transition towards food sustainability in Europe. The system perspective adopted allows us to apply one of the key principles of sustainable development as well as sustainable consumption and implies that policies aiming at sustainability should address consumption issues as well as production patterns. The challenge for a new policy approach is to put in place coordinated policy tools that can affect directly or indirectly this process of alignment, linking together self-responsibility with freedom to act. Rather than pursuing an ambitious program of redesign of the agricultural policy into a broader food policy, we suggest a ‘bottom up’ process of construction of a food policy mix around strategic goals aimed at the integration and coherence between policies, together with the reorganization of existing tools and the introduction of new tools to fill existing gaps. The introduction of strategic tools - such as the EU Sustainable Food Assessment and Action Plan, proposed by the EESC (2017) at the EU level, or urban food strategies at the local level - can contribute to develop new representations of the food system, update policy objectives, verify the adequacy of existing policy instruments with respect to new objectives, identify missing policy instruments and mobilize all stakeholders to build a coherent set of policies. This report lays down some criteria on which this process should be activated

Stereospecific synthesis of syn-alpha-oximinoamides by a three-component reaction of isocyanides, syn-chlorooximes, and carboxylic acids

A stereospecific multicomponent reaction among isocyanides, nitrile N-oxides and carboxylic acids provides an efficient synthesis of biologically relevant syn \u3b1-oximinoimides

Palladium-catalyzed domino carbopalladation/5-exo-allylic amination of \u3b1-amino allenamides: an efficient entry to enantiopure imidazolidinones

Allenamides of alpha-amino acids were converted into enantiopure 2-vinylimidazolidin-4-ones by a carbopalladation/exo-cyclization process. The products were obtained in 2.5:1-5.5:1 dr, with 94-99% ee. The palladium-catalyzed carbonylative cyclization of the same substrates afforded enone structures. Starting from properly substituted allenamides, an intramolecular carbopalladation followed by intramolecular amination gave rise to tricyclic fused-ring imidazolidinones

Tetranuclear coordination assemblies based on half-sandwich ruthenium(II) complexes. Non covalent binding to DNA and cytotoxicity.

The reaction of [(cymene)RuCl2]2 with K2Hoxonate (H3oxonic = 4,6-dihydroxy-2-carboxy-1,3,5-triazine acid) in methanol leads to the formation of the dinuclear half-sandwich ruthenium(II) complex [(cymene)2Ru2(\u3bc-Hoxonato)Cl2] (1a). Removal of the chloride ligands of 1a by treatment with AgCF3SO3 yields [(cymene)2Ru2(\u3bc-Hoxonato)(CF3SO3)2] (1b), which, upon posterior reaction with N,N'-linkers (L = 4,4'-bipyridine (4,4'-bpy), 4,7-phenantroline (4,7-phen)), gives rise to the formation of the tetranuclear open boxes [(cymene)4Ru4(\u3bc-Hoxonato)2(\u3bc-N,N'-L)2](CF3SO3)4 (2a, L = 4,4'-bpy; 2b, L = 4,7-phen). These systems have been characterized by 1HNMR, UV-vis, and ESI-MS. The single-crystal structures of the dinuclear precursor 1a and of the clathrate 2b 824,7-phen have been determined. The interaction of these systems with cysteine, mononucleotides, and calf-thymus DNA has been studied by means of 1HNMR, UV-vis, circular dicroism, competitive binding assays, and atomic force microscopy imaging. The results show that the robust tetracationic ruthenium(II) cyclic systems 2a and 2b do not give ligand exchange reactions toward biorelevant ligands. Nevertheless, these systems are able to noncovalently bind to DNA, probably at the surface of the major groove, inducing significant conformational changes in this biomolecule. It is also interesting to note that compounds 2a and 2b, in spite of only giving supramolecular interactions with biomolecules, exhibit antitumor activity, particularly toward the human ovarian cancer cell line A2780cisR, showing acquired resistance to cisplatin, with respective 4.6 and 8.3 microM IC50 values

Spectroscopic and adsorptive studies of a thermally robust pyrazolato-based PCP

The pyrazolato-based PCP [Ni8(OH)4(OH2)2(PBP)6] (NiPBP, H2PBP = 4,4\u2019-bis(1H-pyrazol-4-yl)biphenyl), whose 3-D architecture is built upon octametallic hydroxo clusters reciprocally connected by the organic spaces, is a very promising candidate for gas adsorption applications, owing to its remarkable thermal stability (up to 400 \ub0C in air) and its high void volume (70%). As such, NiPBP was selected as a proof-of-concept material to demonstrate how an optimized set of solid state techniques can concur to create a comprehensive and coherent picture, relating (average and local) structural features to adsorptive properties. To this aim, the response of NiPBP toward different gases, retrieved by gas adsorption measurements (N2 at 77 K, in the low pressure region; H2 at 77 K, in the high pressure region), was explained in terms of local-level details, as emerged by coupling electronic, X-ray (absorption and emission), and variable temperature IR spectroscopy