Bioweine halten was sie versprechen

Im Jahr 2001 wurde von der Bioweinbaubranche eine Kampagne durchgeführt, um die Qualität der Schweizer Bioweine hinsichtlich Fungizidverunreinigungen zu überprüfen und aus der Ursachenanalyse Möglichkeiten für Verbesserungen abzuklären. An der gemeinsamen Kampagnebeteiligten sich BIOVIN (Verband schweizerischer Bioweinbauproduzenten), das Amt für Lebensmittelkontrolle der Kantone AR, AI, GL und SH und das FiBL. In der Fallstudie wurde der Produktionsverlauf von der Traube im Anbau bis zum Wein in der Flasche hinsichtlich möglichen Fungizideinträgen untersucht. Zusätzlich wurden 61 biologische und 25 nichtbiologisch produzierte Weine aus allen wichtigen Anbaugebieten der Schweiz auf die wichtigsten in der Schweiz eingesetzten fungiziden Wirkstoffe (Handelsname in Klammern) analysiert: Cyprodinil/Fludioxonil (Switch), Fenhexamid (Teldor), Pyrimethanil (Scala), Metalaxyl-M (Ridomil Vino), Procymidone, Trifloxystrobin (Eclair), Azoxystrobin (Quadris/Amistar), Iprodion (Iprodion500), Vinclozolin, Chlorothalonil, Folpet und Captafol

The Effects of the Ketogenic Diet (KD) on Inflammatory Pain

BACKGROUND: Pain is the most common ailment around the world, according to the American Academy of Pain Medicine; 100 million Americans suffer with chronic pain, which is more than any other main disorder and is described by more than 60% as impacted their overall enjoyment of life (AAPA). The ketogenic diet (KD) is a high fat, low carbohydrate dietary regimen, which is described to decrease neuronal excitation, increase ketone bodies and ATP levels, while lowering glucose and proinflammatory cytokines. The KD is an effective therapy for epilepsy; a disorder that arises from either lowered inhibition or increased excitation, similar to pain. The goal of the current study is to establish whether the KD is effective in lowering inflammatory pain in a rat. METHODS: We investigated whether a strict KD decreases inflammatory pain in adult male rats. Rats were maintained on either the KD or a standard diet for two to four weeks. We obtained both physiological measure and behavioral measures before and after being injected in the right hind paw with heat-killed tuberculosis bacteria (CFA) to cause inflammation. Physiological measures included weight, paw volume, paw weight, blood ketone and blood glucose levels. Tactile sensitivity and spontaneous pain was used to assess behavioral pain. RESULTS: Ketones were increased in rats after the KD. Our results indicate that the KD may alleviate pain, as there were significant changes indicating lowered swelling from the right paw weight. Paw volume indicated a trend leading us to believe that there may be significance if there were more rats. This was similarly seen in the tactile sensitivity, where there was a trend of KD having lowered pain at 4 hours post-injection compared to CD. Spontaneous pain and myeloperoxidase had no significant changes between the KD and CD groups. CONCLUSION: The data suggest that KD may alleviate pain as there is a lower inflammatory swelling and a trend towards decreased pain sensitivity. Future research will aim to elucidate whether there is an effect of the KD on inflammatory pain by using lower amounts of CFA and earlier spontaneous pain testing

Résidus de pesticides dans les fruits: situation en PI et bio cas problématiques et mesures

La production, la transformation et la commercialisation de denrées alimentaires issues de l'agriculture biologique représentent un domaine très sensible. C'est avec droit que les consommatrices et les consommateurs posent des exigences élevées de qualité des denrées alimentaires produites biologiquement. Pour répondre à ces exigences, les entreprises agricoles doivent fournir d'importants efforts très divers. Ils prennent ces exigences au sérieux et en ont fait leur philosophie de qualité

Soil amendment with activated charcoal can reduce dieldrin uptake by cucumbers

Organochlorine pesticides (OCP) were once applied world wide but have been banned meanwhile in most countries because of their ecotoxicity, bioaccumulation and persistence. However, residues can still be present in soils even many years after applications have been stopped and taken up by crop plants. OCP accumulation from bound residues was found to be a particular problem in Cucurbitaceae plants. Two soil surveys performed in 2002 and 2005 in Switzerland revealed that OCP residues were taken up by cucumbers grown in soils that have been converted to organic production in the meantime. Even if legal tolerance values are not exceeded, this is a serious economic problem for the farmers affected by contaminated crops, because consumers of organically grown crops are only willing to pay the higher prices for these than for conventional products because they are particularly concerned about health and environmental quality and therefore expect pristine food. One approach to address the problem would be to increase the capacity of affected soils to bind OCP residues in order to prevent their uptake by the crops. In this study, we wanted to test the potential use of activated charcoal (AC) for this purpose. In addition, we wanted to assess the possibility of using OCP sorption in soil by Tenax® beads as a predictor for the phytoavailability of these compounds to cucumbers. We performed two pot experiments in which the cash crop cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.) was grown in soil with bound residues of dieldrin (70 µg/kg), pentachloroaniline (<0.01 µg/kg) and p,p-DDE. The soil was taken from a field under organic farming in which these residues were found in the 2005 survey. In the first experiment, cucumbers were grown for 12 to 13 weeks (until fruits were ripe) in soil into which AC had been mixed at concentrations of 200, 400, and 800 mg/kg and in untreated controls. In the second experiment, Tenax® beads were added to the soil and cucumbers, grown with and without AC amendment (800 mg/kg soil), were harvested after 4, 8, 10, 11, 12, and 13 weeks. Dieldrin was the only pesticide detected in the sampled cucumbers and extracted from soil by the Tenax beads. Dieldrin concentrations in the cucumbers were significantly reduced in the treatments with 400 and 800 mg/kg AC. Also significantly less dieldrin was sorbed by Tenax from the soil amended with 800 mg/kg AC than from the untreated control soil. More dieldrin was found to be sorbed by Tenax in the last 3-4 weeks of the experiment, particularly in the control soil, but this trend was not significant. The correlation between the amounts of Tenax-sorbed dieldrin and dieldrin accumulation in the cucumber fruits was significant in control soil and 800 mg/kg AC soil. Hence, Tenax appeared to be suited for the assessment of dieldrin solubility in soil and of phytoavailability to cucumbers