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

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

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

Ultrasound-assisted extraction of phenolic compounds from blueberry leaves using natural deep eutectic solvents (NADES) for the valorization of agrifood wastes

The food industry demands novel green solvents for the extraction of bioactive compounds, particularly from residues of the agrifood industry. Herein, an ultrasound-assisted method has been developed for the environmentally friendly extraction of phenolic compounds from blueberry leaves using natural deep eutectic solvents (NADES). After the screening of multiple NADES, the best extraction efficiencies in terms of total phenol content and antioxidant activity were provided by NADES composed of lactate, sodium acetate, and water (3:1:2), and of choline chloride and oxalic acid (1:1). Using a Box–Behnken experimental design, the optimal extraction conditions were achieved by sonicating for 45 min at 65 °C and using solvent:sample ratios of 15 and 75 (v/w) for the NADES based on lactic acid and choline, respectively. Compared with conventional organic solvents, the use of these NADES composed of lactic acid and choline provided superior performance for the recovery of phenolic compounds (1.6-fold and 2.2-fold greater efficacy, respectively) and antioxidant compounds (1.6-fold and 2.8-fold greater efficacy, respectively). The chromatographic characterization of the extracts obtained under these optimized conditions evidenced that the lactic-based NADES enabled the extraction of a wide range of hydroxycinnamic acids and flavonol derivatives, whereas the choline-based NADES was selective towards the extraction of anthocyanins. These results indicate that the proposed method could represent an excellent green alternative for the recovery of phenolic compounds from plant materials and agrifood wastes, with improved extraction efficacy and/or selectivity compared to that provided by traditional organic solvents.Funding for open access charge: Universidad de Huelva / CBUA. This work has received funding from Junta de Andalucía, within the framework of the “Programa Operativo FEDER 2014–2020” (UHU- 202063), and from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (PID2020-116698RB-I00). The authors also thank ALGRY Química S.L. and D. Jos´e Ma P´erez V´azquez for kindly supplying the choline chloride reagent. R.G.-D. is recipient of a “Miguel Servet” fellowship (CP21/ 00120) funded by Instituto de Salud Carlos III

Correlaciones entre los parámetros colorimétricos y la composición fenólica durante la maceración prefermentativa de vinos blancos

La maceración del mosto con los hollejos antes de la fermentación, como proceso de mejora de las características aromáticas en los vinos blancos, produce un cambio en la composición fenólica del vino dependiendo principalmente del tiempo y la temperatura. Durante los ensayos de maceración realizados en mostos de Zalema se produce un incremento significativo (p<0.001) del contenido de flavonoides, principalmente catequina y quercetina-3-rutinosido, siendo este incremento mayor en mostos macerados a temperaturas elevadas. El análisis discriminante permite diferenciar los mostos por la temperatura de maceración, siendo los flavonoides y los ácidos hidroxicinámicos las variables con mayor poder discriminatorio. La maceración prefermentativa produce una variación de todos los parámetros colorimétricos estudiados, más intensas en los mostos macerados a mayores temperaturas (20 ºC y 25 ºC). Si se correlacionan los parámetros del color con la composición fenólica se observa que los mayores coeficientes de regresión se establecen entre el ácido caftárico y las variables cromáticas b* y croma (C*ab). Con el fin de establecer si las diferentes temperaturas de maceración conducen a vinos diferentes en cuanto a su composición fenólica y color, se ha llevado a cabo un análisis de la varianza en el que se ha puesto de manifiesto diferencias significativas en la mayoría de los compuestos fenólicos pero no sobre los parámetros cromáticos estudiados

Combining vegetable oils and bioactive compounds via inverse vulcanization for antioxidant and antimicrobial materials

8 Páginas.-- 6 FigurasThe current great concern about plastic pollution opens up opportunities for the production of more sustainable polymers. Inverse vulcanization has emerged as a novel procedure to obtain inorganic-organic hybrid polymeric materials. Sulfur is attained as a by-product of oil refining production and makes inverse vulcanization a sustainable process due to a large amount of sulfur without a useful life. In previous studies, vegetable oils were used as a comonomer with sulfur to form copolymers based on sustainable raw material. Nevertheless, compounds from agro-wastes, could be a third comonomer that improves new copolymers bio-applications. In this study, a new series of copolymers with castor oil as vegetable oil and sulfur was formulated by adding a third compound bearing double bonds or heteroatoms. A study was conducted to assess the antimicrobial capacity and antioxidant activity of the copolymers obtained to demonstrate the benefits of adding a new comonomer to improve their bioactivity.The authors are grateful to the Regional Government of Andalusia, Junta de Andalucía, Consejería de Economía y Conocimiento and University of Huelva (Project UHU-1257728).Peer reviewe

Aprendizajes y prácticas educativas en las actuales condiciones de época: COVID-19

“Esta obra colectiva es el resultado de una convocatoria a docentes, investigadores y profesionales del campo pedagógico a visibilizar procesos investigativos y prácticas educativas situadas en el marco de COVI-19. La misma se inscribe en el trabajo llevado a cabo por el equipo de Investigación responsable del Proyecto “Sentidos y significados acerca de aprender en las actuales condiciones de época: un estudio con docentes y estudiantes de la educación secundarias en la ciudad de Córdoba” de la Facultad de Filosofía y Humanidades. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. El momento excepcional que estamos atravesando, pero que también nos atraviesa, ha modificado la percepción temporal a punto tal que habitamos un tiempo acelerado y angustiante que nos exige la producción de conocimiento provisorio. La presente publicación surge como un espacio para detenernos a documentar lo que nos acontece y, a su vez, como oportunidad para atesorar y resguardar las experiencias educativas que hemos construido, inventado y reinventando en este contexto. En ella encontrarán pluralidad de voces acerca de enseñar y aprender durante la pandemia. Este texto es una pausa para reflexionar sobre el hacer y las prácticas educativas por venir”.Fil: Beltramino, Lucia (comp.). Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Filosofía y Humanidades. Escuela de Archivología; Argentina