Agricultural and aquacultural potential of olive pomace. a review.

peer-reviewedOlive Pomace (OP) is the main agricultural by-product of olive industry; because of its nature, it is a major environmental issue for all the olive-producing countries. Research on the waste-management issues of OP has been active over the last decade. The data presented in the present review suggest that OP could be exploited as an alternative dietary lipid source in compounded fish feeds resulting in the formulation of functional fish feeds and aquacultured fish according to the EU legislation (EC 1924/2006). Moreover OP can also be used in agriculture by inclusion in animal feeds without attenuating animal performance and meat quality. In this review, all the latest results on the in vitro and in vivo studies regarding the usage of OP in fish and animal feeds are evaluated and the environmental and nutritional implications for aquaculture and agriculture industries are presented..PUBLISHEDpeer-reviewe

Carotenoids and antioxidant enzymes as biomarkers of the impact of heavy metals in food chain

Antioxidant enzymes (catalase and peroxidase) and carotenoids (lutein and â-carotene) are often used as biomarkers of metal contamination of water and agricultural soils. In this study, the effects of heavy metals present in irrigation water on the aforementioned carotenoids of potatoes (Solanum tuberosum L.) and carrots (Daucus carota L.), cultivated in a greenhouse and irrigated with a water solution including different levels of Cr(VI) and Ni(II) were investigated. These results were compared to the levels of the same metabolites that had been assessed in market-available potato and carrot samples. The findings indicated that the levels of the examined metabolites on the treated with Cr and Ni samples, resemble the levels of the same parameters in the market samples, originating from polluted areas. Therefore, the antioxidant enzymes, catalase and peroxidase, and the carotenoids, lutein and â-carotene, could be handled as indicators of heavy metal pollution

Structure and cardioprotective activities of polar lipids of olive pomace, olive pomace-enriched fish feed and olive pomace fed gilthead sea bream (Sparus aurata)

peer-reviewedTotal lipids of olive pomace (OP), olive pomace diet (OP diet), fish oil diet (FO diet) and fish fillets of farmed gilthead sea bream (fish fed with FO diet and OP diet respectively) were extracted and separated into polar (TPL) and neutral (TNL) lipids. All samples were assessed for their in vitro activity against washed rabbit platelets aggregation induced by Platelet Activating Factor (PAF) and they were further analyzed by electrospray-mass spectrometry. The high levels of palmitic (16:0), oleic (18:1 cis ω-9), linoleic (18:2 ω-6) and docosapentanoic acid (DPA 22:5 ω-3) contained in both OP and FO diets are reflected to the gilthead sea breams fed with the individual diet respectively, while the gilthead sea bream fed with FO diet displays a decrease in DPA. All samples contained various glycerophospholipids species. Two PE species were identified in OP, OP diet and fish fed with OP diet and not in FO diet, while that might be an indication that these substances are likely to be the key polar phospholipids that have the ability to be in vitro PAF inhibitors, i.e. inhibit the formation of atherosclerotic plaques in blood arteries.ACCEPTEDpeer-reviewe

Beneficial anti‐platelet and anti‐inflammatory properties of irish apple juice and cider bioactives

peer-reviewedSeveral bioactives from fruit juices and beverages like phenolics, nucleotides and polar lipids (PL) have exhibited anti‐platelet cardio‐protective properties. However, apple juice and cider lipid bioactives have not been evaluated so far. The aim of this study was to investigate the an‐ ti‐platelet and anti‐inflammatory effects and structure activity relationships of Irish apple juice and Real Irish cider lipid bioactives against the platelet‐activating factor (PAF)‐ and adenosine di‐ phosphate (ADP)‐related thrombotic and inflammatory manifestations in human platelets. Total Lipids (TL) were extracted from low, moderate and high in tannins apple juices and from their de‐ rived‐through‐fermentation cider products, as well as from commercial apple juice and cider. These were separated into neutral lipids (NL) and PL, while all lipid extracts were further assessed for their ability to inhibit aggregation of human platelets induced by PAF and ADP. In all cases, PL exhibited the strongest anti‐platelet bioactivities and were further separated by high‐performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) analysis into PL subclasses/fractions that were also assessed for their antiplatelet potency. The PL from low in tannins apple juice exhibited the strongest an‐ tiplatelet effects against PAF and ADP, while PL from its fermented cider product were less active. Moreover, the phosphatidylcholines (PC) in apple juices and the phosphatidylethanolamines (PE) in apple ciders were the most bioactive HPLC‐derived PL subclasses against PAF‐induced platelet aggregation. Structural elucidation of the fatty acid composition by gas chromatography mass spectra (GCMS) analysis showed that PL from all samples are rich in beneficial monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFA) and omega 3 (n‐3) polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA), providing a possible explanation for their strong anti‐platelet properties, while the favorable low levels of their ome‐ ga‐6/omega‐3 (n‐6/n‐3) PUFA ratio, especially for the bioactive PC and PE subclasses, further support an anti‐inflammatory cardio‐protective potency for these apple products. In conclusion, Irish apple juice and Real Irish cider were found to possess bioactive PL compounds with strong antiplatelet and anti‐inflammatory properties, while fermentation seems to be an important mod‐ ulating factor on their lipid content, structures and bioactivities. However, further studies are needed to evaluate these effects

Fish polar lipids retard atherosclerosis in rabbits by down-regulating PAF biosynthesis and up-regulating PAF catabolism

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Platelet activating factor (PAF) has been proposed as a key factor and initial trigger in atherosclerosis. Recently, a modulation of PAF metabolism by bioactive food constituents has been suggested. In this study we investigated the effect of fish polar lipid consumption on PAF metabolism.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The specific activities of four PAF metabolic enzymes; in leukocytes, platelets and plasma, and PAF concentration; either in blood cells or plasma were determined. Samples were acquired at the beginning and at the end of a previously conducted study in male New Zealand white rabbits that were fed for 45 days with atherogenic diet supplemented (group-B, n = 6) or not (group-A, n = 6) with gilthead sea bream (<it>Sparus aurata</it>) polar lipids.</p> <p>The specific activity of PAF-Acetylhydrolase (PAF-AH); a catabolic enzyme of PAF, was decreased in rabbits' platelets of both A and B groups and in rabbits' leukocytes of group A (p < 0.05). On the other hand the specific activity of Lipoprotein-associated Phospholipase A2 (Lp-PLA2); the catabolic enzyme of PAF in plasma was increased in both A and B groups in both leukocytes and platelets (p < 0.05). PAF-cholinephosphotransferase (PAF-CPT); a biosynthetic enzyme of PAF showed increased specific activity only in rabbits' leukocytes of group A (p < 0.05). Neither of the two groups showed any change in Lyso-PAF-acetyltransferase (Lyso-PAF-AT) specific activity (p > 0.05). Free and bound PAF levels increased in group A while decreased in group B (p < 0.05).</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Gilthead sea bream (<it>Sparus aurata</it>) polar lipids modulate PAF metabolism upon atherosclerotic conditions in rabbits leading to lower PAF levels and activity in blood of rabbits with reduced early atherosclerotic lesions compared to control group.</p

Large expert-curated database for benchmarking document similarity detection in biomedical literature search

Document recommendation systems for locating relevant literature have mostly relied on methods developed a decade ago. This is largely due to the lack of a large offline gold-standard benchmark of relevant documents that cover a variety of research fields such that newly developed literature search techniques can be compared, improved and translated into practice. To overcome this bottleneck, we have established the RElevant LIterature SearcH consortium consisting of more than 1500 scientists from 84 countries, who have collectively annotated the relevance of over 180 000 PubMed-listed articles with regard to their respective seed (input) article/s. The majority of annotations were contributed by highly experienced, original authors of the seed articles. The collected data cover 76% of all unique PubMed Medical Subject Headings descriptors. No systematic biases were observed across different experience levels, research fields or time spent on annotations. More importantly, annotations of the same document pairs contributed by different scientists were highly concordant. We further show that the three representative baseline methods used to generate recommended articles for evaluation (Okapi Best Matching 25, Term Frequency-Inverse Document Frequency and PubMed Related Articles) had similar overall performances. Additionally, we found that these methods each tend to produce distinct collections of recommended articles, suggesting that a hybrid method may be required to completely capture all relevant articles. The established database server located at https://relishdb.ict.griffith.edu.au is freely available for the downloading of annotation data and the blind testing of new methods. We expect that this benchmark will be useful for stimulating the development of new powerful techniques for title and title/abstract-based search engines for relevant articles in biomedical research.Peer reviewe

Changing the Irish dietary guidelines to incorporate the principles of the Mediterranean diet: proposing the MedÉire diet

Objective: In Ireland, the major causes of death are CVD. The current Irish healthy eating guidelines and food pyramid primarily advocate a low-fat diet. However, there is overwhelming scientific evidence for the benefits of a Mediterranean diet (Med Diet) in the prevention and management of metabolic disease as well as improving overall health and well-being. In the current commentary, the rationale to incorporate the principles of the Med Diet into the Irish dietary guidelines is presented. Design: Perspectives of authors. Setting: Local and international. Subjects: Populations in Europe, North America and Australia. Results: Adopting components of the Med Diet presents a more evidence-based approach to updating the current Irish dietary guidelines. Experience and lessons from other non-Mediterranean countries show that it could be a feasible and effective solution to improving the dietary habits of the Irish population to prevent and mange chronic diseases. Conclusions: Policies and programmes to address perceived barriers to the Med Diet’s implementation and uptake in non-Mediterranean countries should be promoted

Does high hydrostatic pressure affect fruit esters?

The effect of high hydrostatic pressure on ester formation and hydrolysis was studied. Six esters and the corresponding carboxylic acids and alcohols were subjected to high-pressure treatments of 400 and 800MPa under three different pH conditions (namely, buffer solutions of pH 4, 6 and 8). The selected compounds were dissolved into buffer solutions, subjected to the pressure treatment and then extracted using dichloromethane. The analysis and quantification were carried out by gas chromatography with flame ionization as detector. High pressure appeared to have no effect on ester formation or hydrolysis under the investigated conditions. In all cases, a small decrease at the levels of carboxylic acids and esters was observed without any evidence of further reaction. This decrease, referred to as decomposition, depended on pressure and pH conditions. Ester decomposition was minimised when a high-pressure treatment of 400MPa in basic conditions (pH 8) was applied. Carboxylic acid decomposition was minimal in basic conditions and it was independent of the pressure applied