Phenolic Acids, Phenolic Aldehydes and Furanic Derivatives in Oak Chips: American vs. French Oaks

Phenolic acids (gallic, vanillic, syringic and ellagic acids), phenolic aldehydes (vanillin, syringaldehyde,coniferaldehyde and sinapaldehyde) and furanic derivatives (furfural, 5-methylfurfural and5-hydroxymethylfurfural) were quantified in commercial American and French oak chips. Chips withdifferent sizes and toast degrees were used. Compounds were extracted directly from the wood samples inorder to determine possible differences among woods as well as toast degree. Likewise, the compounds wereextracted from a synthetic wine solution to which the chip woods had been added. The results show thatFrench wood chips are generally richer than the American ones. The total amount of phenolic compoundsincreases with toasting level, with the non-toasted chips being the poorest ones. The degree of extractionfrom the synthetic wine solution seems to be related to the shape of the chips, rather than to the wood typeor toast degree

Dietas dos Indivíduos de Pardais 3 no Contexto do Interior Alentejano

Dietas dos Indivíduos de Pardais 3 no Contexto do Interior Alentejan

Abordagem às Paleodietas e Mobilidade dos Indivíduos do Sepulcro 4 no Contexto dos Perdigões e do Interior Alentejano

Abordagem às Paleodietas e Mobilidade dos Indivíduos do Sepulcro 4 no Contexto dos Perdigões e do Interior Alentejan

Diet Reconstruction of a Neolithic Population from Hypogea Burials of Vale de Barrancas 1 Using Bone Collagen Stable Isotopic Signatures

“Diet Reconstruction of a Neolithic Population from Hypogea Burials of Vale de Barrancas 1 Using Bone Collagen Stable Isotopic Signature

Phenolic and furanic compounds of Portuguese chestnut and French, American and Portuguese oak wood chips

Botanical species used on aging process must be wisely and judiciously chosen, and for this selection, a basic knowledge of the chemical composition of woods is warranted. Aiming to contribute to extend the knowledge of the chemical composition of several wood species useful for enological purposes, we have focused our studies on Portuguese chestnut and French, American and Portuguese oak chips. The profile of low molecular weight phenolic composition of these chips was achieved, using an optimized extraction method based on pressurized liquid extraction, followed by the quantification of phenolic acids, phenolic aldehydes and furanic derivatives by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC-DAD). The identification of those compounds was also confirmed by LC-DAD/ESI-MS. This study allowed the determination of the low molecular phenolic composition of Portuguese chestnut and French, American and Portuguese oak wood. According to our results, the influence of the botanical species seems to be more relevant than the geographic origin of the wood species

Traditional dyeing – an educational approach

This paper describes a mini-project developed with 10th grade Portuguese students where, by using an experimental activity involving the use of natural dyes to colour wool, students acquired a better understanding of the concepts and relationship between the colour, the electromagnetic spectrum, and chemical bonding. As demonstrated by the results of a laboratory activity interest survey, the interdisciplinary nature of the mini-project contributed to raise student awareness to the existing relationship between science, culture and daily life, promoting their overall interest in scientific topics

Behind the Light: Pink-lake Paints’ Characterization on a 16th Century Illuminated Antiphonary held by the Biblioteca Pública de Évora – a Spectroscopic Approach

The complete characterization of illuminated paints (pigments, extendersin its full composition (pigments, extenders, binders and any other additives) is a challenging task. If for inorganic materials it is often performed using in-situ and non-invasive analysis, for lake-pigment-based paints it becomes difficult to identify them via a non-invasive approach. This work focuses on the characterization of pink-lake paints present in the illuminations of Manizola 116c codex, a large 16th century Antiphonary produced to be used as a Choir book at the female Cistercian Monastery of São Bento de Cástris, Évora (Portugal). For this, the pink-to-reddish paints of seven representative illuminated capital letters were analyzed by in-situ fiber optic reflectance spectroscopy (FORS), and the results compared with 48 FORS reference spectra of historical accurate reconstructions of pink-lake pigments produced from four late-medieval-to-renaissance treatises. PCA analysis was performed on the 48 reference spectra, and the historical spectra projected into the PCA model. With this approach it became possible to identify the use of cochineal lake-pigments for either the roses and the reddish-pink paints. To corroborate the results, two micro-samples representative of these reddish-to-pink-lake paints were analysed by LC/DAD/MS

Qualitative evaluation of fruits from different Opuntia ficus indica ecotypes/cultivars harvested in South Portugal

Opuntia ficus‐indica fruits have an important nutritional value and show several biological properties. This work studied the fruit physicochemical characteristics of two wild ecotypes (“Green” and “Orange”) and two cultivars (“Rossa” and “Gialla”) from Portugal. The results showed that the largest and heaviest fruits were those from ecotype “Orange,”, whereas the wild ecotype “Green” had fruits with firmer flesh. The fruit peels of cultivars “Rossa” and “Gialla” presented the highest fibre content. Glucose was the major carbohydrate in the fruits, particularly in the peels. Malic acid was the sole organic acid in both peels and pulps of all samples. The betacyanins’ content was higher in fruits of the “Rossa” cultivar, and the higher betaxanthins’ content was present in the peel of the cultivar “Gialla.” Peels of all samples generally had higher amounts of betalains than the pulps. The peel was a better scavenger of DPPH and ABTS free radicals than the pulp