IN MEMORIAM - Professor Andras Nagymarosy (1951-2016)

In the present obituary, we would like to pay last honors to Professor Andras Nagymarosy, a distinguished, founding member of the European Ecocycles Society and member of the Editorial Board of its international open access scientific journal ECOCYCLES

A review of the book ’Cold-blooded Vertebrates in Nicaragua and its Regional Development’ by Ivo Pavlík and Miguel Ángel Garmendia Zapata

This paper summarizes the views of the author on the new book titled ’Cold-blooded Vertebrates in Nicaragua and its Regional Development’ by Ivo Pavlík and Miguel Ángel Garmendia Zapata

Functional, health protecting and health maintaining food products

Functional foods contain sufficient quantities of ingredients that have a positive effect on life functions, contribute to the prevention of diseases, they have a health-protective effect and overall have a positive effect on the human body. In terms of functional foods, we need to look at what kind of food ingredient is given, what impact it can be expected from such a food, what component it is expected to be, and what the product will be for the consumer. The physiological effects of functional foods, consumer expectations on these foods, processes in which we are preparing functional foods, food safety in relation to functional foods, and statutory regulation should be clarified. Within food production is a new area has been defined, where technology is being developed, its effects are being accepted by buyers and producers and consumers together manage the processes that can be incorporated into traditional food production in a few years. In the first half of our communication, we discuss the basic concepts, and readers will get to know the functional foods produced by food supplements

The sustainability of woody biomass feedstock production and landscape management: land use, phytoremediation, biodiversity, and wildlife habitats

Woody biomass feedstock is suitable for direct combustion, gasification, pyrolysis, ethanol or methanol production yielding heat, charcoal, pyrolysis oil, green electricity and bio-propellants. There are several issues concerning the environmental, socio-cultural and economic sustainability of woody biomass production connected to land use, protection and/or creation of wildlife habitats, conservation and remediation of wastelands and derelict cultural landscapes. Establishing energy plantations on arable lands or on grasslands is against nature conservation, while setting up them in depleted agricultural lands of inferior quality, polluted areas or wastelands could be advantageous for land reclamation and wildlife, because of - root filtration, phytoremediation, less chemicals and improved soils; - possibilities to establish organic production by combining irrigation with biologically cleaned, pathogen-free wastewater, - application of biosolids for fertilization connected to short rotation forestry (SRF) or short rotation coppicing (SRC), agroforestry (AF) or polycyclic arboriculture; - more permanent cover that provides shelter and biomass for feeding, which is especially important in winter; - higher architectural complexity of vegetation provides more place for nesting and feeding; - forbs in the undergrowth and young shots could provide better quality food for wildlife than the intensive monocultures. Biomass production is very complex and includes a vast variety of feedstocks suitable for a range of energy production technologies and many other products depending on the species and the conditions of cultivation. Therefore, the solution is a complex management system, including land use, phytoremediation, solid waste and wastewater management and ecosystem-based planning combined with other renewable energy sources such as geothermal energy, solar cells, wind turbines, hydroelectric power plants and non-polluting high-tech waste incinerators in one dynamic system

Collection, cultivation and processing of medical plants, herbs and spices in the Balaton Ecomuseum – herbal medicine as intangible cultural heritage

The Balaton Ecomuseum, which is being continuously developed since 2017, will have a holistic approach, where the objectives of the ecomuseum embrace the whole cultural landscape of Lake Balaton as one unit with several thematic routes in one system and shall not be restricted to one particular subject area or a part of local heritage. One of these thematic routes is the recently developing Herbs and Spices Network, led by Zánka Herb Valley Visitor and Training Centre based on the collection, cultivation and processing of medicinal plants, herbs and spices. The place of herbs and spices in the diet needs to be considered in reviewing health benefits, including definitions of the food category and the way in which benefits might be viewed, and therefore researched. Here we describe the already established system of the Zánka Herb Valley Visitor and Training Centre, the potential of the Balaton Region in the development of herbal medicine illustrated by the scientific presentation of the 30 most collected herbs in the region and examples of other herbal centres, which are intended to become a part of the network. Herbal medicine, as an important part of the intangible cultural heritage, with hundreds of years old recipes for herbal concoctions has been known since ancient times before science related to modern medicine developed and continues to be used for generations until now. Furthermore, the medical effects of many agricultural crops should be better understood, such as the grapevine, which is being investigated for its medical compounds or the medicinal properties of other fruits and vegetables not sufficiently known to the general public. In this study we present a new system of the culture and interactive education of the collection, cultivation and use of medicinal plants, herbs and spices applying a learning by doing approach and a network embracing the whole area of the Balaton Ecomuseum

European inland waters. The history of seafaring, shipping, and shipyards at the Lake Balaton

Maritime history and development of waterways is often perceived as a mostly marine issue including activities linked directly to the oceans and seas and their coastal zones. However, inland waters and waterways constitute an important landscape-forming factor in terms of transport, wetland formation, watercourse regulations and flood prevention, agriculture, forestry, fishery, settlement structures, tourism and a number of related services. Lake Balaton in western Hungary is a unique environment regarding its geology, biodiversity, water resources (including springs and thermal waters) and rich cultural heritage. Inland navigation has greatly contributed to the development of settlement structures and trades in the region already from Roman times, but only with the appearance of steamboats and the internationally renowned shipyards the shipping of goods and personal transport reached a larger volume. Since Lake Balaton is a shallow lake, producing ships (both sailing boats and larger vessels) was a technical challenge. The largest shipyard around the lake was in the town of Balatonfüred with some ancillary facilities in Siófok. With the continuous development of railway traffic first on the southern and later on the northern shore successively replaced the goods transport on the lake and changed the system of its water level control through the Sió-channel. In this study, we analyse the development of inland navigation on lake Balaton and its influence on trade and settlement structures and cultural heritage in the region, the connections to international inland waterways through the Sió canal and the River Danube and the changes of ship building industry during history. The article is based on a number of studies on the history of Lake Balaton and a specific focus is put on the industrial era and how international influences have been instrumental in this development

Food counterfeiting in general; counterfeiting of milk and dairy products

After giving a general description and historic perspective of food counterfeiting, the questions regarding food counterfeiting today, the nature of food counterfeiting, detection and combating food counterfeiting, and possible legal sanctions against food counterfeiting will be answered. Then the establishment and role of national anti-counterfeit organizations, the national anti-counterfeiting strategy, the expected benefits of actions against counterfeiting, the punishment of counterfeiting, and some cases regarding the counterfeiting of food are discussed. In the case of counterfeiting of milk and dairy products, the milk of various animal species, buffalo, goat and sheep, as well as cows' milk is being falsified by mixing soymilk with cow's milk. Hereinafter, the detection of whey and the buttermilk from milk, the determination of whey protein from dairy products, the analysis of milk produced from milk powder and other options for milk and milk product counterfeiting are discussed. Finally, questions regarding the detection of other fats in milk, butter and ghee, the dilution of milk, determination of the heat treatment of milk and dairy products, the detection of the amount of spoiled milk unfit for consumption are answered. Analytical methods that can be used to detect counterfeits are always referred to

Az idősgondozás helyzete a mai Magyarországon

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