Validation of gamma and electron beam irradiation as alternative conservation technology for European chestnuts

Chestnuts are widely consumed around the world, especially in China, which is the major producer. Portugal is the fifth biggest producer, reaching and income of 17 M€, with particular relevance for Trás-os-Montes region, which is responsible for 81% of Portuguese production. During postharvest storage, a number of pests tend to attack chestnuts, contributing to high economic losses. Since 2010, the most effective postharvest treatment, i.e. fumigation with methyl bromide, was banned in the European Union, urging producers to seek effective and reasonable alternatives. One alternative could be irradiation with gamma rays or electron beam, which is used in food commodities, legally regulated and allows outstanding results. Our research group has tested both irradiation types in chestnuts and studied the nutritional, antioxidant and other chemical parameters, obtaining promising results. Herein, we extended these studies to selected cultivars from Portugal and Italy in order to validate this technique as a viable alternative to fumigation. The selected irradiation dose (1 kGy) was chosen following previous results where it proved to be effective without causing remarkable changes in chemical or antioxidant profiles. To obtain a global knowledge about how each cultivar reacts to irradiation, principal component analysis was performed using all the measured parameters. Despite the detected differences among cultivars, which differentiated particularly Palummina and Cota, it was verified that irradiation did not cause changes in chemical and antioxidant parameters that could enable defining distinctive features among irradiated and non-irradiated chestnuts. Hence, the results herein reported might be seen as a new step toward the completion of irradiation as feasible conservation technology, independently of chestnuts origin.The authors are thankful to ON.2/QREN/EU Project No.13198/2010, for financial support. A.L. Antonio and J.C.M. Barreira thank FCT, POPH-QREN, and FSE for their grants (SFRH/PROTEC/67398/2010 and SFRH/BPD/72802/2010, respectively). The authors also thank Prof. A. Chmielewski, General Director of the Institute of Nuclear Chemistry and Technology, Warsaw, Poland, for allowing electron beam irradiations

Extending the use of irradiation to preserve chemical and bioactive properties of medicinal and aromatic plants: a case study with four species submitted to electron beam

The effects of gamma irradiation on Aloysia citrodora, Melissa officinalis, Melittis melissophyllum and Mentha piperita were previously evaluated. Herein, the same species were treated with electron-beam irradiation (EB) and the same parameters were evaluated. Instead of presenting absolute values for each studied parameter, data were evaluated as percentage of induced variation. Besides the newly obtained results, data from a previous work was recalled and normalized in the same manner. Several examples of percentage variations specific to a plant species or irradiation condition were found. Nevertheless, it was not possible to identify unequivocal trends. Even so, when evaluated in an integrative way, the parameters with highest discriminating ability among irradiation conditions or plant species were fatty acids and bioactive indicators. Comparing the effects of gamma and EB irradiations, it might be concluded that the most suitable solution to irradiate aromatic plants would be EB, independently of the used dose.The authors are grateful to project PRODER nº 53514, AROMAP, for financial support of the work and E. Pereira grant, and to Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT, Portugal) for financial support to CIMO (strategic project PEst-OE/AGR/UI0690/2014). L. Barros “Compromisso para a Ciência 2008” contract and J.C.M. Barreira grant (BPD/72802/2010). The authors are also grateful to “MaisErvas - Aromáticas e Medicinais” for samples providing

How does electron beam irradiation dose affect the chemical and antioxidant profiles of wild dried Amanita mushrooms?

As all the mushrooms, Amanita species experiment several conservation problems, with a post-harvest life limited to a few days. Drying is one of the most used methods in mushrooms preservation. Food irradiation is another possible way to improve food quality and insure its security. Among the emerging irradiation technologies, electron beam has wide application, allowing high throughput, wide flexibility and potential, without any negative effect on the environment. The effects of different electron beam irradiation doses in Amanita genus, were assessed by measuring the changes produced on a wide variety of nutritional, chemical and antioxidant indicators. The evaluated profiles indicated differences among non-irradiated and irradiated samples, but a high similarity among different doses. This finding advises the highest assayed dose (10 kGy), ensuring higher effectiveness from the decontamination and disinfestation point of view, without having stronger effects than those observed for the lower doses.The authors are grateful to the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT, Portugal) for financial support of research centres CIMO (PEst-OE/AGR/UI0690/2011) and REQUIMTE (PEst-C/EQB/LA0006/2011). Â. Fernandes and J.C.M. Barreira thank FCT, POPH-QREN and FSE for their grants (SFRH/BD/76019/2011 and SFRH/BPD/72802/2010, respectively). Prof. A. Chmielewski, General Director of the Institute of Nuclear Chemistry and Technology, Warsaw, Poland, for allowing e-beam irradiations

Gamma and electron beam irradiation as an alternative for postharvest treatment: a case study with chestnuts

Chestnut fruits are an important food commodity in the Northeast region of "Trás-osMontes", representing an income of approximately 17 M€ and being Porn1gal one of the: world's biggest producer. Due to environmental concerns a broad spectrum fumigant, methyl bromide, was banned in 20 I 0 by the European Union. Since then, no adequate postharvest treatment has been implemented, fostering research on suitable alteratives. Our research group has been testing gamma and electron beam irradiation as an alternative postharvest treatment for chestnuts. On a first attempt to evaluate the influence of irradiation, various doses were tested (0, 0.5, I, 3 and 6 kGy) along different storage times (0, 30 and 60 days). The effects were assessed in the most important chemical parameters, namely nutritional, antioxidant, sugar, fatty acid, tocopherol, organic acid and triacylglyccrol profiles, in which, all seemed to be altered to a greater extent by storage time than by the different doses. Another important conclusion was the validation of I kGy as the optimal dose for chestnuts conservation. This conclusion sustained the venture to extend the study to four varieties (Longal, Judia, Cotaand Palummina) with a fixed dose of I kGy for both gamma radiation and electron beam. The results were processed through principal component analysis and confined that both gamma (1) and electron beam (2) irradiation showed high potential to be used as postharvest conservation technology. The most marked differences were found between the four different cultivars, especially Cola and Palummina, while non-irradiated and irradiated chestnuts proved to have very similar profiles in all the assayed parameters, with irradiation having an attenuating effect

Electron-beam irradiation as an alternative to preserve nutritional, chemical and antioxidant properties of dried plants during extended storage periods

According to current market demands, there is an increasing need for improved conservation methodologies. In addition to an extension in shelf-life, food products should preserve their compositional integrity and bioactive properties throughout storage time. Irradiation technology has been progressively considered as a feasible conservation technology. Electron-beam irradiation, in particular, might be predominantly suitable to be applied in food products with reduced thickness, such as aromatic and medicinal plants. In this study, the effects of e-beam irradiation on chemical, nutritional and antioxidants parameters of different plant species were evaluated. To assess the potential of this technology over extended periods, plant samples were stored for the first time up to a maximum of 18 months. Despite some heterogeneity among the effects produced in each plant species, electron-beam treatment attenuated the reduction of individual compounds (primarily, free sugars, organic acids, tocopherols and polyunsaturated fatty acids) verified in non-irradiated samples, showing its potential as an alternative conservation technology.The authors are grateful to the Ministry of Agriculture, Portugal, (Project PRODER/FEADER/EU no 53514, AROMAP), for financial support of the work and E. Pereira grant, and to Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT, Portugal) and FEDER for financial support to CIMO (UID/AGR/00690/2013), J.C.M. Barreira (BPD/72802/2010) and L. Barros (SFRH/BPD/107855/2015) grants. Prof. A. Chmielewski, General Director of the Institute of Nuclear Chemistry and Technology, Warsaw, Poland, for allowing e-beam irradiations. The authors are also grateful to “MaisErvas - Aromáticas e Medicinais” for providing the plant material.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Tocopherols profile of three Castanea sativa varieties submitted to electron beam irradiation

Chestnuts are widely appreciated fruits all over the world, being China the biggest producer and Portugal standing in fourth place. The Trás-os-Montes region is responsible for 82% of our nation's production [1). Electron beam irradiation has been tested as a postharvest phytosanitary treatment in chestnuts since the main fumigation agent, Methyl Bromide, was banned by the European Union in 2010 due to environmental concerns and danger to public health (2). The results seem promising, surpassing the main drawbacks that other postharvest treatments still display for chestnut treatment. Tocopherols, constituents of vitamin E, are potent antioxidants in the human body, and the only lipid soluble chain breaking antioxidants. They can act independently or by regenerating vitamin C, which is also an antioxidant. The health benefits of antioxidants have also been reviewed by our research group [3). Recently, we have been studying the effects of electron beam and gamma irradiation in the nutritional and antioxidant parameters of chestnuts [4). Our previous findings reveal that storage time plays a more important role in tocopherols degradation when compared to irradiation doses. In this work, we attempted to generalize the application of electron beam irradiation to three chestnut varieties (Longal, Judia and Cota), evaluating the effects on tocopherols profile obtained by High Performance Liquid Chromatography coupled to a fluorescence detector. α- and δ-Tocopherols were not affected in none of the analyzed varieties, while γ-tocopherol was higher in irradiated samples for Longal and Cota and lower for Judia. Despite these slight variations, they were not significant and corroborate our previous findings, in which storage time had a major role in tocopherols degradation than the irradiation process.FCT and COMPETE/OREN/EU (ON.2/QREN/EU Project no.13198/2010; CIMO strategic project PEst-OE/AGR/UI0690/2011 and A.L. Antonio grant- SFRH/PROTEC/67398/2010}

Application of gamma and electron beam irradiation for chestnuts conservation

Due to the distribution of low quality products, adulteration, counterfeit on the Ukrainian market, the widening of export-import supplies, it is too important to develop criteria and methods for the identification domestic and exported food products, detection of adulteration, techniques and methods assessing quality and early spoilage screening of food products using modern express methods of analysis. Such method is an electronic nose system based on chemical sensors, for example, piezoelectric quartz microweighing, combined with complex computer algorithms registration, processing and decision making («artificial intelligence»). Odor is one of the most significant parameters among the sensory properties of foods. The representative flavor of volatile compounds, so-called fingerprint, may provide knowledge about safety and particular characteristic of food, acting sometimes as an indicator of process mistake as well. Off-flavors may include substances originating from the metabolism of spoilage microorganisms, bacteria and fungi; which may naturally or accidentally contaminate the products during their production. Electronic noses (EN) are instruments based on an array of semi low selective sensors that are selected on the chemical affinity to individual components of the analyzed gas mix and vapors and pattern recognition methods. ENs have been applied in various food contexts such as process monitoring, freshness evaluation, shelf-life investigation, authenticity determination, and product traceability. The object of our research is express methods development of identification, estimation of quality and early spoilage screening of dairy and meat products using multisensory electronic nose system based on piezosensors. The absolute advantages of electronic sensory analyzers are their versatility, portability, ability to automate measurements and interpretation of signals, reproducibility of results.Financial support of ON.2/QREN/EU Project no.13198/2010, Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT, Portugal) and COMPETE/QREN/EU (CIMO strategic project PEst-OE/AGR/UI0690/2011). A.L. Antonio, L. Barros and J.C.M. Barreira also thank to FCT, POPH-QREN and FSE for their grants (SFRH/PROTEC/67398/2010, SFRH/BPD/4609/2008 and SFRH/BPD/72802/2010, respectively)

Location of markers of aluminium tolerance genes on rye chromosomes (Secale cereale L.)

The aim of presented work was to identify of PCR amplifiedDNAfragments differentiating aluminium tolerant and sensitive forms of rye and to locate the markers on rye chromosomes. For identification of markers, the PCR system with semi-specific primers targeting intron-exon sequences of plant genes was applied. The modified method of bulked segregant analysis was used. The pooled DNAs of two or three F2 segregating populations were screened together with DNA of their parental inbred lines. Potential marker of tolerance gene was located on rye chromosomes using wheat/rye (Chinese Spring/Blanco) additional lines. The specific probes obtained from DNA fragments differentiating sensitive and tolerant forms of rye were hybridized to PCR amplified DNA fragments of sensitive and tolerant forms of rye and the set of wheat/rye addition lines. Independently of the method of digoxygenin labelling (primer extension or Taq polymerase reaction), the probes obtained showed similar hybridization patterns. The results of hybridisation of 21 probes prepared from 12 DNA fragments confirmed connection of selected DNA fragments with to aluminium tolerance or sensitivity. Most of these DNA fragments originated from tolerant forms of rye. Using this method it was possible to locate eight DNA fragments on rye chromosomes. Three DNA fragments hybridised to chromosome 4R, two DNA fragments to chromosome 6R and single DNA fragments to chromosomes 1R, 2R and 3R. Four DNA fragments indicating clear relationship with character studied were not located on particular chromosomes using this set of wheat/rye addition lines. Hybridisation of probes prepared from four DNA fragments revealed length polymorphism. Probes prepared from two DNA fragments were characterised as dominant markers. In other cases the type of marker (dominant/codominat) was not fully documented

Tetraploid triticale as a potential source of new variation for rye

High crossability of tetraploid triticale (X Triticosecale Wittmack) with rye (Secale cereale L.) and relatively high fertility of the resulting hybrids make the triticale an attractive bridge species for introduction of wheat genes into rye breeding populations. It was found, with the use of in situ hybridization technique, that some 4x triticale materials bred in Radzików contain small wheat translocations, of both distal and intercalary type, into the rye 5R chromosome. The distal wheat translocation occupying less than 5% of the long arm was transferred into diploid rye, but a disomic line has not been established yet. Other wheat translocations of the chromosomes 1R and 5R were found in hybrids of 4x rye with 4x triticale. Besides the intergenomic crossing-over, at least one another mechanism of DNA rearrangements operated. Small intercalary two-dot signals of the wheat fluorescent probe were also found in one line on a rye chromosome different than 5R. Most puzzling was the „invisible” migration of wheat DNA to rye chromosomes, detectable on southern dot-blots, but not on the in situ slides. The wheat probe dot-blot signals were recorded for more than 1/3 of rye plants from the first back-cross of the 4x triticale × 2x rye hybrids to rye