Critical Review on the Presence of Phthalates in Food and Evidence of Their Biological Impact.

Phthalates are a huge class of chemicals with a wide spectrum of industrial uses, from the manufacture of plastics to food contact applications, children's toys, and medical devices. People and animals can be exposed through different routes (i.e., ingestion, inhalation, dermal, or iatrogenic exposure), as these compounds can be easily released from plastics to water, food, soil, air, making them ubiquitous environmental contaminants. In the last decades, phthalates and their metabolites have proven to be of concern, particularly in products for pregnant women or children. Moreover, many authors reported high concentrations of phthalates in soft drinks, mineral waters, wine, oil, ready-to-eat meals, and other products, as a possible consequence of their accumulation along the food production chain and their accidental release from packaging materials. However, due to their different physical and chemical properties, phthalates do not have the same human and environmental impacts and their association to several human diseases is still under debate. In this review we provide an overview of phthalate toxicity, pointing out the health and legal issues related to their occurrence in several types of food and beverage.

Heterogeneous and Homogeneous Routes in Water Oxidation Catalysis Starting from Cu(II) Complexes with Tetraaza Macrocyclic Ligands.

Since the first report in 2012, molecular copper complexes have been proposed as efficient electrocatalysts for water oxidation reactions, carried out in alkaline/neutral aqueous media. However, in some cases the copper species have been recognized as precursors of an active copper oxide layer, electrodeposited onto the working electrode. Therefore, the question whether copper catalysis is molecular or not is particularly relevant in the field of water oxidation. In this study, we investigate the electrochemical activity of copper(II) complexes with two tetraaza macrocyclic ligands, distinguishing heterogeneous or homogeneous processes depending on the reaction media. In an alkaline aqueous solution, and upon application of an anodic bias to working electrodes, an active copper oxide layer is observed to electrodeposit at the electrode surface. Conversely, water oxidation in neutral aqueous buffers is not associated to formation of the copper oxide layer, and could be exploited to evaluate and optimize a molecular, homogeneous catalysis.

Chlorophylls in olive and in olive oil: chemistry and occurrences.

The chlorophylls are responsible for the characteristic green color of the olive fruits and their products. Virgin olive oil (VOO) is obtained from processing olives only by mechanical and physical means under conditions ensuring that the natural characteristics of the fruit composition are maintained as far as possible. In terms of the total chlorophyll content of oil, the extraction process entails a loss of chlorophyll of up to 80%. Many factors, both agronomical and technological, can affect the presence of green pigments in VOO. The analysis of green pigments in olives and/or oil requires an initial phase of extraction of these compounds from the solid and fluid matrix, followed by the selective separation and subsequent identification of the different components of the chlorophyll fraction. The aim of this review article is to summarize and critically analyze the available information about chlorophylls in VOO.

Comparison of the BD Phoenix system with the cefoxitin disk diffusion test for detection of methicillin resistance in Staphylococcus aureus and coagulase-negative staphylococci.

The BD Phoenix system was compared to the cefoxitin disk diffusion test for detection of methicillin (meticillin) resistance in 1,066 Staphylococcus aureus and 1,121 coagulase-negative staphylococcus (CoNS) clinical isolates. The sensitivity for Phoenix was 100%. The specificities were 99.86% for S. aureus and 88.4% for CoNS.

13C nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy for determining the different components of epicuticular waxes of olive fruit (Olea europaea) Dritta cultivar.

(13)C nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (NMR) was applied to determine the different components of apolar and polar fractions which were isolated by column chromatography from the crude chloroform-soluble waxes of olive fruits (Olea europaea) Dritta cultivar. (13)C NMR enabled the determination in the wax apolar fraction, of aliphatic aldehydes, and of benzyl, alkyl and glyceryl esters. In particular, the fatty acid composition of alkyl esters, comprising saturated and unsaturated oleic and linoleic acids, was determined. Acyl chain composition and the chain composition of 1,3- and 2-glycerol positions were also determined for triacylglycerols of olive fruit waxes. Oleanolic and maslinic acids were confirmed to be the major components of wax polar fraction. Complete assignments of (13)C NMR chemical shifts of oleanolic and maslinic acids as a mixture were achieved by using homonuclear correlation spectroscopy with gradient (g-COSY), attached proton test (APT), inverse-detected heteronuclear single-quantum coherence with gradient (g-HSQC), high-resolution heteronuclear correlation spectroscopy (HETCOR) for C-H directly attached pairs and C-H long-range-coupled experiments.