ABSTRACT
This study investigated the in vitro simulated gastrointestinal digestion (GID) effects on wild and micropropagated Apennines Genepì infusions. Wild and micropropagated infusions were compared for their antioxidant activity, phenolic contents, and polyphenolic profiles before and after GID. Before digestion, the wild infusions had higher amounts of phenolic compounds and antioxidant activity than the micropropagated ones. Instead, after digestion, the differences in the total phenolic content (TPC) and antioxidant activity between wild and micropropagated infusions were less pronounced. The changes in the TPC and phenolic profiles revealed the presence of several chemical transformations and rearrangements that resulted in compounds with different reactivity and antioxidant potential. Without enzyme actions, the wild infusion digest undergoes higher modifications than those obtained from the micropropagated ones. The current study offers the first concrete proof of the impact of GID on the polyphenolic chemicals present in infusions of wild and micropropagated Apennines Genepì and their antioxidant properties. Our findings are essential for future in-depth analyses of Apennine Genepì infusions and their potential impacts on human health.
ABSTRACT
The new scenario for global food production and supply is decidedly complex given the current forecast of an increase in food fragility due to international tensions. In this period, exports from other parts of the world require different routes and treatments to preserve the food quality and integrity. Fumigation is a procedure used for the killing, removal, or rendering infertile of pests, with serious dangers to human health. The most-used fumigants are methyl bromide and ethylene dibromide. It is important to bear in mind that the soil may contain bromide ions naturally or from anthropogenic source (fertilizers and pesticides that contain bromide or previous fumigations). Different methods (titrimetric, spectrophotometric, and fluorometric approaches) are available to rapidly determine the amount of bromide ion on site in the containers, but these are non-specific and with high limits of quantification. The increasing interest in healthy food, without xenobiotic residues, requires the use of more sensitive, specific, and accurate analytical methods. In order to help give an overview of the bromide ion scenario, a new, fast method was developed and validated according to SANTE 11312/2021. It involves the determination of bromide ion in cereals and legumes through ion chromatography-Q-Orbitrap. The extraction was performed by the QuPPe method, but some modifications were applied based on the matrix. The method described here was validated at four different levels. Recoveries were satisfactory and the mean values ranged between 99 and 106%, with a relative standard deviation lower than 3%. The linearity in the matrix was evaluated to be between 0.010 and 2.5 mg kg-1, with a coefficient of determination (R2) of 0.9962. Finally, the proposed method was applied to different cereals and legumes (rice, wheat, beans, lentils pearled barley, and spelt) and tested with satisfactory results in EUPT-SMR16 organized by EURL.
ABSTRACT
The first cases of SARS-CoV-2 were reported in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. In January the disease spread rapidly to other regions and beyond Chinese borders until it reached Italy where, on February 21, the first case of non-imported contagion was found. On the same date, as the commercial activities were still regularly open, the dinner, which saw as protagonists the participants of this retrospective study, took place. Of the 49 people attending the event, 47 joined the study. The participants of this study were all males, with an average age of 57 years old, all asymptomatic during the dinner. The participants voluntarily underwent serological or swab tests for SARS-CoV-2 and answered questions from our telephone interview. From the data obtained it emerges that 26 people (55.3%), after the dinner, developed one or more symptoms. The most frequently encountered symptom was fever, present in 76.9% of the symptomatic. 26 people were positive on the diagnostic tests (55.3% of the total examined), 24 of them were symptomatic. The conceivable R0 (the basic reproduction number) is higher than the one present in the literature (7.7 vs 3.8), this is probably due to the conditions in which the dinner took place (not ventilated environment, absence of safety distances, absence of personal protective equipment).
Subject(s)
Coronavirus Infections/epidemiology , Disease Outbreaks , Pneumonia, Viral/epidemiology , Restaurants , Aged , COVID-19 , Coronavirus Infections/diagnosis , Humans , Italy/epidemiology , Male , Middle Aged , Pandemics , Pneumonia, Viral/diagnosis , Retrospective StudiesABSTRACT
: In recent years, agricultural and industrial residues have attracted a lot of interest in the recovery of phytochemicals used in the food, pharmaceutical, and cosmetic industries. In this paper, a study on the recovery of phenol compounds from Lycium spp. leaves is presented. Ultrasound-assisted extraction (UAE) and microwave-assisted extraction (MAE) have been used with alcoholic and hydroalcoholic solvents. Methanolic UAE was the most successful technique for extracting phenols from Lycium leaves, and we used on leaves from L. barbarum and L. chinense cultivated in Italy. The extracts were then characterized as regards to the antioxidant properties by in vitro assays and the phenol profiling by a high performance liquid chromatography-diode array detector (HPLC-DAD). Chlorogenic acid and rutin were the main phenol compounds, but considerable differences have been observed between the samples of the two Lycium species. For example, cryptochlorogenic acid was found only in L. barbarum samples, while quercetin-3-O-rutinoside-7-O-glucoside and quercetin-3-O-sophoroside-7-O-rhamnoside only in L. chinense leaves. Finally, multivariate statistical analysis techniques applied to the phenol content allowed us to differentiate samples from different Lycium spp. The results of this study confirm that the extraction is a crucial step in the analytical procedure and show that Lycium leaves represent an interesting source of antioxidant compounds, with potential use in the nutraceutical field.
ABSTRACT
In recent years, new drugs, commonly known as new psychoactive substances (NPS), appeared on the market, which include, among others, synthetic cannabinoids, cathinones, and tryptamine analogs of psilocin. The aim of this work was to develop and validate a new method for simultaneous screening and quantification of 31 NPS in oral fluid by ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (UHPLC-MS/MS). The chosen target analytes represented different chemical and toxicological NPS classes, such as synthetic cathinones, piperazines, phenethylamines, synthetic cannabinoids, and their metabolites. The procedure involved a rapid sample preparation based on protein precipitation followed by clean-up utilizing microextraction by packed sorbent (MEPS); the quantitative analysis was performed by UHPLC-MS/MS. The MEPS clean-up, regardless of non-quantitative recoveries for some analytes, provided an effective removal of interfering compounds, as demonstrated by reduced matrix effects found at different concentrations for all the analytes. The validation protocol, based on SWGTOX guidelines, demonstrated the suitability of the proposed method for quantitative analysis: linearity range ranged over 3 or 4 orders of magnitude; precision and accuracy tests gave RSD% values below 25%, and accuracy ranged from 85.9% to 107%, accomplishing SWGTOX requirements. Limits of detection (LODs) ranged between 0.005 ng/mL and 0.850 ng/mL and limits of quantification (LOQs) from 0.015 to 2.600 ng/mL.
