Recovery of Anthocyanins and Monosaccharides from Grape Marc Extract by Nanofiltration Membranes.

Wastewaters and by-products generated in the winemaking process are important and inexpensive sources of value-added compounds that can be potentially reused for the development of new products of commercial interest (i.e., functional foods). This research was undertaken in order to evaluate the potential of nanofiltration (NF) membranes in the recovery of anthocyanins and monosaccharides from a clarified Carménère grape marc obtained through a combination of ultrasound-assisted extraction and microfiltration. Three different flat-sheet nanofiltration (NF) membranes, covering the range of molecular weight cut-off (MWCO) from 150 to 800 Da, were evaluated for their productivity as well as for their rejection towards anthocyanins (malvidin-3-O-glucoside, malvidin 3-(acetyl)-glucoside, and malvidin 3-(coumaroyl)-glucoside) and sugars (glucose and fructose) in selected operating conditions. The selected membranes showed differences in their performance in terms of permeate flux and rejection of target compounds. The NFX membrane, with the lowest MWCO (150-300 Da), showed a lower flux decay in comparison to the other investigated membranes. All the membranes showed rejection higher than 99.42% for the quantified anthocyanins. Regarding sugars rejection, the NFX membrane showed the highest rejection for glucose and fructose (100 and 92.60%, respectively), whereas the NFW membrane (MWCO 300-500 Da) was the one with the lowest rejection for these compounds (80.57 and 71.62%, respectively). As a general trend, the tested membranes did not show a preferential rejection of anthocyanins over sugars. Therefore, all tested membranes were suitable for concentration purposes.

Epidemiological Chronicle of the First Recovered Coronavirus Disease Patient From Panama: Evidence of Early Cluster Transmission in a High School of Panama City.

The first patient infected by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) in Panama was reported on March 9, 2020. Here, we describe the first case of recovery from coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in the country. The patient was a 49-year-old male high school teacher, who did not show any primary symptoms of COVID-19 described by health authorities as the signs for medical attention. Nonetheless, he became severely ill over the course of 2 weeks and almost lost the battle against COVID-19. The identification of the first cluster of SARS-CoV-2 community transmission in the secondary school where the patient of this case report taught, led to the closure of the school and, a day after, the shutdown of the national education system, which may have prevented the spread and slowed the transmission rate of COVID-19 during the early stages of invasion. This case report highlights the need to increase awareness among healthcare professionals in Latin America to consider symptoms such as anosmia and dysgeusia as the sentinel signs of COVID-19 infection in order to prevent deaths, especially in high-risk patients.