Acorn (Quercus spp.) as a novel source of oleic acid and tocopherols for livestock and humans: discrimination of selected species from Mediterranean forest.

The aim of the present work was to characterization and compare acorns from selected Quercus spp. from the Mediterranean forest in Spain, namely, Portuguese oak (QF, Quercus faginea Lam.), Cork oak (QS, Quercus suber L.), Pyrenean oak (QP, Quercus pyrenaica Wild), Kermes oak (QC, Quercus coccifera L.), Holm oak (QB, Quercus ilex L. subsp. ballota [Desf.]). All physicochemical attributes varied significantly between species. Fat contents ranged from 1.30 to 4.70 g 100 g-1 fresh matter. The most abundant fatty acids were oleic (62.44, 56.25, 57.46, 48.02, 65.83%), followed by linoleic (16.42, 20.73, 21.30, 25.38, 14.17%) and palmitic (11.69, 14.27, 12.17, 16.22, 12.28) acids in QF, QS, QP, QC and QB species, respectively. The tocopherol content was high in the range of 31.83-45.25 mg kg-1, and γ-tocopherol constituted 67-78% of total tocopherols. Only an effect of the location on γ-tocopherol content in QB was observed. The present results show the potential of different species of acorn to be used as agricultural and food resources and that geographical location plays a secondary role.

Ischaemia-modified albumin levels in newborn jaundice before and after phototherapy.

The aim of our study was to assess the effect of phototherapy (PT) on ischaemia-modified albumin (IMA) and malondialdehyde (MDA) levels in hyperbilirubinemic full-term newborns. The study was performed on 36 full-term infants exposed to PT. The babies were aged 3 to 13 days. IMA and MDA levels of the babies were determined before and after PT, by a colorimetric assay. IMA levels before and after PT were found as 0.424 ± 0.290 and 0.531 ± 0.262 absorbance units, respectively. Although IMA levels after PT were slightly higher, the difference was not statistically significant (p > 0.131). MDA levels before and after PT were found as 8.4 ± 1.8 µmol/l and 9.4 ± 1.5 µmol/l, respectively. Serum MDA concentrations were significantly higher after PT than before PT (p < 0.000). In previous studies, conflicting findings have been reported about the effect of PT on oxidant and antioxidant systems. However, we have found no study investigating IMA levels in hyperbilirubinaemia in newborns before and after PT. Our results shows that PT does not affect IMA levels significantly. IMA increases as a result of oxidative stress. We believe that the lack of significant difference between our IMA levels before and after PT may resulted from hyperbilirubinaemia, which has antioxidant effect.