Comparative Study of the Nutritional, Phytochemical, Sensory Characteristics and Glycemic Response of Cookies Enriched with Lupin Sprout Flour and Lupin Green Sprout

This study aimed to compare the nutritional, phytochemical, and sensory characteristics of wheat flour (WF) cookies enriched with different proportions of lupin sprout flour (LSF) and those with different proportions of lupin green sprout (LGS). To achieve this, a control cookie (CC); three cookies with 10%, 20%, and 30% of LSF, respectively, CLSF1, CLSF2, and CLSF3; and three other cookies (CLGS1, CLGS2, and CLGS3) with 10%, 20%, and 30%, respectively, were produced. The proximate composition of each cookie was analyzed using AOAC methods. Also, the measurements of the total polyphenol content, antioxidant activity, individual polyphenols, glycemic index, and a sensory analysis were carried out using recent and accurate methods. The contribution of the main nutrients from 100 g of product to the required daily dose was also calculated. Data analysis revealed that cookies with LSF were richer than cookies with LGS in protein, fat, and energy values. CLGS3 was 35.12%, 1.45%, and 5.0% lower in protein, fat, and energy content than CLSF3, respectively. On the other hand, CLSF3 was lower than CLGS3, with 48.2% and 12.4% in moisture and mineral substances, respectively. Both cookies were lower in carbohydrates than the CC (65.20 g/100 g). Still on the subject of micro- and macronutrients, cookies with LSF were richer than those with LGS in all the minerals analyzed. The study also revealed improvements in phytochemical properties, such as total and individual polyphenols and antioxidant activity with the percentage of lupin sprout flour addition. The sensory analysis revealed that, for LSF and LGS cookies, the 10% samples were the most appreciated by consumers, irrespective of the sensory attributes studied. The glycemic index of the CLSF2 product was lower compared to the CC. This study shows that the LSF cookies have better nutritional, phytochemical, and sensory values than the LGS cookies. LSF is, therefore, better suited than LGS to the enrichment of bakery products in general and cookies in particular. The paper provides significant information to estimate the contribution of the consumption of functional products based on lupin sprouts to the required daily dose of food nutrients and the impact on the glycemic index of fortified products.

Boswellia Essential Oil: Natural Antioxidant as an Effective Antimicrobial and Anti-Inflammatory Agent

The research aimed to determine the chemical composition, the antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activity as well as the antimicrobial activity against Gram-positive, Gram-negative and two fungal Candida ATCC strains of a commercial Boswellia essential oil (BEO) containing Boswellia carteri, Boswellia sacra, Boswellia papryfera, and Boswellia frereana. Additionally, molecular docking was carried out to show the molecular dynamics of the compounds identified from the essential oil against three bacterial protein targets and one fungal protein target. The major components identified by GC-MS (Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry) were represented by α-pinene, followed by limonene. Evaluation of antioxidant activity using the DPPH (2,2-Diphenyl-1-Picrylhydrazyl) method showed high inhibition comparable to the synthetic antioxidant used as a control. Oxidative stability evaluation showed that BEO has the potential to inhibit primary and secondary oxidation products with almost the same efficacy as butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA). The use of BEO at a concentration of 500 ppm provided the best protection against secondary oxidation during 30 days of storage at room temperature, which was also evident in the peroxide value. Regarding the in vitro anti-inflammatory activity, the membrane lysis assay and the protein denaturation test revealed that even if the value of protection was lower than the value registered in the case of dexamethasone, the recommendation of using BEO as a protective agent stands, considering the lower side effects. Gram-positive bacteria proved more sensitive, while Pseudomonas aeruginosa presented different sensitivity, with higher MICs (minimal inhibitory concentration). Haemophilus influenzae demonstrated a MIC at 2% but with consecutive inhibitory values in a negative correlation with the increase in concentration, in contrast to E. coli, which demonstrated low inhibitory rates at high concentrations of BEO. The computational tools employed revealed interesting binding energies with compounds having low abundance. The interaction of these compounds and the proteins (tyrosyl-tRNA synthetase, DNA gyrase, peptide deformylase, 1,3-β-glucan synthase) predicts hydrogen bonds with amino acid residues, which are reported in the active sites of the proteins. Even so, compounds with low abundance in BEO could render the desired bioactive properties to the overall function of the oil sustained by physical factors such as storage and temperature. Interestingly, the findings from this study demonstrated the antioxidant and antimicrobial potential of Boswellia essential oil against food-related pathogens, thus making the oil a good candidate for usage in food, feed or food-safety-related products.

Strategies to Formulate Value-Added Pastry Products from Composite Flours Based on Spelt Flour and Grape Pomace Powder

In recent years, sustainability has promoted new research to develop reformulation strategies for value-added food products by exploiting grape pomace. Grape pomace powder (GP) was used to substitute spelt flour (SF) at 0, 5, 10, 15, 20 and 25% to obtain three types of fortified pastry products: biscuits and cakes involving a chemical leavening agent, and rolls leavened by yeast. Proximate composition, total phenolic content (TPC), total flavonoids content (TFC), 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) radical scavenging activity and ferric-reducing antioxidant power (FRAP) along with physical characteristics and sensory analysis of the enriched products were considered. The retention rate of the functional attributes of formulations in response to baking was also evaluated. Significant improvements in TPC, TFC and both antioxidant tests were achieved in the fortified products by the incremental incorporation of GP. With a substitution of 25% SF by GP, the following increases were recorded in biscuits, cakes and rolls over the control samples: 7.198-, 7.733- and 8.117-fold for TPC; 8.414-, 7.000- and 8.661-fold for TFC; 16.334-, 17.915- and 18.659-fold for FRAP and 16.384-, 17.908- and 18.775-fold for DPPH. The retention rates of TPC, TFC, FRAP and DPPH relative to the corresponding dough were 41-63%, 37-65%, 48-70% and 45-70%. The formulas leavened by yeast revealed higher functionality than those produced with a chemical raising agent. With the increase in GP, the elasticity and porosity gradually decreased for cakes and rolls, while the spread ratio of biscuits increased. Regarding sensory evaluation, all formulations with incorporated GP up to 10% were rated at an extremely pleasant acceptability level. The solutions derived from this study have great practical applicability for the development of new pastry formulations with improved functionality from GP valorisation.

Nutritional, Physico-Chemical, Phytochemical, and Rheological Characteristics of Composite Flour Substituted by Baobab Pulp Flour (Adansonia digitata L.) for Bread Making

The aim of this paper is to improve the nutritional quality of bakery products by replacing wheat flour (WF) with different proportions (10%, 20%, and 30%) of baobab flour (BF). The composite flours and bread obtained were evaluated from nutritional, physical-chemical, phytochemical, organoleptic, and rheological points of view. The results obtained show that BF is a rich source of minerals (K: 13,276.47 ± 174 mg/kg; Ca: 1570.67 ± 29.67 mg/kg; Mg: 1066.73 ± 9.97 mg/kg; Fe: 155.14 ± 2.95 mg/kg; Na: 143.19 ± 5.22 mg/kg; and Zn: 14.90 ± 0.01 mg/kg), lipids (1.56 ± 0.02 mg/100 g), and carbohydrates (76.34 ± 0. 06 mg/100 g) as well as for the phytochemical profile. In this regard, the maximum contents for the total polyphenols content (TPC) were recorded in the case of bread with 30% BF (297.63 ± 1.75 mg GAE/100 g), a total flavonoids content (TFC) of 208.06 ± 0.002 mg QE/100 g, and 66.72 ± 0.07% for antioxidant activity (AA). Regarding the physical-chemical, rheological, and organoleptic analysis, the bread sample with 10% BF (BWB1) was the best among the samples with different proportions of BF. It presented a smooth, porous appearance (73.50 ± 0.67% porosity) and an elastic core (85 ± 0.27% elasticity) with a volume of 155.04 ± 0.95 cm³/100 g. It had better water absorption (76.7%) than WF (55.8%), a stability of 5.82 min, and a zero-gluten index. The scores obtained by BWB1 for the organoleptic test were as follows: Appearance: 4.81; color: 4.85; texture: 4.78; taste: 4.56; flavor: 4.37; and overall acceptability: 4.7. This study shows that BF improved the nutritional quality of the product, organoleptic properties, α-amylase activity, viscosity, and phytochemical profile, resulting in composite flour suitable for the production of functional bread.

Diversity of Monofloral Honey Based on the Antimicrobial and Antioxidant Potential

This study aimed to investigate the antioxidant profile and the antimicrobial activity of four different types of monofloral honey (manuka (MH), brassica rapeseed (BH), acacia (AH), and linden honey (LH)) against some bacterial/fungal ATCC strains and some multidrug-resistant strains isolated from chronic otitis in dogs. For the characterisation of the antioxidant profile of each honey, we extracted the honey samples by hydroalcoholic extraction and analysed them in terms of total polyphenols (TPC), total flavonoids (TFC), and 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) using the spectrophotometric method. The antimicrobial activity was determined using the microdilution method at concentrations of 10%, 15%, and 20%, with the results expressed in OD (optical density) calculated as BIR% (bacterial inhibition rate)/MIR% (mycelial inhibition rate). The antioxidant characterisation of the analysed honey samples showed the highest antioxidant activity and concentrations of TPC and TFC in MH, followed by LH. MH was proven to be the most effective on most clinical isolates concerning the antimicrobial activity in comparison with BH, AH, and LH. Except for B. cepacia and P. vulgaris, all the clinical isolates were sensitive to the antibacterial activity of honey. Regarding the ATCC strains, MH 10% was the most effective in inhibiting all the strains tested except for P. aeruginosa. In conclusion, the efficacy classification in our study was MH > BH > AH > LH.

Phytochemical Profile and Microbiological Activity of Some Plants Belonging to the Fabaceae Family

This study aimed to investigate the chemical composition and the activity against Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) (ATCC 25923), Streptococcus pyogenes (S. pyogenes) (ATCC 19615), Escherichia coli (E. coli) (ATCC 25922), Pseudomonas aeruginosa (P. aeruginosa) (ATCC 27853), Shigella flexneri (S. flexneri) (ATCC 12022), Salmonella typhimurium (S. typhimurium) (ATCC 14028), Haemophillus influenzae (H. influenza) type B (ATCC 10211) and two fungal strains: Candida albicans (C. albicans) (ATCC 10231) and Candida parapsilopsis (C. parapsilopsis) (ATCC 22019) of the extracts obtained from Melilotus officinalis (MO), Coronilla varia (CV); Ononis spinosa (OS) and Robinia pseudoacacia (RP) (Fabaceae), and to identify the chemical compounds responsible for the antimicrobial effect against the tested strains. The extracts were obtained by conventional hydroalcoholic extraction and analyzed in terms of total polyphenols using the spectrophotometric method and by liquid chromatography (LC). The results have shown that the highest polyphenols content was recorded in the RP sample (16.21 mg gallic acid equivalent GAE/g), followed by the CV (15.06 mg GAE/g), the OS (13.17 mg GAE/g), the lowest value being recorded for the MO sample (11.94 mg GAE/g). The antimicrobial testing of plant extracts was carried out using the microdilution method. The most sensitive strains identified were: E. coli, S. typhimurium, P. aeruginosa and S. pyogenes, while protocatechuic acid, gallic acid, caffeic acid, quercetin, rutin, and kaempferol were identified as the chemical compounds responsible for the antibacterial effect. The analysis of the correlation between the chemical composition and the antimicrobial effect proved a moderate (r > 0.5) positive correlation between rosmarinic acid and S. pyogenes (r = 0.526), rosmarinic acid and S. typhimurium (r = 0.568), quercetin and C. albicans (r = 0.553), quercetin and S. pyogenes (r = 0.605). Therefore, it suggested possible antimicrobial activity generated by these chemical components. The results recommend the Fabaceae plants as promising candidates for further research to develop novel natural antimicrobial drugs.

Exploring Ecological Alternatives for Crop Protection Using Coriandrum sativum Essential Oil

Essential oils (EOs) are a natural source of active compounds with antifungal, antimycotoxigenic, and herbicidal potential, and have been successfully used in organic agriculture, instead of chemical compounds obtained by synthesis, due to their high bioactivity and the absence of toxicity. The aim of this study was to highlight the importance of Coriandrum sativum essential oil (CEO) as a potential source of bioactive constituents and its applications as an antifungal and bioherbicidal agent. The CEO was obtained by steam distillation of coriander seeds and GC-MS technique was used to determine the chemical composition. Furthermore, in vitro tests were used to determine the antifungal potential of CEO on Fusarium graminearum mycelia growth through poisoned food technique, resulting in the minimum fungistatic (MCFs) and fungicidal concentrations (MCFg). The antifungal and antimycotoxigenic effect of CEO was studied on artificially contaminated wheat seeds with F. graminearum spores. Additionally, the herbicidal potential of CEO was studied by fumigating monocotyledonous and dicotyledonous weed seeds, which are problematic in agricultural field crops in Romania. The in vitro studies showed the antifungal potential of CEO, with a minimum concentration for a fungistatic effect of 0.4% and the minimum fungicidal concentration of 0.6%, respectively. An increase in the antifungal effects was observed in the in vivo experiment with F. graminearum, where a mixture of CEO with Satureja hortensis essential oil (SEO) was used. This increase is attributed to the synergistic effect of both EOs. Moreover, the synthesis of deoxynivalenol (DON)-type mycotoxins was found to be less inhibited. Hence, CEO has shown an herbicidal potential on weed seeds by affecting inhibition of germination.

Synergistic Antifungal, Allelopatic and Anti-Proliferative Potential of Salvia officinalis L., and Thymus vulgaris L. Essential Oils

The current study aimed to investigate the chemical composition and the synergistic potential of two essential oils (EOs), as obtained from Salvia officinalis L. (SEO), and Thymus vulgaris L. (TEO). The antifungal potential was tested in vitro against Fusarium graminearum (Fg 06_17), the herbicidal effect was studied using weed seeds of Amaranthus retroflexus (ARET), Chenopodium album (CALB), Echinochloa crus-galli (EGAL), but also wheat seeds (WS) of the Lovrin variety and tomato seeds Saint-Pierre of the variety. The GC-MS profile highlights that the mains compounds identified in SEO were: caryophyllene (25.364%), camphene (14.139%), eucalyptol (13.902%), and β-pinene (11.230%), while in TEO, the predominant phytochemicals were: γ-terpinene (68.415%) and p-thymol (24.721%). The results indicated that the tested EOs alone as well as in combination have allelopathic effect against investigated seeds, while the synergistic effect of TEO and SEO in terms of fungal growth was demonstrated at a level of 0.06%. Thyme and sage EOs exhibited in vitro anti-proliferative activity on two melanoma cell lines, namely A375 human melanoma and B164A5 mouse melanoma alone, as well as in combination. SEO was most effective in terms of decreasing the cell viability of murine and human melanoma cell lines when compared to TEO.

Effect of glyphosate on the microbial activity of two Romanian soils

Glyphosate applied to soils potentially affect microbial activity. A series of field and laboratory experiments assessed the effect of this herbicide on soil microorganisms. The aim of experiments was to evaluate the effect of glyphosate application on the soil microbial community structure, function and their activity. We studied "in vitro", changes in the microbial activity of typical Chernozem and Gleysol soils, with and without applied glyphosate. The herbicide was applied at a rate of 2, respectively 4 mg kg(-1) of soil and microbial activity were measured by fluorescein diacetate (FDA) hydrolysis. We found an increase of 9 to 13% in FDA hydrolyses in the presence of glyphosate in rate of 2 mg kg (-1) compared with the same type of soil which had never received herbicide. The double quantity of glyphosate decrease soil microbial activity; the amount of hydrolyzed fluorescein is lower than the addition of 2 ppm. The greater decrease was observed in the Gleysol type where the fluorescein hydrolyzed is with 4, 85% lower than version control without glyphosate. Chemical characters of soil, influence soil biological activity when herbicide is added. In Chemozem case, rich in humus, whose predominant micro flora is represented by actinomycetes through glyphosate treatment these organisms growths of as major producers of antibiotics actinomycetes determine an inhibitory effect on eubacteria and micromycetes growth, which is highlighted by estimating a relatively small number of them. After 10 days, once with decreasing of glyphosate content in soil, decreases the number of active actinomycetes, therefore we are witnessing to a numerical growth of bacterial population. In Gleysol type the indigenous micro flora is represented by eubacteria, so when the glyphosate is added it was registered a high growth of these organisms fraction.

Degradation of 14C-glyphosate in compost amended soils

Glyphosate (N-phosphonomethyl-glycine), the active ingredient in several herbicide formulations, is a non-selective, post-emergent herbicide used in a variety of crop and non-crop situations. Glyphosate is a non-volatile herbicide that is relatively immobile in soil. Its degradation is due to microbiological processes and most laboratory studies have been conducted with 14C-glyphosate with the rate of 14CO2 evolution being used as an indication of herbicide breakdown. In this paper we have studied the glyphosate degradation in compost amendment soils using Scientilator Liquid TRIATHLER and Glyphosate-phosphonomethyl-14C-labeled with specific activity 2,2mCi/mmol. Four types of soils have been taken under study: Black Chernozem, Vertisol, Gleysol and Phaeozem with different characteristics. For the each type of soil have been realized four experimental variants (glyphosate blind sample with 1,5 ppm, concentration, autoclaved soil, soil with glyphosate and addition of compost in field concentration of 40 t/ha, respectively 60 t/ha. The mineralization curves of 14CO2 accumulated were compared during of 40 days. All the mineralization curves for the soils exhibited same patterns, with only two phases, the initial rapid phase of degradation, for about 20 days, attributed to microbial action on the free glyphosate and the second slow phase, when the curves attained plateaus. Compost applied with different concentrations to Vertisol and Black Chernozem did not appear to stimulate the microbial degradation of glyphosate. In Gleysol and Phaeozem with lower humus content, the mineralization curve of 14C indicate the increase degradation capacity, expressed as accumulated 14CO2 as % total 14C, with the increase of compost concentration.

Researches regarding extractable glyphosate residues from different soils

GLyphosate (N-phosphonomethyl-glycine) is a systemic, broad spectrum herbicide effective against most plant species, including annual and perennial species and is one of the world's most widely used herbicide. To glyphosate applied treatments, a part of active agent comes in contact with soil surface, adsorbing to soil compounds, while another part remains in soil solution. The adsorbing to soil compounds represents a feat importance conditioning the herbicide presence in soil solution and so, his availability to degradation and dispersion in the environment. In this paper work, the extractable glyphosate residues from soil solution have been determined through HPLC-FLD. Substrates used were Black Chernozem, Typical Gleysoil, Slight Vertisol, with moderate carbonatation. The experimental results indicated that the extractable glyphosate residue fractions from soil diminish (<20%), depending of soil parameters and decrease in this order: Gleysoil, Black Chernozem, Slight Vertisol.

Intrinsic trapping of stochastic sheared magnetic field lines

The decorrelation trajectory method is applied to the diffusion of magnetic field lines in a perturbed sheared slab magnetic configuration. Some interesting decorrelation trajectories for several values of the magnetic Kubo number and of the shear parameter are exhibited. The asymmetry of the decorrelation trajectories appears in comparison with those obtained in the purely electrostatic case studied in earlier work. The running and asymptotic diffusion tensor components are calculated and displayed.