[Plant-derived contaminants in food : Occurrence, effects and risk assessment]. / Pflanzliche Kontaminanten in Lebensmitteln : Vorkommen, Wirkung und Risikobewertung.

Among the various contaminants, the group of natural plant-derived substances in the modern food chain has been generating increasing concern in recent years. The adverse effects encountered may be diverse and pose risks of acute, subchronic or chronic toxicity. The underlying mechanisms of toxicity may be thresholded or be based on interactions with DNA, as for genotoxic carcinogens, for which the existence of a threshold cannot be assumed. This article gives an overview of the major plant-derived contaminants of present concern in the modern food chain and describes their mode of action and adverse effects.

Improving the food safety of bakery products by simultaneously monitoring the occurrence of pyrrolizidine, tropane and opium alkaloids.

The exponential number of food alerts about concerning levels of some plant-alkaloids, such as pyrrolizidine, tropane and opium alkaloids, have stressed the need to monitor their occurrence in foods to avoid toxic health effects derived from their intake. Therefore, analytical strategies to simultaneously monitor the occurrence of these alkaloids should be developed to ensure food safety an comply with regulations. Accordingly, this work proposes an efficient multicomponent analytical strategy for the simultaneous extraction of these alkaloids from commercial bakery products. The analytical method was validated and applied to the analysis of 15 samples, revealing that 100% of them contained at least one of the target alkaloids, in some cases exceeding the maximum limits legislated. Moreover, in two samples the 3 different alkaloid families were detected. These results confirm the importance of simultaneously monitoring these alkaloids in food and highlight also considering some opium alkaloids in current legislation.

Screening of drugs and homeopathic products from Atropa belladonna seed extracts: Tropane alkaloids determination and untargeted analysis.

Homeopathic products are still a controversial issue in modern medicine, understood as complementary or alternative medicine (CAM). In this particular case, homeopathic products prepared from Atropa belladonna extracts may present specific problems due to the effects derived from its components. This article applies a simple, rapid, reliable method to the analysis of different homeopathic products obtained from Atropa belladonna; drugs containing high concentration of plant extracts; and Atropa belladonna seeds. The method was based on a simple solid-phase preconcentration method followed by ultra-high pressure liquid chromatography (UHPLC) coupled to high resolution mass spectrometry using Exactive-Orbitrap as an analyser. An in-house database was set and atropine and scopolamine were the compounds detected at highest concentrations in homeopathic products from Atropa belladonna extracts (4.57 and 2.56 µg/kg, respectively), in Belladonna ointment (4007 and 1139 µg/kg, respectively) and Belladonna seeds (338 and 32.1 mg/kg, respectively). Other tropane alkaloids such as tropine, apoatropine, aposcopolamine, tropinone, homatropine, and anisodamine were detected at lower concentrations (0.04-1.36 µg/kg). When untargeted analysis was performed, other tropane alkaloids were identified in the tested samples, such as ecgonine (0.003 µg/kg), benzoylecgonine (0.56 µg/kg), calystegines A (19.6 µg/kg), B (33.1 µg/kg), and C (1.01 µg/kg). Finally other compounds present in the homeopathic products, such as sugars (fructose, glucose, and lactose) or amino acids (valine, ornithine, leucine, and phenylalanine), were identified.