Trace element content in commercial complementary food formulated for infants and toddlers: Health risk assessment.

The study aimed to analyze trace elements content in baby purees and fruit juices and to evaluate the health risk of young children. The average daily dose, hazard quotient, hazard index and total diet hazard quotient were calculated to assess the potential health risk on per capita and consumers only groups of infants and toddlers. There was no significant health risk for studied groups regarding the intake of trace elements via purees and juices consumption. Health risk for lead was not estimated since the oral reference dose for this metal was not yet established and PTWI value was withdrawn. The average daily dose of lead for infants (0.32 - 0.46 µg/kg bw/day) and toddlers (2.01 - 2.29 µg/kg bw/day) were in accordance with the daily lead exposure intervals estimated by EFSA. Applying statistical analysis, the products were classified into three groups according to the content of trace elements.

Lignin model compound in alginate hydrogel: a strong antimicrobial agent with high potential in wound treatment.

Nowadays bacterial resistance to known antibiotics is a serious health problem. In order to achieve more efficient treatment, lately there is an effort to find new substances, such as certain biomaterials, that are non-toxic to humans with antibiotic potential. Lignins and lignin-derived compounds have been proposed to be good candidates for use in medicine and health maintenance. In this study, the antibacterial activity of the lignin model polymer dehydrogenate polymer (DHP) in alginate hydrogel (Alg) was studied. The obtained results show that DHP-Alg has strong antimicrobial activity against several bacterial strains and biofilms and does not have a toxic effect on human epithelial cells. These results strongly suggest its application as a wound healing agent or as an adjunct substance for wound treatments.

Elemental composition of edible nuts: fast optimization and validation procedure of an ICP-OES method.

BACKGROUND: An inductively coupled plasma-optical emission spectrometry method for the speedy simultaneous detection of 19 elements in edible nuts (walnuts: Juglans nigra; almonds: Prunus dulcis; hazelnuts: Corylus avellana; Brazil nuts: Bertholletia excelsa; cashews: Anacardium occidentalle; pistachios: Pistacia vera; and peanuts: Arachis hypogaea) available on the Serbian markets, was optimized and validated through the selection of instrumental parameters and analytical lines free from spectral interference and with the lowest matrix effects. RESULTS: The analysed macro-elements were present in the following descending order: Na > Mg > Ca > K. Of all the trace elements, the tested samples showed the highest content of Fe. The micro-element Se was detected in all the samples of nuts. The toxic elements As, Cd and Pb were either not detected or the contents were below the limit of detection. One-way analysis of variance, Student's t-test, Tukey's HSD post hoc test and hierarchical agglomerative cluster analysis were applied in the statistical analysis of the results. CONCLUSION: Based on the detected content of analysed elements it can be concluded that nuts may be a good additional source of minerals as micronutrients.