Nutritional, chemical, and antioxidant screening of selected varieties of lentils (Lens culinaris spp.) from organic and conventional agriculture.

BACKGROUND: Lentils are an ancient legume established worldwide for direct consumption and with great potential for application in food processing. In addition, it is a sustainable crop owing to its ability to scavenge nitrogen and carbon, and it improves the nutrient status of the soil. A diet rich in lentils has been linked to significant health benefits. However, the composition of lentils can be influenced by both the lentil variety and the growing conditions. The aim of this work was to evaluate the nutritional profiles and antioxidant potential, as well as the impact that the type of cultivation (conventional or organic) and the variety could have on these parameters, in different lentil varieties. RESULTS: Overall, carbohydrates are the major macronutrients in all varieties, with notable amounts of fibre (11.62-27.36%) and starch (41.98-50.27%). High amounts of protein and ash were also identified, particularly in the Beluga variety, with 21.9-23.3 and 1.38-1.82 g 100 g-1 fresh weight, respectively. Fructose and sucrose were detected (high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) with refraction index detection), along with oxalic, quinic, malic, and shikimic acids (ultra-fast liquid chromatography with photodiode array detection), and α- and γ-tocopherol isoforms (HPLC with fluorescence detection). Fatty acid methyl ester assessment showed the prevalence of polyunsaturated fatty acids (33.5-46.3%). Good antioxidant capacity (thiobarbituric acid reactive substances and oxidative haemolysis inhibition assay) was also noted. CONCLUSION: The results obtained showed that all the varieties analysed are an excellent source of fibre and have a good antioxidant capacity. Lentil variety has a greater influence on its nutritional composition than the type of cultivation. © 2023 The Authors. Journal of The Science of Food and Agriculture published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Society of Chemical Industry.

Bioactive properties of greenhouse-cultivated green beans (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) under biostimulants and water-stress effect.

BACKGROUND: The scarcity of irrigation water is severely affecting global crop production. In this context, biostimulants are increasingly used as alternatives means against abiotic stress conditions. In this study, phenolic compounds composition and bioactive properties of common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) plants grown under water stress conditions and biostimulants application were investigated. RESULTS: Sixteen individual phenolic compounds were detected in both pods and seeds with a notable difference in their compositional profile. A significant effect on phenolic compounds content and composition was also observed for the biostimulants tested. Regarding the antibacterial activity, pods of the second harvest and seed extracts showed significant efficacy against Bacillus cereus, especially in water-stressed plants, where all biostimulant treatments were more effective than positive controls. Moreover, all biostimulant treatments for seed extracts of water-stressed plants were more effective against Staphylococcus aureus compared with ampicillin, whereas streptomycin showed the best results. Extracts from pods of the second harvest from normally irrigated plants showed the best results against the fungi tested, except for Penicillium verrucosum var. cyclopium. Finally, no significant cytotoxic effects were detected. CONCLUSION: In conclusion, the biostimulants tested increased total phenolic compounds content compared with control treatment, especially in pods of the first harvest and seeds of water-stressed plants. Moreover, bioactive properties showed a varied response in regard to irrigation and biostimulant treatment. Therefore, biostimulants can be considered as a useful means towards increasing phenolic compounds content, and they may also affect the antimicrobial properties of pods and seeds extracts. © 2019 Society of Chemical Industry.

Fucus vesiculosus extracts as natural antioxidants for improvement of physicochemical properties and shelf life of pork patties formulated with oleogels.

BACKGROUND: There is limited information in the literature concerning the feasibility of using algal extracts as natural additives for improvement of the quality and shelf-life of meat products. Hence, a Fucus vesiculosus extract (FVE) at the concentrations of 250 mg kg-1 (FVE-250), 500 mg kg-1 (FVE-500) and 1000 mg kg-1 (FVE-1000) were added to pork patties with linseed oil oleogel as a fat replacer. RESULTS: Total polyphenol content of FVE was determined to be 20 g phloroglucinol equivalents 100 g-1 extract. Antioxidant values ranged from 37.5 µmol of Trolox equivalents (TE) g-1 (FRAP assay) to 2111 µmol TE g-1 extract (ABTS assay). Regarding oxidation stability, FVE-1000 showed the lowest values of thiobarbituric acid-reactive substance and carbonyl content. On the other hand, FVE did not improve color, surface discoloration or odor attributes of patties during storage. Sensory evaluation revealed that there was no significant difference among all studied samples. CONCLUSION: Although FVEs have a high polyphenol content and antioxidant activities, they are not effective oxidation inhibitors for long-term storage of meat products. Therefore, additional measures or compounds should be considered when FVE is the only antioxidant in meat products. © 2019 Society of Chemical Industry.

The effect of covering material on the yield, quality and chemical composition of greenhouse-grown tomato fruit.

BACKGROUND: During the last few decades, greenhouse technology for horticultural crops has focused on retaining optimum conditions within the greenhouse environment that could allow for a compromise between maximum yields and minimum production costs. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of three greenhouse covering materials and five harvesting dates on the yield and quality parameters of hydroponically produced tomato fruit, as well as on energy consumption. RESULTS: Plants had a higher growth rate at early stages for S-PE cover material, while differences were minimized at later stages. Tocopherol content was the highest for ID-PE material and harvesting later than 170 days after transplanting (DAT), while sugar content (fructose and glucose) was the highest for S-PE material and 157 DAT. Organic acid content was the highest at early harvestings, especially for 7-PE and S-PE cover materials, while it exhibited decreasing trends at later harvesting dates. Antioxidant properties showed a varied response to cover materials and harvesting dates, while ß-carotene, carotenoids and chlorophylls were the highest for 7-PE material. CONCLUSIONS: The results showed that both cover materials and harvesting date may affect significantly tomato fruit quality, especially sugar and organic acid contents which are associated with fruit taste, as well as tocopherols which contribute to antioxidant properties and pigments that are associated with fruit ripening and earliness of marketable maturity. © 2018 Society of Chemical Industry.

A comparison of the phenolic profile and antioxidant activity of different Cichorium spinosum L. ecotypes.

BACKGROUND: Wild greens are considered a rich source of phenolic compounds and antioxidants and an essential part of the so-called Mediterranean diet. In the present study, Cichorium spinosum L. ecotypes, cultivated or collected in situ from wild plants from the eastern Mediterranean, were evaluated regarding their phenolic composition and antioxidant activity. RESULTS: Significant differences were observed among the various studied ecotypes regarding their phenolic compound content and profile, especially between wild and cultivated ecotypes, as well as the phenolic acid content between commercial products and cultivated plants. The antioxidant activity also varied among the various studied ecotypes and growing conditions, with commercial products having the highest antioxidant activity, whereas wild ecotypes showed lower antioxidant activity. CONCLUSION: Cichorium spinosum leaves are a rich source of chicoric and 5-O-caffeoylquinic acid, while significant differences in total phenolic acids, flavonoids and phenolic compound content and in antioxidant activity were observed among the studied ecotypes, as well as between the tested growing conditions. According to the results of the present study, further valorization of C. spinosum species has great potential, since it could be used as a new alternative species in the food industry. © 2017 Society of Chemical Industry.

MOLA: a bootable, self-configuring system for virtual screening using AutoDock4/Vina on computer clusters.

BACKGROUND: Virtual screening of small molecules using molecular docking has become an important tool in drug discovery. However, large scale virtual screening is time demanding and usually requires dedicated computer clusters. There are a number of software tools that perform virtual screening using AutoDock4 but they require access to dedicated Linux computer clusters. Also no software is available for performing virtual screening with Vina using computer clusters. In this paper we present MOLA, an easy-to-use graphical user interface tool that automates parallel virtual screening using AutoDock4 and/or Vina in bootable non-dedicated computer clusters. IMPLEMENTATION: MOLA automates several tasks including: ligand preparation, parallel AutoDock4/Vina jobs distribution and result analysis. When the virtual screening project finishes, an open-office spreadsheet file opens with the ligands ranked by binding energy and distance to the active site. All results files can automatically be recorded on an USB-flash drive or on the hard-disk drive using VirtualBox. MOLA works inside a customized Live CD GNU/Linux operating system, developed by us, that bypass the original operating system installed on the computers used in the cluster. This operating system boots from a CD on the master node and then clusters other computers as slave nodes via ethernet connections. CONCLUSION: MOLA is an ideal virtual screening tool for non-experienced users, with a limited number of multi-platform heterogeneous computers available and no access to dedicated Linux computer clusters. When a virtual screening project finishes, the computers can just be restarted to their original operating system. The originality of MOLA lies on the fact that, any platform-independent computer available can he added to the cluster, without ever using the computer hard-disk drive and without interfering with the installed operating system. With a cluster of 10 processors, and a potential maximum speed-up of 10x, the parallel algorithm of MOLA performed with a speed-up of 8,64× using AutoDock4 and 8,60× using Vina.