Assessment of the Content of Glycoalkaloids in Potato Snacks Made from Colored Potatoes, Resulting from the Action of Organic Acids and Thermal Processing.

Glycoalkaloids (TGAs, total glycoalkaloids), toxic secondary metabolites, are found in potatoes (110-335 mg·kg-1 DW), mainly in the peel. Colorful, unpeeled potatoes are an innovative raw material for the production of snacks which are poorly tested in terms of their glycoalkaloid content. Third-generation snacks and French fries made from red-fleshed Mulberry Beauty (MB) and purple-fleshed Double Fun (DF) potatoes were produced with the use of 1% solutions of ascorbic, citric, lactic, malic, and tartaric acids to stabilize the structure of anthocyanins in the raw material and maintain their color in obtained products. The influence of the type of acid and thermal processes, like frying, microwaving, and baking, on the content of glycoalkaloids in ready-made products was examined. Only 0.45-1.26 mg·100 g-1 of TGA was found in pellet snacks and 1.32-1.71 mg·100 g-1 in French fries. Soaking blanched potatoes in organic acid solution reduced the α-chaconine content by 91-97% in snacks and by 57-93% in French fries in relation to the raw material to the greatest extent after the use of malic acid and the DF variety. The effect of lactic and citric acid was also beneficial, especially in the production of baked French fries from MB potatoes.

A new animal product free defined medium for 2D and 3D culturing of normal and cancer cells to study cell proliferation and migration as well as dose response to chemical treatment.

Cell culturing methods are increasingly used to reduce and replace the use of live animals in biomedical research and chemical toxicity testing. Although live animals are avoided when using cell culturing methods, they often contain animal-derived components of which one of the most commonly used is foetal bovine serum (FBS). FBS is added to cell culture media among other supplements to support cell attachment/spreading and cell proliferation. The safety, batch-to-batch variation, and ethical problems with FBS are acknowledged and therefore world-wide efforts are ongoing to produce FBS free media. Here, we present the composition of a new defined medium with only human proteins either recombinant or derived from human tissues. This defined medium supports long-term culturing/routine culturing of normal cells and of cancer cells, and can be used for freezing and thawing of cells, i.e. for cell banking. Here, we show for our defined medium, growth curves and dose response curves of cells grown in two and three dimensions, and applications such as cell migration. Cell morphology was studied in real time by phase contrast and phase holographic microscopy time-lapse imaging. The cell lines used are human cancer-associated fibroblasts, keratinocytes, breast cancer JIMT-1 and MDA-MB-231 cells, colon cancer CaCo-2 cells, and pancreatic cancer MiaPaCa-2 cells as well as the mouse L929 cell line. In conclusion, we present the composition of a defined medium without animal-derived products which can be used for routine culturing and in experimental settings for normal cells and for cancer cells, i.e. our defined medium provides a leap towards a universal animal product free cell culture medium.

Content and Stability of Hydroxycinnamic Acids during the Production of French Fries Obtained from Potatoes of Varieties with Light-Yellow, Red and Purple Flesh.

Potatoes with different flesh colours contain health-promoting compounds, i.e., hydroxycinnamic acids, which vary in content and stability during thermal processing. The aim of this study was to determine the effect of the technological stages of the production of French fries obtained from potatoes with different flesh colours on the content of selected hydroxycinnamic acids, as well as the stability of these acids, their percentage in sum of acids, total phenolic content and antioxidant activity (ABTS, DPPH) in semi-products and ready-to-eat products. During the production of French fries, samples of unpeeled, peeled, cut, blanched, pre-dried and fried potatoes were collected. After peeling, coloured potatoes, especially purple ones, had more hydroxycinnamic (5-CQA, 4-CQA, 3-CQA and CA) acids remaining in the flesh than in the flesh of the light-yellow variety. The greatest losses of the determined hydroxycinnamic acids, regardless of the given potato's variety, were caused by the stage of pre-drying (about 91%) and frying (about 97%). The French fries obtained from the potatoes with coloured flesh, especially those with purple flesh, had the highest amount of stable 5-CQA and 4-CQA acids as well as 3-CQA acid, already absent in light-yellow French fries. The least stable acid was CA acid, which was not found in any of the ready snacks.

Cross-reactivity of antibody responses to Borrelia afzelii OspC: Asymmetry and host heterogeneity.

The tick-transmitted bacterium Borrelia afzelii consists of a number of antigenically different strains - often defined by outer surface protein C (OspC) genotype - that coexist at stable frequencies in host populations. To investigate how host antibody responses affect strain coexistence, we measured antibody cross-reactivity to three different OspC types (OspC 2, 3 and 9) in three different strains of laboratory mice (BALB/c, C3H and C57BL/6). The extent of cross-reactivity differed between mouse strains, being higher in C3H than BALB/c and C57BL/6. In one of three pairwise comparisons of OspC types (OspC2 vs OspC9), there was evidence for asymmetry of cross-reactivity, with antibodies to OspC2 cross-reacting more strongly with OspC9 than vice versa. These results indicate that the extent of antibody-mediated competition between OspC types may depend on the composition of the host population, and that such competition may be asymmetric. We discuss the implications of these results for understanding the coexistence of OspC types.

Study of Antioxidant Activity of some Medicinal Plants Having High Content of Caffeic Acid Derivatives.

Recently, there has been increasing interest in medicinal plants, due to their content of health-promoting compounds, e.g., caffeic acids derivatives. Hence, the aim of this work was to study the antioxidant activity of extracts obtained from the following medicinal plants: caraway (Carum carvi L.), coltsfoot (Tussilago farfara L.), dandelion (Taraxacum officinale F.H.Wigg.), lovage (Levisticum officinale L.), tarragon (Artemisia dracunculus L.) and white mulberry (Morus alba L.), characterized by their high content of caffeic acid derivatives. The water-ethanolic extracts were characterized on average by about 9 times higher contents of caffeic acid derivatives level than water extracts. Both in water and water-ethanolic extracts, the dominant phenolic acid was 5-CQA (5-O-caffeoylquinic acid) and 3,4-diCQA (3,4-dicaffeoylquinic acid), then CCA-1 (chicoric acid isomer 1), which appeared only in water-ethanolic extracts. Extracts from dandelion contained compounds such as CTA (caftaric acid), CCA-1 (chicoric acid isomer 1) and CCA-2 (chicoric acid isomer 2), which were not detected in other plant extracts examined in this work. The water-ethanolic extracts from coltsfoot and tarragon were characterized by a high content of di-caffeoylquinic acids, especially 3,4-diCQA and 3,5-diCQA, respectively. It has been stated that there is a positive correlation between caffeic acid derivatives and antioxidant activity (radical cation scavenging activity (ABTS) and radical scavenging activity (DPPH)), especially in water-ethanolic extract of medicinal plants.

Estimation of dietary exposure to acrylamide of Polish teenagers from an urban environment.

The aim of this study was to evaluate the dietary exposure to acrylamide (AA) in a group of teenagers (n = 261) from an urban environment. The intake of AA from food was estimated based on a 7-day food record diary (consecutive days). The food rations obtained (n = 1827) were used to calculate the amounts of the consumed food products, which were the main sources of AA. In the case of girls, the estimated dietary intake of AA per kg body weight (BW) amounted to 0.09 µg/kg BW/day (50th percentile), 0.32 µg/kg BW/day (75th percentile) and 1.04 µg/kg BW/day (95th percentile), and among boys it was 0.13, 0.41, and 1.18 µg/kg BW/day, respectively. The main sources of AA exposure were French fries, potato crisps, corn flakes, bread and salty sticks. The lowest values for margin of exposure (MOE) were calculated for the P95th percentiles of exposure, and ranged from 152 to 173.

The influence of dehydrated potatoes processing on the glycoalkaloids content in coloured-fleshed potato.

The aim of this study was to determine the effect of different temperatures of blanching and pre-drying used in the laboratory production of dried potato dice on the content of glycoalkaloids in red and blue fleshed potato varieties. Studied potatoes of coloured fleshed varieties were characterised by a low glycoalkaloids content at 5.47 mg 100 g(-1). The production of dehydrated potato dice influenced on the decrease in glycoalkaloids content in potato products. The majority of these compounds were removed during the peeling (70%) and blanching process (29%). Potato dice blanched at the highest temperature (85 °C) and pre-dried at 120 °C was characterised by the lowest quantity of glycoalkaloids content, whereas the highest content of these compounds was found in dice blanched potato at the lowest temperature (65 °C) and pre-dried at 120 °C. The blanching process much influenced on the decrease in glycoalkaloids content than pre-drying process.

Changes of pectic substances concentration in potatoes and French fries and the effect of these substances on the texture of the final product.

The texture of fried potato products depends on the building elements present in the cell walls, which play the structure-forming function, as well as on physical and biochemical changes of those elements which take place in the potato tissue, when it is exposed to blanching or frying. For the research the tubers of four potato varieties (Ekra, Orlik, Sumak, and Bryza) were used, which served as material for the production of French fries. In the samples of potato tubers before and after peeling, as well as in French fries blanched in the solutions of 0.4% CaCl2 and 0.4% MgCl2 salts the contents of pectic substances and their effect on the texture of the final product were determined. The process of peeling potato tubers contributed to the decrease of the content of the pectic substances. On the average 20% of the content of water-soluble pectins and about 5% of protopectins was decreased. Water blanching and frying contributed to a further decrease of the pectic substances in French fries in relation to their content in the raw material. However, potato strips blanching in the solutions of calcium and magnesium salts prevents further loss of those substances in the final product. The presence of calcium and magnesium ions in the solution of the blanching salts caused their partial binding by the pectin substances present in the potato tissue, which resulted in the improvement of the texture of French fries, especially obtained from early potato varieties.