Ilex Paraguariensis exposition to As and Cd in a closed soilless system.

The exposition of mate (Ilex Paraguariensis A. St.-Hil.) to As and Cd was investigated in plants derived from young mini-cuttings. Mate plants were cultivated in a closed soilless system, composed of coarse sand as substrate and flood fertirrigation. Plantlets were fertirrigated with nutritive solution and As and Cd solutions were added to the nutritive solution in the final concentration of 8 and 17 mg L-1 (As) and of 17 and 33 mg L-1 (Cd) during 14 days. Results show that stem diameter and Dickson quality index (DQI) variables could not be used as a potential indicator of accumulation of As and Cd. The shoot height, number of leaves and chlorophyll index are variables easy and quick to measure and they can be used as parameters to evaluate the stress caused in mate plants cultivation in a closed soilless system. The highest concentration of As and Cd was in roots of plants. Beyond the roots, As and Cd also can be translocated to the leaves achieving high concentrations. In addition, leaves from the treated mate plants were submitted to a hot infusion extraction in order to simulate the traditional beverage and As and Cd were determined in the infusion. Regarding to the infusion procedure, considerable As and Cd amounts were extracted from the leaves leading to conclude that this way of consumption can be an important source of toxic elements for the human diet.

Optimization of enzymatic hydrolysis of cassava to obtain fermentable sugars.

This work evaluates the enzymatic hydrolysis of starch from cassava using pectinase, α-amylase, and amyloglucosidase. A central composite rotational design (CCRD) was carried out to evaluate the effects of amyloglucosidase, pectinase, reaction time, and solid to liquid ratio. All the experiments were carried out in a bioreactor with working volume of 2 L. Approximately 98% efficiency hydrolysis was obtained, resulting in a concentration of total reducing sugar released of 160 g/L. It was concluded that pectinase improved the hydrolysis of starch from cassava. Reaction time was found to be significant until 7 h of reaction. A solid to liquid ratio of 1.0 was considered suitable for hydrolysis of starch from cassava. Amyloglucosidase was a significant variable in the process: after its addition to the reaction media, a 30%-50% increase in the amount of total reducing sugar released was observed. At optimal conditions the maximum productivity obtained was 22.9 g/(L·h).