High tolerance and degradation of fungicides by fungal strains isolated from contaminated soils.

The aim of this work was to isolate fungal strains from phytotoxic agricultural soils, screen them, categorize the most tolerant fungi to three fungicides, and identify them by a molecular approach. In this study, 28 fungal strains were isolated from phytotoxic agricultural soil with intensive use of pesticides. The capacity of fungi to resist and degrade different concentrations of carbendazim, captan, and zineb was determined by an exploratory multivariate analysis. Actinomucor elegans LBM 239 was identified as the most tolerant fungus to these fungicides, degrading a 86.62% of carbendazim after 7 days of treatment. In conclusion, A. elegans LBM 239 demonstrated the highest tolerance and capacity to biodegrade carbendazim, becoming a potential candidate for bioremediation of contaminated soils with carbendazim, captan, or zineb.

The Effect of Mg2+, Cu2+ and Zn2+ pre-treatment on the color of yerba maté (Ilex paraguariensis) leaves

The aim of this work was to study the effect of alkaline blanching followed by an immersion in salt solutions of Mg2+, Cu2+ and Zn2+ on color preservation of Yerba Maté leaves. The concentration of NaOH in the alkaline solution influenced all of the color parameters. Ion concentration and dipped time influenced only some color parameters. The color parameters of the product obtained with different treatments were different from the control sample (blanched with boiling water instead of alkaline blanching) and from the product obtained via industrial processing. The green color in the pre-treated and control samples was more intense (greater values of -a) and darker (low values of L and b). Ionic and ash content in the leaves increased with the treatments.