Influence of Harvest Time on the Chemical Profile of Pereskia aculeate Mill. Using Paper Spray Mass Spectrometry.

This study evaluated the physicochemical characteristics and the production of bioactive compounds of Pereskia aculeata Mill. at different harvest times. Here, we performed a qualitative evaluation of the chemical profile by paper spray mass spectrometry (PSMS), the phenolic acid and flavonoid profile by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), antioxidant activity, total carotenoids, total phenolic compounds, total flavonoids, total anthocyanins, color characteristics, total soluble solids (TSS), total solids (TS), pH, and total titratable acidity (TTA). The chemical profile was not affected, with the exception of 4,5-dimethyl-2,6-octadiene and azelaic acid, which was only identified in the leaves harvested during the winter. The content of four phenolic acids and three flavonoids were analyzed; out of these, no significant amounts of ellagic acid and quercetin were detected. There was no difference in production of bioactive compounds between seasons, reflecting the antioxidant activity, which also did not differ. Brightness, chroma, and leaf pH were the only physicochemical characteristics that did not vary between seasons.

Profile of phytochemistry and antioxidant activity of sorrel in function of organic fertilization and density of plantio / Perfil de fitoquímica e atividade antioxidante de azedinha em função da adubação orgânica e densidade de plantio

The revival of non-conventional edible plants enables important gains in nutritional, social, cultural, economic, and environmental points of view. Among them, sorrel ­ Rumex acetosa L. ­ has been deemed pleasant by consumers due to its acid taste. As we do not have a lot of phytotechnical andnutritional information about this plant, the objective was to assess the influence of different spacing sets and cattle manure dosages on their physical-chemical characteristics and bioactive compounds content with antioxidant action. Randomized blocks with four repetitions was chosen as experimental design, using ascheme of subdivided plots, with five dosages of weather-beaten cattle manure in the plots and two sets of spacing in the subplots. Data was submitted to a variance analysis with two factors (two-way ANOVA). It was not verified any significant effect (P>0.05) in the interaction Dosage x Spacing. Fertilization dosages and spacing sets did not have any effect on color and total soluble solids average contents, humidity, titratable acidity, and phenolic compounds. Increasing dosages of organic fertilizer, up to 75 kg ha-1, reduced the plant's pH; above that amount, pH rose. Presence of anthocyanins and vitamin C was not detected. The total carotenoids average content was not influenced by the manure factor, and the plant presented greater total carotenoids content in the smallest spacing. Antioxidant activity [1.0 mg mL-1], although inferior to the standards that were used (BHT, vitamin C and quercetin), was quite representative. A conclusion was reached that fertilizing with weather-beaten cattle manure had an effect only on pH, and cropping spacing had an influence only on carotenoids content. Other phytochemicals and physical-chemical characteristics were not influenced in sorrel plants with different levels of fertilization and sets of spacing.

O resgate das plantas comestíveis não convencionais possibilita ganhos importantes do ponto de vista nutricional, social, cultural, econômico e ambiental. Dentre estas, a azedinha, Rumex acetosa L. tem agradado o consumidor por seu sabor ácido. Como são poucas as informações fitotécnicas e nutricionais sobre esta planta objetivou-se avaliar a influência de diferentes espaçamentos e doses de esterco bovino em suas características físico-químicas e no teor de compostos bioativos com função antioxidante. O delineamento experimental foi em blocos casualizados com quatro repetições, no esquema de parcelas subdivididas, sendo cinco doses de esterco curtido de gado nas parcelas e dois espaçamentos nas subparcelas. Os dados foram submetidos à análise de variância com dois fatores (two-way ANOVA). Não foi constatado efeito significativo (P>0,05) da interação Dose x Espaçamento. As doses de adubação e espaçamentos não afetaram a cor e os teores médios de sólidos solúveis totais, umidade, acidez titulável e compostos fenólicos. Doses crescentes de adubo orgânico, até 75 kg ha-1, reduziram o pH da planta, acima deste valor o pH elevou-se. Não foi detectada a presença de antocianinas e vitamina C. O teor médio de carotenoides totais não foi influenciado pelo fator esterco e no menor espaçamento a planta apresentou maior teor de carotenoides totais. A atividade antioxidante [1,0 mg mL-1], apesar de inferior aos padrões utilizados (BHT, vitamina C e quercetina), foi bastante representativa. Concluiu-se que a adubação com esterco de gado curtido afetou apenas o pH e que o espaçamento de cultivo exerceu influência apenas teor de carotenoides. Os demais fitoquímicos e características físico-químicas não foram influenciadas em plantas de azedinha com diferentes níveis de adubação e de espaçamento

Physical and chemical characteristics of lettuce cultivars grown under three production systems / Características físicas e químicas de cultivares de alface cultivadas sob três sistemas de produção

Characteristics of food quality can affect the health of consumers and are influenced by several factors including the system of production. Lettuce has the highest sales volume of any leafy vegetable sold in Brazil and is considered a good source of vitamins, minerals and other compounds. This study aimed to determine the influence of the type of production system (conventional, organic and hydroponic) on the physical and chemical characteristics of two lettuce cultivars. Experiments were conducted simultaneously for each production system using a completely randomized design with three repetitions and two lettuce cultivars (Rubra and Crystal). Subsequently, a joint analysis of the three experiments was performed and averages compared by a Tukey test at 5%. The following characteristics were evaluated: number of leaves, plant height, plant diameter, stem diameter, the fresh weight and dry weight of roots and plants, instrumental color, pH, titratable acidity, total soluble solids, the ratio of soluble solids to titratable acidity and moisture content. It was concluded that the type of production system does affect attributes of lettuce quality with distinctions between cultivars. The most intense distinctions were found under the hydroponic system.

Características de qualidade de alimentos são atributos que estão relacionados com a saúde dos consumidores os quais podem ser influenciados por diversos fatores, dentre eles, os sistemas de produção. A alface é a hortaliça folhosa mais comercializada no Brasil e considerada fonte de vitaminas, sais minerais e outros compostos. O objetivo do presente trabalho foi estudar a influência de sistemas de produção (orgânico, convencional e hidropônico) nas características físicas e químicas de duas cultivares de alface. Foram conduzidos simultaneamente três experimentos, um em cada sistema de produção em delineamento experimental inteiramente ao acaso com três repetições e duas cultivares de alface (Rubra e Cristal). Posteriormente, uma análise conjunta dos três experimentos foi realizada e as médias submetidas ao teste de Tukey com 5% de probabilidade. As seguintes características foram avaliadas: número de folhas, altura de plantas, diâmetro de planta e de caule, peso fresco e massa seca de raízes e plantas, cor instrumental, pH, acidez titulável, sólidos solúveis totais, ratio e umidade. Concluiu-se que há influência dos sistemas de produção em atributos de qualidade da alface de maneira distinta entre as cultivares com maior intensidade do sistema de produção hidropônico.

Non-destructive prediction of pigment content in lettuce based on visible-NIR spectroscopy.

BACKGROUND: Lettuce (Lactuca sativa L.) is one of the most important salad vegetables in the world, with a number of head shapes, leaf types and colors. The lettuce pigments play important physiological functions, such as photosynthetic processes and light stress defense, but they also benefit human health because of their antioxidant action and anticarcinogenic properties. In this study three lettuce cultivars were grown under different farming systems, and partial least squares models were built to predict the leaf chlorophyll, carotenoid and anthocyanin content. RESULTS: The three proposed models resulted in high coefficients of determination and variable importance for the projection values, as well as low estimative errors for calibration and external validation datasets. These results confirmed that it is possible to accurately predict chlorophyll, carotenoid and anthocyanin content of green and red lettuces, grown in different farming systems, based on the spectral reflectance from 500 to 1000 nm. CONCLUSION: The proposed models were adequate for estimating lettuce pigments in a quick and non-destructive way, representing an alternative to conventional measurement methods. Prediction accuracies were improved by using the detrending, smoothing and first derivative pretreatments to the original spectral signatures prior to estimating lettuce chlorophyll, carotenoid and anthocyanin content, respectively. © 2016 Society of Chemical Industry.

Effect of the storage time and temperature on phenolic compounds of sorghum grain and flour.

This study evaluated the effect of storage temperature (4, 25 and 40°C) and time on the color and contents of 3-deoxyanthocyanins, total anthocyanins, total phenols and tannins of sorghum stored for 180days. Two genotypes SC319 (grain and flour) and TX430 (bran and flour) were analyzed. The SC319 flour showed luteolinidin and apigeninidin contents higher than the grain and the TX430 bran had the levels of all compounds higher than the flour. The storage temperature did not affect most of the analyzed variables. The content of most of the compounds reduced during the first 60days when they became stable. At day 180, the retention of the compounds in the genotypes SC319 and TX430 ranged from 56.1-77.9% and 67.3-80.1% (3-deoxyanthocyanins), 88.4-93.8% and 84.6-96.8% (total anthocyanins) and 86.7-86.8 and 89.4-100% (phenols) respectively. The retention of tannins ranged from 56.6 to 85.3%. The color of samples remained stable for 120days.

Tomato yield and quality under various combinations of organic compost / Produção e qualidade de tomate cultivado sob oito tipos de composto orgânico

The number of growers and planted area dedicated to organic farming have increased considerably. Consequently, demand has increased for alternative organic composts in terms of quantity and new options for direct use with crops. Making use of local industrial byproducts is also important throughout Brazil and the rest of the world. Therefore, it was evaluated the effect of eight types of organic composts, produced with different percentages of poultry litter and crushed sugarcane on tomato yield and quality. The experiment was carried out during the 2013 growing season at the experimental farm of the Agricultural Research Company of Minas Gerais state (Empresa de Pesquisa Agropecuária do Estado de Minas Gerais) located in Prudente de Morais, MG, Brazil. It was evaluated different formulations of poultry litter and crushed sugarcane (0, 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 50, 60 and 70%) yielding eight types of alternative Bokashi used as organic compost in the production of two tomato cultivars (Santa Clara and the Verano hybrid). It was found that the various formulations of alternative Bokashi, except the alternative Bokashi B1, strengthened components of tomato yield and quality. We found that composts of poultry litter and crushed sugarcane increase tomato yield and quality and can be and excellent alternative, especially for organic farmers.

O cenário atual da agricultura orgânica demonstra aumento considerável do número de produtores e área plantada. Consequentemente, há maior demanda por novas alternativas de compostos orgânicos, não só em volume, mas também disponibilizar novas opções para uso direto no sistema de cultivo. A busca pelo aproveitamento de subprodutos gerados pelas indústrias locais é pauta no Brasil e no mundo. O objetivo do trabalho foi avaliar o efeito de oito tipos de compostos orgânicos produzidos com diferentes porcentagens de cama de frango e cana de açúcar triturada na produção e qualidade do tomate.O experimento foi instalado na fazenda experimental da Empresa de Pesquisa Agropecuária do Estado de Minas Gerais localizada no município de Prudente de Morais, MG no ano agrícola de 2013. Foram avaliadas diferentes formulações entre cama de frango e cana de açúcar triturada(0, 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 50, 60 e 70%) resultando em oito tipos de Bokashi alternativo utilizado como composto orgânico na produção de duas cultivares de tomate (Santa Clara e Híbrido Verano). Pode-se verificar que as diferentes formulações de Bokashi Alternativo, com exceção da B1, potencializaram os componentes de produção e qualidade do tomate. O uso de cama de frango associado com cana de açúcar triturada promove incrementos na produção e qualidade de tomate demonstrando ser uma excelente alternativa, especialmente para produtores orgânicos.

Rauvolfia grandiflora (Apocynaceae) extract interferes with staphylococcal density, enterotoxin production and antimicrobial activity

Staphylococci bacteria are involved in many human and animal infections and development of alternative antimicrobial drugs against pathogenic bacteria is of great interest to the pharmaceutical industry. This study investigated the in vitro effect of Rauvolfia grandiflora methanol extract (root bark fraction) (RGE) on the density of ATCC strains of Staphylococcus aureus and Staphylococcus epidermidis, and a clinical enterotoxin-producer, S. aureus bovine strain. The alkaloid, isoreserpiline, obtained from dichloromethane extract of R. grandiflora was ineffective against the strains tested. After incubation of staphylococci strains in the presence of 1.2 mg.mL-1 RGE, a significant inhibition of cell growth was observed using both spectrophotometry and ELISA assays. Twelve drugs were evaluated for their antimicrobial effects on culture RGE-treated cells using the disk diffusion method. Penicillin resistant strains became sensitive to the drug after RGE treatment. Furthermore, enterotoxin production by RGE-treated S. aureus was evaluated using a standardized ELISA method. Although staphylococcal LSA 88 bovine strain cells remained viable after exposure to the extract, enterotoxin production was precluded in 20 percent after RGE treatment. Significant interference in staphylococci cell density, drug sensitivity and enterotoxin secretion was observed after treatment. The study highlights the necessity to find new methods of disease prevention and new antibiotic therapies against staphylococcal infections.

Avaliação físico-química, microbiológica e de resíduos de penicilina, em leite tipo ôCö comercializado no município de Campos dos Goytacazes, RJ / Physicochemical evaluation, microbiological and of residues of penicillin, in milk kind ôCö traded in Campos dos Goytacazes, RJ

O presente trabalho verificou a ocorrência de resíduos de antibióticos no leite pasteurizado tipo öCö , vendido na cidade de Campos dos Goytacazes, Estado do Rio de Janeiro. Além disso, as características físico-químicas e microbiológicas deste produto foram avaliadas. Durante o período de três meses, 43 amostras foram analisadas e foi encontrada a presença de penicilina G em níveis superiores a 4mg/Kg em 16 amostras (37,21 por cento). As análises microbiológicas revelaram que 25,58 por cento das amostras que foram analisadas não estavam dentro das especificações legais para coliformes totais e fecais.

Qualidade microbiológica de leite pasteurizado tipo C, proveniente de micro-usinas de Campos de Goytacazes, RJ / Quality of samples of type C milk in Campos dos Goytacazes, RJ

Quarenta e três amostras de leite tipo "C" pasteurizado de 15 marcas provenientes de diferentes micro-usinas do município de Campos dos Goytacazes, estado do Rio de Janeiro foram coletadas durante três meses com a finalidade de verificar a presença de bactérias termodúricas, mesófilas e psicrófilas, como também coliformes totais e fecais e Staphylococcus aureus. A análise revelou que 18,60 por cento, 4,65 por cento, 25,58 por cento e 30,23 por cento não estavam dentro das especificações legais para bactérias mesofílicas, termodúricas, coliformes totais e fecais respectivamente. Não foi detectado a presença de S.aureus coagulase positiva em nenhuma amostra de leite analisada e todas as contagens para bactérias psicrófilas estavam dentro dos padröes oficiais. Dos resultados obtidos é possível concluir que as condições microbiológicas da maioria desses leites pasteurizados são insatisfatórias, revelando possíveis falhas em várias fases do processamento e da distribuição desse produto.