Encapsulation of Lactobacillus gasseri: Characterization, Probiotic Survival, In Vitro Evaluation and Viability in Apple Juice.

The development of functional foods containing probiotic bacteria has become increasingly relevant to improve and maintain health. However, this is often limited to dairy food matrices given the complexity involved in maintaining a stable system together with high microbial viability in matrices such as juices. The objective of this study was to develop and characterize sodium alginate capsules loaded with Lactobacillus gasseri ATCC® 19992 ™ (LG). Cell viability under in vitro gastrointestinal conditions and during storage in apple juice were evaluated. The capsules were prepared by ionic gelation and an emulsification process was performed as pretreatment using two homogenization methods: magnetic stirring (AM) and Ultraturrax® rotor-stator homogenizer (UT). Cell viability after encapsulation was similar in the two processes: 65%. At the end of the in vitro gastrointestinal evaluation, the non-encapsulated probiotic cells did not show any viability, while the AM system was able to retain 100% of its viability and the UT retained 79.14%. The morphology of the capsules consisted of a continuous and homogeneous surface. Cell viability of LG encapsulated in apple juice stored at 4 °C for 21 days was 77% for AM, 55.43% for UT, and 63.10% for free LG.

Biomolecules extraction from coffee and cocoa by- and co-products using deep eutectic solvents.

BACKGROUND: Coffee pulp (CP), cocoa husk (CH), and pod husk (CPH) are the main agro-residues from coffee and cocoa industries. They are sources of useful biomolecules, such as phenolic compounds, fibers, and alkaloids, among others. In this study, different compositions of deep eutectic solvents (DES) were investigated as a green and sustainable extraction media, with respect to their extraction capacity. The extraction yields were evaluated using heat stirring-assisted extraction (HSE) or ultrasound-probe assisted extraction (UPAE). RESULTS: The results showed an important effect of the DES composition. Choline chloride (ChCl) based-DES were the most effective, specifically lactic acid:ChCl (2:1 mol ratio), and the extraction capacity of DES was higher with UPAE (3 min/constant duty cycle (200 W)), in comparison with HSE (1 h/30 min). Chlorogenic acid, caffeine, and theobromine were identified as the main bioactive compounds. Interestingly, under specific conditions, DES allowed the formation of a molecule, identified as furfural by ultrahigh-performance liquid chromatography mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS), which could not be obtained using conventional extraction solvent (ethanol 70% v/v). CONCLUSION: DES showed a sustainability and high extraction capacity of biomolecules. In addition, their use as extraction solvents could lead to the formation and production of valuable building block molecules from plant biomass. © 2019 Society of Chemical Industry.

Identification and quantification of phytoprostanes and phytofurans of coffee and cocoa by- and co-products.

Phytoprostanes (PhytoPs) and phytofurans (PhytoFs) are isoprostanoids that result from the peroxidation of α-linolenic acid and are biomarkers of oxidative stress in plants and humans. These compounds exhibit several interesting biological activities (e.g. neuroprotection and anti-inflammatory activities). The aim of this research was to add value to coffee pulp (CP), cocoa husk (CH) and cocoa pod husk (CPH) by identifying and quantifying PhytoPs and PhytoFs by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry. The contents of PhytoPs and PhytoFs in CP, CH, and CPH were, respectively, 654.6, 474.3 and 179.9, and 543.2, 278.0 and 393.8 ng per g dry weight (dw). The main PhytoP found in CP (171.37 ng per g dw) and CPH (37.12 ng per g dw) was 9-epi-9-F1t-PhytoP, while ent-9-L1t-PhytoP was the most abundant in CH (109.78 ng per g dw). The main PhytoF found in all sources was ent-16(RS)-13-epi-ST-Δ14-9-PhytoF, at 196.56, 126.22, and 207.57 ng per g dw in CP, CH, and CPH, respectively. We provide the first complete profile of PhytoPs and PhytoFs for these agro-residues, which could be used in the functional food industry for enriching food or as nutritional supplements.

Metabolomic Markers for the Early Selection of Coffea canephora Plants with Desirable Cup Quality Traits.

Genetic improvement of coffee plants represents a great challenge for breeders. Conventional breeding takes a too long time for responding timely to market demands, climatic variations and new biological threads. The correlation of genetic markers with the plant phenotype and final product quality is usually poor. Additionally, the creation and use of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) are often legally restricted and rejected by customers that demand natural products. Therefore, we developed a non-targeted metabolomics approach to accelerate conventional breeding. Our main idea was to identify highly heritable metabolites in Coffea canephora seedlings, which are linked to coffee cup quality. We employed a maternal half-sibs approach to estimate the metabolites heritability in open-pollinated plants in both leaves and fruits at an early plant development stage. We evaluated the cup quality of roasted beans and correlated highly heritable metabolites with sensory quality traits of the coffee beverage. Our results provide new insights about the heritability of metabolites of C. canephora plants. Furthermore, we found strong correlations between highly heritable metabolites and sensory traits of coffee beverage. We revealed metabolites that serve as predictive metabolite markers at an early development stage of coffee plants. Informed decisions can be made on plants of six months old, compared to 3.5 to 5 years using conventional selection methods. The metabolome-wide association study (MWAS) drastically accelerates the selection of C. canephora plants with desirable characteristics and represents a novel approach for the focused breeding of crops.

The challenges and perspectives of the selection of starter cultures for fermented cocoa beans.

Fermentation is an essential process step to develop precursor compounds for aroma and flavour characteristics of chocolate, as well as preventing germination of the cocoa bean. Despite the importance of the role of microorganisms during the chocolate production, to date, there are some discrepancies of the "cocobiota" community found during fermentation and the impact of starter culture in fermented cocoa beans. This review provides both a detailed overview of the starter cultures used in fermented cocoa beans and the microbial diversity involved during this process, and an in-depth discussion of the methods used to identify these microorganisms. In this review, we included only published articles from 2008 to 2018 in English language. A total of forty-seven studies contributed to the description of the cocobiota from 13 different countries. In detail, we observed that the most common fermentation method used is the wooden box, followed by heap. Interestingly, 37% of the studies cited in this review did not mention the type of cocoa variety studied. Most of the techniques used to identify the microbiota are fingerprinting based (DGGE); however, few studies have been using next-generation technologies to elucidate the possible functions and interactions among microbes. Our results showed a greater diversity of yeasts if compared with bacterial involved in the fermentation. This review will help researchers seeking to design starter cultures to drive cocoa bean fermentation, and thus achieve a homogenous mass of fermented cocoa beans as well as serve as a guide for assessing methodologies for the identification of microorganisms.