Lavandula dentata from Italy: Analysis of Trichomes and Volatiles.

This study presented a micromorphological and phytochemical survey on Lavandula dentata L. cultivated at the Ghirardi Botanic Garden (Toscolano Maderno, BS, Italy). The morphological investigation revealed the presence of peltate, short- and medium-stalked capitate trichomes. The histochemical survey showed terpene production by peltates and medium-stalked capitates, hydrophilic secretions by short-stalked capitates. The phytochemical survey was developed on leaf and flower volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and on the essential oil (EO) from the flowering aerial parts. The VOC profiles represented an element of novelty and were dominated by oxygenated monoterpenes, among which 1,8-cineole and ß-pinene were the most abundant (77.40 %, 7.11 % leaves; 81.08 %, 10.46 % flowers). The EO of L. dentata was dominated by oxygenated monoterpenes with a high percentage of 1,8-cineole (69.08 %), followed by ß-pinene, trans-pinocarveol and myrtenal. Evaluations about the ecological role, the potential biological activity and the sensory attributes were proposed, based on literature contributions.

Diet-derived changes by sourdough-fermented rye bread in exhaled breath aspiration ion mobility spectrometry profiles in individuals with mild gastrointestinal symptoms.

The potential of utilising exhaled breath volatile organic compound (VOC) profiles in studying diet-derived metabolic changes was examined. After a four-week initial diet period with white wheat bread (WW), seven participants received in randomised order high-fibre diets containing sourdough whole grain rye bread (WGR) or white wheat bread enriched with bioprocessed rye bran (WW + BRB), both for 4 weeks. Alveolar exhaled breath samples were analysed with ChemPro®100i analyser (Environics OY, Mikkeli, Finland) at the end of each diet period in fasting state and after a standardised meal. The AIMS signal intensities in fasting state were different after the WGR diet as compared to other diets. The result suggests that WGR has metabolic effects not completely explained by the rye fibre content of the diet. This study encourages to utilise the exhaled breath VOC profile analysis as an early screening tool in studying physiological functionality of foods.

The Effect of Ultrasound Treatment in Winemaking on the Volatile Compounds of Aglianico, Nero di Troia, and Primitivo Red Wines.

An ultrasound (US) treatment was applied during the vinification of three different red grape cultivars with the aim of assessing the impact on the volatile profile of the wines. A robust solid phase micro extraction coupled with gas chromatography mass-spectrometry (SPME-GC-MS) method was developed in order to fix the best parameters for optimizing the volatile organic compound (VOC) recovery. A 15% NaCl solution was added to the samples to increase the salting-out effect, the time/temperature were appropriately selected, and the matrix effect was evaluated by comparing synthetic and real matrices. In addition, external calibration curves were used to quantify the single volatile compounds. The analyses of the wine samples at 7 and 14 months of aging revealed that US exerted the highest effect on Aglianico, which had the highest amount of total VOC. US Nero di Troia showed similar results after 14 months of aging, while Primitivo was not affected by the treatment. Nevertheless, from discriminant analysis, a clear separation was observed between the control and ultrasound-treated wines for all three cultivars, with ethyl decanoate, ethyl isopentyl succinate, and butyric acid having the highest discriminant coefficients. In conclusion, the obtained results indicated that the effect of US treatment on the VOC profile of the wine considered in the experimentation is cultivar-dependent.

Exposure of formal and informal nail technicians to organic solvents found in nail products.

Nail technicians are exposed to volatile organic compounds (VOCs) emitted from nail products used in their daily work, which may cause adverse health effects. This study aimed to assess VOC exposure of nail technicians in the South African formal and informal sectors and to provide a task-based exposure assessment of different nail applications. Personal passive sampling was conducted on 10 formal and 10 informal nail technicians located in the northern suburbs of Johannesburg and the Braamfontein area, over 3 days. Real-time measurements were taken to determine task-based peak exposures. The number of clients serviced, working hours, type of nail application, type of ventilation, room volume, and carbon dioxide (CO2) concentrations, were also recorded. There were differences in the nail products used, the types of nail applications performed, the number of clients serviced, and breathing zones VOC concentrations of the formal and informal nail technicians. Some formal nail salons were equipped with mechanical ventilation while the informal nail salons relied on natural ventilation. CO2 concentrations were higher in the informal than the formal nail salons and increased during the course of the working day. Formal nail technicians were exposed to higher total volatile organic compounds (TVOC) concentrations than informal nail technicians, which may be due to the different nail application procedures as well as 'background' emissions from their co-workers-the bystander effect. Acetone was the predominantly detected VOC: the formal nail technicians were exposed to significantly higher TWA (8 h) concentrations [geometric mean (GM) 43.8 ppm, geometric standard deviation (GSD) 2.49] than were the informal nail technicians (GM 9.87 ppm, GSD 5.13). Methyl methacrylate among the informal nail technicians was measured at 89.7% detection frequency, far higher than that among the formal nail technicians (3.4%). This may be attributed to the observed popularity of acrylic nail applications in this sector. Nail applications involving soak-off gave rise to high TVOC peaks at the start of the nail application process. This is the first study to compare organic solvent exposures among formal and informal nail technicians and determine task-based peak exposures. It also brings attention to the often-overlooked informal sector of this industry.

Volatile Organic Compound Composition and Glandular Trichome Characteristics of In Vitro Propagated Clinopodium pulegium (Rochel) Bräuchler: Effect of Carbon Source.

Clinopodium pulegium (Rochel) Bräuchler (Lamiaceae) is an endangered species endemic to the Southern Carpathians. It is characterized by the production of high amounts of essential oils, which emit volatile organic compounds (VOCs) that have an essential role in biotic and abiotic stress responses and in plant-plant and plant-insect interactions. The present study was initiated to phytochemically examine the influence of different carbon sources in the nutrition medium on VOC emissions of micropropagated C. pulegium plants, using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry analysis of headspace VOCs. The volatile profiles were subjected to multivariate analysis with respect to the presence, concentration and type of carbon source in the nutrient medium. In addition, the effect of different carbohydrates on the density and size of the leaf glandular trichomes, the main structures involved in the emission of VOCs, was determined. A total of 19 VOCs, primarily belonging to mono- and sesquiterpenes previously described in plants, were tentatively identified. Six VOCs were produced at levels higher than 2% of the total VOC emission, dominated by pulegone, ß-pinene and menthone. Inclusion of the carbohydrates in the culture media affected the production of the main leaf trichome-associated volatile allelochemicals although the qualitative composition of the volatiles changed only slightly. Multivariate analysis showed that the concentration, rather than the carbohydrate type, influenced the VOC profile.

Scutellaria brevibracteata subsp. subvelutina (Rech.f.) Greuter & Burdet: morphological and phytochemical characterization.

A micromorphological and phytochemical survey was performed on Scutellaria brevibracteata subsp. subvelutina cultivated in Italy. The indumentum of the vegetative and reproductive organs was investigated: peltate, short-, medium- and long-stalked capitates were described. Histochemistry evidenced similar results for peltates and long-stalked capitates, differences for short and medium capitates. For the first time, this work reported the characterization of volatile organic compounds from leaves and flowers, along with the first analysis of the essential oil obtained from the aerial parts of Italian samples. The floral profile resulted more complex than the foliar one, due to the higher number of the total compounds (40 vs 27) and of the exclusive constituents (24 vs 11). 16 common compounds were detected, with ß-caryophyllene as the most abundant. The essential oil was characterized by 23 compounds, with ß-caryophyllene dominating. The peltates, the medium and the long-stalked capitates resulted the producers of the investigated compounds.

Identification of volatile organic compounds in muscle tissues of different species based on Headspace-Gas-Chromatography Ion-Mobility spectrometry.

Species identification of unknown biological samples is crucial for forensic applications, especially in cases of explosion, disaster accidents, and body mutilation after murdering, as well as poaching, illegal trade in endangered animals, and meat food fraud. In this study, we identified 60 volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in fresh skeletal muscle tissues of seven different animal species (cattle, sheep, pigs, rabbits, rats, chickens and carp) and a human dead body by headspace-gas-chromatography ion-mobility spectrometry (HS-GC-IMS), and compared their differences by retention time, drift time and molecular weight. The results showed that these VOCs formed different gallery plot fingerprints in the skeletal muscle tissues of the human dead body and seven animal species. Principal component analysis (PCA) showed significantly different fingerprints between these species, and these fingerprints maintained good stability between the species and within the same species. Some VOCs have high species specificity, while VOCs of human fresh muscle tissues from different individual sources have little difference, demonstrating that all tested muscle tissue samples could be distinguished based on different VOCs. HS-GC-IMS has proved to be a rapid, high-throughput, highly sensitive and specific species identification method, which can be used for forensic species identification in criminal cases and disaster accidents, as well as detection in the field of food safety, such as meat fraud and adulteration.

Micromorphological and phytochemical survey of Ballota acetabulosa (L.) Benth.

Within the Open Science project entitled 'Botanic Garden, factory of molecules', a multidisciplinary study approach was applied to Ballota acetabulosa (L.) Benth., at the Ghirardi Botanic Garden (Toscolano Maderno, BS, Italy). Micromorphological and histochemical investigations were performed on the secreting structures of the vegetative and reproductive organs under light, fuorescence and electronic microscopy. Concurrently the characterization of the volatiles spontaneously emitted from leaves and flowers were examined. Four trichome morphotypes were identified: peltate and short-stalked, medium-stalked and long-stalked capitate trichomes, each with a specific distribution pattern. The histochemical analysis was confirmed using ultrastructural observations, with the peltates and long-stalked capitates as the main sites responsible for terpene production. The head-space characterization revealed that sesquiterpene hydrocarbons dominated both in leaves and flowers, with γ-muurolene, ß-caryophyllene and (E)-nerolidol as the most abundant compounds. Moreover, a comparison with literature data concerning the ecological roles of the main compounds suggested their dominant roles in defence, both at the leaf and flower level. Hence, we correlated the trichome morphotypes with the production of secondary metabolites in an attempt to link these data to their potential ecological roles. Finally, we made the obtained scientific knowledge available to visitors of the Botanic Garden through the realization of new labelling dedicated to B. acetabulosa that highlights the 'invisible', microscopic features of the plant.

A novel study approach on Scutellaria altissima L. cultivated at the Ghirardi Botanic Garden (Lombardy, Italy).

Within an Open Science project, research was carried out to describe to the public of the Ghirardi Botanic Garden (BS, Lombardy, Italy) the invisible features of plants. This work is dedicated to Scutellaria altissima L. (Lamiaceae). Micromorphological, histochemical and phytochemical investigations were conducted on the vegetative and reproductive organs to correlate the structures involved in the emission of substances and their unique productivity. This work reports volatile organic compound (VOC) profiles of leaves and flowers and the composition of essential oil (EO) obtained from aerial parts of plants cultivated in Italy that have never been described before. Three morphotypes of glandular trichomes were observed: peltate, short-stalked capitate and long-stalked capitate. Peltate trichomes were the main producers of terpenes, short-stalked capitates of polysaccharides and long-stalked capitates of terpenes and polyphenols. The leaf VOC profile showed heterogeneous composition, with non-terpene derivatives as the major chemical class (71.04%), while monoterpene hydrocarbons represented almost the totality of the flower (99.73%). The leaf presented a higher number of total (37 versus 11) and exclusive (33 versus 7) compounds. (Z)-3-Hexenol acetate was most abundant in the leaf and (E)-ß-ocimene in the flower. Four common compounds were detected: ß-pinene, ß-caryophyllene, γ-muurolene and germacrene-D. The EO contaied 21 compounds, dominated by ß-caryophyllene, linalool and hexahydrofarnesyl acetone. This research allowed us to correlate morphotypes of the secretory structures with the production of secondary metabolites, with the aim of providing the public of the Ghirardi Botanic Garden with a dedicated iconographic approach, which accounts for olfactory perception linked to S. altissima.

Real time analysis of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in centenarians.

Centenarians are a model to study human longevity and the physiological process of aging. A plethora of studies on this model show the complexity of the system. Laboratory studies fail to find a biomarker of senescence. The real time exhaled breath volatile organic compounds (VOCs) has been suggested as a new biomarker to detect and monitor physiological processes in the respiratory system. VOCs exhaled by centenarians have not been studied in the general population and across-age-groups. In the present study we investigated, in real time, the breath properties and VOC exhaled content in healthy centenarians as compared with non-centenarian seniors and young healthy subjects. We found distinctly different breath pattern and distribution profiles of VOCs in the centenarians. Thus, the VOCs measurement allowed to discriminate the differences between the age-groups. We propose a VOCs fingerprint as a biomarker underlying the physiological mechanisms of aging and longevity. Longevity should be considered physiologically as a new phase of life, characteristic of the well adapted subject.