Important Chemical Components Research Articles

River Winds and Transport of Forest Volatiles in the Amazonian Riparian Ecoregion.

Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) emitted from forests are important chemical components that affect ecosystem functioning, atmospheric chemistry, and regional climate. Temperature differences between a forest and an adjacent river can induce winds that influence VOC fate and transport. Quantitative observations and scientific understanding, however, remain lacking. Herein, daytime VOC datasets were collected from the surface up to 500 m over the "Rio Negro" river in Amazonia. During time periods of river winds, isoprene, α-pinene, and β-pinene concentrations increased by 50, 60, and 80% over the river, respectively. The concentrations at 500 m were up to 80% greater compared to those at 100 m because of the transport path of river winds. By comparison, the concentration of methacrolein, a VOC oxidation product, did not depend on river winds or height. The differing observations for primary emissions and oxidation products can be explained by the coupling of timescales among emission, reaction, and transport. This behavior was captured in large-eddy simulations with a coupled chemistry model. The observed and simulated roles of river winds in VOC fate and transport highlight the need for improved representation of these processes in regional models of air quality and chemistry-climate coupling.

Lemon Juice Formulations Modulate In Vitro Digestive Recovery of Spinach Phytochemicals.

Citrus limon (L.) Burm lemon juice is rich in many important natural chemical components (flavonoids, citric acid and vitamin C) and its use in traditional medicine is well known. Formulations of lemon juice with fruit polyphenols in beverages have been investigated, but there is very little information about their ability to modulate the digestive behaviour of polyphenols. The goal of this study is to determine the stability and digestive availability of spinach (Spinacia oleracea L.) polyphenols by adding different volume fractions of lemon juice (0, 2, 5, 10 and 20%) during in vitro digestion. The content of polyphenols and other abundant compounds including nitrates, oxalic acid and l-ascorbic acid in spinach formulation with various volume fractions of lemon juice were measured in predigested and digested samples using in vitro human digestion model. Antioxidant and α-amylase inhibitory activities of spinach lemon juice formulation were also measured. The highest increases in total polyphenols, total flavonoids, total phenolic acids, oxalic acid and nitrate content were noted in predigested and almost all digested spinach samples formulated with the highest volume fraction of lemon juice. In the same sample, the content of individual compounds significantly increased after salivary (l-ascorbic acid), initial (p-coumaric acid) and intestinal (quercetin) phase of digestion. High bioaccessibility of polyphenols and l-ascorbic acid in all phases of digestion was observed in almost all spinach lemon juice formulations, with the exception of nitrates in gastric and intestinal phases and oxalic acid in the intestinal phase, which had moderate bioaccessibility. For the first time the stability and digestive availability of spinach polyphenols, oxalic acid, nitrates and l-ascorbic acid were tested with the addition of different volume fractions of lemon juice. The pH of lemon juice and its l-ascorbic acid content increase the stability and availability of polyphenols in spinach lemon juice formulation during in vitro digestion. Antioxidant and α-amylase inhibitory activities increase in dose-dependent manner after lemon juice addition. Accordingly, spinach formulated with 20% of lemon juice appears as the best source of dietary polyphenols with antioxidant and antidiabetic activities and nitrates that may be used as a functional drink.

Discrimination between normal coffee beans and peaberries using excitation-emission matrix measured by a hand-held optical system

A method to discriminate between green peaberry beans and normal beans was developed using an excitation and emission spectrometer that can be used to construct a simple optical system to save farm workers' labor. The excitation and emission matrix were obtained in the wavelength range of 300 - 800 nm using a hand-held spectrophotometer combined with a diffraction grating and a diode array. Light sources of 300, 375 nm were used to excite the samples by light-emitting diodes. The acquired spectral information was used to classify the coffee samples into peaberry and normal coffee using the chemometric method of partial least squares discriminant analysis (PLS-DA). The results showed that all coffee samples were discriminated as corresponding classes by PLS-DA. In the PLS-DA model, investigation of the main wavelengths contributing to classification using all sample VIP showed that excitation/emission wavelengths at 300/470, 300/670 375/470, 375/670 nm are important for coffee type determination. These wavelengths were closely related to the excitation-emission wavelengths of several important chemical components in raw coffee beans (caffeine, caffeic acid, and chlorogenic acid (CGA), tocopherol). These results will be useful as basic knowledge to contribute to the labor-saving and automation of coffee bean sorting in the future.

Development of 1H‐NMR methods for quantitative determination of alkylamides in Zanthoxylum bungeanum and quality evaluation based on its fingerprint

Alkylamides, as the representative hemp flavor and active ingredients, can reflect the quality of Zanthoxylum bungeanum Maxim. However, conjugated triene structure exists in alkylamides, which is easy to be oxidized and decomposed in air, making it difficult to quantify. In this study, a method for the quantitative determination of alkylamides by 1 H-NMR technology was developed with 85% ethanol as the best extraction solvent, CDCl3 as the best deuterium dissolution reagent, pyrazine as the internal standard, and triple peaks of hydrogen protons on the amide bond at δ 6.33ppm as the quantitative signal peak. Meanwhile, methodological verification was carried out to prove the reliability and effectiveness of the method. On this basis, the contents of alkylamides in nine germplasms of Zanthoxylum with monthly dynamics were obtained. The results showed that the alkylamides of Hancheng stingless Z. bungeanum (HC) exhibited the highest content in August (51.92± 0.96mg/g), while the lowest was FG in June (1.23± 0.21mg/g). The results of 1 H-NMR corresponded to those of HPLC, and the effectiveness of this method was verified. Accumulation dynamic results show that the best harvest period of Z. bungeanum is July and August. Moreover, the quality of nine varieties of Zanthoxylum bungeanum from a common garden was evaluated by the established 1 H-NMR fingerprint and chemometric analyses. The results showed that Hancheng stingless Z. bungeanum was the best germplasm. This study provides a new strategy for the quantitative determination of alkylamides in Z. bungeanum and improves the quality evaluation system of Z. bungeanum. PRACTICAL APPLICATION: The results provide a new research idea for the analysis of important chemical components of Z. bungeanum. Meanwhile, the study provides a scientific basis for the quality evaluation and high-quality germplasm resources of Z. bungeanum.

Wheat Bread Fortification: The Supplement of Teff Flour and Chia Seeds

The evaluation of the quality and contents of nutritionally important chemical components in wheat bread fortified with teff flour and chia seed was shown. In the work, the quality was determined by means of the volume, total baking loss and yield and also by performing organoleptic evaluation. Moreover, the staling process in bread was also investigated. The research covers wheat bread (standard) and bread supplemented with 5, 10 and 15% of teff flour as well as bread with 5 and 10% of chia seed. It was found that the addition of teff flour or chia seeds significantly influenced all the quality characteristics. In the organoleptic evaluation, all the bread obtained was of the best quality. Moreover, in both teff flour and chia seed fortified bread it was established that they contained a higher content of protein, fat, ash and dietary fibre compared to pure wheat products. Therefore, the described fortifying raw materials can be considered a wholesome raw material in bakery production.

Bayesian Group Index Regression for Modeling Chemical Mixtures and Cancer Risk.

There has been a growing interest in the literature on multiple environmental risk factors for diseases and an increasing emphasis on assessing multiple environmental exposures simultaneously in epidemiologic studies of cancer. One method used to analyze exposure to multiple chemical exposures is weighted quantile sum (WQS) regression. While WQS regression has been demonstrated to have good sensitivity and specificity when identifying important exposures, it has limitations including a two-step model fitting process that decreases power and model stability and a requirement that all exposures in the weighted index have associations in the same direction with the outcome, which is not realistic when chemicals in different classes have different directions and magnitude of association with a health outcome. Grouped WQS (GWQS) was proposed to allow for multiple groups of chemicals in the model where different magnitude and direction of associations are possible for each group. However, GWQS shares the limitation of WQS of a two-step estimation process and splitting of data into training and validation sets. In this paper, we propose a Bayesian group index model to avoid the estimation limitation of GWQS while having multiple exposure indices in the model. To evaluate the performance of the Bayesian group index model, we conducted a simulation study with several different exposure scenarios. We also applied the Bayesian group index method to analyze childhood leukemia risk in the California Childhood Leukemia Study (CCLS). The results showed that the Bayesian group index model had slightly better power for exposure effects and specificity and sensitivity in identifying important chemical exposure components compared with the existing frequentist method, particularly for small sample sizes. In the application to the CCLS, we found a significant negative association for insecticides, with the most important chemical being carbaryl. In addition, for children who were born and raised in the home where dust samples were taken, there was a significant positive association for herbicides with dacthal being the most important exposure. In conclusion, our approach of the Bayesian group index model appears able to make a substantial contribution to the field of environmental epidemiology.

Technology of Natural Biocorrectors from Seafood Processing Waste

Biocorrectors are dry concentrates from natural raw sources with high nutritional value due to the high content of important chemical components of food, including essential, minor, and biologically active nutrients. The raw material for the production of natural biocorrectors can be waste from cutting the fish and animal products. It is promising to use the skin of an octopus, the weight of which during cutting is up to 37% of the weight of raw materials, Pacific herring milt, which is formed during cutting in an amount of up to 12.4% of the weight of raw materials, and bivalve mantle mollusk of Primorsky scallop, accounting for about 10% of its mass. The goal of the research is to obtain dry food concentrates from seafood waste that exhibit functional properties. To preserve and form the specific properties of finished products, namely high biological value, digestibility, organoleptic indicators of concentrates, low-processing temperatures (cryotechnology) were used, which maximally preserved the composition, structure and other natural properties of raw materials. The dry seafood concentrates obtained by cryogenic technology exhibit high functionality and can be used as biocorrectors of food in order to impart high nutritional and biological value to it due to the balance of microand macronutrients.

An Overview of Phytochemical and Biological Activities: Ficus deltoidea Jack and Other Ficus spp.

ABSTRACTFicus deltoidea Jack (Moraceae) is a well-known medicinal plant used in customary medication among the Malay people to reduce and mend sicknesses such as ulcers, psoriasis, cytotoxicity, cardioprotective, inflammation, jaundice, vitiligo, hemorrhage, diabetes, convulsion, hepatitis, dysentery injuries, wounds, and stiffness. Ficus deltoidea contains a wide variety of bioactive compounds from different phytochemical groups such as alkaloids, phenols, flavonoids, saponins, sterols, terpenes, carbohydrates, and proteins. The genus Ficus has several hundreds of species, which shows excellent therapeutic effects and a wide variety of helpful properties for human welfare. Searching information was collected by using electronic databases including Web of Science, Science Direct, Springer, SciFinder, PubMed, Scopus, Medline, Embase, and Google Scholar. This review is, therefore, an effort to give a detailed survey of the literature on its pharmacognosy, phytochemistry, phytochemical, and pharmacological properties of Ficus and its important species. This summary could be beneficial for future research aiming to exploit the therapeutic potential of Ficus and its useful medicinal species.

The comparison of extraction methods of ganjiang decoction based on fingerprint, quantitative analysis and pharmacodynamics

BackgroundUlcerative colitis (UC) is a chronic nonspecific inflammatory disease of the colon and rectum with unknown etiology, and its symptoms include bloody diarrhea, abdominal pain, and hematochezia. Traditional Chinese medicine compound has a good therapeutic, multi-target effect on UC. Ganjiang decoction (GD), which is a traditional classic prescription in China, contains Zingiberis Rhizoma, Angelicae Sinensis Radix, Coptidis Rhizoma, Phellodendri Chinensis Cortex, Sanguisorbae Radix, Granati Pericarpium, and Asini Corii Colla and could be used to treat symptoms of UC. This study aimed to conduct a preliminary study before GD colon-targeted preparation, to explore the relationship between extraction method and efficacy of GD.MethodsHigh-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) was used for the fingerprinting of five preparation methods of GD. HPLC and gas chromatography were used to quantitatively analyze the important chemical components of GD and compare their differences. Mice with UC induced by dextran sulphate sodium salt received the extracts from the five preparation methods of GD via gavage. Disease activity index (DAI) score, colonic length, relative weight of spleen, pathological analysis results, inflammatory factors, therapeutic effect of the five preparation methods of GD, and their relationship with extraction process were compared.ResultsCluster analysis revealed that the content of the components extracted by traditional extraction methods was significantly different from the other four methods. The third and fifth preparation methods extracted Coptidis Rhizoma and Phellodendri Chinensis Cortex with 50% ethanol to obtain more alkaloids. In the fourth and fifth methods, more volatile oils were detected by adding Zingiberis Rhizoma and Angelicae Sinensis Radix fine powder. According to DAI score, colonic length, relative weight of spleen, pathological analysis results, and inflammatory factors, the third method showed a good therapeutic effect, while the fifth method had the best therapeutic effect.ConclusionsThe results showed that the difference of the five extracts of GD in the efficacy of DSS-induced UC in mice was closely related to the extraction method. Our study improved the extraction process of GD and provided a foundation for the process of enteric-soluble preparations and a new idea for traditional Chinese medicine compound preparation.

A novel quality evaluation method for magnolia bark using electronic nose and colorimeter data with multiple statistical algorithms

Magnolia bark ( Magnolia Officinalis REHD. & WILS. and Magnolia officinalis REHD. & WILS. VAR. biloba REHD. & WILS, Hou Po in Chinese), is widely applied in clinical prescriptions and Chinese patent medicines. Origin place is a crucial factor affecting the quality of Hou Po, and chemical composition is an important index for evaluating its quality, which is closely related to its clinical efficacy. This study aims to develop a novel method for rapidly, accurately and comprehensively identifying the origin places of Hou Po and predicting the contents of its important chemical components. High performance liquid chromatography was used to analyze the contents of magnolol and honokiol and ultra-performance liquid chromatography the contents of magnocurarine and magnoflorine. The cold soak method was used to determine the contents of water-soluble extracts. The E-nose and colorimeter were used to determine the odor and color characteristics, respectively, of the collected Hou Po samples. Using several statistical algorithms, different discriminant models based on the E-nose and colorimeter data were established to distinguish the origin place of Hou-Po and predict the chemical components of honokiol, magnolol, magnocurarine, magnoflorine and water-soluble extracts. The results showed that the Random Forest classifier combined with the ten-fold cross-validation method provided the highest classification accuracy for origin place, accounting for 99.53% among these models. The correlation coefficients between predicted and experimental values of the five chemical components were all higher than 0.96. This study has indicated that the electronic nose and colorimeter are promising methods for evaluating the quality of Chinese herbal medicines both qualitatively and quantitatively.

Development of a Physiologically Relevant Online Chemical Assay To Quantify Aerosol Oxidative Potential.

Large-scale epidemiological studies have shown a close correlation between adverse human health effects and exposure to ambient particulate matter (PM). The oxidative potential (OP) of ambient PM has been implicated in inducing toxic effects associated with PM exposure. In particular, reactive oxygen species (ROS), either bound to PM or generated by particulate components in vivo, substantially contribute to the OP and therefore toxicity of PM by lowering antioxidant concentrations in the lung, which can subsequently lead to oxidative stress, inflammation, and disease. Traditional methods for measuring aerosol OP are labor intensive and have poor time resolution, with significant delays between aerosol collection and ROS analysis. These methods may underestimate ROS concentrations in PM because of the potentially short lifetime of some ROS species; therefore, continuous online, highly time-resolved measurement of ROS components in PM is highly advantageous. In this work, we develop a novel online method for measuring aerosol OP based on ascorbic acid chemistry, an antioxidant prevalent in the lung, thus combining the advantages of continuous online measurement with a physiologically relevant assay. The method limit of detection is estimated for a range of atmospherically important chemical components such as Cu(II) 0.22 ± 0.03 μg m-3, Fe(II) 47.8 ± 5.5 μg m-3, Fe(III) 0.63 ± 0.05 μg m-3, and secondary organic aerosol 41.2 ± 6.9 μg m-3, demonstrating that even at this early stage of development, the online method is capable of measuring the OP of PM in polluted urban environments and smog chamber studies.

Pharmacologic Application Potentials of Sulfated Polysaccharide from Marine Algae.

With the advent of exploration in finding new sources for treating different diseases, one possible natural source is from marine algae. Having an array of potential benefits, researchers are interested in the components which comprise one of these activities. This can lead to the isolation of active compounds with biological activities, such as antioxidation of free radicals, anti-inflammation, antiproliferation of cancer cells, and anticoagulant to name a few. One of the compounds that are isolated from marine algae are sulfated polysaccharides (SPs). SPs are complex heterogenous natural polymers with an abundance found in different species of marine algae. Marine algae are known to be one of the most important sources of SPs, and depending on the species, its chemical structure varies. This variety has important physical and chemical components and functions which has gained the attention of researchers as this contributes to the many facets of its pharmacologic activity. In this review, recent pharmacologic application potentials and updates on the use of SPs from marine algae are discussed.

Analysis of Species Richness Dynamic of Mesozoic and Cenozoic Radiolarians

In this article was studied dynamic of radiolarians species richness over the last 150 million years with accuracy up to the geological age. The basic regularities of species and taxa of the upper range changing are established for Mesozoic and Cenozoic eras. Changing of the species abundance on the borders of large geological periods and, also significant fluctuations of the species richness connect to a combination of the numerous factors. Most important of these are the geological processes leading to extensive transgressions and regressions, climate variations, general directed evolution of the Earth biota, and competition for important chemical components for radiolarians’ vital processes. The appearance of considerable areas of tropical forests on the land with their enormous productivity and biochemical weathering is connected to the late Cretaceous era. That led to increasing of the dissolved material flow to the sedimentation pool, that recorded by an appearance of classic bauxite. Because aluminum oxide and silicon oxide are geochemically bound, we can state also about increasing of dissolved silica in-flow caused by diatoms development, which became a competitors for radiolarians in the struggle for silica. The last ones are lost in that competition, what led to its species reduction. Mass extinction at the border between the Cretaceous and Paleocene was not a catastrophic event with instant extinction, but a lengthy process.

An experimental and kinetic modeling study of n-butylcyclohexane over low-to-high temperature ranges

Cycloalkanes with long alkylic side chains are important chemical components in diesel and jet fuels. Although with the increasing interest in their combustion chemistry, related studies are very limited. In the present study, ignition delay times were measured for n-butylcyclohexane by combining a heated rapid compression machine and a heated shock tube. The data was obtained for equivalence ratios of 0.5, 1 and 1.5, at pressures of 10, 15 and 20 bar and over the temperature range of 612–1374 K. It was found that n-butylcyclohexane displayed marked low temperature reactivity with a typical negative temperature coefficient behavior. A correlation was developed to reproduce the measured ignition delay times over the entire temperature ranges. The results showed that it can well estimate the ignition delay times in the testing conditions. The effects of operating parameters on ignition delay times, including temperature, pressure, equivalence ratio, oxygen concentration and dilution ratio, were systematically presented and discussed. In the present work, a published mechanism was tuned with some modifications and was used to simulate the autoignition of n-butylcyclohexane. This model accurately captured the effect of the operating parameters over a wide range of conditions, and the simulations were in satisfactory agreement with the experimental results. For a better understanding of the chemistry involved during the autoignition events, kinetic analyses were performed using the tuned mechanism to provide insight to the experimental results. Comparisons were also carried out with the datasets for other cycloalkanes over the same conditions to reveal the effect of the side chain, and the trends, i.e., the longer side chain contributes to the stronger low temperature reactivity, were highlighted and discussed.

A monitoring-modeling approach to SO42 − and NO3− secondary conversion ratio estimation during haze periods in Beijing, China

SO42− and NO3− are important chemical components of fine particulate matter (PM2.5), especially during haze periods. This study selected two haze episodes in Beijing, China with similar meteorological conditions. A monitoring-modeling approach was developed to estimate the secondary conversion ratios of sulfur and nitrogen based on monitored and simulated concentrations. Measurements showed that in Episode 1 (24th–25th October, 2014), the concentrations (proportions) of SO42− and NO3− reached 35.1 μg/m3 (14.9%) and 55.0 μg/m3 (22.9%), while they reached 14.4 μg/m3 (9.3%) and 59.1 μg/m3 (38.1%) in Episode 2 (26th–27th October, 2017). A modeling system was applied to apportion Beijing's SO42− and NO3− in primary and secondary SO42−/NO3− emitted from local and regional sources. Thus, secondary conversion contributions considering the local and regional level were defined. The former primarily focused on Beijing atmospheric oxidation ability and the latter mainly considered the existence form of Beijing SO42−/NO3− under the regional transport impacts. Finally, secondary oxidation ratios were estimated through combining secondary conversion contribution coefficients for simulated and monitored concentrations. At regional level, sulfur oxidation ratios in polluted (clean) days during two sampling periods were 0.57–0.72 (0.07–0.52) and 0.74–0.80 (0.08–0.61), nitrogen oxidation ratios were 0.20–0.29 (0.05–0.15) and 0.34–0.38 (0.02–0.29), indicating that atmospheric oxidation was enhanced when considering regional transport through 2014–2017. At the local level, sulfur oxidation ratios were 0.66–0.71 (0.04–0.48) in haze (clean) days, while nitrogen oxidation ratios were 0.16–0.29 (0.02–0.16). The atmospheric oxidation ability markedly increased in PM2.5 pollution days, but changed only slightly between the two periods.

A Novel F3' 5' H Allele with 14 bp Deletion Is Associated with High Catechin Index Trait of Wild Tea Plants and Has Potential Use in Enhancing Tea Quality.

Catechins are important chemical components determining the quality of tea. The catechin index (CI, ratio of dihydroxylated catechin (DIC)/trihydroxylated catechin (TRIC)) in the green leaf has a major influence on the amounts of theaflavins in black tea. In this work, the major catechin profiles of wild tea plants originating from Guizhou Province with high CI trait were investigated. We identified a novel flavonoid 3',5' hydroxylase gene ( F3' 5' H) allele with a 14 bp deletion in the upstream regulation region and developed an insertion/deletion (InDel) marker accordingly. The 14 bp deletion in the novel F3' 5' H allele was associated with low F3' 5' H mRNA expression, thereby resulting in low TRIC content and high CI value. The allelic variant in the novel F3' 5' H allele associated with high CI values and DIC contents was confirmed by the introgression lines derived from a distant cross population. The novel F3' 5' H allele in wild tea plants is a valuable gene resource, which could be applied to breeding improvement on tea quality.

Taxonomic and phylogenetic significance of leaf venation characteristics in Dioscorea plants

We undertook a comparative study of the leaf venation characteristics of Dioscorea species from all seven sections distributed in China (33 species, 1 subspecies and 3 varieties). We established that leaf venation has a taxonomic significance in Dioscorea . The sections Combili, Opsophyton Lasiophyton and Shannicorea all show consistent acrodromous venation (a subtype of palmate venation), with Botryosicyos exhibiting consistent pinnate venation. However, sections Stenophora and Enantiophyllum show obvious intrasectional differences. For example, D. simulans and D. biformifolia of section Stenophora have acrodromously veined middle leaflets, whereas the side leaflets are pinnately veined; D. cirrhosa and D. cirrhosa var. cylindrica of section Enantiophyllum show dichotomous veinlets. Other species in the same section show either one-branched veinlets or multiple branched veinlets. In addition to the discrepancy in venation patterns, differences in many other important morphological characteristics and chemical components were also observed. Therefore, D. simulans and D. biformifolia can be reasonably excluded from section Stenophora, and section Illigerestrum can be rebuilt using these two species. In addition, D. cirrhosa and D. cirrhosa var. cylindrica should be removed from section Enantiophyllum and placed into another new section. D. simulans and D. biformifolia show pinnate venation, and the complexity of their leaf organization (with both simple and compound leaves) also points to variations between the pinnate and acrodromous veins in Dioscorea . The repeated presence of palmate and pinnate venation in multiple angiosperm clades also suggests that the formation and evolution of venation are likely the result of evolutionary adaptation to ecological environments. https://doi.org/10.2298/ABS170322058S Received: March 22, 2017; Revised: August 24, 2017; Accepted: August 24, 2017; Published online: December 26, 2017 How to cite this article: Sun X, Xue J, Lei Z, Li M, Zhang Y, Zhou G, Hang Y. Taxonomic and phylogenetic significance of leaf venation characteristics in Dioscorea plants. Arch Biol Sci. 2018;70(2):397-407.

Peaberry coffee discrimination using UV-visible spectroscopy combined with SIMCA and PLS-DA

ABSTRACTUltraviolet-visible (UV-Vis) spectral information (190–400 nm) was used to classify coffee samples into either pure peaberry or pure normal coffee classes using two chemometric methods: soft independent modelling of class analogy (SIMCA) and partial least squares discriminant analysis (PLS-DA). The spectral data of peaberry and normal coffee were acquired using a UV-Vis spectrometer (Genesys™ 10S UV-Vis, Thermo Scientific, USA). For both supervised discrimination methods, SIMCA and PLS-DA, all samples were correctly classified into their corresponding classes. The SIMCA model classified all samples accurately (100%) into either the peaberry or normal coffee class, even at a 5% confidence level; however, the PLS-DA model also correctly classified all samples (100%). Investigation of the major wavelengths contributing to the classifications using x-loading weights and loading of latent variables (LVs) indicated wavelengths at 230, 250, 270, 310, and 350 nm were important for determination of the coffee types. These wavelengths were closely related to the absorbance wavelengths of several important chemical components in roasted coffee: caffeine, caffeic acid, and chlorogenic acids (CGA). These results provided the basis for developing a simple and reliable method for peaberry coffee authentication (including more complex samples where peaberry coffee is blended with normal coffees) based on UV-Vis spectra.

Host Selection, Growth, and Survival of Melonworm (Lepidoptera: Crambidae) on Four Cucurbit Crops Under Laboratory Conditions.

The melonworm, Diaphania hyalinata L. (Lepidoptera: Crambidae), is one of the most serious insect problems affecting cucurbit production. We evaluated the relative preference and suitability of yellow squash, zucchini, cucumber, and watermelon to melonworm by measuring its oviposition, larval feeding preference, survivorship, and developmental responses in the laboratory. Whole plants were used for oviposition study, whereas host leaf discs were used for all the other studies. Watermelon feeding resulted in the longest larval development period (14.3 d), greatest prepupal weights and survivals rates (92%; first instar to adult) among the four crops. However, for watermelon, adult oviposition preference (199.5 eggs/♀), egg survival (70%), and larval feeding (4.1% defoliation) were numerically or statistically lowest, and larval head capsule widths and whole-body lengths were smallest. When differences occurred among these variables, yellow squash, zucchini, and cucumber were each typically higher (or quicker to develop) than watermelon. So why do melonworm adults not prefer watermelon, or at least select it as frequently as squash and cucumber when ovipositing? The answer likely is that there might be some variation in the important chemical components among these cucurbits. We suggest that comparison of kairomones and allomones from watermelon and related cucurbits would be very useful for determining the combination resulting in the lowest risk of damage to the more susceptible cucurbits (assuming the levels can be modified without seriously affecting the crops).

ESI-MS fingerprinting of residues of green propolis, and evaluation of their antioxidant and antimicrobial activities

In this study, we evaluated the composition of the residues of subsequent extractions of raw propolis compared to that of the first extraction (EEP) in order to determine the appropriate number of extractions that could be used. Three samples of green propolis, two of them from small apiaries and another from a larger apiary (all with similar composition) were analyzed. The chemical composition of the residues and the crude propolis was evaluated by direct insertion electrospray ionization mass spectrometry in the negative ion mode (ESI(-)-MS) using a TQD Acquity mass spectrometer. The antioxidant activity was assessed by DPPH and ORAC assays, and the antimicrobial activity was studied as well. A comparison of the ESI(-)-MS fingerprints showed that bioactive substances still remain in the residues after one or two extractions. Artepillin C was found to be present in green propolis extract (EEP) and also in the residues; however it was present in lower concentrations. Nevertheless, another important substance, dicaffeoylquinic acid, was only found in the propolis extract and in the first two residues. In the DPPH and ORAC assays, a sequential loss of antioxidant activity was observed. The antimicrobial activity of EEP and extract of the first two residues was investigated in vitro against gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria and EEP, and the first extract presented inhibition values of 1 mg ml−1 or less. Two sequential extractions of raw green propolis are appropriate to avoid the loss of important chemical components in the residue.