Ultrasound assisted extraction (UAE) of bioactive compounds from fruit and vegetable processing by-products: A review

Growing fruit and vegetable processing industries generates a huge amount of by-products in the form of seed, skin, pomace, and rind containing a substantial quantity of bioactive compounds such as polysaccharides, polyphenols, carotenoids, and dietary fiber. These processing wastes are considered to be of negligible value compared to the processed fruit or vegetable due to lack of sustainable extraction technique. Conventional extraction has certain limitations in terms of time, energy, and solvent requirements. Ultrasound assisted extraction (UAE) can extract bioactive components in very less time, at low temperature, with lesser energy and solvent requirement. UAE as a non-thermal extraction technique is better equipped to retain the functionality of the bioactive compounds. However, the variables associated with UAE such as frequency, power, duty cycle, temperature, time, solvent type, liquid-solid ratio needs to be understood and optimized for each by-product. This article provides a review of mechanism, concept, factor affecting extraction of bioactive compounds with particular focus on fruit and vegetable by-products.     

Original diols from sunflower and ricin oils: Synthesis,characterization, and use as polyurethane building blocks

A series of novel fatty acid‐based diols were designed and synthesized from sunflower and ricin oils using optimized chemical reactions and purifications. These diols were categorized in two different types: (i) fatty acid‐based monoester containing diols (FAmE‐1 to FAmE‐6) and (ii) fatty acid‐based diester containing diols (FAdE‐1 to FAdE‐8). Their synthesis involved a series of reactions such as transesterification, epoxidation, ring opening of epoxide, and thiol‐ene additions. Analyses of these new fatty acid‐based diols were performed by HPLC/GC and NMR spectroscopy. The latter were then demonstrated as polyurethane (PU) precursors in the bulk polymerization with isophorone diisocyanate in the presence of dibutyl tin dilaurate as a catalyst. The effects of the diol nature and purity on the PU synthesis and properties were investigated. The structural characterization of the different PUs was carried out by means of FTIR, ¹H NMR, and ¹H DOSY NMR spectroscopy. The thermomechanical and rheological properties of these new PUs were found dependent on the chemical structure and purity of the diol building block. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem, 2012     

Authentication of vegetable oils on the basis of their physico-chemical properties with the aid of chemometrics

In food production, reliable analytical methods for confirmation of purity or degree of spoilage are required by growers, food quality assessors, processors, and consumers. Seven parameters of physico-chemical properties, such as acid number, colority, density, refractive index, moisture and volatility, saponification value and peroxide value, were measured for quality and adulterated soybean, as well as quality and rancid rapeseed oils. Chemometrics methods were then applied for qualitative and quantitative discrimination and prediction of the oils by methods such exploratory principal component analysis (PCA), partial least squares (PLS), radial basis function-artificial neural networks (RBF-ANN), and multi-criteria decision making methods (MCDM), PROMETHEE and GAIA.In general, the soybean and rapeseed oils were discriminated by PCA, and the two spoilt oils behaved differently with the rancid rapeseed samples exhibiting more object scatter on the PC-scores plot, than the adulterated soybean oil. For the PLS and RBF-ANN prediction methods, suitable training models were devised, which were able to predict satisfactorily the category of the four different oil samples in the verification set. Rank ordering with the use of MCDM models indicated that the oil types can be discriminated on the PROMETHEE II scale. For the first time, it was demonstrated how ranking of oil objects with the use of PROMETHEE and GAIA could be utilized as a versatile indicator of quality performance of products on the basis of a standard selected by the stakeholder. In principle, this approach provides a very flexible method for assessment of product quality directly from the measured data.     

土壤及蔬菜中微量汞的同位素稀释电感耦合等离子体质谱测定

建立了微波消解电感耦合等离子体质谱同位素稀释(ID/ICP-MS)测定微量汞的方法。考察了仪器参数及测量条件对汞同位素比值RHg(202Hg/200Hg)测量的影响,根据同位素比值测量误差的传递因子优化了富集同位素稀释剂(202Hg98%)的加入量,并以铊同位素比值(205Tl/203Tl)作为RHg(202Hg/200Hg)测量时发生质量歧视效应的校正因子;通过反同位素稀释法标定了富集汞同位素稀释剂的浓度。利用所建立的ID/ICP-MS方法测定了杨树叶(GBW07604)和湖积物(GBW07423)2种标准参考物中汞的含量,回收率分别为112%和100%。该方法具有准确度高、精密度好等优点,且样品前处理简便,适用于土壤及蔬菜等样品中微量及痕量汞的准确测定。     

Optimization of enzymatic production of biodiesel from castor oil in organic solvent medium

We studied the production of fatty acid ethyl esters from castor oil using n-hexane as solvent and two commercial lipases, Novozym 435 and Lipozyme IM, as catalysts. For this purpose, a Taguchi experimental design was adopted considering the following variables: temperature (35–65°C), water (0–10 wt/wt%), and enzyme (5–20 wt/wt%) concentrations and oil-to-ethanol molar ratio (1∶3 to 1∶10). An empirical model was then built so as to assess the main and cross-variable effects on the reaction conversion and also to maximize biodiesel production for each enzyme. For the system containing Novozym 435 as tatalyst the maximum conversion obtained was 81.4% at 65°C, enzyme concentration of 20 wt/wt%, water concentration of 0 wt/wt%, and oil-to-ethanol molar ratio of 1∶10. When the catalyst was Lipozyme IM, a conversion as high as 98% was obtained at 65°C, enzyme concentration of 20 wt/wt%, water concentration of 0 wt/wt%, and oil-to-ethanol molar ratio of 1∶3.     

Untargeted fatty acid profiles based on the selected ion monitoring mode

Fatty acids are potential biomarkers of some diseases and also key markers and quality parameters of different dietary fats and related products. Thus, untargeted fatty acid profiles are important in the study of dietary fat quality and fat-related diseases, as well as in other fields such as bioenergy. In addition, accurate identification of unknown components is a technological breakthrough for the selected ion monitoring (SIM) mode for untargeted profiles. In this study, we developed untargeted fatty acid profiles based on SIM. We also investigated mass spectral characteristics and equivalent chain lengths (ECL) to eliminate the influence of non-FAMEs for identifying fatty acids in samples. As an application example, fatty acid profiles were used to classify three edible vegetable oils. The results indicated that SIM-based untargeted fatty acid profiles could yield accurate qualitative and quantitative results for more fatty acids and benefit related studies of metabolite profiles.     

高光谱分析叶菜对颗粒物污染的响应特征规律

大气中的颗粒物不仅影响人类生活,还影响植物的光合作用、生长发育和产量品质。实现了颗粒物污染环境的人工模拟,并对采收期的小白菜、生菜、小油菜三种叶菜进行颗粒物作用试验,获取叶片的光合生理信息和高光谱数据,基于高光谱技术和植物表型分析叶菜对颗粒物的响应机理,研究叶菜的光合特性和光谱特征对颗粒物污染的响应情况。结果表明：以颗粒物作为唯一差别条件下,三种叶菜叶片的高光谱曲线整体趋势相同,在可见光波段内试验组反射率增加最大,红边位置发生蓝移,小油菜对颗粒物的作用最敏感,小白菜吸附颗粒物的能力最强。分别比较三种叶菜的净光合速率与叶片原始光谱、一阶导数光谱的相关性,利用相关分析法提取三种叶菜的敏感波段,用原始光谱、FD、MSC和相关分析法提取特征波长;比较10个高光谱特征参数及4个植被指数与净光合速率的相关系数,选出敏感光谱特征参数和植被指数,即生菜的Dr,SDr,SDr/SDb和SDr/Sdy,小白菜的SDr,Dy,NIRRP,(SDr-SDy)/(SDr+SDy)以及小油菜的λr,SDy,(SDr-SDy)/(SDr+SDy)。用ln对数运算、多项式函数以及几种组合方法建立三种叶菜叶片的净光合速率定量反演模型,其中,预处理方法采用SG,FD,SD和MSC,建模方法采用CLS,PLS,PCR和SMLR。以相关系数为模型评价指标,最终确定FD+SG+PLS方法是建立生菜和小白菜净光合速率反演模型的最优方法,FD+SG+MSC+SMLR方法是建立小油菜净光合速率反演模型的最优方法。所建模型可为今后颗粒物污染环境下的模型修正提供参考,具有实用性。研究结果为利用高光谱技术研究叶菜类蔬菜在颗粒物污染环境下的诊断与分析提供理论依据,为设施农业蔬菜的病害预警、生理信息监测、设施环境的净化和管控提供新思路。     

Preparation of Pd/C catalysts via deposition of palladium hydroxide onto Sibunit carbon and their application to partial hydrogenation of rapeseed oil

Pd/Sibunit catalysts were prepared by deposition of palladium hydroxide onto the support surface in an alkaline medium. It was found that the palladium distribution throughout the catalyst grain, and the dispersion of Pd particles depend on (i) the order of the addition of H₂PdCl₄ and Na₂CO₃ to carbon suspension, (ii) Na₂CO₃ to H₂PdCl₄ ratio, and (iii) aging time of the mixture H₂PdCl₄ + Na₂CO₃ before its addition to the carbon. The catalysts were tested in the hydrogenation of cyclohexene and rapeseed oil under static conditions. The yield of trans-isomers as products of partial hydrogenation of rapeseed oil was found to decrease with decreasing the Pd particle size in the catalysts, as well as with increasing the Pd concentration on the periphery of the support grains.