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Fungi have evolved for 1 billion years and due to their adaptability and resilience can be found in multiple habitats around the globe. Among numerous species of fungi, some are pathogenic, and humans have battled since the dawn of organized agriculture to reduce production losses. With the arrival of fungicides many gains have been made in this struggle. However, though fungicides have greatly contributed to substantial increase in agricultural productivity, their over usage has led to both health and environmental repercussions. They remain cornerstone of the agriculture industry, however, development of safer formulations to champion sustainable and eco-friendly agriculture is of great importance, especially in face of a growing global population, climate change and increasing fungal resistance to existing compounds. The aim of this review is to present the state of the art in fungicides formulations developed for agrochemistry, also describing recent improvements in their safety, with special focus on fungicides used most against the ten most important fungal pathogens. The major focus in the field remains to be the improvement of the overall performance of the fungicide formulations. The research trends are also moving towards developing more eco-friendly formulations. However, there are still very few studies assessing nanoformulations toxicity and environmental impact. For example, there is still a limited body of research on the holistic assessment of nanoformulation shells' fate in soil and in the environment after release, as well as redistribution within plants after absorption, with no studies on human or environmental exposure. Unlabelled Image • Studies emphasise attention on the overall performance of conventional fungicides. • Research trends are moving towards developing more eco-friendly formulations. • Research on formulation shells' fate in the environment after release is needed. • Toxicity of encapsulated fungicide residue after release is required to be assessed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Global market of herbs has been struggling with food adulteration issues. A number of assays have been developed to aid the detection of the tampered samples and ensure high quality of the marketed products. However, herbs are marketed not only for their culinary applications but also as remedies due to high levels of biologically active constituents. Nevertheless, there is no information in the literature about the influence of herbs adulteration on the biological activity of the final product. Current study aims at assessing the influence of oregano adulteration on its in-vitro estrogen-like activity. High responses in a mammalian reporter gene assay have been detected in pure and adulterated samples, translating to 21–7409 ng of 17β-estradiol equivalents per gram of oregano. The origin of those responses was assessed by combining fractionation and UHPLC-HRMS. Three flavones were proposed as the most active extract constituents i.e. luteolin-glucoside, luteolin- and apigenin-glucuronides all of which have been previously identified in other herbal extracts with estrogenic activity. This study underlines challenges of biological activity assessment in complex herbal extracts as well as the need for further assessment of such supplement administrations in the case of postmenopausal women and breast cancer patients undergoing hormone therapy. Highlights • Oregano extracts exhibit estrogen-like activity in-vitro. • Conjugated flavonoids are the origin of the detected biological activity. • Combining bio- and chemical assays is a fast tool for detecting bioactive compounds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to increasing number of food fraud incidents, there is an inherent need for the development and implementation of analytical platforms enabling detection and quantitation of adulteration. In this study a set of unique biomarkers of commonly found oregano adulterants became the targets in the development of a LC–MS/MS method which underwent a rigorous in-house validation. The method presented very high selectivity and specificity, excellent linearity (R 2 > 0.988) low decision limits and detection capabilities (<2%), acceptable accuracy (intra-assay 92–113%, inter-assay 69–138%) and precision (CV < 20%). The method was compared with an established FTIR screening assay and revealed a good correlation of quali- and quantitative results (R 2 > 0.81). An assessment of 54 suspected adulterated oregano samples revealed that almost 90% of them contained at least one bulking agent, with a median level of adulteration of 50%. Such innovative methodologies need to be established as routine testing procedures to detect and ultimately deter food fraud. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• CAPP efficiency was shown to vary significantly depending on analytes' structure. • Over 60% removal of AFB 1 and FB 1 in maize was demonstrated within 10 min of treatment. • No hepatotoxicity in vitro in treated maize samples was observed. • Significant differences were detected in matrix constituents of the treated maize. The need for safe and quality food, free from the presence of hazardous contaminants such as mycotoxins is an on-going and complex challenge. Cold atmospheric pressure plasma (CAPP) has the potential to contribute to achieving this goal. Decontamination efficacy of CAPP against six of the most common mycotoxins found in foods and feedstuffs was assessed herein. Concentration reduction of up to 66% was achieved in maize for both aflatoxin B 1 and fumonisin B 1. Degradation products were detected only in the case of aflatoxin B 1 and zearalenone and were tested on human hepatocarcinoma cells with no increase in cytotoxicity observed. Analysis of treated maize revealed substantial changes to small molecular mass components of the matrix. While CAPP shows promise in terms of mycotoxin detoxification important questions concerning potential changes to the nutritional and safety status of the food matrix require further investigations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Solving multiple seafood fraud issue by single untargeted metabolomics experiment. • Chemometrics models for predicting species and geographical origin of shrimp. • Identification of reproducible shrimp species specific marker ions. • Targeted tandem mass spectrometry method for rapid authentication of shrimp species. Mandatory disclosure of the species identity, production method, and geographical origin are embedded in the regulations and traceability systems, governing international seafood trade. A high-resolution mass spectrometry-based metabolomics approach could simultaneously authenticate the species identity and geographical origin of commercially important shrimps. The highly innovative approach spared the need for multiple testing methods which are in routine use currently. A robust chemometric model, developed using the metabolite fingerprint dataset, could accurately predict the species identity of the shrimp samples. Subsequently, species-specific biomarkers were discovered and a tandem mass spectrometry method for authentication of the species was developed. Two other chemometric models from the metabolomics experiment accurately predicted the geographical origin of king prawns and tiger prawns. The study has shown for the first time that food-metabolomics along with chemometrics can simultaneously check for multiple seafood fraud issues in the global seafood supply-chain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]