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To exploit the full potential of pomegranate marcs, this study explores different conditions of ‘green’ extraction of ellagitannins and other bio-active phenolic compounds from the ‘external by-product’ of pomegranate industrial processing. Significant recoveries of ellagitannins, free ellagic acid and radical scavenging compounds were obtained by coupling both the traditional (MH) or the hydro-diffusion gravity (MHG) microwave assisted drying to a direct ultrasound assisted extraction (UAE) using a food-grade solvent (EtOH/H2O). The amounts of the ellagitannins after microwave drying were always significantly higher than with the traditional oven drying. Moreover, microwaves reduced the drying times from several hours to few minutes reaching comparable residual moisture content. The microwave hydro-diffusion gravity system allowed the recovery of bio-active compounds in the condensed water too. The comparison of UAE with traditional maceration and decoction highlighted the higher efficiency of UAE in the quicker extraction of bio-active compounds, except for the total ellagitannins which were better recovered after the longer maceration.

The immune system and the central nervous system message each other to preserving central homeostasis. Both systems undergo changes during aging that determine central age-related defects. Ellagic acid (EA) is a natural product which is beneficial in both peripheral and central diseases, including aging. We analyzed the impact of the oral administration of a new oral ellagic acid micro-dispersion (EAm), that largely increased the EA solubility, in young and old mice. Oral EAm did not modify animal weight and behavioral skills in young and old mice, but significantly recovered changes in &ldquo, ex-vivo, in vitro&rdquo, parameters in old animals. Cortical noradrenaline exocytosis decreased in aged mice. EAm administration did not modify noradrenaline overflow in young animals, but recovered it in old mice. Furthermore, GFAP staining was increased in the cortex of aged mice, while IBA-1 and CD45 immunopositivities were unchanged when compared to young ones. EAm treatment significantly reduced CD45 signal in both young and old cortical lysates, it diminished GFAP immunopositivity in young mice, but failed to affect IBA-1 expression in both young and old animals. Finally, EAm treatment significantly reduced IL1beta expression in old mice. These results suggest that EAm is beneficial to aging and represents a nutraceutical ingredient for elders.

The aim of this paper was to study the fatty acid composition of total and "free" lipids in powdered infant milks and to evaluate the fatty acid oxidation after package opening. In its first step the application of Principal Component Analysis and Design of Experiments has allowed to take a comprehensive picture of powdered infant formulas on sale in Italy on the basis of their labelled composition and to select a limited number of representative samples. Both total and "non encapsulated" or "free" lipids were considered and analysed and no significant differences were found between their fatty acids contents. The possible modification of the fatty acid composition in the "free" lipids caused by oxidation was also studied, simulating the domestic habits after opening. No significant changes were observed up to 30 days even when formulas had an high content of unsaturated fatty acids and valuable Long Chain Polyunsaturated fatty acids.

An authentication study of the Italian PDO (protected designation of origin) extra virgin olive oil Chianti Classico was performed; UV–visible (UV–vis), Near-Infrared (NIR) and Mid-Infrared (MIR) spectroscopies were applied to a set of samples representative of the whole Chianti Classico production area. The non-selective signals (fingerprints) provided by the three spectroscopic techniques were utilised both individually and jointly, after fusion of the respective profile vectors, in order to build a model for the Chianti Classico PDO olive oil. Moreover, these results were compared with those obtained by the gas chromatographic determination of the fatty acids composition. In order to characterise the olive oils produced in the Chianti Classico PDO area, UNEQ (unequal class models) and SIMCA (soft independent modelling of class analogy) were employed both on the MIR, NIR and UV–vis spectra, individually and jointly, and on the fatty acid composition. Finally, PLS (partial least square) regression was applied on the UV–vis, NIR and MIR spectra, in order to predict the content of oleic and linoleic acids in the extra virgin olive oils. UNEQ, SIMCA and PLS were performed after selection of the relevant predictors, in order to increase the efficiency of both classification and regression models. The non-selective information obtained from UV–vis, NIR and MIR spectroscopy allowed to build reliable models for checking the authenticity of the Italian PDO extra virgin olive oil Chianti Classico .

Modern membrane technologies are useful for enhancing the concentration of phenolic antioxidants in olive mill waste water (OMWW) to produce concentrates with valuable applications in functional foods. Three types of OMWW concentrates, each with different levels of solute concentration and purity, were obtained from a single OMWW batch and dissolved in two extra virgin olive oils to achieve saturated solutions. Three addition levels were considered. Accelerated aging testing of the oils was performed at 60 °C and the samples were analyzed after two, four, and 6 weeks of aging. D-optimal design was used to select the 26 experiments that allowed the evaluation of the influence of the different variables on oil stability. The addition of OMWW concentrates resulted in a significant increase in the Radical Scavenging Activity (RSA) of the olive oils. Under these mild experimental conditions, the moderate formation of fatty acid hydroperoxides was probably masked by interfering compounds.

Headspace sorptive extraction and GC/MS, coupled with chemometric tools, were used to predict the amounts of pine nuts and Pecorino in Pesto Genovese, a typical Italian basil-based pasta sauce. Two groups of samples were prepared at different times and with ingredients from different batches for building the predicting models and testing their performances. Principal component analysis and partial least-squares regression (PLS) were applied to the chromatographic data. The 24 most-predictive variables were selected, and the application of PLS to the training set samples led to two models that explained approximately 70 of the variance in cross-validation, with prediction errors of 0.1 g for Pecorino and 0.6 g for pine nuts, thus confirming the reliability of the analytical method and the predicting ability of the models. The results obtained for the test set samples were not completely satisfactory, with a prediction error and a bias of 5.0 and 4.1 g, respectively, for Pecorino and corresponding values of 4.1 and 2.0 g for pine nuts. This preliminary study shows that the analytical methods used can allow construction of models with high predictive ability only if the great variability of the headspace composition of the ingredients and the effect of Twister are considered.

This paper describes the development and application of a new analytical method for the analysis of the volatile fractions of pesto , a typical Italian basil-based pasta sauce, and its ingredients. The extraction of the volatile fraction was realized by headspace sorptive extraction (HSSE) and the extracted volatiles were then thermodesorbed, cryoconcentrated in a cooled injector and analysed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. This study shows that despite the great variability detected in the composition of the volatile fractions of several samples of “Pesto Genovese”, the ingredients traditionally used in pesto preparation (basil, pine nuts, walnuts, cheese, extra-virgin olive oil and garlic) give a significant and distinctive contribution to the pesto volatile fraction. Thus, the HSSE analysis of “Pesto Genovese” could be very useful for a careful control of the composition of this valuable niche product.

Cholesterol oxidation in commercial meat-based homogenized and freeze-dried baby foods was examined. The 7 major products of this reaction were determined by gas chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry (GC-MS). As far as single cholesterol oxidation products (COP) are concerned, 7-ketocholesterol was the major product of direct cholesterol oxidation in the 2 groups of analyzed samples, and this study confirmed that it is a useful marker of the whole cholesterol oxidation process. Nevertheless, the amounts of cholesterol-5β,6β-epoxide were often similar to and sometimes higher than the amounts of 7-ketocholesterol, thus showing a strong development of both direct and indirect cholesterol oxidation pathways. Total COP content was significantly higher in freeze-dried than in homogenized products. Moreover, in freeze-dried samples, the COP content per serving was quite variable and, in 2 samples, it was close to or even higher than 500 μg. The greater development of cholesterol oxidation in the freeze-dried samples was confirmed by their highest total COP/cholesterol percent ratios. A constant correlation between the fatty acid composition and the development of cholesterol oxidation was not found, although a positive correlation between unsaturated fatty acid content and total COP content occasionally exists in samples of the same brand.

The development of the Maillard reaction in pasteurized, UHT and in-bottle sterilized dietetic milks was studied. In these products damage caused by heat treatments could increase as a result either of the addition of various ingredients or of manufacturing processes that alter their content of reducing carbohydrates. Protein damage was evaluated by measuring furosine by reversed-phase ion-paired HPLC. The levels of furosine detected made it possible to assess the amounts of biologically unavailable lysine. In all milks analysed blocked lysine values were

Polar compounds of virgin olive oils were analyzed. They influence oil flavor and aroma and improve the shelf-life of the oil. The orthodiphenolic fraction is particularly significant for oil stability because of its antioxidative activity. A relationship between the composition of the whole fraction of polar compounds and the state of health of the olives was established. For this purpose, oil samples were obtained from olives that had reached different degrees of ripeness and that had been affected by Dacus oleae infestation differently. The polar compounds were then analyzed by high-performance liquid chromatography. The data set was studied by means of chemometric methods. Partial least squares regression was used to obtain models that show a significant correlation between composition of the oil’s polar compounds and conditions of the olives sampled. In particular, compounds with antioxidative activity were directly linked with the state of health of the olives. The models obtained allow tracing of the state of health of the olives sampled through analysis of the polar fraction of virgin olive oil with a high degree of accuracy, and thus prediction of the oil’s expected shelf life.

Two methods for routine analysis of free 7-ketocholesterol (7-k) in foods by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) were compared. The analyzed samples were egg noodles, biscuits prepared with eggs, sweet snacks, grated Parmesan cheeses, and some ingredients utilized in the food industry (whole-milk and whole-egg powder). The enrichment of cholesterol oxides was carried out by solid-phase separation of the total lipids with florisil and silica cartridges for methods A and B, respectively. The 7-k analyses were run in normal-phase HPLC for method A, and a reverse-phase process was used in method B. Identification of the 7-k peak was confirmed by gas chromatography/mass spectrometry analysis and peak purity checkvia spectral analysis with a diode array detector. The quantitation of 7-k was carried out with an internal standard for method A and with a calibration curve for method B. The limit of quantitation (LQ) was 3 × 10−9 g/injection; the limit of detection was ten times lower than the LQ for both methods. The two methods showed good recovery (99%) and good repeatability (coefficient of variation of 3.9 and 3.7% for methods A and B, respectively). These methods allow a fast, sensitive, and reliable determination of one cholesterol oxidation product, which is present at a high concentration level in the first stages of the oxidation process.

The quantity of blocked lysine in spray-dried infant fistulas in Italy was calculated by the furosine method. This quantity was then correlated with the composition of the carbohydrate fraction. In formulas containing only lactose as carbohydrate its presence in large quantities (6.7-74.5 g/100 mL of formula as fed), with a lysine-rich protein fraction, may lead to amino acid blocking of >20%. In formulas in which lactose was substituted with low-DE maltodextrin a reduction of lysine blocking was possible. Addition of glucose may result in high levels of blocked lysine