Browsing by Author "Pereira, Jorge A. M."
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- Analysis of the environmental impact of botanical pesticides in soilPublication . Pereira, Verónica; Castilho, Paula C.; Pereira, Jorge A. M.; Augusto Machado Pereira, JorgePlant-based pesticides are considered viable complements of conventional synthetic pesticides in agriculture. Their environmentally benign nature and potential to mitigate ecological impacts render them advantageous options for sustainable farming practices. However, the long-term effects of botanical pesticides on soil ecosystems remain unclear. This review aims to examine current evidence concerning the persistence of botanical pesticides in soil environments and their potential effects. Specifically, it addresses their biodegradation pathways in soil as well as their impact on soil enzymes and biology. The methodologies available to perform these studies are also briefly discussed, particularly focusing on how they can be tailored to improve the analysis of the impacts and challenges posed by the use of botanical pesticides in ecosystems.
- Beer volatile fingerprinting at different brewing stepsPublication . Alves, Vera; Gonçalves, João; Figueira, José A.; Ornelas, Laura P.; Branco, Ricardo N.; Câmara, José S.; Pereira, Jorge A. M.Volatile fingerprints of a lager beer were carried out throughout five brewing steps to characterize the changes encompassing this process. Overall, 60 volatile organic metabolites (VOMs) were identified by headspace solid phase microextraction followed by gas chromatography mass spectrometry (HS-SPME/GC–MS). Specific profiles were observed at different brewing steps - aldehydes and furans dominate in wort, whereas the aliphatic esters and alcohols predominate in the following steps. Such variations can be assigned to specific VOMs, as 3-me thylbutanal (wort), ethyl alcohol and ethyl octanoate (fermentation, maturation and filtration), or ethyl alcohol and isoamyl acetate (final product). These VOMs can influence the beer final flavour. Ethyl alcohol contributes to its strong and pungent smell and taste, while isoamyl acetate adds intense ‘fruity’ and ‘banana’ odours. These beer volatile fingerprints constitute a valuable tool to obtain insights on the impact of each brewing step on the final product, being also very useful for certification purposes.
- Behind the scenes of anthocyanins—From the health benefits to potential applications in food, pharmaceutical and cosmetic fieldsPublication . Câmara, José S.; Monica Locatelli; Pereira, Jorge A. M.; Oliveira, Hélder; Arlorio, Marco; Fernandes, Iva; Perestrelo, Rosa; Freitas, Victor; Bordiga, Matteo; Câmara, José; Augusto Machado Pereira, JorgeAnthocyanins are widespread and biologically active water-soluble phenolic pigments responsible for a wide range of vivid colours, from red (acidic conditions) to purplish blue (basic conditions), present in fruits, vegetables, and coloured grains. The pigments’ stability and colours are influenced mainly by pH but also by structure, temperature, and light. The colour-stabilizing mechanisms of plants are determined by inter- and intramolecular co-pigmentation and metal complexation, driven by van der Waals, π–π stacking, hydrogen bonding, and metal-ligand interactions. This group of flavonoids is well-known to have potent anti-inflammatory and antioxidant effects, which explains the biological effects associated with them. Therefore, this review provides an overview of the role of anthocyanins as natural colorants, showing they are less harmful than conventional colorants, with several technological potential applications in different industrial fields, namely in the textile and food industries, as well as in the development of photosensitizers for dye-sensitized solar cells, as new photosensitizers in photodynamic therapy, pharmaceuticals, and in the cosmetic industry, mainly on the formulation of skin care formulations, sunscreen filters, nail colorants, skin & hair cleansing products, amongst others. In addition, we will unveil some of the latest studies about the health benefits of anthocyanins, mainly focusing on the protection against the most prevalent human diseases mediated by oxidative stress, namely cardiovascular and neurodegenerative diseases, cancer, and diabetes. The contribution of anthocyanins to visual health is also very relevant and will be briefly explored.
- Biogenic amines in food: occurrence and analytical challenges for their analysisPublication . Pereira, Jorge A. M.; Porto-Figueira, Priscilla; Andrade, Beatriz; Gonçalves, Patrícia; Pataca, Joanna; Câmara, José S.Biogenic amines (BAs) are naturally occurring nitrogenous organic compounds of low molecular weight organic bases with aliphatic, aromatic or heterocyclic structures. They are generally formed through microbiological activity during food processing and storage, and can be found in a wide variety of foods, particularly fermented foods and beverages as cheese, wine, beer, in addition to fishery products and meat. At low concentrations, BAs participate in the regulation of several physiological functions, but when present at high concentrations, they may cause several health problems in consumers, as headaches, hypo- or hypertension, nausea and cardiac palpitations, especially to sensitive persons. Therefore, the control of BAs levels in different food products is an important issue for food safety monitoring policies. Due to their low levels in complex food matrices, the analysis of BAs is not an easy task and several methods for their separation, identification, and determination have been described during the last decades. Overall, the chromatographic approaches are the most popular, although the recent trends points to the development of sensors able to measure BAs in food matrices without involving the laborious and complex laboratorial sample analysis methodologies. In this review we will essentially focus on the occurrence of BAs in different foodstuffs and in the correspondent challenges of their analysis.
- Chromatographic-Based Platforms as New Avenues for Scientific Progress and SustainabilityPublication . Câmara, José S.; Martins, Cátia; Pereira, Jorge A. M.; Perestrelo, Rosa; Rocha, Sílvia M.Chromatography was born approximately one century ago and has undergone outstanding technological improvements in innovation, research, and development since then that has made it fundamental to advances in knowledge at different levels, with a relevant impact on the well-being and health of individuals. Chromatography boosted a comprehensive and deeper understanding of the complexity and diversity of human–environment interactions and systems, how these interactions affect our life, and the several societal challenges we are currently facing, namely those related to the sustainability of our planet and the future generations. From the life sciences, which allowed us to identify endogenous metabolites relevant to disease mechanisms, to the OMICS field, nanotechnology, clinical and forensic analysis, drug discovery, environment, and “foodprint”, among others, the wide range of applications of today’s chromatographic techniques is impressive. This is fueled by a great variability of powerful chromatographic instruments currently available, with very high sensitivity, resolution, and identification capacity, that provide a strong basis for an analytical platform able to support the challenging demands of the postgenomic and post COVID-19 eras. Within this context, this review aims to address the great utility of chromatography in helping to cope with several societal-based challenges, such as the characterization of disease and/or physiological status, and the response to current agri-food industry challenges of food safety and sustainability, or the monitoring of environmental contamination. These are increasingly important challenges considering the climate changes, the tons of food waste produced every day, and the exponential growth of the human population. In this context, the principles governing the separation mechanisms in chromatography as well the different types and chromatographic techniques will be described. In addition, the major achievements and the most important technological advances will be also highlighted. Finally, a set of studies was selected in order to evince the importance of different chromatographic analyses to understand processes or create fundamental information in the response to current societal challenges.
- A comprehensive methodology based on NTME/GC-MS data and chemometric tools for lemons discrimination according to geographical originPublication . Figueira, José; Porto-Figueira, Priscilla; Pereira, Jorge A. M.; Câmara, José S.In this work we report an innovative and high throughput methodology involving Needle Trap Microextraction (NTME) combined with GC-MS analyis and chemometric processing, to obtain comprehensive volatile finger prints for authenticity purposes. This approach ewill allow to characterize the volatile composition of lemon peels (exocarp) (Eureka variety) from different geographical regions of Portugal (mainland and Madeira Island), Argentine and South Africa as useful tool to identify geographic molecular markers with potential for dis crimination according to their geographical origin. The most important parameters affecting NTME, namely extraction and headspace volumes, sample temperature and equilibration time, were optimized using an ex perimental design (DoE). Overall, 75 volatile organic compounds (VOCs), belonging to different chemical groups, namely monoterpenes, sesquiterpenes, alcohols and carbonyl compounds, were identified. D-limonene, α-pinene, β-pinene, sabinene, β-myrcene and γ-terpinene were the dominant volatiles identified, accounting for more than 50% of the volatile composition of selected lemons varieties. The VOCs data matrix obtained was submitted to both supervised (Orthogonal Projections to Latent Structures Discriminant Analysis, OPLS-DA) and unsupervised (Hierarchical Clustering Analysis, HCA) statistics, allowing to discriminate lemons based on the volatomic fingerprint of its peel. The VOCs with the larger contribution to the geographical origin classification included butanal, α-pinene, α-thujene, 1-butanol, 2-heptanone, D-limonene, 2-methyl-2-heptenal, nonanal, decanal, 1-octanol, limonene oxide, β-caryophyllene and 2,6-dimethyl-2,6-octadiene, suggesting their potential as geographical markers. This study shows the potential of NTMS/GC-MS combined with multivariate statistical analysis as a powerful and rapid strategy to obtain volatile fingerprints of different food matrices and support the certification of their origin and authenticity.
- Current challenges in the sustainable valorisation of agri-food wastes: a reviewPublication . Berenguer, Cristina V.; Andrade, Carolina; Pereira, Jorge A. M.; Perestrelo, Rosa; José S. Câmara; Berenguer, Cristina; Augusto Machado Pereira, Jorge; Perestrelo, Rosa; Câmara, JoséIn the upcoming years, the world will face societal challenges arising, in particular, from the impact of climate change and the inefficient use of natural resources, in addition to an exponential growth of the world population, which according to the United Nations (UN) estimations will be 9.8 billion in 2050. This increasing trend requires optimized management of natural resources with the use of value-added waste and a significant reduction in food loss and food waste. Moreover, the recent pandemic situation, COVID-19, has contributed indisputably. Along with the agri-food supply chain, several amounts of waste or by-products are generated. In most cases, these biomass wastes cause serious environmental concerns and high costs to enterprises. The valorisation of the agri-food loss and food industry wastes emerged as a useful strategy to produce certain value-added compounds with several potential applications, namely in the food, health, pharmaceutical, cosmetic, and environmental fields. Therefore, in this review, some of the crucial sustainable challenges with impacts on the valorisation of agri-food loss/wastes and by-products are discussed and identified, in addition to several opportunities, trends and innovations. Potential applications and usages of the most important compounds found in food loss/waste will be highlighted, with a focus on the food industry, pharmaceutical industry, and the environment.
- Current trends and recent advances on food authenticity technologies and chemometric approachesPublication . Medina, Sonia; Perestrelo, Rosa; Silva, Pedro; Pereira, Jorge A. M.; Câmara, José S.Background: Food frauds and counterfeit products produced to obtain economic advantages have become a growing concern over the last decade. The assessment of food safety and authenticity constitute a powerful tool to mitigate this problem and protect public health. Nevertheless, the growing sophistication of fraudulent practices requires a continuous update and improvement of the analytical methodologies. Scope and approach: In this context, the advances and novel techniques and chemometric approaches reported since 2016 are discussed regarding their potential use in food authentication. This review details the main analytical techniques applied in the extraction, detection and identification of metabolites to obtain food fingerprints, emphasizing the advantages and drawbacks of each approach with practical examples. Additionally, the current legislation on food authentication has also been revised. Key findings and conclusions: GC-MS, LC- q-TOF-MS and NMR followed by PCA and PLS-DA are the most often reported analytical methodologies to discriminate between authentic and non-authentic foodstuffs using chemical fingerprints. More recently, novel and promising statistical methods with high classification power (DDSIMCA, OO-SIMCA, BPR, k-NN, among others) are being already applied. Overall, the development of nondestructive, on-siteandreal-time analyticalprocedures abletodeliverfastandunambiguous foodauthentication results will continue to be the goal driving food research.
- Current trends on microextraction by packed sorbent – fundamentals, application fields, innovative improvements and future applicationsPublication . Pereira, Jorge A. M.; Gonçalves, João; Porto-Figueira, Priscilla; Figueira, José A.; Alves, Vera; Perestrelo, Rosa; Medina, Sonia; Câmara, José S.MEPS, the acronym of microextraction by packed sorbent, is a simple, fast and user- and environmen tally-friendly miniaturization of the popular solid-phase extraction technique (SPE). In fact, it has been widely shown that MEPS can easily replace SPE for most, if not all, previous applications. It can attain this with obvious gains in sample and solvent usage, which is greatly reduced without compromising the extraction efficiency. Furthermore, MEPS can be operated with semiautomatic electronic syringes, making it very reliable and versatile, particularly to handle very low and very high sample volumes. This review will focus on the strengths and weaknesses of this technique and the different MEPS architectures commer cially available in the context of the MEPS applications reported in the last five years. Additionally, innova tive improvements will be highlighted, particularly those related with new applications and recent MEPS configurations and sorbents, such as the controlled directional flow or the innovative µSPEed variant.
- Delving into agri-food waste composition for antibacterial phytochemicalsPublication . Pereira, Jorge A. M.; Berenguer, Cristina V.; Câmara, José S.The overuse of antibiotics in the healthcare, veterinary, and agricultural industries has led to the development of antimicrobial resistance (AMR), resulting in significant economic losses worldwide and a growing healthcare problem that urgently needs to be solved. Plants produce a variety of secondary metabolites, making them an area of interest in the search for new phytochemicals to cope with AMR. A great part of agri-food waste is of plant origin, constituting a promising source of valuable compounds with different bioactivities, including those against antimicrobial resistance. Many types of phytochemicals, such as carotenoids, tocopherols, glucosinolates, and phenolic compounds, are widely present in plant by-products, such as citrus peels, tomato waste, and wine pomace. Unveiling these and other bioactive compounds is therefore very relevant and could be an important and sustainable form of agri-food waste valorisation, adding profit for local economies and mitigating the negative impact of these wastes’ decomposition on the environment. This review will focus on the potential of agri-food waste from a plant origin as a source of phytochemicals with antibacterial activity for global health benefits against AMR.