Irrigation deficit turns almond by-products into a valuable source of antimicrobial (poly)phenols

FINNOVER is an EU Interreg-Alcotra project that aims to bring new perspectives to floriculture enterprises by recovering useful bioproducts from the waste produced during processing of several aromatic species. In this study, a new operation strategy to recover lavender (Lavandula angustifolia Mill.) solid by-products remaining after the extraction of the essential oil was developed. Pulsed ultrasound-assisted extraction was employed as a sustainable and eco-compatible technology to extract, in a very short time (10 min), this agricultural waste using a food-grade solvent (a mixture of ethanol/water). All the extracts obtained from both flower and leaf waste and flower-only residues, exhibit a promising total phenolic content (38–40 mg gallic acid/g of dry waste), radical scavenging activity (107–110 mg Trolox/g of dry waste) and total flavonoid content (0.11–0.13 mg quercetin/g of dry waste). Moreover, the chromatographic analysis of these extracts has shown that this overlooked agriculture waste can represent a valuable source of multifunctional compounds. Particularly, they exhibit a content of polyphenols and flavonoids up to 200 times higher than the corresponding leachate, and they are a valuable source of gentisic acid (1.4–13 mg/g dry waste) representing a new low-cost ingredient usable in different fields (i.e., cosmetic).

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Hydrogen Cyanide Polymers from the Impact of Comet P/Shoemaker-Levy 9 on Jupiter

International Astronomical Union Colloquium ◽

10.1017/s025292110001469x ◽

1997 ◽

Vol 161 ◽

pp. 179-187

Author(s):

Clifford N. Matthews ◽

Rose A. Pesce-Rodriguez ◽

Shirley A. Liebman

Keyword(s):

Amino Acids ◽

Solar System ◽

Hydrogen Cyanide ◽

Nitrogen Heterocycles ◽

Laboratory Studies ◽

Heterogeneous Solids ◽

The Many ◽

Comet Halley ◽

The Impact ◽

By Products

AbstractHydrogen cyanide polymers – heterogeneous solids ranging in color from yellow to orange to brown to black – may be among the organic macromolecules most readily formed within the Solar System. The non-volatile black crust of comet Halley, for example, as well as the extensive orangebrown streaks in the atmosphere of Jupiter, might consist largely of such polymers synthesized from HCN formed by photolysis of methane and ammonia, the color observed depending on the concentration of HCN involved. Laboratory studies of these ubiquitous compounds point to the presence of polyamidine structures synthesized directly from hydrogen cyanide. These would be converted by water to polypeptides which can be further hydrolyzed to α-amino acids. Black polymers and multimers with conjugated ladder structures derived from HCN could also be formed and might well be the source of the many nitrogen heterocycles, adenine included, observed after pyrolysis. The dark brown color arising from the impacts of comet P/Shoemaker-Levy 9 on Jupiter might therefore be mainly caused by the presence of HCN polymers, whether originally present, deposited by the impactor or synthesized directly from HCN. Spectroscopic detection of these predicted macromolecules and their hydrolytic and pyrolytic by-products would strengthen significantly the hypothesis that cyanide polymerization is a preferred pathway for prebiotic and extraterrestrial chemistry.

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Bright-Field Images (Ctem) of Phase Objects at High Resolution

Proceedings, annual meeting, Electron Microscopy Society of America ◽

10.1017/s0424820100092414 ◽

1976 ◽

Vol 34 ◽

pp. 490-491 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Sumio Iijima

Keyword(s):

High Resolution ◽

Electron Beam Irradiation ◽

Fine Particles ◽

High Resolution Electron Microscopy ◽

Good Test ◽

Resolution Electron ◽

Single Crystal Films ◽

Crystal Films ◽

By Products ◽

Test Objects

We have developed a technique to prepare thin single crystal films of graphite for use as supporting films for high resolution electron microscopy. As we showed elsewhere (1), these films are completely noiseless and therefore can be used in the observation of phase objects by CTEM, such as single atoms or molecules as a means for overcoming the difficulties because of the background noise which appears with amorphous carbon supporting films, even though they are prepared so as to be less than 20Å thick. Since the graphite films are thinned by reaction with WO3 crystals under electron beam irradiation in the microscope, some small crystallites of WC or WC2 are inevitably left on the films as by-products. These particles are usually found to be over 10-20Å diameter but very fine particles are also formed on the film and these can serve as good test objects for studying the image formation of phase objects.

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