Fred Eller

United States Department of Agriculture | USDA · Agricultural Research Service (ARS)

Feruloyl Soy Glyceride (FSG) is an all‐natural replacement for petroleum‐based ultraviolet absorbing ingredients currently used in sunscreens. It is produced by the Novozym® 435‐catalyzed transesterification of ethyl ferulate (EF) with triglycerides. By‐product fatty acid ethyl esters (FAEEs) are more soluble in CO2 than the EF and triglyceride sta...

Amaranthus hypochondriacus is a source of molecules with reported health benefits such as antioxidant activity and cancer prevention. The objective of this research was to optimize the conditions for preparing a liposome formulation using amaranth unsaponifiable matter as a source of squalene in order to minimize the particle size and to maximize t...

Most soilless substrates currently used by the greenhouse and nursery industries for transplants use lightweight materials including peat moss, vermiculite and perlite. Because these materials lack sufficient nutrients, slow-release synthetic fertilizers are added which have sustained release patterns that are sufficient to maintain optimal plant g...

Dredged Illinois River sand is nutrient poor and has low cation exchange capacity. Engineering this soil by adding amendments to increase nutrient retention may help sustain plant growth and absorb contaminants when the sand is used in bioslopes, bioswales, and rain gardens. The objectives of this study were to compare the physical and chemical pro...

Biobased cat litters made of a variety of materials are currently sold internationally, as many cat owners are concerned with disposal problems encountered with traditional inorganic clay-based litters as well as the fact that cats might harm themselves by ingesting these litters or by inhaling clay dust. Several commercially-available cat litters...

Eastern red cedar (ERC) is an abundant natural resource in the U.S. and has been investigated for the extraction of cedarwood oil (CWO) and CWO bioactivity, particularly its use to protect wood against termites and decay fungi. Methanol extraction of ERC sawdust gives a burgundy-colored oil (BO) that is comprised of both CWO and a burgundy solid (B...

Bio-based flours derived from distiller's dried grains with solubles (DDGS), Osage orange seed meal (OOSM), or defatted commercial soybean meal flour-Prolia (PRO) were employed as adhesives with Eastern redcedar (Juniperus virginiana L.) wood (ERC) to fabricate composite wood panels (CWPs). OOSM and DDGS were defatted, milled, and screened prior to...

The discovery of inexpensive, readily available bioflavonoids, and their degradation products that boost the reproductive potential of mass-reared predators is the overarching goal of this research. We tested the hypothesis that 2,4-dihydroxybenzoic acid (DHBA), an inexpensive degradation product of morin (a flavonol bioflavonoid), stimulates ovipo...

Solubility experiments were conducted to determine the crossover pressure for cedarwood oil (CWO) in CO2. A stirred reactor with an in-line loop connected to a GC was used. Two temperatures (25 °C and 85 °C) with nine pressures (6.9, 10.3, 13.8, 17.2, 20.7, 24.1, 27.6, 31.0, and 34.5 MPa) were tested. The GC-FID counts were used to measure CWO solu...

Background: The discovery of natural products to improve the reproductive performance of mass-reared predators is an important aim for successful augmentative biological control. We tested the hypothesis that quercetin (a bioflavonoid) stimulates oviposition by the ladybird beetle Coleomegillamaculata in the presence of conspecifics and a tissue s...

Lignocellulosic composite (LC) panels were fabricated using an adhesive matrix prepared from three different agricultural by-products: dried distillers grains with solubles (DDGS), pennycress (Thlaspi arvense L.) press cake (PPC), or lesquerella [Lesquerella fendleri (A. Gary) S. Watson] press cake (LPC) reinforced with Paulownia elongata L. wood (...

Maximizing the reproductive potential of ladybird beetles fed factitious foods or artificial diets, in lieu of natural prey, is a major challenge to cost-effective mass rearing for augmentative biological control. In this study, we tested the hypothesis that compounds in redcedar, Juniperus virginiana, stimulate oviposition in the ladybird Coleomeg...

Cedarwood oil (CWO) has a wide range of bioactivities, including insect repellency and toxicity, as well as conferring resistance against termites and wood-decay fungi. In previous work examining pressure treatment of wood, ethanol was used as the diluent/carrier for CWO. However, it is preferable to use a water-based carrier for environmental, saf...

BACKGROUND Butanol is a superior biofuel to ethanol because of its blend properties and higher energy density. However, its recovery by distillation from the fermentation broth is energy intensive. For this reason, butanol recovery by supercritical CO2 extraction from simulated and actual fermentation broths was studied. Recovery of butanol by this...

A counter-current CO2 fractionation method was applied as a mean to recover n-butanol and other compounds that are typically obtained from biobutanol fermentation broth from aqueous solutions. The influence of operating variables, such as solvent-to-feed ratio, temperature, pressure and feed solution composition was experimentally studied in terms...

A new arabinogalactan is described that is produced in large quantity from the cut stems of the North American grape species Vitis riparia (Frost grape). The sugar composition consists of L-arabinofuranose (L-Araf, 55.2%) and D-galactopyranose (D-Galp 30.1%), with smaller components of D-xylose (11.2%), D-mannose (3.5%), and glucuronic acid (GlcA,...

Katelyn (Reg. No. GP-35, PI 673443) pennycress (Thlaspi arvense L.) germplasm was publicly released by the USDA–ARS in 2014 as part of a new crop improvement program. Katelyn was developed by two generations of mass selection based on the germination response of freshly harvested pennycress seeds. The original seed source was the wild population Be...

An extract of Salvia officinalis (garden sage) was prepared using supercritical carbon dioxide (SC-CO2 ) extraction, followed by hot water extraction. The resulting extract was enriched in polyphenols, including rosmarinic acid (RA), which has shown promising health benefits in animals. The extract contained RA at a concentration of 28.4 mg/g, repr...

Various formulations are used in horticultural potting media, with sphagnum peat moss, vermiculite and perlite currently among the most common components. We are examining a dried anaerobic digestate remaining after the fermentation of potato processing wastes to replace organic components such as peat moss, and biochars produced from several feeds...

Several factors affecting pheromone production by male pepper weevils, Anthonomus eugenii Cano (Coleoptera: Curculionidae) as well as collection efficiency were investigated. Factors studied included: porous polymer adsorbents (Tenax versus Super Q), male age, time of day, male density, and male diet. Super Q was found to be a superior adsorbent fo...

Heartwood samples from Juniperus virginiana L. were extracted with liquid carbon dioxide, and the bioactivity of carbon dioxide-derived cedarwood oil (CWO) toward several species of ants and cedrol toward ticks was determined. Repellency was tested for ants, and toxicity was tested for ticks. Ants in an outdoor bioassay were significantly repelled...

Starch aerogels are a class of low density, highly porous, renewable materials currently prepared exclusively from retrograded starch gels and are of interest due to their high surface area, porosity, biocompatibility, and biodegradability. Recently, we have reported the preparation and properties of amylose-fatty acid salt helical inclusion comple...

Abstract Ethnobotanical surveys indicated that in the traditional medicines worldwide, several Juniperus species are utilized as antihelmintic, diuretic, stimulant, antiseptic, carminative, stomachic, antirheumatic, antifungal, and for wound healing. In the present study, essential oils obtained from heartwood samples of Juniperus virginiana L., Ju...

Heartwood samples from three species of Juniperus (i.e., J. virginiana, J. occidentalis, and J. ashei) were extracted with hexane, ethanol, and methanol. The hexane and ethanol extracts were tested for antifungal activity against four species of wood-rot fungi (i.e, Gloeophyllum trabeum, Postia placenta, Trametes versicolor, and Irpex lacteus). Ash...

A commercial pressurized solvent extractor was used to remove lipid and non-lipid material from cornstarch using n-propanol/water and ethanol/water mixtures. Yields and chemical composition of the extract fractions were determined. Cornstarch samples were characterized using pasting properties and shear storage modulus measurements. The n-propanol/...

Cuphea seed oil (CSO) is a source of decanoic acid which is useful in the preparation of estolide lubricants among other applications. Decanoic acid and other free fatty acids (FFA) can be hydrolyzed from CSO using a catalyst like KOH, followed by neutralization with HCl and extraction with hexane. This procedure, however, uses caustic materials, h...

Fatty acid methyl esters were prepared in high yield by transesterification of osage orange (Maclura pomifera L.) seed oil. The crude oil was extracted using supercritical CO2 and was initially treated with mineral acid and methanol to lower its content of free fatty acids, thus rendering it amenable to homogeneous, alkali-catalyzed methanolysis. T...

Cuphea seed oil (CSO) is a potential domestic source of medium chain fatty acids. Although CSO has been obtained using solvent extraction and screw pressing, both methods suffer from disadvantages. Supercritical carbon dioxide (SC-CO2) extraction is a promising alternative extraction technology. It is a very effective means to extract vegetable oil...

Eastern red cedar (Juniperus virginiana L.) is an abundant renewable resource and represents a vast potential source of valuable natural products that may serve as natural biocides. Both the wood and needles from J. virginiana were extracted using liquid carbon dioxide (L-CO₂) as well as ethanol (EtOH) and the yields determined. Wood blocks were va...

Tomato seeds represent a very large waste by-product from the processing of tomatoes into products such as tomato juice, sauce and paste. One potential use for these seeds is as a source of vegetable oil. This research investigated the oil content of tomato seeds using several extraction techniques as well as an examination of the oil extracts to d...

A liquid carbon dioxide counter-current fractionation method was developed to remove by-product fatty acid propyl esters (FAPEs) from the reaction mixture after the partial deacylation of sunflower oil. The fractionation column was 1.2 m long and separations were done at 25 °C and 8.27 MPa. Several solvent to feed ratios (S:FR) (i.e., 7.6, 15.2, 30...

Female Microplitis croceipes without previous exposure to host diet, feeding damage or faeces, and with no oviposition experience (i.e. inexperienced) exhibited flight tunnel responses towards extracts of faeces from several diet–host species combinations, excluding artificial diet. Inexperienced females exhibited the following preference order tow...

The enzymatic reaction of soybean oil (SBO) triacylglycerides (TAGs) with ethyl ferulate (EF) produces the product feruloylated acylglycerols, called SoyScreen TM as well as by-product fatty acid ethyl esters (FAEEs). Both the unreacted EF as well as the by-product FAEEs must be removed from the mixture before the feruloylated acylglycerols can be...

Critical fluid extraction of native lipids from cornstarch using 75/25 (v/v) ethanol/water as the solvent removed over 99% of the native lipid. The percentage of native lipid extracted was altered by changing the solvent/starch ratio. The pasting properties and shear storage modulus of a defatted, critical fluid-extracted sample differed from those...

Critical fluid extraction of native lipids from cornstarch using 80/20 (v/v) CO(2)/ethanol and 100% ethanol was carried out in order to see what effects each solvent would have on the starch pasting profile. The results were compared with cornstarch defatted by refluxing with 75/25 (v/v) n-propanol/water. Pure ethanol extracted more native lipid th...

There is a need for the development of new processing techniques to facilitate vegetable oil extraction and refining while sustaining the nutritional components naturally present in edible oils and reducing the adverse impact of oil processing on the environment. In this study supercritical carbon dioxide (SC-CO₂) extraction and fractionation techn...

The oxidative deterioration of dry starch-oil composites was investigated by chemical and sensory methods. The composites were stored at 37°C for 63 d, and changes in the hexanal content and odor attributes were monitored. Analysis of the extracted oil showed that the first run through the drum dryer presented higher hexanal concentrations than the...

Formation of undesirable odors and flavors during food processing operations is an important problem for the food industry. To determine the effect of γ-tocopherol on these negative attributes of fried food, we fried potato chips in triolein with 0, 100, or 400 ppm γ-tocopherol. Triolein extracted from potato chips was sampled for residual γ-tocoph...

To determine effects of two extraction procedures on oil compositions, tocopherols, monoacylglycerol, diacylglycerol, triacylglycerol, free fatty acids, polymers and polar components were determined in oils after extraction from potato chips by either supercritical carbon dioxide or hexane. Potato chips were fried in cottonseed oil or low linolenic...

This study investigated the supercritical carbon dioxide (SC-CO(2)) extraction of fat from ground beef and the effects of several factors on the gravimetric determination of fat. The use of ethanol modifier with the SC-CO(2) was not necessary for efficient fat extraction; however, the ethanol did increase the coextraction of water. This coextractio...

Meat samples are prepared by passing meat through a food chopper, bowl cutter, or food processor, subsampling the meat, and mixing the meat with granular diatomaceous earth. No drying step is necessary. Supercritical CO2 is then used to extract crude fat (which is defined as the components of meat that are extractable with petroleum ether, without...

Gas chromatographic fatty acid methyl ester (GC-FAME) analyses of some acid-hydrolyzed foods revealed a large peak that did not correspond to any FAME standards. The unknown peak eluted just after the C12 FAME. If the fatty acid response factor and the conversion factor for the nearest calibrated peak (C12 FAME) were used to determine the total fat...

A supercritical fluid extraction (SFE) method using CO2 has been developed for the removal analysis of fat from ground beef samples for nutritional analysis. The SFE procedure was coupled with a solid phase extraction (SPE) disk for the isolation of fats from acid hydrolyzed ground beef samples prior to SFE. The meat hydrolysate is filtered and col...

Internal mold of sweet and hot peppers ( Capsicum spp.) is caused by the pathogen Alternaria alternata. The pepper weevil, Anthomonus eugenii Cano (Coleoptera: Curculionidae), is an important pest of peppers in the southern U.S., Mexico, and Central America, and has been implicated in the transmission of the disease. We identified several volatiles...

(+)-(1R,2S)-1-Methyl-2-(1-methylethenyl)cyclobutaneacetic acid (1A) was isolated from male plum curculios, Conotrachelus nenuphar (Herbst) (Coleoptera: Curculionidae), feeding on plums and apples. Its structure was determined using achiral and chiral GLC, EIMS, optical rotation, and 1H and 13C NMR and was confirmed by synthesis. The racemic acid (a...

This study describes the identification of an aggregation pheromone for the pepper weevil,Anthonomus eugenii and field trials of a synthetic pheromone blend. Volatile collections and gas chromatography revealed the presence of six male-specific compounds. These compounds were identified using chromatographic and spectral techniques as: (Z)-2-(3,3-d...

FemaleMicroplitis croceipes wasps were tested in a wind tunnel for their ability to orient to various concentrations of eight different green leaf volatile (GLV) substances [hexanal, (E)-2-hexenal, (E)-2-hexen-1-ol, (Z)-3-hexen-1-ol, (E)-2-hexenyl acetate, (Z)-3-hexenyl acetate, (Z)-3-hexenyl propionate, and (Z)-3-hexenyl butyrate]. Overall, the es...

Single and dual choice tests in a flight tunnel revealed that plants damaged by host larvae are the main source of the volatiles that attract females of the parasitoid Cotesia marginiventris (Cresson) to the microhabitat of its hosts. Frass and host larvae, the other two major components of a complete plant-host complex, were significantly less att...

Single and dual choice tests in a flight tunnel revealed that plants damaged by host larvae are the main source of the volatiles that attract females of the parasitoid Cotesia marginiventris (Cresson) to the microhabitat of its hosts. Frass and host larvae, the other two major components of a complete plant-host complex, were significantly less att...

Outcomes from intraspecific competition for the arrhenotokous parasitoid Microplitis croceipes (Cresson) were determined using mated and unmated females. The survival rate of progeny of a superparasitizing female is equal to that of the female ovipositing first when the two ovipositions occur on the same day. However, the survival rate of progeny o...

Several factors that may affect oviposition by Microplitis cTOceipes (Cresson) in an artificial oviposition substrate were investigated. Significantly fewer females oviposited in thin disks of agarose gel than in hemispheres, cylinders, or cubes, although there were no differences in numbers of eggs laid. A higher percentage of females that had ovi...

Prechill duration and chill duration have significant effects individually and interactively on diapause of the yellowheaded spruce sawfly, Pikonema alaskensis (Rohwer). Average time of emergence (weeks postchill) decreased with increased prechill (time between cocoon formation and chilling) and chill durations. Some treatments gave very low percen...

Several possible interactions between the parasitoid Microplitis croceipes (Cresson) (Hymenoptera: Braconidae) and a Heliothis zea (Boddie) multiple-embedded nuclear polyhedrosis virus (HzmNPV) were investigated. Female M. croceipes did not transmit the HzmNPV from infected Heliothis zea (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) to uninfected H. zea larvae via ovip...

The responses of male and female Microplitis croceipes (Cresson) (Hymenoptera: Braconidae) to volatilesfrom Heliothis zea (Boddie)(Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) larvae feeding on cowpeas were examined in a flight tunnel. The flight response of ovipositionally experienced female parasitoids to individual components and the removal of individual components...

The response ofMicroplitis croceipes (Cresson) to odors from a plant-host complex was investigated using a four-choice olfactometer. Female, but not male, parasitoids responded in a dose-dependent fashion to volatiles from the plant-host complex and oviposition experience enhanced this response. Female age had no apparent effect on the response. Bo...

We determined in a laboratory study that emergence of adult yellowheaded spruce sawflies, Pikonema alaskensis (Rohwer) (Hymenoptera: Tenthredinidae), from the overwintering cocoon stage required 343 degree-days (SE = 13.1). The last date of snow cover was used as the starting date for accumulating degree-days. The accumulation was based on soil tem...

A female-produced sex pheromone ofSyndipnus rubiginosus Walley (Hymenoptera: Ichneumonidae), a parasitoid of the yellowheaded spruce sawfly,Pikonema alaskensis (Rohwer) (Hymenoptera: Tenthredinidae), was isolated and identified from hexane extracts of 250 virgin females. Column chromatography (Florisil), gas chromatography, mass spectrometry, high...