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Taxsonomy, Ecology and Utilization of Carob tree (Ceratonia siliqua L.) and Bay laurel (Laurus nobilis L.) In Croatia

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Scientific monograph about taxonomy, ethnobotany, ecology, genetic variability, phytochemical characteristics and utilization of carob tree (Ceratonia siliqua L.) and bay laurel in Croatia.
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Within research project "Taxonomy, Ecology and Utilization of Carob tree (Ceratonia siliqua L.) and Bay Laurel (Laurus nobilis L.) in Croatia" (HRZZ-IP-11-2013-3304), a total of 1200 plant samples were collected from 12 distinct populations of bay laurel in Croatian Adriatic area. After morphometric analyses of leaves, AFLP analyses of genetic variability, and variability of total essential oils content in leaves of bay laurel populations, significant correlation between leaf surface and essential oils content (Spearman's Rank Order Corr. Coeff. r s = 0.15 ns) was not found, while the correlation between latitude and essential oils content was strongly negative (Spearman's Rank Order Corr. Coeff. r s =-0.78; p<0.05). However, the correlation between longitude and essential oils content was strongly positive (Spearman's Rank Order Corr. Coeff. r s = 0.73; p<0.05). On the other hand, the results of Mantel test showed low, but positive and highly significant correlation between AFLP variability of populations and essential oils content (r = 0.39; p<0.01), while the significant correlation between AFLP variability of populations and leaf lamina surface (i.e. expectedly the most influential factor on accumulation of essential oils) was not obtained. Obtained results of these matrix correlations (i.e. Spearman's Rank Order Correlations and Mantel test) correspond with the results of Friedman's ANOVA and Kendall's Coeff. of Concordance for variability of total essential oils content between the populations (ANOVA Chi Square = 21.88; p = 0.025 and Kendall's Coeff. of Concordance = 0.99; Aver. rank r = 0.98). According to these results, it is possible to conclude that the populations of bay laurel from locations of southeast Croatian Adriatic islands and coastal area accumulate higher quantity of essential oils in the comparison with the populations of northwest islands and coastal area.
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BACKGROUND The production of the traditional carob liquor from Algarve (Portugal) depends on numerous factors such as carob processing, variety and maceration conditions. An experimental design with 36 runs was created to evaluate the effect of the roasting temperature, particle size, variety of carob and time of maceration on several parameters of carob liquors as gallic acid and total phenolic content, the furanic composition (furfural and 5‐(hydroxymethyl)furfural), browning index and in vitro antioxidant capacity. RESULTS The results revealed that carob variety was the independent variable with the greatest effect on antioxidant capacity, total phenolic and gallic acid content. In particular, AIDA liquors presented the highest results, mainly those prepared with unroasted carob. Meanwhile, Galhosa and Mulata liquors showed the greatest concentrations when the carob pulp was roasted at 150 °C. The furanic composition and browning index were greatly influenced by the carob roasting degree. CONCLUSION The levels of the main toxic furanics present in carob liquors, furfural and 5‐(hydroxymethyl)furfural, suggest a safe consumption of these beverages even in samples of carobs with the maximum roasting degree. The smallest carob particle size favoured the highest phenolic extraction, while the longest maceration periods decreased the concentration of the toxic furanic compounds studied. © 2018 Society of Chemical Industry
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Greek islands of the North Aegean Region are a group of nine inhabited islands (Lemnos, Agios Efstratios, Lesvos, Chios, Psara, Oinousses, Samos, Ikaria, and Fourni) located in the northern part of the Aegean Sea, close to Asia Minor. Each island of this region can be considered autonomous in terms of culture and biodiversity. With this work we try to evaluate the status of the traditional uses of medicinal plants in this region. Endemic and endangered species such as Sideritis sipylea Boiss., Origanum sipyleum L., Thymus sipyleus Boiss., Pistacia lentiscus L., Verbascum ikaricum Murb., are still used by locals to treat different ailments. Moreover, the use of some species for the treatment of specific diseases has been reported for the first time. We report about 109 wild plants of medicinal importance, from 52 families, listing their uses for therapeutic purposes and galenic preparations provided by local medical doctors and pharmacists. The information we include was derived from literature sources and additionally collected through semi-structured interviews conducted on 200 informants (100 men and 100 women). Additionally, informant consensus factor (FIC) and UV value were calculated for the medicinal plants in the current study in relation with the diseases treated. This research confirms the importance of the medicinal plants and the diffusion of their use in traditional medicine within this region. This ethnopharmacological survey is a fundamental step for the preservation of the local knowledge both for further scientific research and for the protection of endangered and endemic medicinal plants.
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Laurus nobilis L. (Laurel) is considered one of the most emblematic epigones of the late-Tertiary laurophyllous biome, persisting within the Mediterranean vegetation. Describing its present ecology and coenology is crucial to understand its biogeographical history as well as to develop consistent conservation and management practices in the context of the European Habitat Directive. We used recently available vegetation and environmental databases to investigate the coenological amplitude of Laurus in Italy, and to elucidate significant aspects of its persistence in the country. The coenological amplitude was assessed using the clustering method. Ordination techniques and regression trees were used to understand which environmental factors influence, respectively, the occurrence and the abundance of the species and, therefore, characterize its niche. Our results show a wide coenological amplitude of Laurus with respect to other laurophyllous species, growing within a wide range of forest communities. While the occurrence of the species is limited by winter temperature and favored by precipitation seasonality, changes in its abundance show a more refined pattern. In this latter case, two main groups of Laurus populations were differentiated based on water availability. The first group depends on abundant precipitations during the year while the second one buffers the summer aridity with soils rich in nutrients and moisture. Our findings provide crucial knowledge on Laurus habitats in Italy. However, discrepancies between our results and guidelines of the European Habitat Directive arose. The results presented here allow scientifically sound procedures for the regional conservation and management program.
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The aim of the current study was to evaluate nutritional and antioxidant potential of commercial carob flour. The evaluation of functional properties of carob polysaccharide presented additional interest for pharmaceutical and food application of this flour. Ash, moisture, protein, carbohydrate, lipid, total phenolic and total flavonoids contents and antioxidant potential were studied. The polysaccharide from carob flour was isolated and their monosaccharide composition and functional properties as solubility, swelling, water and oil-holding capacities were also studied. Moisture content did not exceeded 7.6 %. The carob flour contained 2 % ash, 5.9 % protein, carbohydrates (85.5%), low lipids content (0.5 %), total phenols and flavonoids 8.1 mg GAE/g dw and 8.1 mg QE/g dw, respectively. Antioxidant potential of this flour were 70.4 mM TE/g dw (DPPH assay) and 84.2 mM TE/g dw (FRAP assay). The isolated polysaccharide from carob flour was characterized as galactomannan (M/G ratio 3.5). Two polysaccharide fractions were isolated with weight molecular weights 1724 kDa and 665 kDa, respectively. The carob galactomannan showed promising water solubility (84 %), higher oil-holding capacity 4.0 g oil/g sample than water-holding capacity 1.4 g water/g sample. The carob flour was evaluated as high nutritional and antioxidant food with low fat content, but rich of dietary fibers (galactomannan).
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The investigation of 6 Sorts of Laurus nobilis L. Growing in the Nikitsky Botanical Garden were well done. We find the Morphological and micromorphological differences, like form of leave, cross - section of pétiole and leave blade, and structure of vascular bundles, sclerenchyme and oil lysigenic ducts.
Article
Carob (Ceratonia siliqua L.), have wild and cultivated types, is an evergreen tree and widely grown in Mediterranean countries. Wild or cultivated carob has a high total dry weight content (approximately 91–92%) which primarily consist of sucrose, glucose, fructose, and also incorporate minor amounts of minerals, amino acids, and phenolic compounds. The seeds are generally used for the production of locust bean gum and the kibble is used to produce carob powder in western countries or “pekmez” in Turkey. Finding new carbon and nitrogen sources is important for lab-scale research to provide cheaper substrates for biotechnological processes to reduce costs. In this sense, carob is one of the important sources for any kind of fermentation processes with its rich nutritional ingredients. Carob pod extracts have been used in many lab-scale studies to produce ethanol, citric acid, lactic acid, mannanase, microbial cell protein, and other value-added products by yeasts, algae or fungi in recent years. In this review, we tried that organize all researches about carob pod extract fermentation to prove the suitability of carob pod for biotechnological processes.
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The flowers of Ceratonia siliqua, an anomalous caesalpinioid legume in the tribe Cassieae, are unusual in being unisexual and in lacking petals. Inflorescence development, organogeny, and flower development are described for this species. All flowers are originally bisexual, but one sex is suppressed during late development of functionally male and female flowers. Ceratonia siliqua is highly plastic in sexuality of individuals, inflorescence branching pattern, racemose or cymose inflorescences, bracteole presence, terminal flower presence, organ number per whorl, missing floral organs, pollen grain form, and carpel cleft orientation. Order of initiation is: five sepals in helical order, then five stamens in helical order together with the carpel. Each stamen is initiated as two alternisepalous primordia that fuse to become a continuous antesepalous ridge; in some flowers, the last one or two stamens of the five may form as individual antesepalous mounds. Petal rudiments are occasional in mature flowers. Position of organs is atypical: the median sepal is on the adaxial side in Ceratonia, rather than abaxial as in most other caesalpinioids. This feature in Ceratonia may be viewed as a link to subfamily Mimosoideae, in which this character state is constant.
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Food Powders: Physical Properties, Processing, and Functionality is a comprehensive review on the characterization of ingredients, semi-processed and finished products when they are in a powdered form. It includes the description of different industrial unit operations such as drying, grinding, mixing, agglomeration, and encapsulation that supply food powders of different composition and microstructure. It also includes several analytical tools to characterize food powders by their particle size, size distribution, physical properties, and functionality. Among others, this book addresses the following key aspects of food powder technology: • powder sampling methods • single particle-related properties and their evaluation • food powder bulk properties • size reduction and size enlargement operations • food particle drying techniques • food powder encapsulation processes • dry powder separation and classification technology • conveying and mixing of food powders • storage alternatives for food powders • undesirable phenomena encountered during food powder processing, storage, and transportation Published as part of the Springer Food Engineering Book Series, Food Powders: Physical Properties, Processing, was designed to be an essential reference for individuals in the food industry and academia interested in a book which covers all the basic aspects as well as the latest developments in this challenging field. About the Authors: Gustavo V. Barbosa-Cánovas (PhD, Food Engineering), is Professor of Food Engineering and Director of the Center for Nonthermal Processing of Food (CNPF) at Washington State University, USA. Dr. Barbosa-Cánovas is also the Editor-in-Chief of the Food Engineering Book Series published by Springer. Enrique Ortega-Rivas (PhD, Chemical Engineering) is a Professor of Food and Chemical Engineering at the Autonomous University of Chihuahua (UACh), Mexico. He is a member of the Mexican Outstanding Scientific Investigators System (SNI), Visiting Professor at Washington State University and Monash University, Australia, and a Visiting Scientist at Food Science Australia. Pablo Juliano (PhD Candidate, Food Engineering) is a PhD Student of Food Engineering at Washington State University. He has received numerous awards for Research Excellence from IFT, Research and Development Associates for Food and Packaging Systems, and Washington State University. Hong Yan (PhD, Food Engineering) She is currently a Consultant for the Food Industry in North-America and China. Dr. Yan has made several contributions to the food powder domain including the development of an attrition index, the concept of "ultimate bulk density" and padding devices to reduce attrition.
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This volume - the first of this series dealing with angiosperms - comprises the treatments of 73 families, representing three major blocks of the dicotyledons: magnoliids, centrosperms, and hamamelids. These blocks are generally recognized as subclasses in modern textbooks and works of reference. We consider them a convenient means for structuring the hundreds of di­ cotyledon families, but are far from taking them at face value for biological, let alone mono­ phyletic entities. Angiosperm taxa above the rank of family are little consolidated, as is easily seen when comparing various modern classifications. Genera and families, in contrast, are comparatively stable units -and they are important in practical terms. The genus is the taxon most frequently recognized as a distinct entity even by the layman, and generic names provide the key to all in­ formation available about plants. The family is, as a rule, homogeneous enough to conve­ niently summarize biological information, yet comprehensive enough to avoid excessive re­ dundance. The emphasis in this series is, therefore, primarily on families and genera.