Research Publications (Food Safety)

Author(s): Shiyu Qin, Hongen Liu, Zed Rengel, Wei Gao, Zhaojun Nie, Chang Li, Mingyang Hou, Jin Cheng, Peng Zhao

BACKGROUD Pesticides are widely used to control insect infestation and weeds in agriculture. However, concerns about the pesticide residues in agricultural products have been raised in recent years because of public interest in health and food quality and safety. Thus, rapid, convenient, and accurate analytical methods for the detection and quantification of pesticides are urgently required.

ABSTRACT BACKGROUND Cyromazine and acetamiprid are widely applied as pesticides in agriculture, causing increasing concerns about their residues in crops. In this study, cyromazine, acetamiprid and their mixture were applied to cowpea to investigate their degradation dynamics and perform a dietary risk assessment.

The Upper Silesian basin belongs to the largest industrial pollution sources in Europe and the city of Ostrava ranks among the worst-polluted urban areas in the European Union. To assess temporal and spatial trends in atmospheric pollution, we determined concentrations of S, Pb, Cu, Zn, As, Cd, Sb, and Al in snow in downtown Ostrava and at the Lysa Hora Mt. (LH), situated 33 km southeast. Snowpack surfaces were sampled in February 2011/2012, 2018, and 2019.

Cadmium (Cd) is a toxic metal element and the mechanism(s) underlying Cd tolerance in plants are still unclear. Increasingly more studies have been conducted on Cd binding to plant cell walls (CW) but most of them have focused on Cd fixation by CW pectin, and few studies have examined Cd binding to cellulose and hemicellulose. Here we found that Cd binding to CW pectin, cellulose, and hemicellulose was significantly higher in Tor-1, a Cd tolerant A.

Author(s): Shuai Gu, Liang Zhang, Bitian Fu, Ji Whan Ahn, Xinpeng Wang

Author(s): Faraz Ahmad, Shafiul Haque, Vijaya Ravinayagam, Aqeel Ahmad, Majid Rasool Kamli, George E. Barreto, Ghulam Md, Ashraf

Bisphenol A (BPA) is one of the widely used chemical as a plasticizer and regarded as endocrine disruptor because of its ability to derail body metabolic functions and adverse effect on the vital organs. The present work outlined the subchronic effect of low-dose BPA (10 mg/kg) on histology of spleen, level of hepatic trace metals, and hepatic protein profile of Wistar rats. To conduct the research work, animals were grouped into two categories (n = 5).

Author(s): Qingqing Liu, Wei Wang, Yiming Zhang, Yuan Cui, Shiwen Xu, Shu Li

Author(s): Shu Lin, Binfeng Zhao, Zeteng Ying, Shiming Fan, Zongqi Hu, Feng Xue, Quan Zhang

A new sol‐gel hybrid methyltrimethoxysilane‐chloropropyltriethoxysilane was prepared as sorbent for solid phase extraction. The extraction efficiency of the prepared sol‐gel hybrid methyltrimethoxysilane‐chloropropyltriethoxysilane were assessed by using three selected organophosphorus pesticides namely chlorpyrifos, profenofos and malathion. Gas chromatography‐mass spectrometry was used for detection of organophosphorus pesticides.

BACKGROUND Increased awareness of consumers on food safety promotes the development of rapid and sensitive detection techniques for pesticide residues. In this study, a new type of rapid detection card for organophosphorus (OPs) and carbamates (CMs) pesticide residues was developed by electrospinning.

Antibiotic resistance represents a tremendous contemporary clinical challenge. Given this challenge, antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) are regarded as one of the most promising new options for next-generation lead antibiotics. Here, we describe the antibacterial activities of a cationic peptide named DRP-AC4, obtained from frog skin secretion using shotgun cloning.

The effects of grape seed extraction (GSE) on polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) formation during the grilling of sausages stored for different periods of time were determined. The application of GSE significantly reduced the content of PAH12 and PAH4 in grilled sausage during the storage for 0–4 days, accompanying with a greater antioxidative capability and similar amount of unsaturated fatty acids (UFA).

Hydrogen sulfide (H2S), a plant gasotransmitter, functions in the plant response to cadmium (Cd) stress, implying a role for cysteine desulfhydrase in producing H2S in this process. Whether d-CYSTEINE DESULFHYDRASE (DCD) acts in the plant Cd response remains to be identified, and if it does, how DCD is regulated in this process is also unknown. Here, we report that DCD-mediated H2S production enhances plant Cd tolerance in Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana).

Concentrations and sources of polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins and dibenzofurans (PCDD/Fs), dioxin-like polychlorinated biphenyls (dl-PCBs), and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in a rural atmosphere near industrial zones in Jiangsu, China were determined and the associated risks were assessed. The concentrations of ΣPCDD/Fs, ΣPCBs, and ΣPAHs ranged from 11.9–57.7 pg·m−3, 0.58–2.71 pg m−3, and 11–18 ng m−3, respectively.

BACKGROUND The fluorescence sensing method has been increasingly applied in food quality control because it is fast and sensitive. However, its application in quality evaluation is challenging. Using Citri Reticulatae Pericarpium (CRP, dried mandarin orange peel) as an example, we developed a simple and low‐cost fluorescence sensing strategy based on nanoparticles combined with spectral splicing and chemometrics for quality evaluation.

With the development of urbanization and industrialization, Ziya River Plain (ZYRP) had become one of the most polluted regions of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in north China. The distribution of PAHs in sediments were investigated, and then their sources and risks were evaluated. The results showed that the total PAHs varied from 3372 to 92,948 μg/kg, and heavy pollution was found in the upstream.

Vibralactone, a hybrid compound derived from phenols and a prenyl group, is a strong pancreatic lipase inhibitor with a rare fused bicyclic β-lactone skeleton. Recently, a researcher reported a vibralactone derivative (compound C1) that caused inhibition of pancreatic lipase with a half-maximal inhibitory concentration of 14 nM determined by structure-based optimization, suggesting a potential candidate as a new antiobesity treatment.

Author(s): Melina Roshanfar, Misagh Khanlarian, Fereshteh Rashchi, Babak Motesharezadeh

We previously demonstrated that particulate matter ≤2.5 μm (PM2.5) suppresses the immune response in the spleen in vivo. Although PM2.5 includes the polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) such as dibenzo[a,h]anthracene (DBA), it is unclear whether PAH has a direct effect on the responses of splenocytes. In our study, the concentration of DBA used was approximately 0.8 μm, which is much lower than concentrations used in other toxicological studies of DBA.

The latest WHO report estimates about 1.6 million global deaths annually from TB, which is further exacerbated by drug-resistant (DR) TB and comorbidities with diabetes and HIV.

Mine tailings are a potential source of heavy metals (HM) that can be toxic to microbes, plants, and animals in aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems. Bacteria have evolved several mechanisms to tolerate the uptake of HM ions.

Toxicological Sciences 113(1), 127–137 (2010), https://doi.org/10.1093/toxsci/kfp259

In the original publication, the following errors were present in the MATERIALS AND METHODS section, subheading Selection of Dose Levels: In the sentence “The estimated exposure of the children ranged from 0.03 to 8.92 mg/kg body weight (bw) per day”, the unit was incorrectly written as “milligrams” instead of “micrograms”. The correct estimated exposure for Italian children was 0.03 to 8.92 μg/kg body weight (bw) per day.