Center for the Study of Animal Science

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Publications

Exploring Cynara cardunculus L. by-products potential: Antioxidant and antimicrobial properties

Publication . Barbosa, Cássia H.; Duarte, Maria Paula; Andrade, Mariana A.; Mateus, Ana Rita; Vilarinho, Fernanda; Fernando, Ana Luisa; Silva, Ana Sanches

Cynara cardunculus L. (cardoon), a perennial crop indigenous to the Mediterranean region, has gained recognition for its remarkable resilience to diverse weather conditions and its multifaceted applications across various industries, which includes the use of the flower as a vegetable rennet to produce some cheeses, as a source of biomass for energy, or its seed oil for human consumption, biodiesel, and animal feed. In some applications (e.g. biomass or seed production), when crop is harvested at the end of the growth cycle, the leaves remain as the main by-products, along with the flowers. In the context of a circular economy, the aim of this work was to undergone studies to determinate their biological properties (antioxidant and antimicrobial). Methanolic and ethanolic extracts of C. cardunculus L. (globe artichoke var. scolymus (L.) Fiori) and cultivated cardoon (var. altilis DC.)) leaves and flowers were characterised in terms of their polyphenol profile (total phenolic content (TPC), total flavonoid compounds (TFC), and ultra-high performance liquid chromatography coupled with time-of-flight mass spectrometry (UHPLC-ToF-MS)), antioxidant capacity (free radical DPPH inhibition system, β-carotene bleaching assay), and antimicrobial capacity (minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC), minimum bactericidal concentration (MBC), antifungal). In addition, the cultivated cardoon leaves extracts were assessed before and after they were dried in an oven with forced air circulation to evaluate if this treatment affected their bioactive profile. Chlorogenic acid, apigenin, and luteolin were the most quantified of a total of sixteen compounds identified by UHPLC-ToF-MS. Cultivated cardoon dry leaf extract presented the best antioxidant capacity for both methanolic (EC50 = 0.8 mg/mL, antioxidant activity coefficient (AAC) = 279.67) and ethanolic (EC50 =2.1 mg/mL, AAC = 448.06) extracts, compared to the cardoon flower extracts and the globe artichoke leaf ex tracts. Dried cultivated cardoon leaf extracts presented higher antioxidant capacity than fresh cultivated cardoon leaf extracts, but a greater number of polyphenolic compounds were identified in fresh cultivated cardoon leaf extract. The Gram-positive bacteria were more sensitive to the activity of both ethanolic and methanolic extracts than the Gram-negative and cultivated cardoon dry leaf ethanolic extract presented lower MIC and MBC values (125–2000 µg/mL) for most of the tested microorganisms, thus showing higher antimicrobial activity. As for the cultivated cardoon leaf extracts, the dried leaf extracts exhibited better antimicrobial activity, with lower MIC values, than the fresh leaf extracts. The extracts only demonstrated a slight inhibition against the fungi Aspergillus fumigatus. In conclusion, studies performed indicate that dried leaves maintain their biological activities compared to fresh leaves, and that flowers present significant biological activity which suggests the great.

2024-09-10Journal article

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Active Edible Packaging

Publication . Barbosa, Cássia; Andrade, Mariana; Vilarinho, Fernanda; Fernando, Ana; Sanches-Silva, Ana

Definition: Active edible packaging is a food packaging made of comestible bioproducts and active compounds that interacts with the food. The bioproducts, usually biopolymers, must be recognized as safe and with characteristics to be consumed by humans—comestible—and not toxic and capable of carrying an active compound, like anti-browning agents, colorants, flavors, nutrients, antimicrobial and/or antioxidant compounds, in order to extend the product shelf-life, reduce contamination and maintain or even enhance the nutritional value.

2021-04-13Journal article

Open access

Challenges in the Definitive Diagnosis of Niemann–Pick Type C—Leaky Variants and Alternative Transcripts

Publication . Encarnação, Marisa; Ribeiro, Isaura; David, Hugo; Coutinho, Maria Francisca; Quelhas, Dulce; Alves, Sandra

Niemann-Pick type C (NPC, ORPHA: 646) is a neuro-visceral, psychiatric disease caused predominantly by pathogenic variants in the NPC1 gene or seldom in NPC2. The rarity of the disease, and its wide range of clinical phenotypes and ages of onset, turn the diagnosis into a significant challenge. Other than the detailed clinical history, the typical diagnostic work-up for NPC includes the quantification of pathognomonic metabolites. However, the molecular basis diagnosis is still of utmost importance to fully characterize the disorder. Here, the authors provide an overview of splicing variants in the NPC1 and NPC2 genes and propose a new workflow for NPC diagnosis. Splicing variants cover a significant part of the disease-causing variants in NPC. The authors used cDNA analysis to study the impact of such variants, including the collection of data to classify them as leaky or non-leaky pathogenic variants. However, the presence of naturally occurring spliced transcripts can misdiagnose or mask a pathogenic variant and make the analysis even more difficult. Analysis of the NPC1 cDNA in NPC patients in parallel with controls is vital to assess and detect alternatively spliced forms. Moreover, nonsense-mediated mRNA decay (NMD) analysis plays an essential role in evaluating the naturally occurring transcripts during cDNA analysis and distinguishing them from other pathogenic variants' associated transcripts.

2023-10-25Journal article

Open access