Abstract The chemical investigation of Eugenia pyriformis, popularly known as uvaia, led to the isolation of three compounds, the triterpene β-amiryn (1) and the porphyrin derivatives pheophytin a (2) and b (3). Their structures were assigned based on spectroscopic NMR analysis, as well as by comparison with literature data. Most of the compounds found in the essential oil from leaves are terpenes derivatives, such as ο-cymene; 1,8-cineol; linalol, terpinen-4-ol; 2-carene. Flavonoids, steroids and/or terpenoids, lactones, saponins, tannins and fixed acids were detected in both the leaf and stem crude extracts and fractions generated from the Brazilian E. pyriformis plant. According to the results of the DPPH assay, the ethyl acetate fraction of the leaf extract showed higher antioxidant activity than the other samples tested. In the phosphomolybdenum complex assay, the crude ethanol extract of the leaf and stem, and the ethyl acetate fraction of the leaf, showed a higher antioxidant capacity than rutin. It was observed that the chloroform and ethyl acetate fractions of the leaf, and the hexane, ethyl acetate and hydroalcoholic fractions of the stem were toxic to Artemia salina brine shrimp with LD50 < 1.0 µg/mL. The hexane fraction of the stem was also allelopathic in inhibiting the radicle growth of Lactuca sativa seeds. These results adding contributions to chemical and biological studies of this medicinal species.

Abstract The demands of high-quality zucchini fruits by the consumer market make studies regarding the improvement of cultivation systems, such as plant nutrition and salinity tolerance. Considering the demands of the consumer market for the high quality of zucchini fruits, it is necessary studies regarding the improvement of production systems for this improvement, such as nutrition and salinity tolerance to plant. Thus, this study aimed to evaluate the zucchini fruits quality characteristics, grown in soilless, under N:K ratios, and levels of electrical conductivity of the nutrient solution. The experiment was conducted in a protected environment in pots with 8.2 dm3 of volumetric capacity filled with commercial substrate. The trial design adopted was randomized blocks, with three replicates, in a 5x3 factorial scheme, with five levels of electrical conductivity (1.0; 2.0; 3.0; 4.0; and 5.0 dS m-1) and three N:K ratios (2:1; 1:1; and 1:2), both in the nutrient solution. The application of the nutrient solution was by fertigation through drip irrigation. Throughout the experiment, variables related to fruit quality and total plant biomass production were analyzed. The increase of the electrical conductivity in the nutrient solution provided an increase in the values of fruits organoleptic properties. Regarding the nutrient solution N:K ratios, the 1:2 ratio provided larger fruits and a higher percentage of water.

Abstract Intensive growth of the pigeonpea crop in Central and South India, caused by adequate rainfall, resulted in taller plants with fewer fruited branches, leading to lower yields. However, pigeonpea crops could produce more pods if they restricted apical growth. Nipping (Cutting off the top growing portion) and planting distances are effective techniques to control apical dominance. Thus, there is a need to explore the benefits of simple techniques like nipping and planting distance, suppressing apical dominance. Therefore, this study aimed to determine the best nipping time and planting distance for pigeonpea in a rainfed environment to increase productivity. The experiment was conducted at the Dr. Panjabrao Deshmukh Krishi Vidyapeeth (Agricultural University), Akola (Maharashtra), India, between 2018 and 2020. The experiment was laid out in a randomized complete block design with two factors with three replications. There were three timings of nipping (45 days after planting, 60 days after planting, and no nipping) and four planting distances (90cm x 30cm, 120cm x 30cm, 150cm x 30cm, and 180cm x 30cm). Results indicated that early loss of apical dominance due to the nipping at 45 days after planting resulted in reduced plant height, increased branches, dry-matter accumulation, pods per plant, and markedly increased pigeon pea productivity by 11 percent. In addition, Pigeonpea crops' growth and yield parameters improved when planted at 180cm x 30cm. However, growing pigeonpea at a distance of 90cm x 30cm resulted in significantly higher pigeonpea seed yield, harvest index, and rainwater use efficiency than planting at a wider spacing.

Abstract The pistachio nut (Pistacia vera L.) is a popular nut which is beneficial for health. As a result of its high price, adulteration of pistachio products with other foods is common. The green pea (Pisum sativum L.) is similar to pistachio in colour and texture when both are in a fine powder form, therefore powdered pistachio products are often adulterated with powdered green pea. In this study, we aimed to develop a novel method based on high resolution melting (HRM) to detect green pea adulteration in powdered pistachio products as low as in ratio. Novel primers that targeted the chloroplastidial sequence atpA, rpoC1 and ycf3 were tested on admixture ratios of 90:10, 99:1, 499:1 and 999:1 of pistachio:green pea. The melting temperatures (Tm) were found to detect the adulteration for the targets rpoC1 and ycf3. Since the atpA amplicons have identical guanine-cytosine content in both pistachio and green pea PCR products, it failed to distinguish the admixtures from the positive control samples. Differential plots and genotyping confidence percentages clearly distinguished the admixtures from positive controls down to a 0.1% ratio of pistachio:green pea. Sequencing of the amplicons supported the use of HRM to distinguish between pistachio and green pea. The use of HRM with novel rpoC1 and ycf3 primer sets was found to be useful for rapid, cost-effective, and reliable detection of green pea adulteration of pistachio down to a ratio of 0.1%.

Abstract Umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cells (UMSCs) from fetal tissues have become a valuable source of cell regeneration therapy due to their low immunogenicity, high plasticity and antimicrobial peptides. Most researches about UMSCs mainly focused on humans, mice, rabbits and other mammals, but it is still unknown in broiler. To the best of our knowledge, we first established a broiler-derived UMSCs line from noncontroversial Wharton's jelly of umbilical cord. The detection of biological characteristics showed UMSCs showed the morphological characteristics of fibroblasts and could be cultured to 26 generations in vitro, and maintained diploid chromosomes (2n=78) by G-banding analysis. Cell cycle of UMSCs showed the rate of G0/G1 was about 76.7-80.9%. Moreover, UMSCs could express mesenchymal markers (CD29, CD90, CD71, and CD44), but not hematopoietic marker (CD34) and endothelial marker (CD31). Additionally, UMSCs could be efficiently induced to transdifferentiate into three germ layer cells, such as adipocytes, osteoblasts, chondrocytes, hepatocytes, epithelia, and neurogenic cells. These results demonstrated UMSCs have the essential characteristics of MSCs, and can be used as an attractive candidate for cell regenerative therapy and the study of regulatory mechanisms associated with selective differentiation.

Abstract This literature brief review compiled the main biological activities and active chemical constituents that have already been isolated from Piper aduncum (Piperaceae), whose common name is spiked paper. In Brazilian Portuguese, it has been called pimenta-longa, aperta-ruão, pimenta de macaco, matico, erva de jaboti, jaborandi do mato, pimenta-de-fruto-ganchoso and tapa buraco. Extracts, essential oils (EOs) and compounds isolated from this species have exhibited remarkable fungicidal and insecticidal activities, besides antibacterial, antileishmanial, antioxidant, cytotoxic/antitumor, larvicidal, antiplatelet, molluscoidal and antiviral ones. P. aduncum is an endemic species in Brazil which has drawn researchers’ attention because of high contents of EOs that are extracted from its leaves, inflorescences and twigs. This study aimed at analyzing data on P. aduncum, its EOs, extracts and isolated compounds found in 45 research papers. Its major chemical constituent is definitely dillapiole, an arylpropanoid. Findings were carefully compiled by this brief review which reinforces the chemical and biological potential of this botanic species.

Abstract One of the main problems to be solved in the commercial production of Nile tilapia is the use of large volumes of steroids during the sex reversion process. The precise evaluation of the time after hatching to start the steroid treatment could help reduce its use in the short-term. The main objective of this work was to evaluate the sex proportion and the growth obtained in a mixed population of Nile tilapia fed fluoxymesterone at different days (3, 6, 9, 12, and 15) after hatching. A one-factor experiment was designed, with the day, after hatching, that the fluoxymesterone (5 mg) began to be supplied as factor (3, 6, 9, 12 and 15). Initial stocking density was 0.4 larvae L-1. All groups were evaluated by triplicate. Steroid treatment finished at day 25 after larvae stocking. Squash technique was used to determine sex proportion at the end of the experiment (45 days). Growth evaluation was performed based on wet weight and total length obtained from each biometry. The results showed the highest percentage of males (92%) in the fish fed fluoxymesterone from day three after hatching. No anabolic effect on growth was observed in any steroid-treated fish. A negative effect on growth was observed after withdrawal of the steroid in the fish that were fed fluoxymesterone for the longest time. These results show that it is necessary to supply the fluoxymesterone prior to the onset of sex differentiation (5-6 days after hatching) to achieve a permanent reversion of the sex differentiation process.

Abstract Ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) -induced Acute kidney injury (AKI) is characterized by hypoxia and production of reactive oxygen species (ROS), which could be prevented with antioxidant agents. The essential oil of Lippia alba (EOLA) chemotype citral-limonene is rich in components with antioxidant activity. So, this study aims to evaluate the nephroprotective effect of the EOLA on in vivo and in vitro models of renal I/R. Male Wistar rats were submitted to right nephrectomy, followed by ischemia by clamping the renal artery in the left kidney and a reperfusion. Animals received EOLA (200 mg/kg) or vehicle three days prior to I/R surgery. Blood and urine samples were obtained to evaluate creatinine, urea, uric acid, and creatinine clearance. The left kidney was collected for histological evaluations and analysis of thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS) and reduced glutathione (GSH). HK-2 cells were used to evaluate the effect of EOLA on I/R in vitro, using the MTT assay. Moreover, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) was performed to evaluate cell morphological alterations. The I/R resulted in biochemical parameter alterations, with EOLA reverting all these alterations. Histological evaluation showed that EOLA protected the morphological changes caused by I/R. Also, EOLA was able to reduce TBARS and increase GSH levels in renal tissue. In the tubular cells, the EOLA partially reversed the damage caused by I/R, which was observed through the SEM. The EOLA showed effect against I/R-induced AKI through pre-treatment, protecting biochemical and oxidative parameters in vivo and reversing tubular cell damage in vitro.

Abstract Tanacetum parthenium (L.) Schultz-Bip (feverfew) is among the important medicinal and aromatic plants due to its tryptophan (TRP), serotonin (SER), melatonin (MEL), and parthenolide (PRT) content. In recent studies, have reported TRP, MEL, and (PRT) are effective in the treatment of COVID-19, thus increasing the popularity of feverfew, which is rich in these valuable molecules. This study investigated the possible effects of exogenous foliar applications of methyl jasmonate (MeJA 0.5 mM) and TRP (20 mM) on plant TRP, SER, MEL, and PRT levels. During the pre-flowering period, endogenous TRP was measured as 128.9 µg/mL and endogenous PRT as 1.53% mg/g in the leaves of the control group. During the flowering period, the MEL level was measured as 1.38 µg/mL in the leaves of the TRP application group. In addition, in the pre-flowering period, MeJA-induced increases of 94.51% were determined in DPPH antioxidant activity and the total flavonoid content was 38.76 mg QE/g, whereas the highest total phenolic content of 51.63 mg GAE/g was found in flower samples of the control group. However, neither the developmental periods nor the treatments significantly affected the total phenolic content in the leaves.

Abstract Vitamin C (VC) is involved in many biological processes including immune response. This experiment was conducted to investigate the effects of supplemental VC on the development of mink lymphocytes in wild type (Standard genotype mink) and animal model of Chediak-Higashy (CH) syndrome (Sapphire genotype mink). Chediak-Higashy syndrome is genetically determined disease of human and animals affecting morphology and functions different cells including leukocytes. Using morphometry and cytochemistry methods, we reveal that VC supplementation (100 mg/animal/day) induces lymphocyte activation in wild type mink and CH-like mink. However, the effect of VC supplementation is sex-related and depends on the genotype of mink. In general, we obtained data that VC supplementation neutralizes genotype-related size differences among lymphocytes.

Abstract A brain tumour is determined to be abnormal cell development on the brain walls and inside the skull. A malignant variation is a dangerous form of cancer with an increased mortality rate. Analyzing Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) through deep learning models is the most prevalent and accurate method of early cancer detection. A novel hybrid model is proposed with the VGG16 convolution neural network (CNN) and Neural Autoregressive Distribution Estimation (NADE). The experiment was conducted on 3064 MRI brain tumour images grouped into three categories. The T1 weighted contrast-enhanced MRI images were classified using the hybrid VGG16-NADE model and compared with other methods. The results prove that the proposed hybrid VGG16-NADEmodel outperforms the rest in terms of classification accuracy, specificity, sensitivity and F1 score. The prediction accuracy of the proposed hybrid VGG16-NADE is 96.01%, precision 95.72%, recall 95.64%, F-measure 95.68%, Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) 0.91, error rate 0.075, and the Matthews correlation coefficient (MCC) 0.3564. The numerical outcomes are comparatively higher than those from other approaches and it is evaluated with existing approaches like the hybrid CNN and NADE, CNN, CNN- kernel Extreme Learning Machines (KELM), deep CNN-data augmentation, and CNN- Genetic Algorithm (GA). Other metrics like the p-value, MCC, error rate and ROC are also evaluated. The experimental outcomes show that the hybrid VGG16-NADE classifier model outperforms other approaches.

Abstract Juçara fruit (Euterpe edulis Martius) is rich in nutrients and antioxidant compounds, a potential ingredient to meet consumer demands for beers with bioactive potential. In this study, different concentrations (10, 20, and 40%) of juçara fruit pulp were added during the brewing steps (mash, fermentation, and maturation). Physicochemical parameters (carbohydrate profile, real extract, pH, alcohol content, glycerol, and color), total phenolic content, and scavenging effect on 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrilhidrazil (DPPH) radical were evaluated during the brewing process and in the beers produced. The sugars, real extract, pH, ethanol, and glycerol did not vary significantly between beers produced with different juçara concentrations. Juçara beers had an average alcohol content of 3.6% (w/v) and a pH of 4.43. The color varied between 3.2 and 16 Standard Reference Method depending on the fruit pulp concentration and the step in which it was added. The addition of juçara fruit pulp increased the total phenolic content (49.57-80.17 mg of gallic acid equivalent 100 mL-1) and the antioxidant effect on DPPH (1785-3971 mmol ascorbic acid equivalent 100 mL-1) in the beers, especially when added in the final production stages. In conclusion, this study demonstrated that the beer produced with 20% of juçara fruit pulp added at maturation presented the best results and suggested that this fruit has enormous potential for use in the brewing process, promoting an increase in the bioactive compounds.

Abstract This study evaluated the removal mechanisms of azo dyes from synthetic textile wastewater using spent mushroom substrate (SMS). The simultaneous adsorption and enzymatic degradation were analyzed. The effect of pH, SMS concentration and temperature were studied. The maximum enzymatic degradation (16.36%) was obtained at pH 4 and 65 g SMS L-1, whereas the maximum adsorption (62.86%) at pH 8 and 155 g SMS L-1, both at 25°C. The simultaneous enzymatic degradation and adsorption led to the removal of 75.67%. with increased color change. The kinetic study showed that dye adsorption was obtained in the first 30 minutes while the enzymatic degradation increased slowly over the time. The treatment with SMS resulted in the removal of 28.75% of the true color and no increase of effluent toxicity.

Abstract Red dog flour (RDF), a milling by-product, is rich in nutritionally and functionally crucial components. Extrusion conditions for extruded corn snacks (ECS) with RDF were optimized using Response Surface Methodology (RSM) with Box-Behnken Design (moisture content: 13.5%, RDF ratio: 20%, screw speed: 468 rpm, and die temperature: 110°C). Then, functional, nutritional, and sensory properties of ECS containing an increasing ratio of RDF were determined. The addition of RDF improved ash (1,84 fold), fat (2,7 fold) protein (0,51 fold), dietary fiber (roughly 2,8 fold), and mineral content (Fe, K Mg, P, and Se) significantly compared to ECS without RDF. Extrusion condition considerably declined the total phenolic content (from 144.50 to 25,09 mg GAE/100g), Trolox equivalent of antioxidant capacity (from 1.13 to 0.41 mMol Trolox/g), and phytic acid content (from 2147 to 968.11 mg/100g) of ECS with RDF compared to raw materials. However, the increasing ratio of RDF had an increment in bioactive compounds (up to 2,38 fold mg GAE/100g, and 1,63 fold mMol Trolox/g) and phytic acid content (up to 0.36 fold). According to the sensory evaluation, 30% of ECS with RDF was the most preferable snack.

Abstract A Penicillium sp. strain was isolated from corroded parts in the Coaracy Nunes hydroelectric power plant in Amapá State, Brazil. Morphological and molecular techniques identified this strain as Penicillium citreosulfuratum Biourge, whose 5.8S-ITS rDNA sequence grouped well in a phylogenetic tree with other Exilicaulis section species of the Penicillium genus. The obtained strain of P. citreosulfuratum ability to form biofilm on the surface of aluminum wires was confirmed by optical and scanning electron microscopy. In plates containing PDA or T&K media, the P. citreosulfuratum strain growth was inhibited around a paper disk containing a highly concentrated solution of copper, iron, or nickel. However, there was no inhibition halo around the paper disk containing aluminum and there was a faint halo around the paper disk containing zinc. This fungus was able to grow in a modified T&K liquid medium containing 50 mM of Al3+ and less efficiently in the same medium but containing 50 mM Zn2+. The essential oils of melaleuca, mint, thyme, and oregano at 100% inhibited the fungus growth. Oregano essential oil inhibited the P. citreosulfuratum strain growth in concentrations as low as 10%. In conclusion, the results show that the obtained strain of P. citreosulfurarum can form a biofilm on aluminum wires, it grows in the presence of a high concentrations of aluminum and zinc, and essential oils can control its growth.