Combined effect of silicon and non-thermal plasma treatments on yield, mineral content, and nutraceutical proprieties of edible flowers of Begonia cucullata.

Edible flowers are becoming popular as a nutraceutical and functional food that can contribute to human nutrition with high antioxidant molecules and mineral elements. While comparative studies between different flower species have been performed, less is known about the best agronomical practices to increase yield and nutraceutical proprieties of blooms. Silicon stimulates plant resistance against stress and promotes plant growth while non-thermal plasma (NTP) technology has been applied for the disinfection and decontamination of water, as well as for increasing plant production and quality.

One-step sustainable synthesis of cationic high-swelling polymers obtained from starch-derived maltodextrins.

The good water solubility displayed by most starch-derived maltodextrins has limited their use when specific mechanical properties are required, particularly when working in aqueous media. As a result, numerous attempts to cross-link such polysaccharides to obtain cross-linked polymers have been reported; in this context, non-toxic and biocompatible water-soluble diglycidyl ethers have performed well. Besides, amines are commonly used as curing agents in combination with diglycidyl ethers for the production of epoxy resins.

Quantitative insights on the interaction between metal ions and water kefir grains: kinetics studies and EPR investigations.

Water kefir is an acid, softly alcoholic and fragrant beverage fermented by a stable consortium of multispecies microbial community. Aim of this study was to investigate the ability of water kefir grains to abate significant amounts of heavy metal ions during the preparation of the water kefir beverage and to set up an experimental and analytical methodology based on ICP-OES spectroscopy and ionic chromatography for the evaluation of heavy metal bioaccumulation by water kefir grains. We investigated the absorption kinetics of the process.