Development of Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction Systems for the Detection of So-Called "Superfoods" Chia and Quinoa in Commercial Food Products.

Chia () and quinoa () seeds are often referred to as a "superfood" or functional food as a result of the claims of numerous health benefits. This often resulted in a sudden increase in demand, which frequently exceeds existing supply capacities, fostering fraudulent practices, such as mislabeling and use of other species of inferior quality. To assess the authenticity of food products containing chia and quinoa, we developed real-time polymerase chain reaction systems for the detection of seeds of these plant species.

Food Authentication: Identification and Quantitation of Different Tuber Species via Capillary Gel Electrophoresis and Real-Time PCR.

Truffles are hypogeous fungi mainly found in Europe and Asia. Due to their special aroma and taste, some truffle species are sold on the international market at an extremely high price. Among the economically relevant species, the white Alba truffle () and the black Périgord truffle () are the most appreciated species.

A polyphasic taxonomy of Daldinia (Xylariaceae).

Unlabelled: For a monograph based on a polythetic concept, several thousands of herbarium specimens, and several hundreds of freshly collected and cultured specimens of Daldinia and allied Xylariaceae, originating from around the world, were studied for morphological traits, including by SEM, and chemically by HPLC profiles using UV-visible and mass spectrometric detection. Emphasis was given to tropical material, and importantly, ancient specimens, including as many types as possible, were tracked and studied to review earlier taxonomic concepts. An epitype of D.

Affinities of Phylacia and the daldinoid Xylariaceae, inferred from chemotypes of cultures and ribosomal DNA sequences.

A chemotaxonomic evaluation using hplc profiling was undertaken to resolve the infrageneric and intergeneric affinities of over 150 strains of Xylariaceae. Daldinia placentiformis, Hypoxylon nicaraguense, H. polyporus, and Phylacia sagrana were found to contain 8-methoxy-1-naphthol, which is apparently absent in Annulohypoxylon, Hypoxylon, and related genera with bipartite stromata.

Cinnabaramides A-G: analogues of lactacystin and salinosporamide from a terrestrial streptomycete.

The cinnabaramides A-G (1-7) were isolated from a terrestrial strain of Streptomyces as potent and selective inhibitors of the human 20S proteasome. Their chemical and biological properties resemble those of salinosporamide A, a recently identified lead compound from an obligate marine actinomycete, which is currently under development as an anticancer agent. Cinnabaramides F and G (6, 7) combine essential structural features of salinosporamide A and lactacystin and show about equal potency in vitro, with IC50 values in the 1 nM range.

Cryptic species related to Daldinia concentrica and D. eschscholzii, with notes on D. bakeri.

Daldinia macaronesica (from the Canary Islands and Madeira), D. palmensis (from the Canary Islands), D. martinii and D.

Pochonins A-F, new antiviral and antiparasitic resorcylic acid lactones from Pochonia chlamydosporia var. catenulata.

Monorden (1) and the novel resorcylic acid lactones pochonins A (2), B (4), C (6), D (7), and E (8) as well as tetrahydromonorden (5) and pseurotin A (22) were isolated from cultures of the clavicipitaceous hyphomycete Pochonia chlamydosporia var. catenulata strain P 0297. Fermentation of P 0297 in bromide-containing culture media led to a shift in secondary metabolite production and yielded monocillins III (3) and II (9) as major metabolites besides monorden (1) as well as the novel compounds pochonin F (10) and a monocillin II glycoside (11) as minor metabolites.