Combining Metal(loid) and Secondary Metabolite Levels in L. Samples for Geographical Identification.

To fight counterfeits, and to protect the consumer, the interest in certifying the origin of agricultural goods has been growing in recent years. In this context and to increase the accuracy of zoning models, multiple analytical techniques must be combined via a multivariate approach. During the sampling campaign, leaves and fruits (olives or drupes) were collected from multiple orchards and farms.

Cationic liposomes as carriers of natural compounds from plant extract.

Lipid-based nanocarriers provide versatile platforms for the encapsulation and delivery of many different bioactive compounds to improve the solubility, stability and therapeutic efficacy of bioactive phyto-compounds. In this study, liposomes were used to load leaf extract of Coffea Arabica, which is known to be rich beneficial substances such as alkaloids, flavonoids, etc. The aim of this work is to optimize the valorization of agricultural wastes containing natural antioxidants.

Determination of Elemental Content in Vineyard Soil, Leaves, and Grapes of Sangiovese Grapes from the Chianti Region Using ICP-MS for Geographical Identification.

To fight counterfeits and to protect the consumer, the interest in certifying the origin of agricultural goods has been steadily growing in the last years. While numerous works focus on the finished product, an aspect often overlooked is the origin of the raw materials and the direct correlation between chemicals in the soil and the plants. With inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) analysis, trace and ultratrace elements in Sangiovese grapes (the main component of Chianti wine) were measured and their levels were used to investigate the geographical origin of the samples.

Isothiocyanate-Based Microemulsions Loaded into Biocompatible Hydrogels as Innovative Biofumigants for Agricultural Soils.

Biofumigation was proposed as an alternative to synthetic pesticides for the disinfection of agricultural soils, in view of the biocidal effect of isothiocyanates (ITCs) released by some vegetal species, like . However, biofumigation also presents limitations; thus, a novel and viable alternative could be the direct introduction of ITCs into agricultural soils as components loaded into biodegradable hydrogels. Thus, in this work, ITCs-based microemulsions were developed, which can be loaded into porous polymer-based hydrogel beads based on sodium alginate (ALG) or sodium carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC).