Publications by authors named "Maria L Ramirez"

Infant cereals are typically the first foods introduced as complementary foods. Cereals used to elaborate complementary foods, such as wheat, maize and rice, are susceptible to mycotoxin contamination. Among mycotoxins, fumonisins have been epidemiologically associated, in humans, with oesophageal cancer, neural tube defects and stunting.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • Latin America features diverse climates that support a variety of agricultural products, essential for food consumption.
  • Fungal species pose a threat to these crops by contaminating them with mycotoxins, which can significantly affect health and productivity.
  • There is limited research on modified mycotoxins in Latin America, with the review aiming to assess potential human exposure risks to these toxins based on available literature.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

is a causal agent of Head Blight in wheat, and it produces both deoxynivalenol (DON) and nivalenol (NIV). Nevertheless, the effect of environmental factors on the growth and mycotoxin production of this species has not been studied so far. The objective of this study was to investigate the impact of environmental factors on the growth and mycotoxin production of strains.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • Chickpeas are prone to fungal infections and mycotoxin contamination, which is significant since Argentina exports most of its chickpea production and quality is critical.
  • A study evaluated how varying water activity and temperature affect the growth of fungi and the production of mycotoxins, AOH, AME, and TA, using strains isolated from chickpeas in Argentina.
  • Results showed that maximum fungal growth occurred at high water activity (0.99) and 25 °C, while mycotoxin production varied by strain and depended on specific temperature and water activity conditions, indicating risks during chickpea maturation and storage.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • * Maximum mycelial growth occurred at the highest water activity (0.99) and temperature (30 °C), while aflatoxin production peaked at 0.99 water activity and 25 °C after 5 days for two strains, and at 0.96 after 21 days for the third strain.
  • * The findings help determine conditions that pose a significant risk for aflat
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Paraguay is a non-traditional wheat-producing country in one of the warmest regions in South America. Fusarium Head Blight (FHB) is a critical disease affecting this crop, caused by the species complex (FGSC). A variety of these species produce trichothecenes, including deoxynivalenol (DON) and its acetylated forms (3-ADON and 15-ADON) or nivalenol (NIV).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

, a recently formally described novel species, has been identified as an T-2 toxin (T-2), HT-2 toxin (HT-2) and other toxins producer in natural grasses (Poaceae) from Argentina. The major objective of this study was to describe the effect of water activity (a, 0.995, 0.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The Chaco wetland is among the most biologically diverse regions in Argentina. In collections of fungi from asymptomatic native grasses (Poaceae) from the wetlands, we identified isolates of that were morphologically similar to , but distinct from it by their production of abundant microconidia. All the isolates had identical, or nearly identical, partial sequences of and .

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Objective: In this work, in order to establish a better comprehension of the association between Argentina and its neighbor countries' capacity, and COVID-19 burden during the first 3 months, different indicators were evaluated.

Method: We analyzed the association between GHSI, INFORM index and COVID-19 burden (number of confirmed cases and deaths), also the number of tests, lethality and the stringency of Governmental policies were evaluated.

Results: Uruguay, Paraguay, and Bolivia started earlier different prevention measures.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

We are reporting for the first time the synthesis and application of an innovative nanometric system for the controlled topic release of melatonin in the retina. The ethylcellulose nanocapsules were characterized by diverse physicochemical techniques (scanning electron microscopy, zeta potential, hydrodynamic diameters) and an in vitro release study was done. A complete ex vivo and in vivo trans-corneal permeation and an irritation study were carried out with the new formulations in albino rabbits, to which a retinal degenerative model was induced.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Mycotoxins are secondary metabolites produced by fungal species that mainly belong to Aspergillus, Fusarium, Penicillium and Alternaria, which can grow in a variety of crops including cereals, oilseeds and fruits. Consequently, their prevalence in foods and by-products not only affects human and animal health but also causes important losses in both domestic and international markets. This review provides data about toxigenic fungal species and mycotoxin occurrence in different crops commonly grown in Argentina.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Fumonisin occurrence was reported in wheat grains and F. proliferatum has been suggested to be the main contributor to its presence in wheat. Thus, a survey was performed in order to study the impact of four commercial fungicides used in Argentina for controlling Fusarium head blight disease (epoxiconazole+metconazole, tebuconazole, pyraclostrobin+epoxiconazole, and prothioconazole) on growth and fumonisin production of two F.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: The aim of the current study was to examine the heterogeneity of functional outcomes in first episode psychosis (FEP) patients and related clinical, neurocognitive and sociodemographic factors using a cluster analytic approach.

Method: A large sample of FEP patients (N = 209) was functionally reassessed 10 years after the first contact with an early intervention service. Multiple baseline, 3-year and 10-year follow-up variables were explored.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The growing interest in the chemistry of unsaturated ring-fused 1,3-heterocycles, in this particular case 1,3-oxazines, arise in part from their versatile pharmacological applications. In the present article, the evaluation of the in vitro and ex vivo antioxidant activity of two cyclohexene-fused oxazines is discussed. The in vitro antioxidant activity was evaluated by trapping the ABTS and hydroxyl radicals as well as the inhibition of the enzyme acetyl-cholinesterase and hemolysis of erythrocytes by 2,2'-Azobis(2-amidinopropane) dihydrochloride (AAPH).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The objectives of the present study were to determine the combined effects of chitosan and water activity (a) on growth and mycotoxin production in situ on the two most important species ( and ) present on maize, and on , the main pathogen causing Fusarium head blight on wheat. Results showed that low-molecular-weight chitosan with more than 70% deacetylation at the lowest dose used (0.5 mg/g) was able to reduce deoxynivalenol (DON) and fumonisin (FBs) production on irradiated maize and wheat grains.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

In Argentina, wheat is the most consumed cereal by the human population. Since fumonisins occurence in wheat grains and wheat-based products have been reported worldwide, a survey was conducted in order to determine fumonisin contamination in 91 wheat-based products (white wheat flour samples, wheat flour used at bakery products and whole-wheat flour samples) collected from different retail stores of Rio Cuarto city in Argentina using HPLC-MS/MS. Sixty-seven samples (74%) showed contamination by fumonisins.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

A survey was carried out to determine natural occurrence of tenuazonic acid (TA) in healthy and rotten wine grapes samples from different varieties ( = 37) collected during 2016 vintage in the region of DOC San Rafael (Argentina). In addition, inoculation experiments with three strains in wine grapes were done to elucidate TA production and its major influencing factors. The 16.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

MycoKey, an EU-funded Horizon 2020 project, includes a series of "Roundtable Discussions" to gather information on trending research areas in the field of mycotoxicology. This paper includes summaries of the Roundtable Discussions on Chemical Detection and Monitoring of mycotoxins and on the role of genetics and biodiversity in mycotoxin production. Discussions were managed by using the nominal group discussion technique, which generates numerous ideas and provides a ranking for those identified as the most important.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Wheat is the most important cereal consumed by the Argentine population. In previous studies performed in durum and common wheat grains in this country it has been observed fumonisin contamination as well as high incidence of Fusarium proliferatum. Fumonisins are toxic fungal metabolites, and consumption of fumonisin-contaminated maize has been epidemiologically associated with oesophageal cancer and neural tube defects in some human populations.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Epiphytic isolates with yeast characteristics from grapes of the Malbec cultivar were obtained in order to find antagonists against Alternaria alternata. From a total of 111 isolates, 82% corresponded to the yeast-like organism Aureobasidium pullulans and the rest to the non-Saccharomyces yeasts Hanseniaspora uvarum (6.3%), Metschnikowia pulcherrima or spp.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Fusarium proliferatum produces fumonisins B not only on maize but also on diverse crops including wheat. Using a wheat-based medium, the effects of abiotic factors, temperature and water activity (a), on growth, fumonisin biosynthesis, and expression of FUM genes were compared for three F. proliferatum strains isolated from durum wheat in Argentina.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background And Purpose: The long-term survival of patients with peritoneal carcinomatosis of colorectal origin has been achieved with cytoreductive surgery, which removes all macroscopic implants, combined with hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy (HIPEC). The current technology for administering intraperitoneal heated chemotherapy is expensive and, for some institutions, unaffordable. We conducted this study to assess the temperature stability provided by a modified, inexpensive system, to offer a simple and low cost alternative to the standard HIPEC delivery equipment.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The aim of this study was to evaluate the occurrence of several fungal metabolites, including mycotoxins in natural grasses (Poaceae) intended for grazing cattle. A total number of 72 and 77 different metabolites were detected on 106 and 69 grass samples collected during 2011 and 2014, respectively. A total of 60 metabolites were found across both years.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Studies were conducted to determine the effect of osmotic and matric stress on germination and growth of two Fusarium solani strains, the etiological agent responsible of peanut brown root rot. Both strains had similar osmotic and matric potential ranges that allowed growth, being the latter one narrower. F.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

A PHP Error was encountered

Severity: Warning

Message: fopen(/var/lib/php/sessions/ci_session878q7tpof21srngtbfkgcdljqh7f83rq): Failed to open stream: No space left on device

Filename: drivers/Session_files_driver.php

Line Number: 177

Backtrace:

File: /var/www/html/index.php
Line: 316
Function: require_once

A PHP Error was encountered

Severity: Warning

Message: session_start(): Failed to read session data: user (path: /var/lib/php/sessions)

Filename: Session/Session.php

Line Number: 137

Backtrace:

File: /var/www/html/index.php
Line: 316
Function: require_once