Sporopollenin Exine Microcapsules as Potential Intestinal Delivery System of Probiotics.

Despite several decades of research into encapsulation of bacteria, most of the proposed technologies are in the form of immobilized cultures. In this work, sporopollenin exine capsules (SECs) opened, using silica particles which act as pressing micro-probes, and loaded with Lactobacillus casei (L. casei) cells, are described for the first time.

High level of heterogeneity among Listeria monocytogenes isolates from clinical and food origin specimens in Greece.

In order to examine the genetic variation of clinical and food isolates of Listeria monocytogenes in Greece, a total of 61 L. monocytogenes non-duplicate isolates, recovered from clinical specimens (n=19) and food (n=42), were serotyped and genotyped using two different Random Amplification of Polymorphic DNA (RAPD) protocols and Multiple Locus Variable Number Tandem Repeat Analysis (MLVA). Serotype group 4b, 4d, 4e prevailed (39.

Improvement of oleuropein extractability by optimising steam blanching process as pre-treatment of olive leaf extraction via response surface methodology.

Impact of steam, hot water blanching and UV-C irradiation as pre-treatments on extraction of oleuropein and related biophenols from olive leaves (OLs), was investigated. Moreover, particle size effect of olive leaves and steam blanching duration were selected as independent variables to optimise steam blanching process in terms of oleuropein content (OC) and antioxidant activity (AC) of ethanolic extracts, by using response surface methodology. Optimum conditions for OC and AC were 10 min steam blanching of 20-11 and 3-1mm olive leaf fraction, respectively.