Determination of Total Carbohydrate Content in Beer Using Its Pre-column Enzymatic Cleavage and HPLC-RI

Beside ethanol, carbohydrates are the main source of total energy in beer. While analyses of fermentable carbohydrates are important from the technological point of view, the total content of carbohydrates is relevant in terms of nutrition. A high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) method with refractometric (RI) detection was developed for determination of total carbohydrate content in beer. Using enzymatic reaction with amyloglucosidase, the carbohydrates were cleaved to yield glucose and short glucose oligomers of less than 10 units, and separated on HPLC ion exchanger Rezex RSO-Oligosaccharide column in Ag⁺ mode. Optimum parameters were established for the enzymatic sample treatment and for the HPLC separation of reaction products. Calibration curves of glucose, fructose, maltose and simultaneously analyzed glycerol ranged from 0.001 to 0.5 g/100 ml, correlation coefficients of all calibration curves were 0.9999. The instrumental limits of quantification were 0.001 g/100 ml and they were verified using repetitive injections, with coefficient of variation (CV) less than 10 % in five replicates. The method limit of quantification was 0.01 g/100 ml since it was necessary to dilute the beer samples before chromatographic analysis. Recovery of the method in non-alcoholic and alcoholic beer was 98.5 %, and 92.3 %, respectively. Finally, ten non-alcoholic and 15 alcoholic beers from Czech market were analyzed using the method, the average content of total carbohydrates in non-alcoholic and alcoholic beers being 4.21 and 3.70 g/100 ml, respectively. These results are in a good correlation with the real extract of beer, which is on average 4.58 and 4.27 g/100 ml.     

Changes in the composition of hop secondary metabolites induced by high hydrostatic pressure

Hops contain large amounts of secondary metabolites, many of which have notable bioactive and sensory characteristics. Many of these properties are affected by the processing of raw hops into products. We studied the influence of high‐pressure processing (HPP) on the content and composition of secondary metabolites in hop homogenates prepared from fresh green cones of several Czech hop varieties. Homogenates contained more hop oils (27% on average) compared to dried hops. The composition of essential oils in homogenates after HPP showed a decrease in fatty acid methyl and thioesters fractions (80 and 100% respectively). Conversely, the number of other bioactive compounds from the group of resins and prenylflavonoids that remained in HPP homogenates was retained to a greater extent than in the dried hops. Low temperatures and an oxygen‐free atmosphere were effective conditions for the preservation of raw hops and hop products. Copyright © 2018 The Institute of Brewing & Distilling     

Antioxidant and cell growth activities of beet root pomace extracts

Beetroot (Beta vulgaris) pomace, processing by-product from food industry, was investigated in this work as a starting raw material. The contents of phenolics (1.87–11.98 mg GAE/g of dry weight) and betalains (0.75–3.75 mg betalains/g of dry weight) in the extracts were determinated spectrophotometrically. Some individual phenolic compounds, including ferulic, vanillic, p-hydroxybenzoic, caffeic and protocatehuic acids, were identified and quantified by HPLC. The antioxidative activity of beetroot extracts was tested using DPPH, hydroxyl and superoxide anion radicals by ESR spectroscopy. ${\text{IC}}_{50}^{{}^{\text{<mglyph src="https://sdfestaticassets-us-east-1.sciencedirectassets.com/shared-assets/16/entities/rad"></mglyph>}}\text{OH}}$ (0.05–0.108 mg/ml), $\text{IC}{50}^{{\text{DPPH}}^{\text{<mglyph src="https://sdfestaticassets-us-east-1.sciencedirectassets.com/shared-assets/16/entities/rad"></mglyph>}}}$ (0.183–0.333 mg/ml), and ${\text{IC}}_{50}^{{\text{O}}_2^{\text{<mglyph src="https://sdfestaticassets-us-east-1.sciencedirectassets.com/shared-assets/16/entities/rad"></mglyph>}-}}$ (0.198–1.000 mg/ml) were calculated. The regression analysis produced moderate to high correlation coefficients between the scavenging activities and phenolics, and some individual phenolic compounds which indicated that beetroot pomace may be used as functional food ingredient. Cell growth effects were determined in MCF7 and MRC-5 cell lines, using SRB assay. IC₅₀ values were in the range of 362.478–503.525 and 383–587.880 μg/ml in MRC-5 and MCF7, respectively.     

The effect of ripening and storage conditions on the distribution of tyramine,putrescine and cadaverine in Edam-cheese

The aim of the work was to describe the development of selected biogenic amines (histamine, tyramine, putrescine and cadaverine) in 4 layers of Dutch-type cheese (Edam-cheese) depending on 3 ripening/storage regimes during a 98-day period. Biogenic amines were analysed by means of ion-exchange chromatography. A further goal was to identify microbial sources of biogenic amines in the material analysed. Phenotype characterization and repetitive sequence-based PCR fingerprinting were used to identify the isolated bacteria. The highest content of tyramine, putrescine and cadaverine was determined in cheeses stored in a ripening cellar at a temperature of 10 °C during the whole observation period. Lower biogenic amines content was determined in samples which were moved into a cold storage device (5 °C) after 38 days of storage in a ripening cellar (10 °C). The lowest concentrations of biogenic amines were detected in cheeses which were moved into a cold storage device (5 °C) after 23 days of storage in a ripening cellar (10 °C). During the 98-day period, histamine was not detected in any of the regimes. Within the cheeses analysed, non-starter lactic acid bacteria Lactobacillus curvatus, Lactobacillus casei/paracasei and Lactobacillus plantarum were detected as the main producers of the biogenic amines tested. In starter bacteria Lactococcus lactis subsp. lactis and Lactococcus lactis subsp. cremoris the decarboxylase activity tested was not detected.     

Aroma profiles of five basil (Ocimum basilicum L.) cultivars grown under conventional and organic conditions

A headspace solid-phase microextraction (HS-SPME) method coupled to gas chromatography–ion trap mass spectrometry (GC–ITMS) has been developed and applied for profiling of volatile compounds released from five Ocimum basilicum L. cultivars grown under both organic and conventional conditions. Comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography coupled to time-of-flight mass spectrometry (GC×GC–TOFMS) was employed for confirmation of identity of volatiles extracted from the basil headspace by SPME.     

An attempt to predict pork drip loss from pH and colour measurements or near infrared spectra using artificial neural networks

The ability to predict meat drip loss by using either near infrared spectra (SPECTRA) or different meat quality (MQ) measurements, such as pH₂₄, Minolta L^∗, a^∗, b^∗, along with different chemometric approach, was investigated. Back propagation (BP) and counter propagation (CP) artificial neural networks (ANN) were used and compared to PLS (partial least squares) regression. Prediction models were created either by using MQ measurements or by using NIR spectral data as independent predictive variables. The analysis consisted of 312 samples of longissimus dorsi muscle. Data were split into training and test set using 2D Kohonen map. The error of drip loss prediction was similar for ANN (2.2–2.6%) and PLS models (2.2–2.5%) and it was higher for SPECTRA (2.5–2.6%) than for MQ (2.2–2.3%) based models. Nevertheless, the SPECTRA based models gave reasonable prediction errors and due to their simplicity of data acquisition represent an acceptable alternative to classical meat quality based models.