Two wild and three cultivated blueberry varieties (‘Elliot’, ‘Bluecrop’ and ‘Duke’) from Romania were analyzed comparatively in order to determine the total polyphenols, total anthocyanins, total flavonoids content and measuring the antioxidant activity using three different single electron transfer-based assays, Trolox equivalent antioxidant capacity (ABTS), ferric reducing ability (FRAP), 2,2-diphenylpicrylhydrazil radical scavenging capacity (DPPH) and one hydrogen atom transfer-assay, oxygen radical absorbance capacity (ORAC). Total polyphenols content ranged from 424.84 - 819.12 mg GAE/100 g FW, total flavonoids ranged from 84.33-112.5 mg QE /100 g FW and total anthocyanins ranged from 100.58-300.02 C3GE/100g FW. The anthocyanins were separated and quantified using RP-HPLC-DAD. In Vaccinium myrtillus, petunidin-3-glucoside and delphinidin-3-glucoside have the highest contribution to the anthocyanin content while in Vaccinium corymbosum, peonidin-3-galactoside represent the major anthocyanin. Except for ORAC assay (r=0.765), all antioxidant activity values obtained were highly correlated with total polyphenol content (0.923≤ r ≤0.986). Wild blueberries had higher total polyphenols content and also antioxidant activity compared with cultivated ones.

The use of agricultural and food by-products is an economical solution to industrial biotechnology. The apricot press residues are abounding by-products from juice industry which can be used as substrates in solid state fermentation process (SSF), thus allowing a liberation and increase of content from various biomolecules with high added value. The evolutions of phenolic levels (by colorimetric assays and high performance liquid chromatography, HPLC–MS) and antioxidant activities (by DPPH assay) during SSF of apricot pomaces with Aspergillus niger and Rhizopus oligosporus were investigated. The changes in fatty acid compositions of oils in apricot kernels during SSFs were also analyzed by gas chromatography (GC–MS). The results showed that the levels of total phenolics increased by over 70% for SSF with R. oligosporus and by more than 30% for SSF with A. niger. A similar trend was observed in the amounts of total flavonoids (increases of 38, and 12% were recorded for SSF by R. oligosporus and A. niger, respectively). Free radical scavenging capacities of methanolic extracts were also significantly enhanced. The main phenolic compounds identified through HPLC–MS in fermented apricot press residues were chlorogenic acid, neochlorogenic acid, rutin, and quercetin 3-acetyl- glucoside. This work also demonstrated that the SSF with filamentous fungal strains not only helped in higher lipid recovery from apricot kernels, but also resulted in oils with better quality attributes (high linoleic acid content). The utilization of apricot by-products resulting from the juice industry as waste could provide an extra income and at the same time can help in solving solid waste management problems

The present study evaluates the antioxidant activity of two Aronia melanocarpa cultivars—Viking and Aron—and of Aronia prunifolia hybrid in relationship with their phytochemical composition regarding the contents of total phenolics, flavonoids, procyanidins, and monomeric anthocyanins. The antioxidant capacity of the mentioned extracts of chokeberries was evaluated through five complementary assays: 2,2′-azino-bis(3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid), H ₂ O ₂ scavenging potential, oxygen radical absorbance capacity, ferric reducing antioxidant power, and cupric ion reducing antioxidant capacity. A. prunifolia hybrid was found to have the highest antioxidant activity and to be the richest in polyphenols, procyanidins, and anthocyanins compared with the A. melanocarpa cultivars. A good correlation was observed between antioxidant activity and total procyanidin and anthocyanin content. Cyanidin glycosides inhibited HeLa human cervical tumor cell proliferation and increased generation of reactive oxygen species after 48 h of treatment, suggesting that they could be responsible for the antiproliferative activity. These results may be significant for industry concerning food quality and disease prevention.

The detection of Raman signals inside living cells is a topic of great interest in the study of cell biology mechanisms and for diagnostic and therapeutic applications. This work presents the synthesis and characterization of flower-shaped gold nanoparticles and demonstrates their applicability as SERS-active tags for cellular spectral detection. The particles were synthesized by a facile, rapid new route that uses ascorbic acid as a reducing agent of gold salt. Two triarylmethane dyes which are widely used as biological stains, namely malachite green oxalate and basic fuchsin, were used as Raman-active molecules and the polymer mPEG-SH as capping material. The as-prepared SERS-active nanoparticles were tested on a human retinal pigment epithelial cell line and found to present a low level of cytotoxicity and high chemical stability together with SERS sensitivity down to picomolar particle concentrations.