Diabetes mellitus is a metabolic disease affecting more people every year. The treatment of diabetes and its complications involve substantial healthcare expenditures. Thus, there is a need to identify natural products that can be used as nutraceuticals to prevent and treat early-stage diabetes. White mulberry (Morus alba L.) is a plant that has been used in traditional Chinese medicine for thousands of years due to its many beneficial biological properties. White mulberry leaves are a source of 1-deoxynojirimycin (DNJ), which, due to its ability to inhibit α-glucosidase, can be used to regulate postprandial glucose concentration. In addition to consuming dried white mulberry leaves as herbal tea, many functional foods also contain this raw material. The development of the dietary supplements market brings many scientific and regulatory challenges to the safety, quality and effectiveness of such products containing concentrated amounts of nutraceuticals. In the present study, the quality of 19 products was assessed by determining the content of DNJ, selected (poly)phenols and antioxidant activity (DPPH^• assay). Nine of these products were herbal teas, and the other samples were dietary supplements. These results indicate the low quality of tested dietary supplements, the use of which (due to the low content of nutraceuticals) cannot bring the expected beneficial effects on health. Moreover, a method for determining the content of DNJ (the essential component for antidiabetic activity) based on ATR-FTIR spectroscopy combined with PLS regression has been proposed. This might be an alternative method to the commonly used chromatographic process requiring extraction and derivatization of the sample. It allows for a quick screening assessment of the quality of products containing white mulberry leaves.

Ginkgo biloba is a popular medicinal plant widely used in numerous herbal products, including food supplements. Due to its popularity and growing economic value, G. biloba leaf extract has become the target of economically motivated adulterations. There are many reports about the poor quality of ginkgo products and their adulteration, mainly by adding flavonols, flavonol glycosides, or extracts from other plants. In this work, we developed an approach using two-trace two-dimensional correlation spectroscopy (2T2D COS) in UV-Vis range combined with multilinear principal component analysis (MPCA) to detect potential adulteration of twenty G. biloba food supplements. UV-Vis spectral data are obtained for 80% methanol and aqueous extracts in the range of 245–410 nm. Three series of two-dimensional correlation spectra were interpreted by visual inspection and using MPCA. The proposed relatively quick and straightforward approach successfully differentiated supplements adulterated with rutin or those lacking ginkgo leaf extract. Supporting information about adulteration was obtained from the difference between the DPPH radical scavenging capacity of both extracts and from chromatographic (HPLC-DAD) fingerprints of methanolic samples.

Organ shortage is a major challenge in transplantation, prompting the use of extended criteria donor grafts. These require improved preservation techniques and reliable methods to assess graft function. This study aimed to evaluate changes in the kidney metabolome following three preservation methods: normothermic ex vivo kidney perfusion (NEVKP), hypothermic machine perfusion (HMP) and static cold storage (SCS) in porcine autotransplant models. A chemical biopsy allowed minimally invasive sampling of metabolites, which were analyzed using liquid chromatography coupled with high-resolution mass spectrometry. The results highlighted metabolites affected by ischemia and oxidative stress in donor kidneys, as well as changes specific to each preservation method. Differences were observed immediately after transplantation and reperfusion and several days post-surgery. NEVKP was associated with the activation of physiological anti-oxidative and anti-inflammatory mechanisms, suggesting potential protective effects. However, some metabolites had dual roles, which may influence future graft treatment designs. HMP and SCS, while reducing energy demand in cells, also limit physiological repair mechanisms. These findings provide a basis for improving graft assessment and organ preservation, with chemical biopsy serving as both a tool for discovery and a potential diagnostic method for monitoring graft quality.

Gram-positive cocci of the Enterococcus genus, despite their prevalence in the environment and the microbiota of healthy people, have become a serious threat in hospitals as opportunistic pathogens. These bacteria have many virulence factors and intrinsic resistance to existing drugs, which significantly narrows the group of effective antimicrobials. Due to the spread of Multi-Drug-Resistant (MDR) strains, there is a need to search for new substances as potential antibiotics. Our work aimed to evaluate the antimicrobial effect of commercially available products (five oils containing cannabidiol (CBD) and its derivatives and one 99% CBD product in the form of crystals) on 20 clinical strains of E. faecalis and E. faecium. We determined the Minimal Inhibitory Concentration (MIC) of CBD oils using the microdilution method in Mueller–Hinton broth (MHB). The CBD displayed antibacterial properties against all tested Enterococcus spp. strains (MIC ≤ 1 μg/mL). The higher concentration of CBD resulted in a larger antibacterial effect. The obtained MICs of pure CBD and CBD crystals were statistically lower (W = 97, p < 0.001) for E. feacium than E. faecalis. This work confirms the antibacterial activity of CBD on Enterococcus spp., providing a solid basis for further research that can help identify new therapeutic options and gain a deeper understanding of the CBD mechanism of action.

The recent SARS-CoV-2 pandemic—which had significant worldwide health, economic, and other effects—indicated the need to monitor zoonotic viruses with pandemic potential. The aim of this review is to assess bat-borne viruses as a potential pandemic risk, with a particular focus on Europe. The presence and activity of bats, as well as diseases emerging in humans in various regions of the world, point to their importance in the context of a possible outbreak of future epidemics. The rate of genetic change observed among viruses requires constant scrutiny on all continents, including Europe. Bats are a considerable source of many zoonotic viruses, including coronaviruses, filoviruses and paramyxoviruses. Among viruses associated with bats, RNA viruses are the dominant ones, characterized by high pathogenicity and often leading to interspecies transmission. The majority (about 80%) of RNA viruses were identified in bats from three families: Vespertilionidae, Rhinolophidae and Pteropodidae. Understanding how viruses are transmitted in the environment and the role of reservoir organisms and intermediate hosts is crucial to determining the level of epidemic risk. This review discuses viruses identified in bats globally, with a special focus on Europe, and evaluates their potential to cause epidemics.

(1) Background: Improper disinfection of slurry and municipal wastewater poses a serious threat to public health. These fluids are reservoirs of viruses, bacteria, fungi and parasites. (2) Methods: This study aimed to evaluate, on a laboratory scale, the disinfection effectiveness of fine bubble aeration with air activated by radiant catalytic ionization (RCI) against Enterococcus faecalis, Escherichia coli, Salmonella Senftenberg W775, Listeria monocytogenes, Clostridioides difficile, Aspergillus niger and Ascaris suum eggs in comparison to conventional atmospheric air aeration. The inactivation kinetics was calculated on the basis of Weibull and first-order models. (3) Results: The final number of microorganisms on the last day in the slurry disinfected with RCI ranged from 1.14 × 10² for L. monocytogenes to 1.91 × 10⁷ CFU (colony-forming unit) × mL⁻¹ for C. difficile. After using atmospheric air aeration, the bacteria number ranged from 2.82 × 10³ for L. monocytogenes to 2.24 × 10⁷ CFU × mL⁻¹ for C. difficile. In the case of aeration using RCI technology, the maximum time required to eliminate 99.9% of the microorganisms population was 20.84 days in slurry and 16.40 days in wastewater and was determined for A. niger. In the case of atmospheric air, this time was 47.76 days in slurry and 28.74 days in wastewater and was determined for C. difficile. In turn, the time to inactivate the number of invasive A. suum eggs by 90% was 20.70 and 24.61 weeks for RCI and 21.33 and 27.82 weeks for atmospheric air, respectively. Both in the case of slurry and municipal wastewater, disinfection with RCI was more effective than aeration with atmospheric air. (4) Conclusions: Our study, for the first time, exploits the possibility of using RCI in aeration to improve the efficiency of pathogen elimination from wastewater and slurry.