Olive leaves are residues from pruning and harvesting and are considered an environmental management problems. Interestingly, these residues contain high polyphenol concentrations, which can be used to treat chronic diseases. However, these compounds are a technological challenge due to their thermolability and reactivity during extraction. Thus, this study assessed the use of pressurized liquid extraction (PLE) with green solvents like water-ethanol and water-glycerol mixtures (0–15%) at 50 °C and 70 °C to yield polyphenol-rich antioxidant extracts with reduced glucose and fructose content. The use of 30% ethanol at 70°C presented the highest polyphenol content (15.29 mg gallic acid equivalent/g dry weight) and antioxidant capacity, which was expressed as IC₅₀ (half maximal inhibitory concentration): 5.49 mg/mL and oxygen radical absorbance capacity (ORAC): 1259 μmol Trolox equivalent/g dry weight, as well as lower sugar content (glucose: 3.75 mg/g dry weight, fructose: 5.68 mg/g dry weight) compared to water–glycerol mixtures. Interestingly, ethanol exhibits a higher degree of effectiveness in recovering flavanols, stilbenes and secoiridoids, while glycerol improves the extraction of phenolic acids and flavonols. Therefore, to enhance the efficiency of polyphenol recovery during the PLE process, it is necessary to consider its solvent composition and chemical structure.

The present study assessed the impact of using irrigation water contaminated with Azithromycin (AZM) residues on the biomass and antioxidant compounds of purple corn; for this purpose, the plants were cultivated under ambient conditions, and the substrate used consisted of soil free from AZM residues, mixed with compost in a ratio of 1:1 (v/v). The experiment was completely randomized with four replications, with treatments of 0, 1, 10, and 100 μg/L of AZM. The results indicate that the presence of AZM in irrigation water at doses of 1 and 10 μg/L increases the weight of dry aboveground biomass, while at an amount of 100 μg/L, it decreases. Likewise, this study reveals that by increasing the concentration of AZM from 1 to 10 μg/L, total polyphenols and monomeric anthocyanins double, in contrast, with an increase to 100 μg/L, these decrease by 44 and 53%, respectively. It has been demonstrated that purple corn exposed to the antibiotic AZM at low doses has a notable antioxidant function in terms of DPPH and ORAC. The content of flavonols, phenolic acids, and flavanols increases by 57, 28, and 83%, respectively, when the AZM concentration is from 1 to 10 μg/L. However, with an increase to 100 μg/L, these compounds decrease by 17, 40, and 42%, respectively. On the other hand, stem length, root length, and dry weight of root biomass are not significantly affected by the presence of AZM in irrigation water.

Este estudio desarrolló y validó un método de análisis por UHPL-DAD para detectar y cuantificar residuos de Ivermectina (IVM) en agua residual. La implementación de este método, consistió en poder realizar un método robusto y eficiente; donde el tiempo de retención para este residuo en mención fue de 3.1 min. No obstante, los parámetros considerados en el proceso de validación del método analítico fueron: selectividad, linealidad, límite de detección, límite de cuantificación y porcentaje de recuperación; el método es selectivo, el coeficiente de correlación es R2 ≥ 0,99, presenta un límite de detección (LD) de 0,003 µg L-1, un límite de cuantificación (LQ) de 0,01 µg L-1, y un porcentaje de recuperación del 90% (con fortificación de 0,1 µg L-1).

Pharmaceutical contamination of irrigation water is an increasing concern for food safety, especially in hydroponic systems where dissolved contaminants remain highly bioavailable. This study evaluated low-dose ciprofloxacin (CIP; 0, 1, 5, and 10 µg L⁻¹) effects on fresh shoot biomass, total phenolic content, in vitro antioxidant capacity (ORAC and DPPH), and CIP residues in edible tissue of hydroponically grown lettuce (Lactuca sativa L.). Shoot biomass increased by 13%, 20%, and 30% with increasing CIP, without visible phytotoxicity, while total phenolic content and ORAC increased by up to 97% and 12.4%, respectively, and DPPH IC₅₀ decreased by 38–44%. In contrast, apparent CIP residues in shoot tissue tended to be lower at 5 and 10 µg L⁻¹ than at 1 µg L⁻¹; given these values were below the method limit of quantification (LOQ), this pattern is reported only as an indicative trend, and possible explanations such as uptake saturation and/or detoxification remain hypotheses that were not tested here. These results suggest that low-dose CIP exposure can be associated with higher biomass and phenolic/antioxidant indicators without evidence of a proportional rise in quantifiable residues, offering preliminary insight for food safety assessment in antibiotic-contaminated hydroponic systems. As this remains a preliminary assessment based mainly on biomass, total phenolics, in vitro antioxidant capacity, and CIP residues, further physiological and molecular analyses are needed to confirm the underlying mechanisms, together with longer-term validation under real production conditions.

17α-Ethinylestradiol (EE2) is a synthetic estrogen frequently detected in irrigation water, posing potential risks to crop quality and consumer health. Thus, this study evaluated the effects of EE2 (0, 1, 10, and 100 µg/L) on polyphenol content, antioxidant capacity, chlorophyll accumulation dynamics, and biomass in hydroponically grown Lactuca sativa. According to our results, EE2 progressively reduced total phenolic content (TPC) by up to 75% at 100 µg/L compared to the control. Regarding the polyphenol profile, gallic acid was completely suppressed at all EE2 concentrations, while vanillic acid and procyanidin B3 remained unaffected. Antioxidant capacity was similarly impaired, with IC₅₀ increasing from 2.8 to 5.0 mg/mL and ORAC decreasing by 67% at the highest concentration. A strong positive correlation between TPC and ORAC (r = 0.9202) confirmed that phenolic compounds are the primary contributors to antioxidant capacity. Chlorophyll accumulation dynamics, described by a modified Gompertz model, revealed that EE2 significantly reduced the maximum SPAD asymptote without affecting growth rate or inflection point. In contrast, morphological parameters including plant height, aboveground biomass, and root length were unaffected. These results suggest that EE2 preferentially disrupts secondary metabolic pathways before compromising primary growth, highlighting biochemical markers as more sensitive indicators of EE2 contamination in hydroponic lettuce.