The rye flour is, together with the wheat flour, the basic ingredient used in traditional bread baking. The rye grain contains many compounds with significant impacts on the consumer. Considering that, various biologically active phytochemicals were determined in extracts from mature grains of 19 rye genotypes (Secale cereale L.). The content of total phenols, flavonoids, phenolic acids and thiols, as well as antioxidant activities and inhibitory activities against trypsin, thrombin, and urokinase were analyzed by spectrophotometric methods. The vanillic acid, vanillin, p-coumaric acid, and t-ferulic acid were analyzed in particular by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). The observed differences in the amounts and activities between rye genotypes reflected variations in their genetic background. Rye grain is a remarkable source of specific phytochemicals. Genetic diversity in rye makes it possible to identify individual genotypes that have a unique content and biological activity of compounds deposited in mature grains. One subgroup of rye genotypes had higher values of antioxidant properties and concentrations of polyphenols. Other sub-group had higher proteinase inhibitory activities and contents of polyphenols. The third sub-group contained as though the universal genotypes, i.e. genotypes with average values in nearly all the measured parameters.

The in vitro cell cultures derived from the grapevine (Vitis vinifera L.) have been used for the production of stilbenes treated with different biotic and abiotic elicitors. The red-grape cultivar Váh has been elicited by natural cellulose from Trichoderma viride, the cell wall homogenate from Fusarium oxysporum and synthetic jasmonates. The sodium-orthovanadate, known as an inhibitor of hypersensitive necrotic response in treated plant cells able to enhance production and release of secondary metabolite into the cultivation medium, was used as an abiotic elicitor. Growth of cells and the content of phenolic compounds trans-resveratrol, trans-piceid, δ-viniferin, and ɛ-viniferin, were analyzed in grapevine cells treated by individual elicitors. The highest accumulation of analyzed individual stilbenes, except of trans-piceid has been observed after treatment with the cell wall homogenate from F. oxysporum. Maximum production of trans-resveratrol, δ- and ɛ-viniferins was triggered by treatment with cellulase from T. viride. The accumulation of trans-piceid in cell cultures elicited by this cellulase revealed exactly the opposite effect, with almost three times higher production of trans-resveratrol than that of trans-piceid. This study suggested that both used fungal elicitors can enhance production more effectively than commonly used jasmonates.

Drought is one of the most important factors that influences plant morphology, biochemistry, and physiology, and finally leads to the decline in crops productivity and seed quality. Climate change, severe changes in water availability together with thermal stresses environment coincide with increasing human population, and to reveal sustainable solutions it is necessary to understand: i) how cereals react to drought, ii) how the tolerance mechanisms are exhibited by the genotype, and iii) which approaches enable to increase the tolerance of crop species against limited water availability. Especially in cereals as in high-quality food sources, it is important to reveal the adaptation mechanisms to rainfall dynamics on arable land and to the prolonged period of drought. This review summarizes current knowledge on the impact of drought on cereals, the mechanisms these crops utilize to cope water scarcity and survive, and the most efficient approaches to improve their drought tolerance.

Improving the micronutrients in food has become an important field of the Second Green Revolution. In recent years, minor bioactive compounds such as polyphenols, pigments and carotenoids, have attracted more and more interest from both researchers and food manufactures as health-promoting and disease-preventing effects in both in vitro and in vivo studies. One of plant pigments, wheat anthocyanins as plant phenolics are increasingly attractive as natural compounds positively affecting consumer´s health and condition moreover wheat is staple food source consumed usually daily. For a purple, blue, or red colour of wheat seed are responsible glycosylated cyanidins, delphinidins, malvinidins, pelargonidins, petunidins, and peonidins located in aleurone layer or pericarp, respectively. Other than white seed colour is not natural for common hexaploid wheat but this trait can be introduced from donors by aimed breeding programs. The way of wheat anthocyanins to provide positive effects for consumer´s physiology is limited due to their specific occurrence in seed parts usually removed during grain milling practice and lower stability during processing to food