Pierangela Rovellini

The development of sensitive, non-invasive methods is essential for the preservation and study of heritage books, allowing insights into their historical production processes and conservation needs. Volatile organic compound (VOC) analysis provides a valuable, non-destructive approach to assess paper composition and degradation in historical volumes. In this study, we analyzed VOC emissions from two books preserved at the Biblioteca Capitolare of Busto Arsizio, Italy: a 16th-century Latin grammar book and a 19th-century mathematics handbook for measurement conversions. Using headspace solid-phase microextraction (HS-SPME) and gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC-MS), VOCs were sampled after 24 h of storage at room temperature. The results revealed distinct degradation markers: Straight-chain aldehydes, indicative of lipid oxidation, were more prevalent in the 16th-century book, reflecting the higher quality and durability of its rag-based paper. In contrast, elevated furfural levels in the 19th-century book suggest accelerated cellulose hydrolysis typical of wood pulp paper. Additionally, the presence of menthol and anethole in both volumes points to the use of bacteriostatic agents for preservation. These findings not only highlight differences in material composition but also underscore the importance of tailored conservation approaches for historical documents from different eras.

The development of sensitive, non-invasive methods is essential for the preservation and study of heritage books, allowing insights into their historical production processes and conservation needs. Volatile organic compound (VOC) analysis provides a valuable, non-destructive approach to assess paper composition and degradation in historical volumes. In this study, we analyzed VOC emissions from two books preserved at the Biblioteca Capitolare of Busto Arsizio, Italy: a 16th-century Latin grammar book and a 19th-century mathematics handbook for measurement conversions. Using headspace solid-phase microextraction (HS-SPME) and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS), VOCs were sampled after 24 hours of storage at room temperature. The results revealed distinct degradation markers: straight-chain aldehydes, indicative of lipid oxidation, were more prevalent in the 16th-century book, reflecting the higher quality and durability of its rag-based paper. In contrast, elevated furfural levels in the 19th-century book suggest accelerated cellulose hydrolysis typical of wood pulp paper. Additionally, the presence of menthol and anethole in both volumes points to the use of bacteriostatic agents for preservation. These findings not only highlight differences in material composition but also underscore the importance of tailored conservation approaches for historical documents from different eras.

The study compared the chemical composition of various olive oils from the northern Algerian province of Bejaia. The research focused on the antioxidant activities of the oil‘s main constituents and their ability to inhibit the AKT1 protein, which is implicated in the development of colorectal cancer. The findings revealed that all of the examined oils fell within the extra virgin olive oil (EVOO) category and exhibited a high oleic acid content, particularly for samples from wild olives. These oils include high amount of ligstroside and oleocanthal, two important phenolic compounds. Wild olive oils stand out from cultivated ones due to their higher bitterness index. In addition, these oils have the highest concentrations of α‐tocopherols and the best oxidative stability. Olive oil extracts demonstrated their antioxidant properties by neutralizing DPPH and ABTS radicals and converting ferric ions (Fe³⁺) to ferrous ions (Fe²⁺) for FRAP assay. Molecular docking was applied to assess the interaction between the main compounds identified in the analyzed olive oils and the human AKT1 protein, which is involved in the genesis of colorectal cancer. The findings revealed that lutein, oleuropein aglycone, and ligstroside aglycone had the highest binding affinity for the AKT1 protein. The present study could provide the theoretical foundation for further research on the interaction between AKT1 protein and EVOO compounds.

Epigenetic changes, host–gut microbiota interactions, and environmental factors contribute to inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) onset and progression. A healthy lifestyle may help to slow down the chronic or remitting/relapsing intestinal tract inflammation characteristic of IBD. In this scenario, the employment of a nutritional strategy to prevent the onset or supplement disease therapies included functional food consumption. Its formulation consists of the addition of a phytoextract enriched in bioactive molecules. A good candidate as an ingredient is the Cinnamon verum aqueous extract. Indeed, this extract, subjected to a process of gastrointestinal digestion simulation (INFOGEST), exhibits beneficial antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties in an in vitro model of the inflamed intestinal barrier. Here, we deepen the study of the mechanisms related to the effect of digested cinnamon extract pre-treatment, showing a correlation between transepithelial electrical resistance (TEER) decrement and alterations in claudin-2 expression under Tumor necrosis factor-α/Interleukin-1β (TNF-α/IL-1) β cytokine administration. Our results show that pre-treatment with cinnamon extract prevents TEER loss by claudin-2 protein level regulation, influencing both gene transcription and autophagy-mediated degradation. Hence, cinnamon polyphenols and their metabolites probably work as mediators in gene regulation and receptor/pathway activation, leading to an adaptive response against renewed insults.

Cinnamon bark is widely used for its organoleptic features in the food context and growing evidence supports its beneficial effect on human health. The market offers an increasingly wide range of food products and supplements enriched with cinnamon extracts which are eliciting beneficial and health-promoting properties. Specifically, the extract of Cinnamomum spp. is rich in antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and anticancer biomolecules. These include widely reported cinnamic acid and some phenolic compounds, such asproanthocyanidins A and B, and kaempferol. These molecules are sensitive to physical-chemical properties (such as pH and temperature) and biological agents that act during gastric digestion, which could impair molecules’ bioactivity. Therefore, in this study, the cinnamon’s antioxidant and anti-inflammatory bioactivity after simulated digestion was evaluated by analyzing the chemical profile of the pure extract and digested one, as well as the cellular effect in vitro models, such as Caco2 and intestinal barrier. The results showed that the digestive process reduces the total content of polyphenols, especially tannins, while preserving other bioactive compounds such as cinnamic acid. At the functional level, the digested extract maintains an antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effect at the cellular level.

Over the past 20 years, the interest in Cannabis oily extracts for medicinal use compounded in pharmacy has consistently grown, along with the need to have preparations of adequate quality. Hot maceration (M) is the most frequently used method to compound oily solutions. In this work, we systematically studied the possibility of using an ultrasonic homogenizer and a sonotrode (US) as an alternative extraction method. Oily solutions were prepared using two available varieties of Cannabis for medicinal use, called FM2 and Bedrocan. All preparations resulted with an equivalent content in CBD and THC, with the advantage of a faster process using US. In particular, 10 min sonication at the amplitude optimized for the sonotrode used (2 or 7 mm) provides not statistically different total Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol (M-FM2: 0.26 ± 0.02 % w/w; US-FM2: 0.19 ± 0.004 % w/w; M-Bedrocan: 1.83 ± 0.17 % w/w; US-Bedrocan: 1.98 ± 0.01 % w/w) and total cannabidiol (M-FM2: 0.59 ± 0.04 % w/w; US-FM2: 0.58 ± 0.01 % w/w) amounts extracted in refined olive oil. It can therefore be confirmed that sonotrode is an efficient and fast extraction technique and its use is without negative consequence on the solvent properties. Despite DSC evidencing that both maceration and sonication modify the T_onset and enthalpy of the event at about −10 °C, the qualitative characteristics of the oil remained constant for the two treatments and similar to the starting material.

The therapeutic use of Cannabis oil extracts is constantly increasing. However, in Italy, they are allowed to be prepared with only a few methods and matrices. With this work, we aimed to assess how the different processes might affect the chemical composition of two different matrices (olive oils and medium chain triglycerides oils - MCT), accounting as variables for both the presence of Cannabis dried apices of the female flower and the adding of tocopherol acetate as an antioxidant. The macerated oils were prepared with four of the methods allowed according to the Italian legislation (Romano-Hazekamp, Cannazza-Citti, SIFAP and Calvi) and analyzed for normal and oxidized tocopherols, oxidized and conjugated fatty acids and volatile carbonyl compounds (VCCs), all using liquid chromatography coupled to UV or PDA detectors. According to our results, neither normal nor oxidized tocopherols are affected by the addition of antioxidants or Cannabis, while the oxidation state (according to the levels of oxidized and conjugated fatty acids) is often altered in either case. The VCCs concentrations, on the other hand, are never notably altered. These results suggest a worthless use of antioxidants in Cannabis macerated oils preparations, while the dried apices of female flowers might have a protective role in maintaining the oil oxidation state.

A chemical characterization of turning color table olives of the Sigoise variety was made through their processing as natural-style. Polyphenols, sugars, tocopherols, fatty acids, and antioxidant activity in the olives were monitored throughout the elaboration process. Oleuropein, salidroside, hydroxytyrosol 4-glucoside, rutin, ligustroside and verbascoside showed a decrease of 16.90-83.34%, while hydroxytyrosol increased during the first months of brining. Glucose was consumed by 90% due to the metabolism of the fermentative microbiota. The tocopherol content remained stable during the process and only the α-tocopherol decreased. The fatty acids were not affected. The loss in antioxidant compounds resulted in a decrease in the percentage of DPPH radical inhibition from 75.91% in the raw fruit to 44.20% after 150 days of brining. Therefore, the turning color natural table olives of the Sigoise variety are a good source of bioactive compounds.

In this paper, the main chemical properties of Perilla seed oil (PO) obtained by mechanical pressing of Perilla seeds are reported. The analysis of fatty acid composition has highlighted a very high amount of (n-3) α-linolenic acid (ALA), more than 60%, higher than other ALA rich oils such as linseed and sacha inchi oils and similar to chia oil. PO has an important sterol (higher than 3000 mg/kg) and vitamin E (approx. 870 mg/kg) content, while biophenols are in quite low concentration. The analyzed sample showed a very low acid and peroxide value and this is the demonstration that, following the proper technological procedures, it is possible to obtain high quality oils even in presence of high α-linolenic acid concentrations.

Olive represents the most widespread fruit cultivated in Algeria. Olive oil is the primary source of added fat in the Mediterranean diet with health benefits of which have been verified for millennia. Interest in phenolic compounds in olive oil has increased due to its antioxidant activity, which plays a very important role in human health. The present study is carried out to study the phenolic compounds and fatty acids profile of some olive oils from western Algeria. The quality parameters (acidity, peroxide value, K232, K270), tocopherol analysis, fatty acid composition and phenolic profile were determined by High performance chromatography (HPLC). The results showed that chemlal oil (SBA) recorded the highest level of tocopherol-α with 228.12 mg/Kg. Regarding the fatty acid composition, oleic acid was the most dominant, oil Oleaster (Bensekrane) records the highest percentage (72.80%) of oleic acid. The quantitative data on the phenolic content of the seven samples revealed that chemlal oil (SBA) had the highest level of polyphenols (328.99 mg/Kg). However, Sigoise oil (Sebra1) was characterized by the highest levels of tyrosol and hydroxytyrosol (15.89 mg/kg and 22.42 mg/kg, respectively). The highest concentrations of oleuropein derivatives and ligstroside derivatives were observed in chemlal oil (SBA) and the recoreded values were 105.97 mg/Kg and 83.49 mg/Kg, respectively. Chemlal oil (SBA) was characterized by the highest amount of lignans (35.93 mg/Kg), luteolin (10.16 mg/Kg) and apigenin (5.44 mg/Kg). Oleocanthal was found in all the tested samples and it was higher in Chemlal oil (102.43 mg/kg).