Purified phenolics from hydrothermal treatments of biomass: ability to protect sunflower bulk oil and model food emulsions from oxidation

The phenolic fractions released during hydrothermal treatment of selected feedstocks (corn cobs, eucalypt wood chips, almond shells, chestnut burs, and white grape pomace) were selectively recovered by extraction with ethyl acetate and washed with ethanol/water solutions. The crude extracts were purified by a relatively simple adsorption technique using a commercial polymeric, nonionic resin. Utilization of 96% ethanol as eluting agent resulted in 47.0-72.6% phenolic desorption, yielding refined products containing 49-60% w/w phenolics (corresponding to 30-58% enrichment with respect to the crude extracts). The refined extracts produced from grape pomace and from chestnut burs were suitable for protecting bulk oil and oil-in-water and water-in-oil emulsions. A synergistic action with bovine serum albumin in the emulsions was observed.

Frying of potato chips in a blend of canola oil and palm olein: changes in levels of individual fatty acids and tocols

The changes occurring in the levels of nutritionally relevant oil components were assessed during repeated frying of potato chips in a blend of palm olein and canola oil (1:1 w/w). The blend suffered minimal reductions in omega-3 and omega-6 polyunsaturated fatty acids. There was no significant difference between the fatty acid composition of the oil extracted from the product and that of the frying medium, in all three cases. The blend also contained a significant amount of tocols which add a nutritional value to the oil. The concentration of the tocols was satisfactorily retained over the period of oil usage, in contrast to the significant loses observed in the case of the individual oils. The blend also performed well when assessed by changes in total polar compounds, free fatty acids, p-anisidine value. When fried in used oil, the product oil content increased progressively with oil usage time. This study shows that blended frying oils can combine good stability and nutritional quality

Components of olive oil and chemoprevention of colorectal cancer

Olive oil contains a vast range of substances such as monounsaturated free fatty acids (e.g., oleic acid), hydrocarbon squalene, tocopherols, aroma components, and phenolic compounds. Higher consumption of olive oil is considered the hallmark of the traditional Mediterranean diet, which has been associated with low incidence and prevalence of cancer, including colorectal cancer. The anticancer properties of olive oil have been attributed to its high levels of monounsaturated fatty acids, squalene, tocopherols, and phenolic compounds. Nevertheless, there is a growing interest in studying the role of olive oil phenolics in carcinogenesis. This review aims to provide an overview of the relationship between olive oil phenolics and colorectal cancer, in particular summarizing the epidemiologic, in vitro, cellular, and animal studies on antioxidant and anticarcinogenic effects of olive oil phenolics.

Non-concordance between genetic profiles of olive oil and fruit: a cautionary note to the use of DNA markers for provenance testing.

To investigate the contribution of paternal alleles to the DNA content of olive oil, genetic analyses of olive DNA samples from fruits, leaves, and oil derived from the same tree (cv. Leccino) were carried out. DNA extracted from maternal tissues--leaves and flesh--from different fruits showed identical genetic profiles using a set of DNA markers. Additional simple sequence repeat (SSR) alleles, not found in the maternal samples, were amplified in the embryos (stone), and they were also detected in DNA extracted from the paste obtained by crushing whole fruits and from the oil pressed from this material. These results demonstrate that the DNA profile obtained from olive oil is likely to represent a composite profile of the maternal alleles juxtaposed with alleles contributed by various pollen donors. Therefore, care needs to be taken in the interpretation of DNA profiles obtained from DNA extracted from oil for resolving provenance and authenticity issues.

Flow synthesis using gaseous ammonia in a Teflon AF-2400 tube-in-tube reactor: Paal–Knorr pyrrole formation and gas concentration measurement by inline flow titration

Using a simple and accessible Teflon AF-2400 based tube-intube reactor, a series of pyrroles were synthesised in flow using the Paal–Knorr reaction of 1,4-diketones with gaseous ammonia. An inline flow titration technique allowed measurement of the ammonia concentration and its relationship to residence time and temperature.

The olive oil and cotton lint sectors in the European Union

This paper examines and analyses the impacts of the reformed CAP as well as the decisions of the new round of negotiations for the olive oil and cotton sectors in the European Union. The aim of this study is to estimate changes in supply (agricultural supply plus intermediate demand and final production), demand (consumption), price and stock formation (import, export, beginning and ending stocks, national price formation) for both the olive oil and cotton sectors. The model designed for this purpose is partial equilibrium and policy oriented. The objectives of this model are to estimate changes in the production and consumption of the two products concerned, to determine how the reformed CAP and the new round of negotiations of the WTO affect these two sectors to analyse the evolution of export and import volumes, and finally to determine how this evolution will influence the welfare situation of the olive and cotton sectors.

Framing fracking: which frames are heard in English planning and environmental policy and practice?

Fracking in England has been the subject of significant controversy and has sparked not only public protest but also an associated framing war with differing social constructions of the technology adopted by different sides. This article explores the frames and counter-frames which have been employed by both the anti-fracking movement and by government and the oil and gas industry. It then considers the way in which the English planning and regulatory permitting systems have provided space for these frames within the relevant machinery for public participation. The article thus enables one to see which frames have been allowed a voice and which have been excluded.

Litigation against fracking bans and moratoriums in the US: exit, voice and loyalty

A number of US states, counties and municipalities have responded to the public health and environmental concerns surrounding fracking by imposing bans or moratoriums on unconventional oil and gas drilling. These restrictions have, in recent years, given rise to litigation challenges by oil and gas companies and by property owners deprived of potential revenues. The current article begins by examining precisely who has litigated. Have large companies dominated or is it mostly smaller independents? Is there a difference in litigation rates between private and public companies? The article then considers how Hirschman’s ideas of exit, voice and loyalty might apply in the context of bans and moratoriums and further explores some of the factors that may have driven litigation in the area.

Decreased frequency of North Atlantic polar lows associated with future climate warming

Every winter, the high-latitude oceans are struck by severe storms that are considerably smaller than the weather-dominating synoptic depressions1. Accompanied by strong winds and heavy precipitation, these often explosively developing mesoscale cyclones—termed polar lows1—constitute a threat to offshore activities such as shipping or oil and gas exploitation. Yet owing to their small scale, polar lows are poorly represented in the observational and global reanalysis data2 often used for climatological investigations of atmospheric features and cannot be assessed in coarse-resolution global simulations of possible future climates. Here we show that in a future anthropogenically warmed climate, the frequency of polar lows is projected to decline. We used a series of regional climate model simulations to downscale a set of global climate change scenarios3 from the Intergovernmental Panel of Climate Change. In this process, we first simulated the formation of polar low systems in the North Atlantic and then counted the individual cases. A previous study4 using NCEP/NCAR re-analysis data5 revealed that polar low frequency from 1948 to 2005 did not systematically change. Now, in projections for the end of the twenty-first century, we found a significantly lower number of polar lows and a northward shift of their mean genesis region in response to elevated atmospheric greenhouse gas concentration. This change can be related to changes in the North Atlantic sea surface temperature and mid-troposphere temperature; the latter is found to rise faster than the former so that the resulting stability is increased, hindering the formation or intensification of polar lows. Our results provide a rare example of a climate change effect in which a type of extreme weather is likely to decrease, rather than increase.

Corporate social responsibility in the extractive industries: experiences from developing countries

This paper introduces a special issue on ‘Corporate Social Responsibility in the Extractive Industries: Experiences from Developing Countries’. Drawing upon case study analysis from Latin America, sub-Saharan Africa and Asia, the papers in this issue broaden understanding of how multinational mining and oil and gas companies have embraced the CSR challenge and responded to criticisms of their performance in developing countries. This paper provides an introduction to the debate on CSR in the extractive industries in developing countries, reviewing the key issues examined on this subject to date.

The unsteady flow of a weakly compressible fluid in a thin porous layer II: three-dimensional theory

We consider the problem of determining the pressure and velocity fields for a weakly compressible fluid flowing in a three-dimensional layer, composed of an inhomogeneous, anisotropic porous medium, with vertical side walls and variable upper and lower boundaries, in the presence of vertical wells injecting and/or extracting fluid. Numerical solution of this three-dimensional evolution problem may be expensive, particularly in the case that the depth scale of the layer h is small compared to the horizontal length scale l, a situation which occurs frequently in the application to oil and gas reservoir recovery and which leads to significant stiffness in the numerical problem. Under the assumption that $\epsilon\propto h/l\ll 1$, we show that, to leading order in $\epsilon$, the pressure field varies only in the horizontal directions away from the wells (the outer region). We construct asymptotic expansions in $\epsilon$ in both the inner (near the wells) and outer regions and use the asymptotic matching principle to derive expressions for all significant process quantities. The only computations required are for the solution of non-stiff linear, elliptic, two-dimensional boundary-value, and eigenvalue problems. This approach, via the method of matched asymptotic expansions, takes advantage of the small aspect ratio of the layer, $\epsilon$, at precisely the stage where full numerical computations become stiff, and also reveals the detailed structure of the dynamics of the flow, both in the neighbourhood of wells and away from wells.

Evaluation by volatile profile of the synergistic antioxidant effect between bovine serum albumin and virgin olive oil phenolic compounds in an oil-in-water emulsion

THE OXIDATIVE STABILITY OF OIL-IN-WATER EMULSIONS, CONTAINING BOVINE SERUM ALBUMIN (BSA) AND VIRGIN OLIVE OIL PHENOLIC COMPOUNDS, WAS STUDIED BY THE DETERMINATION OF THE FORMATION OF VOLATILE OXIDATION PRODUCTS. FOUR OIL-IN-WATER EMULSIONS WITH AND WITHOUT PHENOLS ISOLATED FROM VIRGIN OLIVE OIL AND BSA WERE PREPARED. THESE MODEL SYSTEMS WERE STORED AT 60 degrees C TO ACCELERATE LIPID OXIDATION. VOLATILE OXIDATION PRODUCTS WERE MONITORED EVERY THREE DAYS BY HEADSPACE SOLID-PHASE MICROEXTRACTION COUPLED WITH GAS CHROMATOGRAPHY. ALTHOUGH INDIVIDUALLY OLIVE OIL PHENOLIC COMPOUNDS AND BSA SHOWED A SIGNIFICANT ANTIOXIDANT ACTIVITY, THE COMBINATION OF THESE COMPONENTS SHOWED A VERY GOOD SYNERGY, QUANTIFIED AS 127%. IN FACT, THE EMULSION CONTAINING BOTH PHENOLIC COMPOUNDS AND BSA SHOWED A VERY LOW LEVEL OF OXIDATIVE DETERIORATION AFTER 45 DAYS STORAGE.

Effects of forage source and soybean and marine algal oil supplementation on milk fatty acid composition in ewes

The objective of the present studies was to determine effects of basal dietary forage source on the response of milk fatty acid composition to an oil supplement based (2:1, respectively, w/w) on soybean oil and marine algae biomass oil high in cis-9, cis-12 C18:2n − 3 and C22:6n − 3, respectively. In Study 1, Hampshire × Dorset ewes (48) were randomly assigned to one of four treatments and 12 pens in a completely randomized design blocked on the basis of lambing date and number of lambs suckled. Control rations (60:40 forage:concentrate, dry matter (DM) basis) based on alfalfa pellets (AP) or corn silage (CS) were fed from lambing. Beginning at 22 days postpartum, three pens of ewes fed AP and three pens of ewes fed CS were supplemented with oil (30 g/kg of ration DM) in place of corn meal. Average ewe DM intake (DMI) and average daily gain (ADG) were measured weekly. Milk yield and composition were measured at 42 days postpartum. DMI was lower (P<0.02) for CS and for oil, but milk yield was not affected by forage source or oil supplementation. Milk fat content was higher for oil (P<0.10) and milk protein content was higher for AP (P<0.04). Total CLA concentration (g/100 g fatty acids) increased (P<0.01) with CS and oil, and the response to oil was greater for AP (P<0.04). Similarly, total trans-C18:1 and C22:6ω−3 concentrations were higher for CS and oil, but the response to oil was greater for CS (P<0.06 and P<0.01, respectively). In Study 2, the experiment was repeated using alfalfa haylage (AH) instead of AP. The DMI decreased (P<0.05) with oil feeding, but was not affected by forage source. Milk yield was decreased by feeding oil with AH, but not by feeding oil with CS (P<0.03). Milk fat content tended to be increased by feeding oil with AH, but tended to be decreased by feeding oil with CS (P<0.08). Total CLA concentration was increased (P<0.01) for AH versus CS and by oil, and the response to oil supplementation was greater for AH (P<0.01). In contrast, total trans-C18:1 concentration was higher for CS versus AH, with a greater response to oil for CS (P<0.05). Feeding marine oil increased the C22:6ω−3 (P<0.01) concentration, and the response was greater for AH (P<0.04). To further characterize the response of milk fat composition to dietary oil in ewes, a third study used six pens of three ewes each assigned to either the control CS diet used for Study 2 or the same diet supplemented with 45 g/kg (DM basis) of the oil mixture. Feeding oil had no effect on DMI, milk yield or milk fat concentration, but again increased (P<0.001) total trans-C18:1 and C22:6ω−3 concentrations and numerically increased (114%) total CLA concentration. Milk fatty acid composition responses to supplemental vegetable and marine oils were affected by forage source. Milk trans-C18:1 concentration was higher when CS was fed in Studies 1 and 2, but the effect of forage species on CLA concentration differed between studies, which may reflect differences in diet PUFA content and consumption, as well as amounts of dietary starch and fiber consumed. Despite large increases in trans-C18:1 concentration, milk fat content was not decreased by feeding unsaturated oils to ewes, even at diet levels of 45 g/kg of ration DM.