Inhibitory effect of essential oils against Lactobacillus rhamnosus and starter culture in fermented milk during its shelf-life period

The use of essential oils in foods has attracted great interest, due to their antagonistic action against pathogenic microorganisms. However, this action is undesirable for probiotic foods, as products containing Lactobacillus rhamnosus. The aim of the present study was to measure the sensitivity profile of L. rhamnosus and a yogurt starter culture in fermented milk, upon addition of increasing concentrations of cinnamon, clove and mint essential oils. Essential oils were prepared by steam distillation, and chemically characterised by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) and determination of density. Survival curves were obtained from counts of L. rhamnosus and the starter culture (alone and in combination), upon addition of 0.04% essential oils. In parallel, titratable acidity was monitored over 28 experimental days. Minimum inhibitory concentration values, obtained using the microdilution method in Brain Heart Infusion medium, were 0.025, 0.2 and 0.4% for cinnamon, clove and mint essential oils, respectively. Cinnamon essential oil had the highest antimicrobial activity, especially against the starter culture, interfering with lactic acid production. Although viable cell counts of L. rhamnosus were lower following treatment with all 3 essential oils, relative to controls, these results were not statistically significant; in addition, cell counts remained greater than the minimum count of 10(8)CFU/mL required for a product to be considered a probiotic. Thus, although use of cinnamon essential oil in yogurt makes starter culture fermentation unfeasible, it does not prevent the application of L. rhamnosus to probiotic fermented milk. Furthermore, clove and mint essential oil caused sublethal stress to L. rhamnosus.

Biotechnology and fish culture

Biotechnology can currently be considered of importance in aquaculture. The increase in the production of aquatic organisms over the last two decades through the use of biotechnology indicates that in a few generations biotechnology may overtake conventional techniques, at least for the commercially more valuable species. In the last few years, genetics has contributed greatly to fish culture through the application of the more recent techniques developed in biotechnology and in genetic engineering. At present, the most commonly used methods in fish biotechnology are chromosome manipulation and hormonal treatments, which can be used to produce triploid, tetraploid, haploid, gynogenetic and androgenetic fish. These result in the production of individuals and lineages of sterile, monosex or highly endogamic fish. The use of such strategies in fish culture has as a practical objective the control of precocious sexual maturation in certain species; other uses are the production of larger specimens by control of the reproductive process and the attainment of monosex lines containing only those individuals of greater commercial value. The use of new technologies, such as those involved in gene transfer in many species, can result in modified individuals of great interest to aquaculturists and play important roles in specific programmes of fish production in the near future.

Projeto Comédia Popular Brasileira da Fraternal Companhia de Arte e Malas-Artes (1993-2008): trajetória do ver, ouvir e imaginar

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Diagnostic accuracy of semi-quantitative and quantitative culture techniques for the diagnosis of catheter-related infections in newborns and molecular typing of isolated microorganisms

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Information access law and disclosing of information by joint-stock companies in Brazil: open data and Extensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL) standard

The strategic management of information plays a fundamental role in the organizational management process since the decision-making process depend on the need for survival in a highly competitive market. Companies are constantly concerned about information transparency and good practices of corporate governance (CG) which, in turn, directs relations between the controlling power of the company and investors. In this context, this article presents the relationship between the disclosing of information of joint-stock companies by means of using XBRL, the open data model adopted by the Brazilian government, a model that boosted the publication of Information Access Law (Lei de Acesso à Informação), nº 12,527 of 18 November 2011. Information access should be permeated by a mediation policy in order to subsidize the knowledge construction and decision-making of investors. The XBRL is the main model for the publishing of financial information. The use of XBRL by means of new semantic standard created for Linked Data, strengthens the information dissemination, as well as creates analysis mechanisms and cross-referencing of data with different open databases available on the Internet, providing added value to the data/information accessed by civil society.