Consumption of vegetables, fruit and other plant foods in the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC) cohorts from 10 European countries.

OBJECTIVE To describe and compare the consumption of the main groups and sub-groups of vegetables and fruits (V&F) in men and women from the centres participating in the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC). DESIGN Cross-sectional analysis. Dietary intake was assessed by means of a 24-hour dietary recall using computerised interview software and standardised procedures. Crude and adjusted means were computed for the main groups and sub-groups of V&F by centre, separately for men and women. Adjusted means by season, day of the week and age were estimated using weights and covariance analysis. SETTING Twenty-seven centres in 10 European countries participating in the EPIC project. SUBJECTS In total, 35 955 subjects (13 031 men and 22 924 women), aged 35-74 years, randomly selected from each EPIC cohort. RESULTS The centres from southern countries had the highest consumption of V&F, while the lowest intake was seen in The Netherlands and Scandinavia for both genders. These differences were more evident for fruits, particularly citrus. However, slightly different patterns arose for some sub-groups of vegetables, such as root vegetables and cabbage. Adjustment for body mass index, physical activity, smoking habits and education did not substantially modify the mean intakes of vegetables and fruits. CONCLUSIONS Total vegetable and fruit intake follows a south-north gradient in both genders, whereas for several sub-groups of vegetables a different geographic distribution exists. Differences in mean intake of V&F by centre were not explained by lifestyle factors associated with V&F intake.

Condiments before Claudius: new plant foods at the Late Iron Age oppidum at Silchester, UK

Our understanding of the introduction and adoption of new plant foods in Roman Britain is currently limited by a lack of data from a group of Late Iron Age settlements commonly referred to as oppida (large pre-Roman towns). This paper presents the first evidence of several imported plant foods from Late Iron Age Britain in the form of waterlogged plant remains from the oppidum at Silchester. These were recovered from the basal contexts of two wells, dated to the early first century a.d. One olive stone and several seeds of celery, coriander and dill were identified. The results are compared to archaeobotanical data from elsewhere in Britain and northwestern Europe, demonstrating that Silchester is part of the wider phenomenon of the adoption of new flavourings and fruits in Late Iron Age Europe.

Prewar world production and consumption of plant foods in fertilizers /

"April 1946."

From the field to the table: ionizing radiation as a feasible postharvest treatment for fresh and dried plant foods

Food irradiation is a treatment that involves subjecting in-bulk or packaged food to a controlled dose of ionizing radiation, with a clearly defined goal. It has been used for disinfestation and sanitization of food commodities and to retard postharvest ripening and senescence processes, being a sustainable alternative to chemical agents 1 . Doses up to 10 kGy are approved by several international authorities for not offering negative effects to food from a nutrition and toxicology point of view 2 . However, the adoption of this technology for food applications has been a slow process due to some misunderstandings by the consumer who often chooses non-irradiated foods. In this study, the effects of the ionizing radiation treatment on physical, chemical and bioactive properties of dried herbs and its suitability for preserving quality attributes of fresh vegetables during cold storage were evaluated. The studied herbs, perennial spotted rockrose (Tuberaria lignosa (Sweet) Samp.) and common mallow (Malva neglecta Wallr.) were freeze-dried and then irradiated up to 10 kGy in a Cobalt-60 chamber. The selected vegetables, watercress (Nasturtium officinale R. Br.) and buckler sorrel (Rumex induratus Boiss. Reut.) were rinsed in tap water, packaged in polyethylene bags, submitted to irradiation doses up to 6 kGy and then were stored at 4 C for a period of up to 12 days. Physical, chemical and bioactive parameters of irradiated and non-irradiated samples were evaluated using different methodologies the colour was measured with a colorimeter, individual chemical compounds were analyzed by chromatographic techniques, antioxidant properties were evaluated using in vitro assays based on different reaction mechanisms, and other quality analyses were performed following official methods of analysis. The irradiation treatment did not significantly affect the colour of the perennial spotted rockrose samples, or its phenolic composition and antioxidant activity 3 . Medium doses preserved the colour of common mallow and a low dose did not induce any adverse effect in the organic acids profile. The green colour of the irradiated vegetables was maintained during cold storage but the treatment had pros and cons in other quality attributes. The 2 kGy dose preserved free sugars and favoured polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) while the 5 kGy dose favoured tocopherols and preserved the antioxidant properties in watercress samples. The 6 kGy dose was a suitable option for preserving PUFA and the ω-6 ω-3 fatty acids ratio in buckler sorrel samples. This comprehensive experimental work allowed selecting appropriate processing doses for the studied plant foods in order to preserve its quality attributes and edibility.

Impacts of plant-based foods in ancestral hominin diets on the metabolism and function of gut microbiota in vitro

Ancestral human populations had diets containing more indigestible plant material than present-day diets in industrialized countries. One hypothesis for the rise in prevalence of obesity is that physiological mechanisms for controlling appetite evolved to match a diet with plant fiber content higher than that of present-day diets. We investigated how diet affects gut microbiota and colon cells by comparing human microbial communities with those from a primate that has an extreme plant-based diet, namely, the gelada baboon, which is a grazer. The effects of potato (high starch) versus grass (high lignin and cellulose) diets on human-derived versus gelada-derived fecal communities were compared in vitro. We especially focused on the production of short-chain fatty acids, which are hypothesized to be key metabolites influencing appetite regulation pathways. The results confirmed that diet has a major effect on bacterial numbers, short-chain fatty acid production, and the release of hormones involved in appetite suppression. The potato diet yielded greater production of short-chain fatty acids and hormone release than the grass diet, even in the gelada cultures, which we had expected should be better adapted to the grass diet. The strong effects of diet on hormone release could not be explained, however, solely by short-chain fatty acid concentrations. Nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy found changes in additional metabolites, including betaine and isoleucine, that might play key roles in inhibiting and stimulating appetite suppression pathways. Our study results indicate that a broader array of metabolites might be involved in triggering gut hormone release in humans than previously thought. IMPORTANCE: One theory for rising levels of obesity in western populations is that the body's mechanisms for controlling appetite evolved to match ancestral diets with more low-energy plant foods. We investigated this idea by comparing the effects of diet on appetite suppression pathways via the use of gut bacterial communities from humans and gelada baboons, which are modern-day primates with an extreme diet of low-energy plant food, namely, grass. We found that diet does play a major role in affecting gut bacteria and the production of a hormone that suppresses appetite but not in the direction predicted by the ancestral diet hypothesis. Also, bacterial products were correlated with hormone release that were different from those normally thought to play this role. By comparing microbiota and diets outside the natural range for modern humans, we found a relationship between diet and appetite pathways that was more complex than previously hypothesized on the basis of more-controlled studies of the effects of single compounds.

The involvement of thaumatin-like proteins in plant food cross-reactivity: a multicenter study using a specific protein microarray

Cross-reactivity of plant foods is an important phenomenon in allergy, with geographical variations with respect to the number and prevalence of the allergens involved in this process, whose complexity requires detailed studies. We have addressed the role of thaumatin-like proteins (TLPs) in cross-reactivity between fruit and pollen allergies. A representative panel of 16 purified TLPs was printed onto an allergen microarray. The proteins selected belonged to the sources most frequently associated with peach allergy in representative regions of Spain. Sera from two groups of well characterized patients, one with allergy to Rosaceae fruit (FAG) and another against pollens but tolerant to food-plant allergens (PAG), were obtained from seven geographical areas with different environmental pollen profiles. Cross-reactivity between members of this family was demonstrated by inhibition assays. Only 6 out of 16 purified TLPs showed noticeable allergenic activity in the studied populations. Pru p 2.0201, the peach TLP (41%), chestnut TLP (24%) and plane pollen TLP (22%) proved to be allergens of probable relevance to fruit allergy, being mainly associated with pollen sensitization, and strongly linked to specific geographical areas such as Barcelona, Bilbao, the Canary Islands and Madrid. The patients exhibited >50% positive response to Pru p 2.0201 and to chestnut TLP in these specific areas. Therefore, their recognition patterns were associated with the geographical area, suggesting a role for pollen in the sensitization of these allergens. Finally, the co-sensitizations of patients considering pairs of TLP allergens were analyzed by using the co-sensitization graph associated with an allergen microarray immunoassay. Our data indicate that TLPs are significant allergens in plant food allergy and should be considered when diagnosing and treating pollen-food allergy.

Mechanical Properties of Plant Underground Storage Organs and Implications for Dietary Models of Early Hominins

The diet of early human ancestors has received renewed theoretical interest since the discovery of elevated d13C values in the enamel of Australopithecus africanus and Paranthropus robustus. As a result, the hominin diet is hypothesized to have included C4 grass or the tissues of animals which themselves consumed C4 grass. On mechanical grounds, such a diet is incompatible with the dental morphology and dental microwear of early hominins. Most inferences, particularly for Paranthropus, favor a diet of hard or mechanically resistant foods. This discrepancy has invigorated the longstanding hypothesis that hominins consumed plant underground storage organs (USOs). Plant USOs are attractive candidate foods because many bulbous grasses and cormous sedges use C4 photosynthesis. Yet mechanical data for USOs—or any putative hominin food—are scarcely known. To fill this empirical void we measured the mechanical properties of USOs from 98 plant species from across sub-Saharan Africa. We found that rhizomes were the most resistant to deformation and fracture, followed by tubers, corms, and bulbs. An important result of this study is that corms exhibited low toughness values (mean = 265.0 J m-2) and relatively high Young’s modulus values (mean = 4.9 MPa). This combination of properties fits many descriptions of the hominin diet as consisting of hard-brittle objects. When compared to corms, bulbs are tougher (mean = 325.0 J m-2) and less stiff (mean = 2.5 MPa). Again, this combination of traits resembles dietary inferences, especially for Australopithecus, which is predicted to have consumed soft-tough foods. Lastly, we observed the roasting behavior of Hadza hunter-gatherers and measured the effects of roasting on the toughness on undomesticated tubers. Our results support assumptions that roasting lessens the work of mastication, and, by inference, the cost of digestion. Together these findings provide the first mechanical basis for discussing the adaptive advantages of roasting tubers and the plausibility of USOs in the diet of early hominins.

The involvement of thaumatin-like proteins in plant food cross-reactivity: a multicenter study using a specific protein microarray.

Cross-reactivity of plant foods is an important phenomenon in allergy, with geographical variations with respect to the number and prevalence of the allergens involved in this process, whose complexity requires detailed studies. We have addressed the role of thaumatin-like proteins (TLPs) in cross-reactivity between fruit and pollen allergies. A representative panel of 16 purified TLPs was printed onto an allergen microarray. The proteins selected belonged to the sources most frequently associated with peach allergy in representative regions of Spain. Sera from two groups of well characterized patients, one with allergy to Rosaceae fruit (FAG) and another against pollens but tolerant to food-plant allergens (PAG), were obtained from seven geographical areas with different environmental pollen profiles. Cross-reactivity between members of this family was demonstrated by inhibition assays. Only 6 out of 16 purified TLPs showed noticeable allergenic activity in the studied populations. Pru p 2.0201, the peach TLP (41%), chestnut TLP (24%) and plane pollen TLP (22%) proved to be allergens of probable relevance to fruit allergy, being mainly associated with pollen sensitization, and strongly linked to specific geographical areas such as Barcelona, Bilbao, the Canary Islands and Madrid. The patients exhibited mayor que50% positive response to Pru p 2.0201 and to chestnut TLP in these specific areas. Therefore, their recognition patterns were associated with the geographical area, suggesting a role for pollen in the sensitization of these allergens. Finally, the co-sensitizations of patients considering pairs of TLP allergens were analyzed by using the co-sensitization graph associated with an allergen microarray immunoassay. Our data indicate that TLPs are significant allergens in plant food allergy and should be considered when diagnosing and treating pollen-food allergy.

An alternative pathway to β-carotene formation in plant chromoplasts discovered by map-based cloning of Beta and old-gold color mutations in tomato

Carotenoid pigments in plants fulfill indispensable functions in photosynthesis. Carotenoids that accumulate as secondary metabolites in chromoplasts provide distinct coloration to flowers and fruits. In this work we investigated the genetic mechanisms that regulate accumulation of carotenoids as secondary metabolites during ripening of tomato fruits. We analyzed two mutations that affect fruit pigmentation in tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum): Beta (B), a single dominant gene that increases β-carotene in the fruit, and old-gold (og), a recessive mutation that abolishes β-carotene and increases lycopene. Using a map-based cloning approach we cloned the genes B and og. Molecular analysis revealed that B encodes a novel type of lycopene β-cyclase, an enzyme that converts lycopene to β-carotene. The amino acid sequence of B is similar to capsanthin-capsorubin synthase, an enzyme that produces red xanthophylls in fruits of pepper (Capsicum annum). Our results prove that β-carotene is synthesized de novo during tomato fruit development by the B lycopene cyclase. In wild-type tomatoes B is expressed at low levels during the breaker stage of ripening, whereas in the Beta mutant its transcription is dramatically increased. Null mutations in the gene B are responsible for the phenotype in og, indicating that og is an allele of B. These results confirm that developmentally regulated transcription is the major mechanism that governs lycopene accumulation in ripening fruits. The cloned B genes can be used in various genetic manipulations toward altering pigmentation and enhancing nutritional value of plant foods.

Micronesian banana, taro, and other foods: newly recognized sources of provitamin A and other carotenoids

Vitamin A deficiency (VAD) and chronic diseases are serious problems in the Federated States of Micronesia and other Pacific island countries. Nutrition education programs to address these in Micronesia have had limited success, partly due to lack of information on nutrient content in local foods. The study objective was to identify local plant foods rich in provitamin A and other carotenoids that have high levels of cultural acceptability. Food cultivars likely to be carotenoid-rich (suggested by coloration) were identified using an ethnographic approach including key informant interviews. Raw and cooked samples (mostly cultivars previously not analyzed) of 12 banana, 13 giant swamp taro, 10 breadfruit cultivars and four other local foods were analyzed by high-performance liquid chromatography. Many banana and taro cultivars were found with significant levels of beta- and alpha-carotene; the beta-carotene levels ranged from 30 to 2780 mug/100 g (banana) and. 50 to 2040 mug/100 g (taro). The results highlight the potential significance of cultivar differences in human nutrition, important for evaluation of the diet, establishment of locally relevant dietary guidelines, and research on the relationship between diet, health, and disease. These highly acceptable food cultivars could play an important role in VAD and chronic disease prevention programs in the Pacific. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

Evaluation of physicochemical and glycaemic properties of commercial plant-based milk substitutes

The market for plant-based dairy-type products is growing as consumers replace bovine milk in their diet, for medical reasons or as a lifestyle choice. A screening of 17 different commercial plant-based milk substitutes based on different cereals, nuts and legumes was performed, including the evaluation of physicochemical and glycaemic properties. Half of the analysed samples had low or no protein contents (<0.5 %). Only samples based on soya showed considerable high protein contents, matching the value of cow’s milk (3.7 %). An in-vitro method was used to predict the glycaemic index. In general, the glycaemic index values ranged from 47 for bovine milk to 64 (almond-based) and up to 100 for rice-based samples. Most of the plant-based milk substitutes were highly unstable with separation rates up to 54.39 %/h. This study demonstrated that nutritional and physicochemical properties of plant-based milk substitutes are strongly dependent on the plant source, processing and fortification. Most products showed low nutritional qualities. Therefore, consumer awareness is important when plant-based milk substitutes are used as an alternative to cow’s milk in the diet.

Sensitization Prevalence, Antibody Cross-Reactivity and Immunogenic Peptide Profile of Api g 2, the Non-Specific Lipid Transfer Protein 1 of Celery

Background: Celery (Apium graveolens) represents a relevant allergen source that can elicit severe reactions in the adult population. To investigate the sensitization prevalence and cross-reactivity of Api g 2 from celery stalks in a Mediterranean population and in a mouse model. Methodology: 786 non-randomized subjects from Italy were screened for IgE reactivity to rApi g 2, rArt v 3 (mugwort pollen LTP) and nPru p 3 (peach LTP) using an allergen microarray. Clinical data of 32 selected patients with reactivity to LTP under investigation were evaluated. Specific IgE titers and cross-inhibitions were performed in ELISA and allergen microarray. Balb/c mice were immunized with purified LTPs; IgG titers were determined in ELISA and mediator release was examined using RBL-2H3 cells. Simulated endolysosomal digestion was performed using microsomes obtained from human DCs. Results: IgE testing showed a sensitization prevalence of 25.6% to Api g 2, 18.6% to Art v 3, and 28.6% to Pru p 3 and frequent co-sensitization and correlating IgE-reactivity was observed. 10/32 patients suffering from LTP-related allergy reported symptoms upon consumption of celery stalks which mainly presented as OAS. Considerable IgE cross-reactivity was observed between Api g 2, Art v 3, and Pru p 3 with varying inhibition degrees of individual patients' sera. Simulating LTP mono-sensitization in a mouse model showed development of more congruent antibody specificities between Api g 2 and Art v 3. Notably, biologically relevant murine IgE cross-reactivity was restricted to the latter and diverse from Pru p 3 epitopes. Endolysosomal processing of LTP showed generation of similar clusters, which presumably represent T-cell peptides. Conclusions: Api g 2 represents a relevant celery stalk allergen in the LTP-sensitized population. The molecule displays common B cell epitopes and endolysosomal peptides that encompass T cell epitopes with pollen and plant-food derived LTP.

Bioactive compounds and antioxidant capacities of 18 non-traditional tropical fruits from Brazil

The bioactive compounds and antioxidant capacities of polyphenolic extracts of 18 fresh and dry native non-traditional fruits from Brazil were determined using ABTS, DDPH, FRAP and beta-carotene bleaching methods. The study provides an adaptation of these methods, along with an evaluation of the compounds related to antioxidant potential. The results show promising perspectives for the exploitation of non-traditional tropical fruit species with considerable levels of nutrients and antioxidant capacity. Although evaluation methods and results reported have not yet been sufficiently standardised, making comparisons difficult, our data add valuable information to current knowledge of the nutritional properties of tropical fruits, such as the considerable antioxidant capacity found for acerola - Malpighia emarginata and camu-camu - Myrciaria dubia (ABTS, DPPH and FRAP) and for puca-preto - Mouriri pusa (all methods). (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Chemical Composition and Nutritional Value of Unripe Banana Flour (Musa acuminata, var. Nanico)

Banana flour obtained from unripe banana (Musa acuminata, var. Nanico) under specific drying conditions was evaluated regarding its chemical composition and nutritional value. Results are expressed in dry weight (dw). The unripe banana flour (UBF) presented a high amount of total dietary fiber (DF) (56.24 g/100 g), which consisted of resistant starch (RS) (48.99 g/100 g), fructans (0.05 g/100 g) and DF without RS or fructans (7.2 g/100 g). The contents of available starch (AS) (27.78 g/100 g) and soluble sugars (1.81 g/100 g) were low. The main phytosterols found were campesterol (4.1 mg/100 g), stigmasterol (2.5 mg/100 g) and beta-sitosterol (6.2 mg/100 g). The total polyphenol content was 50.65 mg GAE/100 g. Antioxidant activity, by the FRAP and ORAC methods, was moderated, being 358.67 and 261.00 mu mol of Trolox equivalent/100 g, respectively. The content of Zn, Ca and Fe and mineral dialyzability were low. The procedure used to obtain UBF resulted in the recovery of undamaged starch granules and in a low-energy product (597 kJ/100 g).