Published in Scientific Bulletin. Series F. Biotechnologies, Vol. XXII
Written by Elena COARFĂ, Mona Elena POPA

In the last years studies point out the fact that the red wine is one of the most consumed beverages over the world. Appreciation of quality in food products is a complex process and is often based on multi-dimensional facets, whose measurement requires clearly validated scales. Factors that influence the overall perception of wines in terms of quality are: geographical origin – ground type, climate, grape variety - and authenticity. One of the most important indicator of the red wine is polyphenolic compounds, such as flavonoids, anthocyanins and tannins present in large quantities in wine, especially in red wines; their composition in wine being influenced by the varieties, the vintage and the wineries. The aim of the present work is to make a short review about three types of wines: Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Feteasca neagra quality attributes in order to establish the relationship of the intrinsic characteristics of each individual product and the extrinsic attributes and to adapt the scale to each considered product.

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Published in Scientific Bulletin. Series F. Biotechnologies, Vol. XXII
Written by Paul-Alexandru POPESCU, Amalia Carmen MITELUŢ, Elena POPA, Mona Elena POPA

Food processing is the process of transforming raw materials into consumer products and maintaining their quality during storage, transport and sell time. The food processing objectives are focused in particular on adapting the properties of the finished products to the physiological and nutritional requirements. In this framework, the avoidance and reduction of microbiological contamination by using thermal processing treatments, food quality is lost due to enzyme reactions, and limiting these losses is a major concern of the food industry. Alongside onventional methods of thermally treating food, a number of modern methods of treatment are being applied to food processing, such as: PEFpulsed electric field treatment, irradiation with x-ray, utilization of antimicrobial essential oils and many others. The reasons for developing and applying new, modern methods in food processing are as follows: maintaining and increasing nutritional values; preventing microbiological spoilage; increasing the technological characteristics of raw materials and semi-finished products; increasing product diversity and increasing the value of ready-made products. In this review are shown the newest techniques used in the processing and conservation of agricultural food products.

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Published in Scientific Bulletin. Series F. Biotechnologies, Vol. XXI
Written by Radiana-Maria TAMBA-BEREHOIU, Ciprian-Nicolae POPA, Mira Oana TURTOI, Luminița Valerica VIȘAN

The aim of this research was to identify the main changes that the addition of calcium lactate induces to rheological properties of dough, in industrial environment. In this regard, a number of 62 wheat flours, coming from Romanian wheat, were additivated with variable amounts of calcium lactate, ranging from 10 to 300 g/100 kg. Both the control flours and the additivated flours with calcium lactate have been evaluated in terms of rheology, using the alveographic method. The results showed that treatment with calcium lactate caused a very significant increase of following parameters: Resistance (P, mm; t= 4.864***), dough capacity to absorb Mechanical work (W, 10-4 J/gram; t = 6.990***) and the ratio between Resistance and Extensibility (P/L; t=7.174***). Elasticity parameter increased significantly in dough treated with calcium lactate, compared to control flours. Also, treatments with calcium lactate caused a very significant decrease of some parameters, such as: Extensibility (L, mm; t=-2.751**, and gluten extensibility index (G). There were significant correlations between the amounts of added calcium lactate and the modification of Resistance (r=0.66***), Extensibility (r=-0.56***) and the P/L ratio (r = 0.85***).

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Published in Scientific Bulletin. Series F. Biotechnologies, Vol. XXII
Written by Monica BOSCAIU, Miguel NARANJO, Oscar VICENTE

The forecasted effects of climate change – higher average temperatures, more intense and frequent droughts, increasing scarcity of water for irrigation – will worsen the problem of stress-induced reduction of crop yields, especially in arid regions. Development of new crop cultivars with enhanced tolerance to drought and salinity is probably the most promising strategy to improve agricultural productivity and food production. Some recent examples predict that this goal will be achieved in the near future using both, traditional breeding (with the help of new biotechnological tools) and genetic engineering. A complementary strategy could be based on the domestication of wild species naturally tolerant to stress. Optimizing plant nutrition with new and improved fertilizers will also contribute to stress tolerance of our present crops, as more resources will be available to maintain growth while activating defense mechanisms. There is also an increasing interest in the so-called 'biostimulants’, a disparate group of unrelated substances that enhance crop quality traits, nutrition efficiency and/or abiotic stress tolerance, also contributing to increased yields under stress conditions. Examples of all these strategies are presented and discussed.

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Published in Scientific Bulletin. Series F. Biotechnologies, Vol. XXII
Written by Cătălin-Costin ONIGA, Ștefana JURCOANE, Dorina MOCUȚA, Adrian TUREK RAHOVEANU

Recirculating aquaculture systems have experienced a remarkable growth over the last decade all over the world. Aquaponics is a soilless agriculture system that synergistically combines aquaculture and hydroponics. The paper presents different types of aquaponic system designs that can sustain many fresh water species of fish like Carp and Tilapia. Aquaponics has great potential to become a sustainable technology for nitrogen-rich waste remediation with simultaneous year-round production of high quality fish and vegetables while conserving the water. The common carp (Cyprinus carpio) was the first species developed to have an organic production standard in 1994 in Austria. Later on organic aquaculture standards have been created for other species of fish and sea food. This review provides some necessary background to worldwide conventional small scale aquaponic systems.

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Published in Scientific Bulletin. Series F. Biotechnologies, Vol. XX
Written by Maria Rodica GURAU, Stelian BARAITAREANU, Marius Andrei MANESCU, Mihaela Cristiana POPP, Doina DANES

Several molecular methods have been developed for diagnostic or surveillance of those agents of emerging infectious diseases, including for the Schmallenberg-Simbu group viruses. Serological surveillance of the Schmallenberg-Simbu group viruses in Romania revealed the presence of positive ruminants and it rise up the question about the presence of virus into the environment. In this frame, the paper has described preliminary studies concerning the optimisation of classical RT-PCR of pan-Simbu virus group. We used the OneStep RT-PCR Kit and made minor changes as follows. For one reaction were used 5 μl 5x OneStep RT-PCR Buffer, 1.5 μl dNTP 10 mM, 1.5 μl OneStep RT-PCR Enzyme Mix, 4 μl primer panOBV-L-2959 F 10 μM, 4 μl primer panOBV-L-3274R 10 μM and 9 μl RNase-free water. Into reaction tubes were transferred 25 μL master mix + 10 μL sample. Thermal cycling program consisted of one cycle of 50°C - 30 min and one cycle of 95°C - 15 min, followed by 42 cycles of 95°C - 30 s, 55°C - 30 s, 72°C - 30 s and 72°C - 10 min. All results obtained by real time RT-PCR (virotype SBV RT-PCR Kit) and classical RT-PCR were correlated with the quantity of estimated RNA by fluorometry. The sensitivity of classical RT-PCR was lower than sensitivity of real time RT-PCR, the positive result being acquired at a minimum of 3.91 ng/μl RNA per sample. The specificity of methods was the same, without non-specific electrophoretic bands detection. Therefore, our classical RT-PCR protocol can be a useful tool in evaluation of virus circulation in countries with or without history of associated Simbu disease in livestock, or with reported seroconversion.

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Published in Scientific Bulletin. Series F. Biotechnologies, Vol. XX
Written by Luminiţa Valerica VIŞAN, Ricuţa Vasilica DOBRINOIU, Silvana DANAILA-GUIDEA, Diana GROPOSILA-CONSTANTINESCU

The chromatic profile of red wines is formed by the participation of various phenolic compounds: anthocyanin, tannins, flavones and phenolic acids; anthocyanin are polyphenolic substances with the most important role in the color of young wines. The evolution of red wine leads to changes of structures and chromatic properties of wine due to polymerization reactions, condensation and oxidation. Also the red wine color is influenced by region of origin, the wine grape variety and vintage year. There were studied chromatic characteristics of Romanianred wines as Pinot noir and Feteasca Neagră from two vineyards with different ecopedoclimatic conditions , Sâmbureşti and Ceptura (in southern Romania), the 2011 year harvest. The polyphenolic composition of wines was assessedby the content in total polyphenols, tannins and anthocyanin. A wine tannin structure was analysed by their concentration in condensed tannins (HCL index), astringent tannins (gelatine index) and tannin-polysaccharide complex (ethanol index). Analyses have been carried out in the wine by UV-VIS spectrometry techniques. Total content of polyphenols have been determined by the DO280 index. Tannins have been determined by the Ribereau-Gayon method, tannin structure after Glories method; anthocyanins were determined by the discoloration technique with SO2. The study on color of red wines analysed during their evolution referred to the study of chromatic parameters, the content of anthocyanin monomers and polymers (Glories method).

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Published in Scientific Bulletin. Series F. Biotechnologies, Vol. XXI
Written by Mariana-Grațiela SOARE (VLADU), Caterina TOMULESCU, Liliana-Claudia BLASS, Narcisa BĂBEANU

The microbial antagonists represent natural means to combat the phytopathogens in order to obtain healthy crops. The abiotic factors such as temperature, pH, NaCl concentration in the growth medium and medium composition have decisive influence on the existence and development of microorganisms. Here are presented the results of the influence of these factors on development of Pseudomonas sp. and Bacillus sp. strains. Two of these strains, B1 and Bm, identified as Pseudomonas putida respectively Bacillus mycoides were recently isolated and showed remarkable activity in in vitro biocontrol of the phytopathogens Erwnia carotovora and Xanthomonas campestris. During experiments were tested, in the same conditions, two other strains Bacillus subtilis ICCF 84 and Pseudomonas putida ICCF 391 from CultureCollection of Industrial Importance Microorganisms (CMII). To study the influence of abiotic factors were chosen five values of temperature, five for the pH and five values for concentration of NaCl from medium. The best results regarding microbial growth were obtained for temperature values of 28 and 32°C, NaCl concentration in the culture medium between 0.5-4% and the pH between 5 and 8. Regarding the composition of the culture medium, of the four types of media, the best for the antagonists growth and development proved to be the medium M44 containing yeast extract, peptone and glycerol.

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Published in Scientific Bulletin. Series F. Biotechnologies, Vol. XX
Written by BOTAU Dorica, PIRVULESCU Panfil, Alexa Ersilia

The flour obtained from sprouted grains is successfully used in the composition of functional and dietetic foods. Due to the high content of active ingredients and good bioavailability of their nutritional compounds, the products made from sprouted grain flour have a higher quality in comparison with classic foods. By using white wheat flour and flour from germinated oats in different percentages (5%, 10% and 15%), we obtained a bakery product: bread with sprouted oats, which has been characterized in term of physical-chemical parameters. The addition of germinated oat flour in raw material diminishes gluten content and enhances the ability of flour hydration, which increases the elastic properties of the product and its storage life. Sprouted oat bread is distinguished by a high content of minerals(15% sprouted germinated oat flour added). The amount of carbohydrates is reduced to20% in bread with 15% sprouted germinated oat flour and this product is recommended in the hypoglycemicdiet.

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Published in Scientific Bulletin. Series F. Biotechnologies, Vol. XXII
Written by Luminiţa Raluca SIMIONESCU, Narcisa BĂBEANU, Călina Petruţa CORNEA

The paper aimed to present the distribution of the incidence of genetically modified vegetable like raw materials in Romania, during the period 2012 - 2017, including Calarasi, Iasi, Salaj, Satu-Mare, Suceava, Tulcea, Constanta, Bucuresti counties. It is based on the statistical data provided by National Sanitary Veterinary and Food Safety Authority, submitted by specialized molecular biology laboratories. The data have been processed into the following indicators: species, type of material or product, type of detection and identification method, GMO’s specific genetic structures and transformation events identified, degree of transformation compared to the European Union rate of 0,9% for necessary labeling. During the analyzed period, a number of samples ranging from 200 to 300 were analyzed annually. The raw material samples were grains, groats, flours from genetically modified plants, as well as finished products of food or feed, like biscuits, chocolate, bakery products. For the analyzed samples, genetic transformation processes were detected, but without exceeding the limit of 0.9% and not labeled as GMO. As a conclusion, on the Romanian market are safe genetically modified foods and feeds and the traceability and labeling of GMOs are respected.

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