Published in Scientific Bulletin. Series F. Biotechnologies, Vol. XX
Written by Mariana CĂLIN, Olguţa DRĂCEA, Iuliana RĂUT, Gelu VASILESCU, Mihaela BADEA DONI, Melania Liliana ARSENE, Elvira ALEXANDRESCU, Diana CONSTANTINESCU-ARUXANDEI, Luiza JECU, Veronica LAZĂR

Keratinophylic fungi are present in the environment with a variable distribution, being influenced by human and animal presence and playing an important role in the biodegradation of keratinized substrates (skin, hair shaft, nails, claws, horns, wool and feathers). These fungi are geophilic, zoophilic and anthropofilic. Keratinophylic fungi have the ability to degrade keratinized materials, using the keratin as the sole source of carbon and nitrogen. This behaviour is based on the activity of keratinases, enzymes belonging to the group of proteases that can specifically degrade keratin. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the biodegradative ability of some keratinophylic fungal strains, clinical and geophilic isolates. The tested keratinized substrates were represented by animal hair strands. The rate of keratinized substrates biodegradation was expressed as weight loss over three weeks of incubation in minimal liquid medium in an orbital incubator. The morphological changes of hair samples were observed by light microscopy and scanning electron microscopy (SEM).

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Published in Scientific Bulletin. Series F. Biotechnologies, Vol. XXI
Written by Sevil SAGLAM

Bitter gourd (Momordica charantia L.) belongs to the family Cucurbiteceae. It is widely consumed as a vegetable and especially as a folk medicine in Asia. This review outlines the work done on the tissue culture of Momordica charantia L.. Commonly known as karela or bitter melon and contains bright red seeds due to high lycopene, a pigment that can be used as an artificial food colorant. Bitter gourd protein has been reported to have HIV inhibitor properties. The fruits of bitter gourd contain nutritionally useful essential minerals and amino acids. It has hypoglycemic activity which reduces the blood glucose, antitumor activity and antispermatogenic and androgenic activities. It is a common food item of the tropics and is used for the treatment of cancer, diabetes, AIDS and many ailments. It has also include alkaloids, insulin like peptides, and a mixture of steroidal sapogenins known as charantin. Bitter gourd is tolerant to a range of limiting factors of the environments and can be grown in tropical and subtropical climates. Improvement of this crop and development of new varieties are obviously necessary which could be done through the applications of modern techniques of biotechnology. Plant tissue culture is one of the biotechnological technique to culture plant cells or tissues under controlled aseptic conditions on artificial medium and is used to some degree in the improvement of almost every major agronomic, vegetable and fibre crop species. It has value in basic research like cell biology, genetic transformation studies and biochemistry for the production of medicinally valuable secondary metabolites. Some limited efforts have been made for the improvement of this crop using biotechnological techniques like: type of explants (auxin, cytokinin), media composition, growth conditions, genotypes.

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Published in Scientific Bulletin. Series F. Biotechnologies, Vol. XXII
Written by Ivaylo SIRAKOV, Katya VELICHKOVA, Desislava SLAVCHEVA-SIRAKOVA

In current study the antibacterial activity of different medicinal herbs against fish pathogen Aeromonas hydrophila was evaluated. The water extract of medicinal herbs (Glycyrrhiza glabra, Rhodiola rosea, Althaea officinalis, Sambucus nigra, Inula helenium, Pinus sylvestris, Ocimum basilicum, Salvia officinalis) were prepared by the following method: the plants were extracted in water solution at proportion 1:10. The received homogeny solutions were filtered and centrifuged at 7000 rpm for 30 minutes. Afterwards the extracts were filtered with sterile syringe filters with the size 0.2 μm. The bacterial strain of Aeromonas hydrophila (АТСС 7965) was used in current research. The bacterial activity of plant extract against Aeromonas hydrophila were tested with disk diffusion method. The highest antibacterial effect against Aeromonas hydrophila were determined in water extract of Salvia officinalis and its inhibition zone was higher with 33.34% compared with the size of zone measured for the control variant.

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Published in Scientific Bulletin. Series F. Biotechnologies, Vol. XX
Written by Mihaela DUȚU, Aurel ARDELEAN, Mirela ARDELEAN, Dorina CACHIŢĂ-COSMA, BURDUCEA Marian, Andrei LOBIUC, Elida ROSENHECH

According to information published in various specialized articles and those taken from traditional beliefs, goji fruit is considered to be an important antioxidant, antidiabetic, and a natural source with excellent effects on the cardiovascular system and in decreasing the level of cholesterol in the human body. The present study was conducted to develop a method of optimizing the content of antioxidants. Therefore, we initiated the in vitro culture of goji plants from meristematic apexes of plants harvested from 30-day-old germinated seeds generated from the substrate septic consisting of peat mixed with perlite. The culture medium used was Murashige & Skoog supplemented with 0.5 mg / l IBA (indolyl butyric acid) and 0.5 mg / l BA (benzyladenine). Plants containers were exposed to light of different colors fluorescent tubes from Osram company and the following lengths wave: white; blue- 473 nm; green- 533 nm; yellow 580 nm; red-680 nm. Chamber growth temperature was 23°C ± 2°C, between light and 20°C ± 2°C, during hours of darkness, photoperiod of 16 hours light and 8 hours darkness. At the age of 60 days these vitro seedlings have undergone physiological and biochemical analyzes. Red light, green and yellow stimulates growth length of vitro seedlings and blue light produce small and stocky plants and even growth slowing. Blue light has increased the total content of assimilating pigments and content of antioxidants (phenols, flavonoids) were increased by the yellow and white light. The antioxidant capacity was also higher in vitroplants grown in blue light and lowest in red light.

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Published in Scientific Bulletin. Series F. Biotechnologies, Vol. XX
Written by Ioan I. ARDELEAN, Damian MANEA

This paper presents results concerning the indoor cultivation of selected mixed populations of photosynthetic microorganisms using BG11medium as well as a cheaper medium based on chemical fertilizers and residual glycerol. Preliminary financial evaluations are also presented in order to focus on the economical constraints. The growth of selected oil- containing consortia of photosynthetic microorganisms in 90L of BG11(prepared in spring water) produced in 14 days 285 grams of dry weight biomass containing 28% of lipids; the cost (taking into account only chemicals and water) of 1 Kg of dry biomass means 83.3 lei; whereas the same consortium grown in 30L of alternative medium, prepared with agricultural fertilizers, residual glycerol and spring water produced in 14 days 150g grams of dry weight biomass containing 20% of lipids; the cost (taking into account only chemicals and water) of 1 Kg of dry biomass is 3.2 lei.

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Published in Scientific Bulletin. Series F. Biotechnologies, Vol. XXI
Written by Mariana CĂLIN, Iuliana RĂUT, Diana CONSTANTINESCU-ARUXANDEI, Mihaela BADEA DONI, Melania-Liliana ARSENE, Nicoleta-Olguţa CORNELI, Gelu VASILESCU, Luiza JECU, Mariana Ştefania BUCUR, Veronica LAZĂR

The aim of this study was to investigate the influence of culture conditions on growth of keratinophilic fungal strain of Chrysosporium sp. in the presence or absence of keratin substrate. The effect of pH, temperature, carbon and nitrogen sources on fungal growth and sporulation was evaluated. The pH values ranged from 4 to 9.5 and the incubation temperature ranged from 20°C to 35°C. Glucose, fructose, maltose, sucrose, starch and cellulose were used as carbon sources. As nitrogen source, yeast extract, ammonium salts, urea and vitamin B12 were tested. All tests were also performed with basal mineral culture medium supplemented with keratin powder from chicken feathers. The feathers were cleaned with ethylic alcohol, washed with distilled water, dried at 60°C and finally grounded several times with a Retsch ball mill until a fine powder was obtained. The influence of the culture conditions on growth was assessed by measuring the diameter of the colonies grown on the solid medium after 5 and 10 days of incubation. The colony sporulation degree was appreciated macroscopically and microscopically. The presence of keratin in the culture media stimulated distinctly the fungal growth as compared to the culture media without keratin. Alkaline pH and temperatures between 27 and 30°C are optimal for its growth. Certain C and N sources can stimulate the fungal growth, but this seems to be influenced by the incubation time.

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Published in Scientific Bulletin. Series F. Biotechnologies, Vol. XX
Written by Alina SIMINA, Manuela CRISAN, Sorin CIULCA, Dorica BOTAU

Medicinal plants and their products are an important solution to improve the treatment of people in the whole world. Momordica charantia L. is a well-known species for its biological activity (antioxidant and antimicrobial activity) and contains a complex of beneficial compounds such as: vitamins, minerals and antioxidants that can be used for treating a wide range of illnesses, especially diabetes. Plant tissue culture is an important and facile method for the somatic variability induction and tissue lines selection inorder to obtain valuable secondary metabolites. The use of the substances that control growth and synthesis capacity of tissues allow us to produce under aseptic conditions significant quantities of plant metabolites. The controlled conditions give to the tissue culture a suitable microenvironment for the successful growth and biosynthesis. Phytohormons and other substances with the same effect can determine in tissue culture the increase of biosynthetic capacity which can lead to obtaining and selection of proliferative tissue lines producing secondary metabolites. The present work aims to study the influence on M. charantia L. tissue culture of a new biological active compound, diethanolamine salt of 4-nitrobenzoic acid (4-NO2BA DEA), synthesized by the Institute of Chemistry Timisoara of Romanian Academy. In this research we used 6 hormonal balances in which we associated 4-NO2BA DEA with cytokinin BAP and also the new compound alone on the MS culture medium, for the selection of tissue lines with high growth capacity.We note that increasing the amount of 4-NO2BA DEA in the MS culture medium could have beneficial effects on tissue culture at M. charantia.

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Published in Scientific Bulletin. Series F. Biotechnologies, Vol. XX
Written by Andreea TICAN, Mihaela CIOLOCA, Nicoleta CHIRU, Carmen BĂDĂRĂU

Necessity of finding genotypes adapted to drought has become urgent due to the effect of this type of stress on potato production. The most important phase, indispensable for improving drought tolerance is to identify genotypes tolerant and sensitive to drought. In this study, to induce in vitro water stress were used polyethylene glycol and sorbitol that was comparable with the basic medium MS, considered control. Determinations were performed 4 weeks after inoculation of mini cuttings belonging to five varieties of plantlets (Ruxandra, Sarmis, Gared, Marvis, Rustic) and the parameters analyzed were next: number of leaves, number of internodes, height of plantlets, root length, weight of fresh plantlet, weight of fresh root. Medium in which was added PEG with different concentrations significantly reduced the average weight of fresh plantlet and root compared with the control medium and medium with sorbitol and significantly reduced the mean number of internodes, the average height of the plantlet, the average root length. This osmotic agent (PEG) can be recommended for in vitro simulation of drought to identify tolerant genotypes to hydric stress.

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Published in Scientific Bulletin. Series F. Biotechnologies, Vol. XXI
Written by Mioara NEGOIȚĂ, Adriana Laura MIHAI, Enuța IORGA

The objective of this study was to investigate the influence of wheat flour extraction degree and baking parameters on acrylamide (AA) level in biscuits by using gas chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (GC-MS/MS). Color parameters were analyzed in an attempt to establish correlations with the investigated factors. Biscuits baked between 25 min ÷ 60 min at 200°C recorded values of AA level < LOD (4.63 μg/kg) to about 1.580 μg/kg. By baking biscuits at a temperature varying between 220°C ÷ 240°C for 20 min the AA level increased from 67.44 to 212.87 μg/kg. The highest AA level and the darkest color was obtained when using in the biscuits recipe the whole-wheat flour (F3) with an ash content of 2.37% d.m. (1580.33 μg/kg, ΔE*= 35.66), followed by white flour F1 with 0.53% d.m. (387.82 μg/kg, ΔE* = 61.79), respectively F2 with 0.44% d.m. (308.38 μg/kg, ΔE* = 67.47). From the results obtained it can be said that the AA level is strongly influenced by biscuits baking parameters (temperature and baking time) and by the ash content of wheat flour used in the manufacture recipe.

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Published in Scientific Bulletin. Series F. Biotechnologies, Vol. XX
Written by Elena MIHAI (DRĂGHICI), Maria PELE

Food allergies have a considerable impact on modern society. There is no known cure. As a result, consumers can only avoid offending foods and use pharmacological agents. Some of the most severe allergic reactions occur when peanuts and peanut derivatives as peanut oils are consumed. The food industry will have to comply with requirements set forth by law for all packaged foods sold in the European Union. At times, it can be difficult to measure allergenic proteins in a wide variety of foods. Yet the food matrix can sequester allergens, inhibiting their detection, without significantly affecting allergenicity. The studies about allergenicity of edible oils and related to peanut oils are few and enough controversies. Some studies showed the presence of peanut allergens some not. It has to be emphasised that different studies used different methods for extraction, concentration and detection the peanut traces so the results had difficult been compared. In this context we investigated some extraction and concentration methods for the recovery of proteins from oils and fats derived from, or containing, peanut. The recovery of total protein and peanut allergens are very different for each method. Our result show how much the results depend on the method used to extract or/and concentrate the proteins from different matrices. The influence of solvent plays an important role in that process. Interactions with lipids of protein may alter the possibility to detect and quantify them by a hiding allergen/protein effect.

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