Published in Scientific Bulletin. Series F. Biotechnologies, Vol. XX
Written by Iuliana BELEUZU BODA, Marius Cristian BODA

Multiple cider samples obtained from United Kingdom market were analyzed for their parameters before opening and after 24/48 hour storage on ambient conditions. We aimed to study the basic parameters such as color, turbidity and sulfites contained in different type of ciders. The first step to achieve our general aim was to select from the diversity of cider market and to assess the parameters used to conduct this study. The physical and chemical studies allow us to evaluate not only the diversity of the samples but also the how they behave in different ambient conditions. This information is essential for the selection of cider consumption and for better understanding of the selected parameters for further beverage studies, especially apple and pear made ones. Deviant variation from standard was found in more than half from twenty five samples analyzed. The results of previous studies showed that the defective storage conditions of cider might affect not just the bacteria contaminations, but that include also defective physical and chemical composition. The experiments exposed that weaknesses of the opened product that might become a quality, or more than that, a safety issue through its flawed parameters when these common conditions exist.

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Published in Scientific Bulletin. Series F. Biotechnologies, Vol. XX
Written by Radiana TAMBA-BEREHOIU, Ciprian–Nicolae POPA, Vasilica SIMION, Rodica CULEA

This paper aims to assess the quality and microbiological parameters of a range of wheat flours for domestic consumption, purchased on the Romanian market. In this regard there were purchased 20 samples of flour from 13 manufacturers. Quality parameters analyzed were: Moisture (%), Protein content (%), Ash content (%), Water absorbtion (%), Total combined Yeasts and Molds count (CFU/g) and the number of days until the deadline of the shelf life. The analyzed flours were characterized by the following variation ranges of the parameters: Moisture (%) 10.9 - 14.4, Protein content (%) 10.0 - 15.7, Ash content (%) 0.40 - 1.59, Water absorbtion (%) 57.0 - 61.9, Yeast and molds (CFU/g): 10-410, and number of days until the deadline of the shelf life: 9-326. The results showed that there are no significant correlations between analyzed parameters and the content of yeasts and molds. This suggests that the dynamics of yeasts and molds population in packed flours is dependent primarily on the processing conditions and less on the factors that act during the lifetime of the product on the shelf.

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Published in Scientific Bulletin. Series F. Biotechnologies, Vol. XX
Written by Oana-Alina SICUIA, Sorina DINU, Florica CONSTANTINESCU

Plant growth promoting activity is one of the attributes when searching for beneficial strains of bacteria. Our study aimed to present the potential of Bacillus sp. 83.2s and B. subtilis Bce2 to increase plant growth and vigour. The study is based on phytohormone - like evaluation in the selected Bacillus strains using classic biochemical analysis. Likewise, the plant beneficial effect was also evaluated by growth promotion studies on tomato seedlings, were biometric parameters and chlorophyll content index (CCI) were analyzed. The data have been processed into the following indicators: indole-3-acetic acid in bacterial cultures, and emergence, seedling height and vigour, shoot and root dry weight and CCI in tomatoes seedlings. Both bacterial strains produce high amounts of IAA phytohormones, from 10.4 - 13.8 μg/ml, in normal growth medium, up to 16.3 - 16.6 μg/ml, when 5 mM of tryptophan is added in the medium as auxin precursor. Moreover, B. subtilis Bce2 seed treatment, increased emergence index and seedlings vigour compared to the untreated control and exceeded the commercial growth regulator (Vimpel 77%) in terms of emergence percent, seedlings dry weight, and chlorophyll content index.

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Published in Scientific Bulletin. Series F. Biotechnologies, Vol. XXI
Written by Mihaela Marilena STANCU

Polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are major environmental pollutants, which are well known for their toxic effects on the organisms. However, different Pseudomonas strains are able to use these toxic compounds as growth substrate. Pseudomonas aeruginosa strain IBBPo16 was able to grow on nutrient-rich and minimal media in the presence of several toxic PAHs, such as naphthalene, methylnaphthalene, phenanthrene, fluorene. P. aeruginosa IBBPo16 cells exhibited a higher growth when they were inoculated on nutrient-rich medium in the presence of PAHs, as compared with growth on minimal medium. Naphthalene was less toxic for P. aeruginosa IBBPo16 cells, compared with methylnaphthalene, phenanthrene, and fluorene. P. aeruginosa IBBPo16 cells grown in the presence of PAHs produced specific extracellular secondary metabolites (i.e., surfactants, pigments). P. aeruginosa IBBPo16 cells grown in the presence of naphthalene possess ndoM (naphthalene dioxygenase) and rhlAB (rhamnosyltransferase 1) genes, whereas C23DO (catechol 2,3-dioxygenase) and pahDO (PAH dioxygenase) genes were not detected in this Gram-negative bacterium.

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Published in Scientific Bulletin. Series F. Biotechnologies, Vol. XXII
Written by Gabriela N. ŢENEA, Juan Martin GUAÑA, Clara ORTEGA, Pamela HURTADO, Tatiana DELGADO, Lucía YÉPEZ

In Ecuador the mild climate, the inappropriate storage condition and food manipulation are suitable environments for spoilage/pathogens growth, therefore, to satisfy with the consumer demands on food quality, searching for novel natural preservative is of interest. Lactic acid bacteria are very attractive to be exploited from the biotechnological point of view. In this research, the effectiveness of bacteriocin-like substances produced by Lactobacillus plantarum UTNCys5-4 (Genbank No KY041686.1) isolated from native wild-type tropical fruits to control the spoilage bacterial growth in raw meat was evaluated. The microbiological analysis indicated that the beef meat filets purchased from local market exhibit contamination. A 2.3-fold reduction of total coliforms viability was registered when treated the raw meat with crude-extract containing Cys5-4 bacteriocin up to day 12 of storage with refrigeration. A significant change of meat pH was observed in the non-bacteriocin treated samples along with the increase in the concentration of released ammonia indicating the degradation of protein. A visible change in color of meat was observed only in the samples treated with nitrite. The study revealed the high potential of bacteriocin Cys5-4 to inhibit the growth of spoilage bacteria, indicating its promising approach to be use in preservation.

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Published in Scientific Bulletin. Series F. Biotechnologies, Vol. XXI
Written by Bogdan MATEI, Florentina MATEI, Camelia DIGUȚĂ, Ovidiu POPA

Postharvest diseases of fruits and grapes are caused by fungi and bacteria and the losses in this step increase several folds than in the field. In the case of the grapes, most damages are due to the presence of filamentous fungi belonging to species like Botrytis sp., Penicillium sp. or Aspergillus sp. Several non-chemical treatments have been proposed for fungal decay control, including acetic acid. Our experiments have targeted the potential inhibitory effect of different tea sourced Kombucha crude extracts on the most common moulds of the grapes in pre and postharvest steps. Kombucha is known mainly as a consortium (SCOBY - symbiotic acetic/lactic bacteria and yeast). Because of the presence of acetic bacteria the final content in acetic acid of Kombucha suspensions vary between 8.5 and 17 g/l. Kombucha tea suspension has been prepared starting from three different source of tea plants, respectively green tea, green tea with Melissa officinalis L. and oolong tea. The most significant inhibition has been registered in the case of Botrytis cinerea (38 -55%), less significant on Penicillium expansum (4-8%) and not significant on Aspergillus flavus and Aspergillus carbonarius. It is proposed further to investigate the inhibition of Kombucha extracts, in vivo, on artificially infected grape berries with Botrytis cinerea and to validate the in vitro results.

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Published in Scientific Bulletin. Series F. Biotechnologies, Vol. XXI
Written by Diana GROPOȘILĂ-CONSTANTINESCU, Gabriela MARGĂRIT, Radu-Cristian TOMA, Dana BARBA, Luminița VIȘAN, Marius HANGAN

The huge amount of biomass composed of plant residues considered "waste" is a potential source of useful products. Works of this research were based on the study of the bioconversion potential in bioethanol of different types of wastes of lignocellulosic nature, obtained from the harvesting and processing of cereals (straw, cobs). Efficient capitalization of plant biomass is only possible when effective methods of delignification and decrystallization of the lignocellulosiccomplex are applied. Our research focused on the following general objectives: selection and characterization of lignocellulosic waste that can produce bioethanol, selection and adaptation of highly-productive microorganisms that ensures high conversion yields of bioethanol from the substrates obtained from lignocellulosic waste, experimentation of the technology at micropilot level. The raw materials used, wheat straw, barley straw and corn cobs, have been subjected to thermal pretreatment (autoclaving at 121°C for 30 minutes), enzymatic pretreatment (laccase), chemical pretreatment (NOH) and enzymatic hydroyisis (MethaPlus), in order to make available the polysaccharide substrates for the subsequent enzymatic hydrolysis. In case of alkaline pretreatment applied to all three types of lignocellulosic materials, best results were obtained when a solution of NaOH 4% was used. Anaerobic digestion of lignocellulosic materials led to ethanol concentrations of 4,9%, in case of corn cobs, 3,2% for wheat straw and 3.9, for barley straw.

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Published in Scientific Bulletin. Series F. Biotechnologies, Vol. XX
Written by Ancuţa CRÎNGAŞU (BĂRBIERU)

The development of the winter pea crop represent a major challenge to expand plant protein production in temperate areas. Breeding winter cultivars requires the combination of freezing tolerance as well as high seed productivity and quality. Winter peas have some advantages over spring peas like: better establishment and more efficient use of humidity during the winter season, which makes it less vulnerable to drought over the spring, frequently in Romania in the last years; winter peas can be sown in mixture with some cereal (barley, triticale, grasses) for obtaining high nutritive green forage; earlier harvest; has a longer vegetation period and get higher productivity and more stable yield than spring peas type. In this paper we present data obtained from the first F3 lines of winter peas obtained in the NARDI-Fundulea program with the germplasm of winter peas from USA and Austria. A number of 176 lines, selected from winter/winter and winter/spring crosses pea genotypes, have been tested in preliminary trials in 2015. Data for yield showed a large variation, but some lines over yield significantly the winter control (Specter, Checo and Windham). The conclusion of this preliminary study is that will be possible to realize the genetic progress in breeding in winter peas, to select the new varieties with good enough winter hardiness and being with high yield, different earliness or plant height. Of course, the breeding program just started, from a short time, and it is needed to improve the genetic bases of the germplasm use for all traits, but mainly for winter hardiness.

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Published in Scientific Bulletin. Series F. Biotechnologies, Vol. XX
Written by Irina-Maria ENACHE, Oana LIVADARIU

Regardless of the food diet (raw, vegan, vegetarian, carnivore), consumption of sprouted grains of different plants, especially vegetables, is encouraged, due to their therapeutic, regenerative and alimentary benefits. Seeds and sprouts have in their composition 20 - 30 times higher amounts of enzymes, minerals and nutrients than mature plants. Artemisia dracunculus L. (tarragon) is a medicinal and aromatic perennial herb which belongs to the Asteraceae family. It was chosen for the experiment due to its benefits, the essential oil of tarragon displaying antibacterial, antioxidant, antihyperglicemic activity. The plant is also known for enhancing digestion and having a pleasant spicy aroma. Studies show that light-emitting diode (LED), light exposure improves the quality of the growth, metabolism and accumulation of bioactive substances. As a result, the effect of different LED light colors on Artemisia dracunculus L. (tarragon), seed germination was studied. The Artemisia dracunculus L. (tarragon), seed were exposed to white, red, blue or green LED light, over a photoperiod of 16 hours, for seven days. The red LED exposure determined a higher degree of germination and longer hypocotil height. The blue LED exposure determined a better development of cotyledons. The experimental results obtained contribute with useful information in order to establish a method of easily growing fresh sprouts of Artemisia dracunculus L. (tarragon), for therapeutic and culinary use, under exposure to a low-carbon, power saving and inexpensive lightning means.

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Published in Scientific Bulletin. Series F. Biotechnologies, Vol. XXI
Written by Ortansa CSUTAK, Alexandra SIMON-GRUIŢĂ, Viorica CORBU, Nicoleta CONSTANTIN, Daniela POJOGA, Tatiana VASSU, Georgiana DUŢĂ-CORNESCU

Phytoremediation represents an ecological and economic alternative for remediation of polluted environments. The combination of plants and xenodegrading microorganisms is often used for the improvement of the remediation process. Yeast strains Yarrowia lipolytica CMGB32, Cryptococcus curvatus YR-P2 and Rhodotorula glutinis RG5 were tested for assimilation of petroleum and n-hexadecane and biosurfactant synthesis. Y. lipolytica CMGB32 grew well on n-hexadecane over two weeks, C. curvatus YR-P2 degraded petroleum during the first ten days, while R. glutinis RG5 was more active at the beginning of incubation period. All strains produced good rates of biosurfactants. Bean (Phaseolus vulgaris) seeds were sown in pots with sterilized soil and a mixture of the three yeast strains in the presence of petroleum and n-hexadecane (2:1 v:v) and observed for a month. Similar experiments were performed using oil polluted soil from oil wells (Ploiesti area, Romania) and a mixture of polluted soil, sand and gravel. The plants grew slowly on sterilized soil, with visible results only after three weeks. The presence of oil well polluted soil allowed seed germination during the first week due probably to complex interaction between soil native microorganisms-yeast mixture-plant-pollutant which provided the necessary nutrients. Although P. vulgaris has the ability to convert contaminants in less toxic compounds and to fix atmospheric nitrogen, the yeast mixture seems to enhance the plant growth, fully developed plants being observed after two weeks compared to control plants. Soil aeration was also a determinant factor, since seeds planted in soil mixture showed the most rapid growth during first week. The results suggest a positive influence over long period of time of the yeast mixture on plant growth in presence of oil compounds. Further work aims optimization of the novel yeast-plant system as basis for phytoremediation studies.

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