No abstract

Red beet plants are rich in betalains that can be used as food natural colorants. Betalains were extracted from red beet and encapsulated with different carrier agents and freeze or spray dried. Effect of different encapsulating agents as maltodextrin, guar gum, gum Arabic, pectin and xanthan gum with different concentration (as encapsulating agents) were studied on the betalain stability. Encapsulated betalains with xanthan gum with maltodextrin showed about 65 % more recovery than the control. Encapsulation showed a higher recovery of betalains during freeze drying by 1.3 times than during spray drying. Spray dried samples has L* (lightness) higher than the freeze dried samples. The variations of maltodextrin with xanthan and guar gum freeze dried have highest chroma value of 21. The stabilization of pure betalain pigments may boost the use of these colouring molecules in the food industry and promote their application.

No abstract

In the present study, the effects of the metabolite elicitors chitosan, methyl jasmonate (MeJA) and salicylic acid (SA) as well as the hairy root transformation were tested for silymarin and phenolic compound accumulation in in vitro cultures of Milk thistle. For callus induction, leaf explants were cultured on MS medium supplemented with 5 mg/l NAA + 2 mg/l Kin + 0.1 mg/l GA3. Chitosan, SA and MeJA were added separately in three concentrations 200, 400 and 800 mg/l; 10, 20 and 40 mg/l; 20, 40 and 80 mg/l, respectively, to hormone free B5 medium. Alternatively, cotyledons of 12 day old seedlings were transformed with Agrobacterium rhizogenes A4 strain. Overall, increasing the concentrations of the three elicitors dramatically increased the total silymarin content. Remarkably, the elicitors mainly enhanced the accumulation of silybine A&B that were not detected in un-treated callus culture (control). In addition, the hairy root culture triggered the accumulation of silybine A&B, and silydianin, which was not detected in the non-transgenic roots. The hairy root culture was superior in production of the phenolic compounds in comparison to the control and elicitor treatments. The hairy root cultures showed also higher antioxidant capacities than non-transformed cultures and/or chemically elicited-callus cultures. Thus hairy root provide instrumental in enhancing the production of economically valuable metabolite.