No abstract

The hazelnut (Corylus avellana L.) is one of the most popular tree nuts in the world. The proper selection of drying methods is necessary to prevent oil oxidation which will influence the overall nut quality during storage. The aim of this study was to determine the effects of sun drying (SD) and artificial dryingied (AD) on the chemical traits of hazelnuts during long–term storage. Protein, lipid and moisture contents, water activity, fatty acid composition, sum of fatty acids, and oil oxidation properties were determined over 24 months’ storage (2015–2017) at 20–25 °C and 70–90% relative humidity. The results showed that monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFA) was the main fatty acid group (81.55–83.38%) followed by polyunsaturated (PUFA; 10.39–11.57%) and saturated fatty acids (SFA; 5.75–6.60%). The samples dried by AD had more SFA (5.86%) and MUFA (83.11%) than the SD samples. At the end of storage, the lowest free fatty acid, and peroxide value (0.52%–1.45 meqO2·kg-1, respectively), and the highest oleic/linoleic acidity ratio (7.76) were found from AD. Therefore, AD appears to be more promising for hazelnut drying.

Thymoquinone (TQ) is the active ingredient of Nigella sativa which has a therapeutic potential in cancer therapy and prevention. In this study, TQ has been shown to induce specific cytotoxicity and apoptosis and to inhibit wound healing in triple-negative breast cancer cell line. TQ also inhibited cancer growth in a mouse tumor model. Moreover, TQ and paclitaxel (Pac) combination inhibited cancer growth in cell culture and in mice. Genes involved in TQ and TQ-Pac-mediated cytotoxicity were studied using focused real-time PCR arrays. After bioinformatic analysis, genes in apoptosis, cytokine, and p53 signaling categories were found to be modulated with a high significance in TQ-treated cells (p < 10(-28), p < 10(-8), and p < 10(-6), respectively). Important to note, TQ has been found to regulate the genes involved in the induction of apoptosis through death receptors (p = 5.5 × 10(-5)). Additionally, tumor suppressor genes such as p21, Brca1, and Hic1 were highly upregulated by TQ and TQ-Pac combination. Interestingly, when cells were treated with high dose TQ, several growth factors such as Vegf and Egf were upregulated and several pro-apoptotic factors such as caspases were downregulated possibly pointing out key pathways manipulated by cancer cells to resist against TQ. In cells treated with the combination of TQ and Pac, genes in apoptosis cascade (p < 10(-12)), p53 signaling (p = 10(-5)), and JAK-STAT signaling (p < 10(-3)) were differentially expressed. TQ has also been shown to induce protein levels of cleaved Caspase-3, Caspase-7, and Caspase-12 and PARP and to reduce phosphorylated p65 and Akt1. The in vivo therapeutic potential of TQ-Pac combination and the genetic network involved in this synergy have been shown for the first time to the best of our knowledge.

This study was conducted to determine the effects of hazelnut drying machine (DM 1 and DM 2 ; at 45°C and 50°C, respectively) and sun-drying (concrete ground and grass ground) methods on the chemical properties of Tombul, Palaz, and Ordu Levant hazelnuts. For this purpose, protein, lipid and moisture content, water activity, free fatty acid (FFA), peroxide value (PV), rancimat value (RV) and fatty acid composition were analyzed. As expected, it was observed that monounsaturated fatty acid (MUFA) was the main fatty acid group (81.58-84.80%) followed by polyunsaturated (PUFA; 9.53-11.42%) and saturated fatty acids (SFA; 5.87-6.92%), and the major group constituted * 99.00% of the total fatty acids, whereas the minor group constituted * 0.5% of these acids.

This study was conducted to determine the effects of different drying methods of sun-dried (grass and concrete ground) machine drying on chemical properties of Levant quality hazelnut in coastal region (Ordu, Turkey) during storage. In conventional drying, only solar energy was used and the drying time was about 50-58 h (concrete ground and grass ground, respectively), and in the drying machine it lasted about 30 h. After the drying and storage time, while the highest rancimat value (5.73 h) and the lowest peroxide value (0.27 meqO 2 kg-1) were found in the drying machine and the concrete ground gave the lowest free fatty acid (0.04 %). At the end of the storage period, the lowest free fatty acid and peroxide value were determined on concrete ground (0.29 %) and on drying machine (0.00 meqO 2 kg-1), respectively. In addition, total aflatoksin and aflatoxin B 1 were not detected in any drying methods during storage. As a result, the drying machine was more effective than the other two drying methods for nut quality and preservation. In addition, it has been observed that hazelnuts can be stored for 24 months without significant change in nut quality in room conditions.