Pumpkin exhibits excellent postharvest storability; however, cultivar-specific changes in volatile profiles during storage remain poorly understood. The total volatile compound content increased progressively in Cmo-gm, Cmo-53, and Cma-81 but increased initially and then declined in Cma-78. Aldehydes dominated volatile profile changes in C. maxima, whereas alcohols predominated in C. moschata, accompanied by continuous geraniol accumulation. Based on volatile and nonvolatile quality profiles, favorable postharvest periods were identified at 20-30 dop for C. moschata and 10-20 dop for C. maxima. A multi-scale, multi-label attention network was developed using Fourier transform near-infrared spectroscopy for rapid cultivar and postharvest stage identification, achieving a Hamming loss of 0.0065, a macro F1-score of 0.984, a micro F1-score of 0.985, and a subset accuracy of 0.956. These findings reveal postharvest changes in volatile evolution profiles and support rapid cultivar and postharvest stage identification under controlled storage conditions.
Lycium ruthenicum pomace, a juice-processing by-product, is characterized by low soluble dietary fiber (SDF) content and limited functionality, which restricts its further application. In this study, the pomace dietary fibers (LPDFs) were modified using high-pressure homogenization (HPH), complex enzymatic hydrolysis (CE), and alkaline hydrogen peroxide (AHP), and the resulting changes in physicochemical, structural, and functional properties of both SDF and insoluble dietary fiber (IDF) fractions were evaluated. Modification treatments effectively increased SDF content (from 6.89% to 15.44%) and enhanced functional attributes. AHP produced the highest SDF yield (15.44%) and crystallinity (16.54%), and improved thermal stability. In contrast, CE and HPH treatments loosened the compact structure, reduced particle size, and increased antioxidant activity and viscosity. Notably, CE treatment yielded a substantial SDF increase (12.61%) and exhibited superior overall functional performance, including higher viscosity, rehydration capacities, and antioxidant activities. Our findings suggest that CE represents a more appropriate modification approach for LPDFs.
The cultivation of crops at high altitudes is a promising strategy to face global warming. This study aimed to unravel the effect of altitude of wheat cultivation on wheat beer quality using a multi-omic approach. Common and durum wheat were cultivated at different altitudes and used to produce Blanche craft beers, which were analysed for physico-chemical parameters, volatile organic compounds (VOCs), and sensory profile. These three blocks of data were successfully processed by a sparse multi-block-based approach able to predict altitude of wheat cultivation of beers. VOCs block was the most frequently (50%) interconnected, whilst sensory attributes were most frequently (35%) correlated with altitude. Altitude positively affected Ethyl phenylacetate and floral flavour, whilst negatively affected phenolics and astringency as well as Ethyl esters, and apricot flavour. Multi-block analysis was effective in linking chemical and sensory data, and predicting quality changes related to altitude of cultivation.
During germination, seed storage proteins are degraded by endogenous proteases into shorter peptides or even free amino acids in order to provide the nitrogen required for the seedling growth along the germination process. A few lines of evidence indicated that germination can reduce allergenicity of peanut, rice and soybean. The aim of this study is to determine the influence of germination on the allergenic capacity of peanut and lupine measured by SDS-PAGE, western blot and ELISA with IgE serum of allergic patients and skin prick test with ungerminated and germinated peanut and lupine samples. The results indicate that germination modifies, but does not eliminate, the immunoreactivity of peanut and lupine, and both retained a considerable fraction of the original allergenic capacity.
