The Naples IRET Unit is involved in Spoke 9 – “New Technologies and Methodologies for Traceability, Quality, Safety, Measurements and Certifications to enhance the Value and Protect the typical traits in Agri-food chains” and more specifically in WP1 – Task 1: ‘Chemical, physical, biological and genetic methods and protocols for the quality and traceability of food products’.

The research team studies the development of new methodologies and protocols for the evaluation of the quality and application potential of high added-value molecules extracted from raw materials, waste and finished products from the olive (drupes, leaves and extra virgin olive oil) and fruit and vegetable (tomato) supply chains.

In detail:

• development of environmentally sustainable extraction protocols to obtaine bioactive molecules from the materials of the two supply chains;
• development of methodologies and protocols for determining the polyphenols, sugars and antioxidant power content in  the extracts.
• development of methodologies and protocols for evaluating the efficacy and safety of bioactive molecules in the extracts.

The activities are conducted through the use of chemical, biochemical and biological methods.

Chemical methods: UV-VIS spectrometry, HPLC-DAD and HPLC-PAD for the determination of total polyphenols, ortho-diphenols, flavonoids, monosaccharides and oligosaccharides in the extracts.

Biochemical methods: use of enzymes for the determination of polyphenols and carbohydrates in the extracts produced. Determination of antioxidant power.

Biological methods: use of in vitro cell lines model systems  and the Drosophila melanogaster model  (in vivo activity) to assess the antioxidant potential of selected extracts.