Search Results (4)

Despite its value as a culinary, medicinal, and essential oil crop, caraway struggles to grow and develop its biochemical quality in drought-prone sandy soils. To tackle this challenge, we conducted two field trials under drip irrigation, testing four rates of organic manure (0, 5, 10, and 15 ton/hectare (ha) and three foliar biostimulants: vitamin B₁ (50 and 100 mg L⁻¹), vitamin E (50 and 100 mg L⁻¹), and active yeast (100 and 150 mL L⁻¹). We used a randomized split-plot design with three replicates, assigning manure rates to main plots and biostimulants to subplots. We measured plant height, stem diameter, branch number, dry biomass, umbels per plant, 1000-seed weight, seed yield (per plant and per ha), essential oil content, chlorophyll a and b, carotenoids, and leaf N, P, and K. All treatments outperformed the unfertilized control. Applying 15 ton/ha of manure alone increased mean plant height by 185.3 cm, stem diameter by 2.93 mm, branch number by 14.5, and herbal weight by 91.97 g across both seasons—a gain of about 11–15%. Foliar application of vitamin B₁ at 100 mg L⁻¹ (without manure) achieved even larger gains: mean plant height improved by 176.5 cm, stem diameter by 2.6 mm, branches number by 15.1, and herbal biomass by 103.95 g (20–36% growth increases). It also boosted essential oil yield by 1.89 mL per plant (16–50%) and enhanced nutrient uptake. The most pronounced synergy emerged when combining 15 ton/ha of manure with 100 mg L⁻¹ vitamin B₁, raising seed yield to 1698.8 kg/ha (35%), plant height to 184.7 cm (52%), number of branches to 17.4 per plant (56%), umbels to 38.1 per plant (42%), 1000-seed weight to 16.9 g (48%), and essential oil yield to 2.3 mL per plant (115%), compared to the control. Chlorophyll a increased by 50%, chlorophyll b by 33%, carotenoids by 35%, and leaf N, P, and K by 43%, 90%, and 76%, respectively. Manure combined with vitamin E or yeast delivered moderate improvements. These findings demonstrate that integrating organic manure with targeted foliar biostimulants—especially vitamin B₁—under drip irrigation, is a sustainable strategy to maximize caraway yield, oil content, and nutritional quality on marginal sandy soils. Full article

In this study, different unit operations for distillation, extraction, capturing and separation of essential oil components from essential oil plants are evaluated, on the example of limonene and carvone from caraway fruits. Hydrodistillation is the standard process for obtaining essential oils and leaves the distillation water (hydrolate) after phase separation of the essential oil and the distilled plant material (pomace) as waste streams. In this study, a process for the valorization of these waste streams, using different techniques, such as traps and pressurized hot water extraction, is developed, reaching high yields, with a plus of 35%, compared to established methods, and reducing the overall global warming potential of the whole process, as well as reducing the cost of goods by around 30%. Full article

Nutritional ingredients, including various fibers, herbs, and botanicals, have been historically used for various ailments. Their enduring appeal is predicated on the desire both for more natural approaches to health and to mitigate potential side effects of more mainstream treatments. Their use in individuals experiencing upper gastrointestinal (GI) complaints is of particular interest in the scientific space as well as the consumer market but requires review to better understand their potential effectiveness. The aim of this paper is to review the published scientific literature on nutritional ingredients for the management of upper GI complaints. We selected nutritional ingredients on the basis of mentions within the published literature and familiarity with recurrent components of consumer products currently marketed. A predefined literature search was conducted in Embase, Medline, Derwent drug file, ToXfile, and PubMed databases with specific nutritional ingredients and search terms related to upper GI health along with a manual search for each ingredient. Of our literature search, 16 human clinical studies including nine ingredients met our inclusion criteria and were assessed in this review. Products of interest within these studies subsumed the categories of botanicals, including fiber and combinations, and non-botanical extracts. Although there are a few ingredients with robust scientific evidence, such as ginger and a combination of peppermint and caraway oil, there are others, such as melatonin and marine alginate, with moderate evidence, and still others with limited scientific substantiation, such as galactomannan, fenugreek, and zinc-l-carnosine. Importantly, the paucity of high-quality data for the majority of the ingredients analyzed herein suggests ample opportunity for further study. In particular, trials with appropriate controls examining dose–response using standardized extracts and testing for specific benefits would yield precise and effective data to aid those with upper GI symptoms and conditions. Full article

This study aims at investigating p-menthane, a novel bio-based solvent resulting from the hydrogenation of d-limonene, as a green alternative to n-hexane or toluene for the extraction and solubilization of natural substances. First, conductor-like combination of quantum chemistry (COSMO) coupled with statistical thermodynamics (RS) calculations show a comparable solubilization profile of p-menthane and n-hexane for carotene, volatile monoterpenes such as carvone and limonene, and model triglycerides. Other data obtained experimentally in solid/liquid extraction conditions further indicate that p-menthane showed similar performances to n-hexane for extracting carotenes from carrots, aromas from caraway seeds, and oils from rapeseeds, as these products showed a comparable composition. p-Menthane was also tested using common analytical extraction procedures such as Soxhlet for determination of oil content via multiple extraction stages, and Dean–Stark for determination of water content via azeotropic distillation. For both systems, yields were comparable, but for Dean–Stark, the distillation curve slope was higher when using p-menthane, and the time needed to attain 100% water recovery was 55% shorter than for toluene. Taken together, these results reveal the potential of p-menthane as a green replacer for petroleum-based solvents such as n-hexane or toluene. Full article