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Beetroot has numerous advantageous health effects due its chemical composition, such as fibres, mineral elements, vitamins and phenolic compounds. It has not only anti-tumour effects but its consumption is favourable for the cardiovascular system, too. It is used as natural colouring agent in several products. In this research wheat pasta products were made with 8 and 16% beetroot juice and pulp addition to evaluate that the advantageous nutritional effects of beetroot could be utilized in pasta production as well and the consumer's opinion on these products. Besides the general physical parameters (dry matter content, drying water loss, cooking water absorption) total phenol content and flavonoid concentrations were measured and a sensory analysis was performed. It was found that the beetroot addition did not influence the most the physical properties of pasta as compared to the control, but the use of beetroot pulp resulted in a significant increase in the water absorption during cooking. Unfortunately the high polyphenol content of beetroot could not be utilized in pasta consumption. Although the dry pasta had significant total phenol content, the cooking led to serious leaching and the same value were experienced as for the control pasta. Despite these facts, this kind of product can be beneficial for the producers as the sensory analysis showed that the overall acceptance and the taste and texture were found to be advantageous for potential consumers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since it is Hungary's second largest river, the River Tisza is important both as a river and because of its active floodplain. The contaminations endanger the aquatic and the related living nature as well as the farming in the active floodplain. The water quality of the river is examined regularly by the competent authority but far less information is available about the active floodplain. More data is necessary in order to estimate the potential danger. In this paper the River Tisza and its tributaries were examined, especially considering the metal accumulation and its relation to the soil characteristics. We started to create the database in 2004 and several tasks were achieved: the metal content of the root zone in the active floodplain (horizontal distribution); the metal content of the upper 1 m zone in the active floodplain (vertical distribution); the general water chemical and isotope analyses and the metal content of the oxbow lakes near the River Tisza; the metal content of the sediments of the oxbow lakes. More than 300 surface soil samples, 18 soil profiles (18 x 50 samples) and 45 oxbow lakes were examined up to now. Cu, Co, Fe, Ni, Mn, Zn contents were determined in every case and As, Cd, Pb determinations were also carried out in reasonable cases. ArcGIS 9.0 was applied in order to create the spatial database and the statistical analyses of the data were carried out with SPSS. In this paper some case studies will be presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]