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Bioactive peptides are promising cosmetic active ingredients that can improve skin health and appearance. They exhibit a broad spectrum of activity, including anti-aging, antioxidant, antimicrobial, and anti-inflammatory effects. The aim of this study was to develop a safe, stable, and efficacious environmentally friendly (“green”) emulsion using a milk protein hydrolysate as a model active ingredient. Potential emulsions were formulated with biodegradable emollients, stabilized with naturally derived mixed emulsifier, and prepared by cold process. They were evaluated for rheological behavior (continuous rotation and oscillation tests), physical stability (dynamic mechanical thermal analysis—DMTA test), and texture profiles, as well as cytotoxic, antioxidant, and antimicrobial effects. Rheological characterization revealed shear-thinning flow behavior with yield point from continuous rotation tests and predominantly elastic character from oscillation (amplitude and frequency sweep) tests, with small structural change detected in the DMTA test. These results implied satisfactory rheological properties and good stability. Texture analysis revealed acceptable spreadability and substantivity of the emulsions. The protein hydrolysate showed antioxidant activity. The developed emulsions showed low antibacterial activity against selected microorganisms, but this was due to the action of preservatives, not peptides. All potential emulsions showed a desirable safety profile. The results obtained provide the basis for the next stage of formulation development, i.e., in vivo efficacy tests.

Long-term monoculture has a de-stroying impact on plant production, while crop rotation is known as a more eco-friendly approach as provides diversification in crop management systems, modifies intensive pressure on the agricultural ecosystem, utilizes various soil horizons, and prevents the establishment of specific pests and weeds. The aim of his research was to answer: How management system over 50 years of specific continuous crop management programs (crop rotation and fertilization) effect on weed populations? This study was conducted in the experimental site of the Institute of Field and Vegetable Crops of “Plodoredi”, Rimski Šančevi, Novi Sad, Serbia. It has been estimated three monocultures of maize, wheat and soybean, 2-year crop rotation (winter wheat-maize) with and without chemical fertilizer and 3–year crop rotation (winter wheat-soybean-maize) with and without chemical fertilizer and manure. Soil samples were taken six times from 2014 to 2017 prior to sowing and after harvesting each year. Weed seeds were extracted from soils and identified and counted by species. Mixed model analysis was used to determine the effect of the crop sequence and fertilizers on weed seed bank. To compare the strength of the treatment, it calculated the log-worth with their P-values. Upon the data of a long term experiment of crop rotation, could approve that crop rotations with more crops in the sequence are significantly effective in maintaining weed population. Therefore, will be a more sustainable crop production, chemical fertilizers would imbalance the plant population diversity and manures with high number of weed seeds have potentials to totally vanish crop rotation effects. Mixed model analysis suggests that on over 50 years of the management practices crop sequence × fertilizer interaction had the highest effect (log-worth = 64.7), followed by the triple interactions between crop sequence × fertilizer × soil depth (log-worth = 30.5). The number of seeds in soil sig

Weed seed banks are an inexhaustible and permanent source of weeds, but they also have a stabilizing effect on the ecosystem and biodiversity in plant production systems. Scarce rese-arch on this topic has shown great variability in results, in part, due to different methodology of the seedbank estimation. The aim of this research was to compare two methods of estimating weed seed bank: 1) physical extraction of seeds, and 2) seedling emergence method. The plo¬ts of the stationary experiment "Plodoredi", Institute of Field and Vegetable Crops, Novi Sad, Serbia (N 45° 19', E 19° 50') were used for these research. Soil samples were taken from two experiments, a 50-year winter wheat monoculture, and from a three-year crop rotation (winter wheat-maize-soybean), over the course of three years (2014-2017). The method of physical extraction, although longer and physically more exhaustive, showed better results. In winter wheat monoculture 12 weed species were recorded, with a total of 21575 seeds m-2, while in the three-year crop rotation 25 weed species were detected, with a total of 16300 seeds m-2. Using the seedling emergence method only five weed species and 8500 seeds m-2 were estimated in monoculture, while in crop rotation five weed species and 4500 seed m-2 were estimated. This indicates that the entire weed seed bank is not active: some seeds are not able to germinate, while others are dormant, but present a potential danger. The estimated number of seeds per m-2 by the more efficient method of physical extraction was used to create the “Artificial Neural Network’’ model which had been previously tested using the Random-Holback method. The model answered the key question: how monoculture and crop rotations can change the soil weed-seed bank and diversity in a long-term cropping system.

Crop rotation is known as an eco-friendlier approach, as provides diversification in crop management systems, modifies intensive pressure on the agricultural ecosystem, utilizes various soil horizons, and prevents the establishment of specific pests and weeds. We set out here a study on the farms that have been managed over 50 years of specific continuous crop management programs. The experimental treatments were in a different management system: monoculture of maize, winter wheat, and soybean, 2-year crop rotation (winter wheat–maize) with and without chemical fertilizer, and 3-year crop rotation (winter wheat–soybean–maize) with and without chemical fertilizer and manure. We took soil samples six times from 2014 to 2017 prior to sowing and after harvesting each year. Weed seeds were extracted from soils and identified and counted by species. We, upon the data of a long term experiment of crop rotation, could conclude that crop rotations with more crops in the sequence are significantly effective in maintaining weed populations, a low-input crop production could reach a constant low population below an important damaging density, and therefore will be a more sustainable crop production while chemical fertilizers would change the soil’s chemical and structure and imbalance the plant population diversity and manures with high weed seed infestations have the potential to totally eradicate crop rotation effects, Therefore, clean manures or compost are highly recommended.

This study focuses on the development of biocompatible oil-in-water (O/W) nanoemulsions based on polyglycerol esters, as promising carriers for natural actives: red raspberry seed oil—RO and hydro-glycolic fruit extracts from red raspberry—RE and French oak—FE. Nanoemulsions were obtained via phase inversion composition (PIC) method at room temperature by dilution of microemulsion phase, confirmed by visual appearance, percentage of transmittance, microscopic, rheological and Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC) investigations. The results have shown that the basic RO-loaded formulation could be further enriched with hydro-glycolic fruit extracts from red raspberry or French oak, while keeping a semi-transparent appearance due to the fine droplet size (Z-ave: 50 to 70 nm, PDI value ≤ 0.1). The highest antioxidant activity (~92% inhibition of the DPPH radical) was achieved in the formulation containing both lipophilic (RO) and hydrophilic antioxidants (FE), due to their synergistic effect. The nanoemulsion carrier significantly increased the selective cytotoxic effect of RO towards malignant melanoma (Fem-X) cells, compared to normal human keratinocytes (HaCaT). In vivo study on human volunteers showed satisfactory safety profiles and significant improvement in skin hydration during 2 h after application for all nanoemulsions. Therefore, polyglycerol ester-based nanoemulsions can be promoted as effective carriers for red raspberry seed oil and/or hydro-glycolic fruit extracts in topical formulations intended for skin protection and hydration.

Long-term monoculture has a de-stroying impact on plant production, while crop rotation is known as a more eco-friendly approach as provides diversification in crop management systems, modifies intensive pressure on the agricultural ecosystem, utilizes various soil horizons, and prevents the establishment of specific pests and weeds. The aim of his research was to answer: How management system over 50 years of specific continuous crop management programs (crop rotation and fertilization) effect on weed populations? This study was conducted in the experimental site of the Institute of Field and Vegetable Crops of “Plodoredi”, Rimski Šančevi, Novi Sad, Serbia. It has been estimated three monocultures of maize, wheat and soybean, 2-year crop rotation (winter wheat-maize) with and without chemical fertilizer and 3–year crop rotation (winter wheat-soybean-maize) with and without chemical fertilizer and manure. Soil samples were taken six times from 2014 to 2017 prior to sowing and after harvesting each year. Weed seeds were extracted from soils and identified and counted by species. Mixed model analysis was used to determine the effect of the crop sequence and fertilizers on weed seed bank. To compare the strength of the treatment, it calculated the log-worth with their P-values. Upon the data of a long term experiment of crop rotation, could approve that crop rotations with more crops in the sequence are significantly effective in maintaining weed population. Therefore, will be a more sustainable crop production, chemical fertilizers would imbalance the plant population diversity and manures with high number of weed seeds have potentials to totally vanish crop rotation effects. Mixed model analysis suggests that on over 50 years of the management practices crop sequence × fertilizer interaction had the highest effect (log-worth = 64.7), followed by the triple interactions between crop sequence × fertilizer × soil depth (log-worth = 30.5). The number of seeds in soil sig

Abutilon theophrasti is a weed that is spreading worldwide and that has had to adapt to different combinations of environmental conditions. Wide interpopulation variability has been reported regarding dormancy and germination. This variability, controlled by the interaction of genetic diversity and maternal effect, could hinder the adoption of Integrated Weed Management (IWM) tools. A collaborative project was conducted to compare emergence dynamics of 12 European and North American populations under diverse environmental conditions. The main aim was to assess interpopulation variability and explain this according to environmental conditions in the seed collection sites. Seeds were sown at six experimental sites, and seedling emergence was monitored. The AlertInf model was tested to evaluate its ability to predict emergence dynamics of the different populations. A wide interpopulation variability was observed for emergence percentage and dynamics with consistent trends across sites and related to different seed dormancy levels. Populations from Catalonia, Iowa and Minnesota reached higher emergence percentage with earlier and concentrated emergence flushes probably due to low dormancy level, while populations from Croatia, Serbia and Hungary, given their low average emergence percentage, presented high dormancy levels. Good predictive accuracy of AlertInf model was obtained at the different sites, confirming the possibility of adopting it across a wide range of environmental conditions. Achieving a better knowledge of interpopulation variability can allow specific control strategies to be designed, facilitating the replacement of solely herbicide-based management with true IWM., Postprint (updated version)