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The presence of trace, heavy metals in foodstuffs is of intense public interest. The aim of this study was to determine the metal contents in most known commercial fruit juices present on the Romanian market. The multielement analysis was made using the ICP-MS technique, after appropriate dilution, using the external standard calibration method. Multifruit, mango, and kiwi juice have recoded the highest concentration of Cu, while apple and pear juice has recoded the lowest concentration, and in the case of Zn, peach juice has recoded the highest concentration. Concerning Pb, Cd, and As concentration, apple, peach, and multifruit juices recorded the highest levels of concentration. The concentration of Zn, Cu, Co, and As generally, was higher in the juice samples packed in boxes, while Ni, Cr, Pb, and Cd recorded the highest values in the juice packed in plastic bottles.

The current research was carried out to investigate the effects of iron source in the culture media for Vaccinium corymbosum L. ʻBluerayʼ, ʻDukeʼ, and ʻPatriotʼ cultivars grown on five different types of medium (Woody Plant Medium supplemented with 1.0 mg·L−1 zeatin and 0, 25, 50, 75, and 100 mg·L−1 Sequestrene 138). After 10 weeks of culture, seven physiological parameters were measured, such as the number and length of axillary shoots, rooting and acclimatization percentage, as well as chlorophyll (a, b, a/b) and carotenoid content of the leaves. Adding Sequestrene 138 to the culture media led to a slight decrease of the proliferation rate but increased the length of the shoots. The chlorophyll and carotenoid content in all of the three cultivars was considerably increased as the iron concentration of the media increased. The shoots developed on the Sequestrene 138–free medium were chlorotic and short, whereas at different concentrations of iron in the culture medium the shoots were dark green and vigorous, providing a greater acclimatization success than those grown in iron-free medium.

The perception of landscape and consumption behaviour in relation to landscape was estimated using a questionnaire-based survey with 17 photographs: 15 photos from Romanian representative landscape units, 1 photo representing a foreign landscape (Hungary), and 1 marketing photo. The photo documentation was conducted in sixteen vineyards ecosystems from Târnave Viticultural Region - Transylvania (NW-Romania). The most representative landscape was the photo that had the specifications and criteria: low practices intensity with low landscape complexity; and the less representative landscape was the photo that had the specifications and criteria: photo capturing hiking, walking, tourism, and recreational activities in a viticulture landscape. The landscape could influence the following aspects of communities’ livelihood: establishments and development of enterprises, tourism and recreation businesses, and the place to live. The words used by interviewed people to point out the landscape were interpreted from the point of view of the concept of multifunctionality.

Geographical wine traceability is an important topic in the context of wine authentification. Therefore, many researchers have addressed this subject by developing different methodologies based on multivariate analysis of organic and inorganic parameters and also by isotopic signature. The goal of this research was to assess the potential of elemental composition and isotopic signature of lead (207Pb/206Pb, 208Pb/206Pb and 204Pb/206Pb) and strontium (87Sr/86Sr) of wines from three Romanian vineyards, in order to highlight reliable markers for wine geographical origin. The ICP-MS method was used for the concentration determination for 30 elements (Ag, Al, As, Ba, Be, Bi, Ca, Cd, Co, Cr, Cs, Cu, Fe, Ga, In, K, Li, Mg, Mn, Na, Ni, Pb, Rb, Se, Sr, Tl, V, U, Zn, Hg). In this study 10 wines (2 red and 8 white) obtained from ‘Merlot’, ‘Fetească neagră’, ‘Fetească albă’, ‘Fetească regală’, ‘Băbească gri’, ‘Șarba’, ‘Aligoté’, ‘Sauvignon blanc’, ‘Muscat Ottonel’, ‘Italian Riesling’ cultivars were investigated. The wine samples were obtained from micro-wine production under conditions of 2014, 2015, 2016 from Dealu Bujorului, Murfatlar and Ștefănești-Argeș vineyards. The high level of K (148.66±5.41-633.74±4.13 mg/L), Mg (88.23±0.84-131.66±3.42 mg/L), Ca (49.84±1.22-89.18±2.34) and Fe were observed in the wine samples analysed. Heavy metals like Hg, Pb, As and Cd (10.2-315 µg/L) were found below acceptable limits. Concentration of Na (1 mg/L), Cu (1 mg/L), As (0.2 mg/L), Cd (0.01 mg/L), Zn (5 mg/L) and Pb (0.15 mg/L) metals in analysed wine samples were under Maximum Permissible Limits (MPL), respectively as published by the Organization of Vine and Wine. The variation of the 207Pb/206Pb, 208Pb/206Pb, 204Pb/206Pb and 87Sr/86Sr ratio and K/Rb, Ca/Sr of the investigated wine clearly demonstrated that these variables are suitable traces for wine geographical origin determination. The proposed methodology allowed a 100% successful classification of wines according to the region of provenance.

Vineyards show some of the largest erosion rates reported in agricultural areas in Europe. Reported rates vary considerably under the same land use, since erosion processes are highly affected by climate, soil, topography and by the adopted soil management practices. Literature also shows differences in the effect of same conservation practices on reducing soil erosion from conventional, bare soil based, management. The Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE) is commonly adopted to estimate rates of water erosion on cropland under different forms of land use and management, but it requires proper value of soil cover and management (C) factors in order to obtain a reliable evaluation of local soil erosion rates. In this study the ORUSCAL (Orchard RUSle CALibration) is used to identify the best calibration strategy against long-term experimental data. Afterwards, ORUSCAL is used in order to apply the RUSLE technology from farm based information across different European wine-growing regions. The results suggest that the best strategy for calibration should incorporate the soil moisture sub-factor (Sm) to provide better soil loss predictions. The C factor, whose average values ranged from 0.012 to 0.597, presented a large spatial variability due to coupling with local climate and specific local management. The comparison across the five wine-growing regions indicates that for the soil protection management, permanent cover crop is the best measure for accomplishing sustainable erosion rates across the studied areas. Alternate and temporary cover crops, that are used in areas of limited water resources to prevent competition with vines, failed to achieve sustainable erosion rates, that still need to be addressed. This raises the need for a careful use of C values developed under different environmental conditions., This study was funded by the European BiodivERsA project VineDivers (https://short.boku.ac.at/vinedivers) through the BiodivERsA/FACCE JPI (2013–2014 joint call) for research proposals, with the national funders: Austrian Science Fund (grant numbers I 2044-/I 2043-/I 2042-B25 FWF), French National Research Agency (ANR), Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (PCIN-2014-098), Romanian Executive Agency for Higher Education, Research, Development and Innovation Funding (UEFISCDI) and Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF/Germany). Also to the CNR Short Term Mobility Program 2016 for funding a stay at IAS-CSIC during which M.Biddoccu contributed to this study and the SHui project funded by the European Commission (GA 773903), which supported the final steps of the analysis presented in this manuscript.

The primary objectives of this research were to determine the concentration of some inorganic trace components, to evaluate the concentration levels of these in Romanian wines by daily consumption of wine and the health risk of inorganic trace components intake at these rates form Romanian wine. The results indicated that the concentration levels of inorganic components in red wine decreased in the order Zn>Mn>Cr>Cu>Ni>Pb>Co>Cd, in case of white wine decreased in the order Zn>Mn>Cu>Cr>Ni>Pb>Co>Cd. Based on a 60-kilogram adult person, and moderate consumption of 200 milliliters of wine/day, the estimated daily intake of these inorganic components from wines was well below the daily allowance. The target hazard quotient suggests that the exposed humans would not experience significant health risks when ingesting these individual elements from daily consumption of 200 milliliters of Romanian wines/day.

The purpose of this research was to analyse the yeld and quality of eight grapevine varieties (two Romanian autochthonous varieties: ‘Fetească regală’, ‘Traminer roz’, and six world-wide varieties: ‘Rhin Riesling’, ‘Sauvignon Blanc’, ‘Muscat Ottonel’, ‘Pinot gris’, ‘Chardonnay’and ‘Italian Riesling’ cultivated in two different types of soil management (low and high intensity).

The worldwide consumption of blueberries has increased due to their potential health effects. They contain micronutrients, various phytochemicals and anti-oxidant pigments, represented especially by anthocyanins. In addition to these, carotenoids and fatty acids are also present. The aim of this study was the identification and quantification of carotenoids (by HPLC) and fatty acids (by GC with flame ionisation detection) in two bilberry genotypes (Wild 1 and 2) and three cultivars (BlueCrop, Elliot, and Duke). The main carotenoids identified were lutein, β-cryptoxanthin, and β-carotene, with the average total carotenoid content of 266 μg per 100 g of fruit. The ratio of saturated fatty acids (SFAs) to polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) was 0.098 for Wild 1 and 0.11 for Wild 2 genotypes and ranged from 0.14 to 0.28 for cultivars. The main fatty acids identified were linoleic (18:2) and linolenic (18:3) acids in all the samples analysed. In Vaccinium myrtillus the amount of carotenoids and fatty acids was higher than in Vaccinium corymbosum species.

Two wild and three cultivated blueberry varieties (‘Elliot’, ‘Bluecrop’ and ‘Duke’) from Romania were analyzed comparatively in order to determine the total polyphenols, total anthocyanins, total flavonoids content and measuring the antioxidant activity using three different single electron transfer-based assays, Trolox equivalent antioxidant capacity (ABTS), ferric reducing ability (FRAP), 2,2-diphenylpicrylhydrazil radical scavenging capacity (DPPH) and one hydrogen atom transfer-assay, oxygen radical absorbance capacity (ORAC). Total polyphenols content ranged from 424.84 - 819.12 mg GAE/100 g FW, total flavonoids ranged from 84.33-112.5 mg QE /100 g FW and total anthocyanins ranged from 100.58-300.02 C3GE/100g FW. The anthocyanins were separated and quantified using RP-HPLC-DAD. In Vaccinium myrtillus, petunidin-3-glucoside and delphinidin-3-glucoside have the highest contribution to the anthocyanin content while in Vaccinium corymbosum, peonidin-3-galactoside represent the major anthocyanin. Except for ORAC assay (r=0.765), all antioxidant activity values obtained were highly correlated with total polyphenol content (0.923≤ r ≤0.986). Wild blueberries had higher total polyphenols content and also antioxidant activity compared with cultivated ones.