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Functional Food (FF) refers to a food that besides of impact on the animals and human nutrition, also help on the reduction risk of some illness and even on their control. Nutraceutical Food (NF) refers to products derived usually from FF and are presented commonly as drugs to prevent or reduce some illness. These kinds of foods are not widely used animals and specifically in rabbits. The aim of this review was to describe and analyse benefits of FF in rabbits and to propose practices that increase the use of these kinds of foods on the rabbit meat production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Amorphous CeO2 thin films were deposited by a dip-coating method on Corning glass substrates and annealed for one hour at the temperatures (T) of 250, 450, and 550°C in air for crystallization. The precursor solution was prepared by dissolving cerium acetate in methanol, lactic acid, glycerol, and trimethylamine at 55°C. X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns showed the cubic structure of CeO2. From XRD data and employing the Scherrer formula, the crystallite size (CS) was calculated to be within the 4.0±0.5 to 10±1 nm interval. SEM micrographs revealed cracks of the films annealed at 250 and 450°C, even though for 550°C, the film shows a homogeneous morphology free of cracks. CS increases (from 4.0 to 10 nm) and thickness decreases (from 217 to 182 nm) when T increases. The UV-vis spectra exhibited an average transmittance of 80% in the 300 to 2000 nm wavelength range. Also, from XRD, it was observed that the lattice shrinks and from transmittance that the bandgap energy increases with T. The Raman spectra exhibit 461 cm-1 assigned to F2g mode of the fluorite cubic structure, where F2g hardens when T increases as an effect of the shrinkage of the lattice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of foliar applications of hydrogen peroxide on the antimicrobial activity ofCapsicum chinenseJacq. methanolic extracts. The effects of hydrogen peroxide application on metabolites accumulation ofC. chinensevar. Jaguar and var. Chichen Itza were evaluated. Total flavonoid and phenolic contents, as well as HPLC quantification of capsaicin and dihidrocapsaicin were carried out. Methanolic extracts were microbiologically tested againstStaphylococcus aureus,Escherichia coli,Streptococcus mutants,Salmonella thompson,Listeria monocytogenes,Streptococcus faecalis, andCandida albicans. Total phenolics, flavonoids, and capsaicinoids contents in both varieties treated with hydrogen peroxide were found significantly higher as compared to control. Theantibacterialactivity of chili extracts was observed against Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria as well asanti-yeast. The results ofin vitroantibacterial activity showed that hydrogen peroxide application increases the inhibitory effect against the pathogenic micro-organisms. Methanolic extracts of var. Jaguar, were the most active againstS. aureus,S. Thompson, andC. albicans, while var. Chichen Itza was most potent againstE. faecalisandE. coli. Thus, this study confirmed that metabolite-induced factors (MIFs) as hydrogen peroxide, increased secondary metabolites accumulation inC. chinensemethanolic extracts and augmented their antimicrobial activity. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

One of the main problems in greenhouse crop production is the presence of pests. Detection and classification of insects are priorities in integrated pest management (IPM). This document describes a machine vision system able to detect whiteflies ( Bemisia tabaci Genn.) in a greenhouse by sensing their presence using hunting traps. The extracted features corresponding to the eccentricity and area of the whiteflies projections allow to establish differences among pests and other insects on both the trap surfaces and dust generated artefacts. Because of whiteflies geometrical characteristics, it was possible to design an efficient (related to manual counting) machine vision algorithm to scout and count units of this pest within a greenhouse environment. These algorithm results show high correlation indexes for both, sticky screens ( R2 = 0.97) and plant leaf situations ( R2 = 1.0). The machine vision algorithm reduces the scouting time and the associated human error for IPM-related activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Analyzes the gene expression by Pepper huasteco virus (PHV) in Capsicum chinense plants with resistance to geminivirus infections. Use of differential display reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction; Role of the genes in the interaction between pepper and PHV; Evaluation of the virus-free state of the plants; Cloning and sequencing DNA fragments; Virus inoculation.

Various environmental, food security and population health problems have been correlated with the use of intensive agriculture production systems around the world. This type of system leads to the loss of biodiversity and natural habitats, high usage rates of agrochemicals and natural resources, and affects soil composition, human health, and nutritional plant quality in rural areas. Agroecological intercropping systems that respect agrobiodiversity, on the other hand, can significantly benefit ecosystems, human health, and food security by modifying the nutritional profile and content of some health-promoting bioactive compounds in the species cultivated in this system. However, research on intercropping strategies focuses more on the benefits they can offer to ecosystems, and less on plant nutrient composition, and the existing information is scattered. The topic merits further study, given the critical impact that it could have on human nutrition. The aim of this review is therefore to collect viable details on the status of research into the profile of nutrients and bioactive compounds in intercropping systems in different regions of the world with unique mixed crops using plant species, along with the criteria for combining them, as well as the nutrients and bioactive compounds analyzed, to exemplify the possible contributions of intercropping systems to food availability and quality.

Current research in basic and applied knowledge of plant science has aimed to unravel the role of the interaction between environmental factors and the genome in the physiology of plants to confer the ability to overcome challenges in a climate change scenario. Evidence shows that factors causing environmental stress (stressors), whether of biological, chemical, or physical origin, induce eustressing or distressing effects in plants depending on the dose. The latter suggests the induction of the "hormesis" phenomenon. Sustainable crop production requires a better understanding of hormesis, its basic concepts, and the input variables to make its management feasible. This implies that acknowledging hormesis in plant research could allow specifying beneficial effects to effectively manage environmental stressors according to cultivation goals. Several factors have been useful in this regard, which at low doses show beneficial eustressing effects (biostimulant/elicitor), while at higher doses, they show distressing toxic effects. These insights highlight biostimulants/elicitors as tools to be included in integrated crop management strategies for reaching sustainability in plant science and agricultural studies. In addition, compelling evidence on the inheritance of elicited traits in plants unfolds the possibility of implementing stressors as a tool in plant breeding., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2023. Published by Elsevier B.V.)

Hydrogen peroxide (H 2 O 2 ) is an important molecule that regulates antioxidant responses that are crucial for plant stress resistance. Exposure to low levels of ultraviolet-B radiation (UV-B, 280-315 nm) can also activate antioxidant defenses and acclimation responses. However, how H 2 O 2 and UV-B interact to promote stress acclimation remains poorly understood. In this work, a transgenic model of Nicotiana tabacum cv Xanthi nc, with elevated Mn-superoxide dismutase (Mn-SOD) activity, was used to study the interaction between the constitutive overproduction of H 2 O 2 and a 14-day UV-B treatment (1.75 kJ m -2 d -1 biologically effective UV-B). Subsequently, these plants were subjected to a 7-day moderate drought treatment to evaluate the impact on drought resistance of H 2 O 2 - and UV-dependent stimulation of the plants' antioxidant system. The UV-B treatment enhanced H 2 O 2 levels and altered the antioxidant status by increasing the epidermal flavonol index, Trolox Equivalent Antioxidant Capacity, and catalase, peroxidase and phenylalanine ammonia lyase activities in the leaves. UV-B also retarded growth and suppressed acclimation responses in highly H 2 O 2 -overproducing transgenic plants. Plants not exposed to UV-B had a higher drought resistance in the form of higher relative water content of leaves. Our data associate the interaction between Mn-SOD transgene overexpression and the UV-B treatment with a stress response. Finally, we propose a hormetic biphasic drought resistance response curve as a function of leaf H 2 O 2 content in N. tabacum cv Xanthi., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to European Photochemistry Association, European Society for Photobiology.)

The Pepper huasteco yellow vein virus (PHYVV) is an endemic geminivirus in Mexico causing partial or total losses in the pepper crop since the damage caused by the virus has not been fully controlled. In this work, we evaluated the effect of ZnO NPs (0, 50, 100, 150, and 200 mM) as a preventive (72 h before) and curative (72 h after) treatment of PHYVV infection in two jalapeño pepper varieties. In this study, we observed a decrease in symptoms, and it could be caused by an induction of the defense system in pepper plants and a direct action on PHYVV by foliar application of ZnO NPs. Our findings suggest that ZnO NP application significantly decreased the viral titer for both varieties at 200 mM by 15.11-fold. However, this effect was different depending on the timing of application and the variety of pepper. The greatest decrease in the viral titer in the preventive treatment in both varieties was at the concentration of 200 mM (1781.17 and 274.5 times, respectively). For curative treatment in cv. Don Pancho at the concentration of 200 mM (333.33 times) and cv. Don Benito at 100 mM (43.10 folds). compared to control. Furthermore, virus mobility was generally restricted for both varieties at 100 mM (15.13-fold) compared to the control. The results possibly delineated that ZnO NPs increased plant resistance possibly by increasing POD (2.08 and 0.25 times) and SOD (0.998 and 1.38) in cv. Don Pancho and cv. Don Benito, respectively. On the other hand, in cv. Don Pancho and cv. Don Benito presented a decrease in CAT (0.61 and 0.058) and PAL (0.78 and 0.77), respectively. Taken together, we provide the first evidence to demonstrate the effect of ZnO NPs on viral symptoms depending on the plan-virus-ZnO NP interaction., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare the following financial interests/personal relationships which may be considered as potential competing interests: Irineo Torres Pacheco reports financial support was provided by Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología., (Copyright © 2023 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.)