Carmen Barro

Changes in nitrogen and carbohydrate fractions associated with the field drying of vetch (Vicia sativa L.)

Abstract A field study was conducted to determine the changes occurring in the nitrogen and carbohydrate fractions of vetch herbage during field drying in the haymaking process. Plant materials were whole aerial parts and leaf and stem components. Samples were collected just before and after field drying and analysed for crude protein, degradable protein, non-protein nitrogen, acid detergent insoluble nitrogen, total non-structural carbohydrates, neutral and acid detergent fibres, cellulose and lignin. With the exception of non-protein nitrogen, which increased, the nitrogen fractions showed non-significant changes during the field drying of herbage. The main changes in the carbohydrate fraction was a significant decrease ( P −1 to 18 g kg −1 , depending on the year, expressed as losses of dry matter. Cell-wall constituents were very little affected. The chemical changes followed a similar pattern in both the leaf and stem components.

Application of the statistical multivariate analysis to the differentiation of whiskies of different brands

Abstract A study was made to test the authenticity of whisky that is offered from opened bottles in Spanish public establishments. It is based on 100 genuine Scotch whisky samples from five labels and 38 genuine Spanish whisky samples of high quality; two standard populations were formed. The major volatile components and absorbances were determined from all samples. Principal Component and Stepwise Discriminant Analysis are used in the statistical treatment applied to these data to determine the differences between the Spanish whiskies and the Scotch whiskies. Also analyzed were 113 samples from bottles of Scotch whisky with one of the five standard labels, already opened in the establishment inspected. A method for identifying outliers was applied to these 113 test samples, and the contents of 41% of the bottles agreed with the characteristics of their labels, but 28% of the Scotch whiskies had been substituted by Spanish whiskies of similar quality.

Yield and composition of protein concentrate, press cake, green juice and solubles concentrate from wet fractionation of Sophora japonica, L. foliage

A wet-fractionation process was applied to foliage (shoots < 0.5 cm in diameter), twigs, leaves and pods of Sophora japonica L. to obtain press cake and juice or protein concentrate for feeding purposes and, simultaneously, other organic substances for industrial, medical or pharmaceutical use. This paper gives the first results for yields and composition of the original biomass (OB), and of the press cake (PC), green juice (GJ), leaf-protein concentrate (LPC) and soluble concentrate (SC). The dry matter (DM) extraction ratio was 30% in the GJ. From 1000 kg of initial fresh biomass the DM in the LPC was 42 kg and the yield of crude protein (CP) in the LPC reached 6.7 kg. Both OB and PC had high DM contents (32.0 and 31.8% respectively). Neutral detergent fibre (NDF) and acid detergent fibre (ADF) were low (39.0 and 30.8%, respectively) in the DM of PC. Total nitrogen, non-protein nitrogen (NPN), nitric nitrogen and crude ash were 9, 28, 71 and 20% lower, respectively and NDF and ADF were 27% higher, in the PC as compared with the OB dry matter. Relatively high proportions of NDF (6.1%) and ADF (4.4%) were detected in the GJ dry matter, which also had a high content (10.1%) of ether extract (EE). The CP content in the DM of LPC was very low (15.9%). On the other hand, EE (18.0%) and, in particular, total lipids (which amounted to 69% of the DM) were very high. Total carotenoids, carotene and xanthophylls contents in DM of LPC were also low (299.2, 52.1 and 216.6 mg kg−1, respectively); lutein (138.2 mg kg−1) represented more than half of the total xanthophylls. Total polyphenols in the biomass amounted to 11.0% (in LPC 13.6%), these being mainly free polyphenols (9.8 and 12.1%, respectively). Some previous data on the composition of LPC lipidic fractions are also given.