Publications by authors named "Sonia S Ferreira"

Cyanobacterial extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) mainly composed of heteropolysaccharides can be attached to the cell wall as capsular polysaccharides (CPS) or released to the environment as released polysaccharides (RPS). These polymers have an unusually high diversified monosaccharidic composition, making them attractive for biotechnological/biomedical applications. However, their production is still poorly understood, hindering their optimization for industrial needs.

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Marine environments are the warehouse of a variety of novel bioactive compounds prone to be explored by food and feed industry. The growing interest in sulphated polysaccharides has led to the search for new sustainable sources, such as seawater. These compounds are naturally concentrated in salt pan brine water due to their evaporation by wind and sunlight.

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Brown macroalgae are rich sources of nutrients and health-promoting compounds. Nevertheless, their consumption is still limited by their strong organoleptic characteristics, thus requiring the development of extraction strategies to profit from their nutritional value. To fulfil this, two sequential extraction approaches were developed, differing in the solvent used in the first extraction step, water in approach 1 or food-grade ethanol in approach 2, to obtain economic and affordable extracts rich in specific compounds from The use of water in the first step of extraction allowed us to recover water-soluble phlorotannins, laminarans and mannuronic-rich alginates, making the subsequent 70% ethanol extract richest in fucoxanthin (0.

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Yeast cell walls undergo modifications during the brewing process, leading to a remodelling of their architecture. One significant change is the increased insolubility of the cell wall glycogen pool, likely due to the formation of covalent bonds between glycogen and cell wall polysaccharides. To verify this hypothesis, we extracted the brewer's spent yeast with 4 M KOH, obtaining an insoluble glucan fraction (AE.

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Article Synopsis
  • * This study aimed to analyze the chemical structure of these polysaccharides and assess their effects on immune activity and cholesterol levels, focusing on how their structure relates to these functions.
  • * Two FCSP fractions (F2 and F3) were found to stimulate immune response and improve cholesterol levels, with their bioactive properties linked to specific sugar compositions and sulphate groups.
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To study structure-function relationships of pectic polysaccharides with their immunostimulatory activity, broccoli by-products were used. Pectic polysaccharides composed by 64 mol% uronic acids, 18 mol% Ara, and 10 mol% Gal, obtained by hot water extraction, activated B lymphocytes in vitro (25-250 μg/mL). To disclose active structural features, combinations of ethanol and chromatographic fractionation and modification of the polysaccharides were performed.

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Rheology modifiers are essential additives in numerous products in a variety of industries. Due to environmental awareness, consumer-oriented industries are interested in novel natural rheological agents that can replace synthetic chemicals. In this study, the chemical composition and rheological properties of a novel exopolysaccharide (EPS) produced by Alteromonas macleodii Mo 169 were investigated.

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This work studies the extraction and purification of a novel arabinogalactan from pistachio external hull. It was extracted with a simple method from pistachio hull which is considered as unexploited waste. Based on the results of sugar analysis by GC-FID, glycosidic linkage by GC-MS, NMR spectroscopy, and molecular weight by Size Exclusion Chromatography, pistachio hull water soluble polysaccharides (PHWSP) were identified as a type II arabinogalactan (AG), with characteristic terminally linked α-Araf, (α1 → 5)-Araf, (α1 → 3,5)-Araf, terminally linked β-Galp, (β1 → 6)-Galp, and (β1 → 3,6)-Galp.

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Coffee brews have High Molecular Weight (HMW) compounds with described immunostimulatory activity, namely polysaccharides and melanoidins. Melanoidins are formed during roasting and are modified during brews technological processing. In addition, brews have Low Molecular Weight (LMW) compounds, namely free chlorogenic acids and caffeine, with well-known anti-inflammatory properties.

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Because of high water content, the valorisation of broccoli by-products requires dehydration that can preserve bioactive compounds. Blanching pre-treatment has been reported to improve the drying rate of broccoli. As a thermal treatment, it promotes also enzyme inactivation.

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The relevance of microalgae biotechnology for producing high-value compounds with biomedical application, such as polysaccharides, has been increasing. Despite this, the knowledge about the composition and structure of microalgae polysaccharides is still scarce. In this work, water-soluble polysaccharides from Nannochloropsis oculata were extracted, fractionated, structurally analysed, and subsequently tested in terms of immunostimulatory activity.

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Apple pomace is a by-product of apple processing industries with low value and thus frequent disposal, although with valuable compounds. Acidified hot water extraction has been suggested as a clean, feasible, and easy approach for the recovery of polyphenols. This type of extraction allowed us to obtain 296 g of extract per kg of dry apple pomace, including 3.

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Marine environments are an enormous source of materials with biological interest, such as sulphated polysaccharides, which have relevant biological activities. In this study the potential of salt pan brine water as an easily accessible source of sulphated polysaccharides was evaluated. This water revealed to have a high quantity of polymeric material, five times more than sea water, mainly composed by highly sulphated polysaccharides.

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Broccoli by-products from frozen-food industry account for 45% of the initial broccoli heads. They consist on stalks, inflorescences, and leaves, blanched and non-blanched, sharing the nutritional value and bioactive compounds of commercial broccoli heads. However, their high perishability prevents further valorisation.

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Article Synopsis
  • An instant coffee extract rich in arabinogalactans was shown to stimulate B lymphocytes in mice through in vitro studies.
  • The active compounds primarily elute near the void volume in size-exclusion chromatography and remain effective even after chymotrypsin treatment.
  • However, the removal of terminal arabinose residues decreased B cell activation, indicating their importance in the immunostimulatory effects related to coffee.
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Immunostimulatory polysaccharides are compounds capable of interacting with the immune system and enhance specific mechanisms of the host response. Glucans, mannans, pectic polysaccharides, arabinogalactans, fucoidans, galactans, hyaluronans, fructans, and xylans are polysaccharides with reported immunostimulatory activity. The structural features that have been related with such activity are the monosaccharide and glycosidic-linkage composition, conformation, molecular weight, functional groups, and branching characteristics.

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Instant coffee was prepared and fractionated into higher (>100kDa), medium (5-10, 10-30, 30-100kDa) and lower (1-5, <1kDa) molecular weight fractions. Sugars and linkage composition characteristics of arabinogalactans and galactomannans were recovered in all fractions. Also, amino acid analysis performed after hydrolysis showed similar compositions in all fractions.

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