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Electrospinning of Edible, Food-Based Polymers
Published in V Ravishankar Rai, Jamuna A. Bai, Nanotechnology Applications in the Food Industry, 2018
Serife Akkurt, Lin Shu Liu, Peggy Tomasula
Amaranth (Amaranthus hypochondriacus) is a traditional Mexican plant with nutritional grains and leaves. The seed is high in protein (17%). The leaves are also high in protein (28–49%), unsaturated oil (45% linoleic acid), fiber (11–23%), and minerals (Martínez and Añón 1996). The main protein fractions in amaranth grain are albumins, globulins, and glutelins, which are classified based on their solubility. The amino acid compositions of the protein fractions are reviewed by Segura-Nieto et al. (1992). Due to the low solubility of amaranth protein isolates (APIs) in aqueous solution, Aceituno-Medina et al. (2013a) studied the feasibility of creating electrospun nanofibers from API in a mixture of organic solvents such as glacial acetic acid, sodium hydroxide, and HFIP under different pH conditions. The results indicated that capsule morphologies occurred at extreme pH values of pH 2 and pH 12. Fiber-like morphologies were obtained with HFIP solvent, which promoted the formation of random coil structures and entanglement of the protein chains. Capsule morphologies were produced from amaranth proteins in formic acid solutions (Aceituno-Medina et al. 2013b).
Amaranth—Bioindicator Of Toxic Soils
Published in Alexander V. Kutchin, Lyudmila N. Shishkina, Larissa I. Weisfeld, Gennady E. Zaikov, Ilya N. Kurochkin, Alexander N. Goloshchapov, Chemistry and Technology of Plant Substances, 2017
Sarra A. Bekuzarova, Johnny G. Kachmazov, Ekaterina S. Ayskhanova
In recent years, the culture is considered promising amaranth, it is used for food or feed purposes. The uniqueness of this culture is that it in all parts of the plant contains a lot of biologically active substances: essential and nonessential amino acids, microelements, minerals, vitamins, proteins, fatty acids, choline, bile acids, spirin, steroids, and selenium [1–5].
Environmental Impacts of Biofuel-Fired Small Boilers and Gasifiers
Published in Mateusz Szubel, Mariusz Filipowicz, Biomass in Small-Scale Energy Applications: Theory and Practice, 2019
Jozef Viglasky, Juraj Klukan, Nadezda Langova
The Amaranth agroenvironmental system is a key link in the sustainable production of agriculture. It will play an important role as a raw material source for industrial biofuel production as well as for environmental protection in this century.
Foliar spray with rutin improves cadmium remediation efficiency excellently by enhancing antioxidation and phytochelatin detoxification of Amaranthus hypochondriacus
Published in International Journal of Phytoremediation, 2022
Li Yang, Yuchen Kang, Jiaxin Liu, Na Li, Hui Sun, Tianqi Ao, Wenqing Chen
Cadmium (Cd) is a highly toxic metal element. Excess Cd can hinder the absorption and transport of plant nutrients and water, inhibit seed germination, and reduce seedling growth rates (Haider et al.2021). More critically, Cd readily produces adverse health effects in organisms throughout the food chain and other pathways (Du et al.2020). Phytoremediation refers to the removal of contaminants from soil by plant absorption (Yadav et al.2018). This approach has been widely studied and accepted because of its low cost, practicability and environmental friendliness (Ashraf et al.2019; Shah and Daverey 2020). Amaranthus hypochondriacus can be used as a feed crop due to its fast growth, high biomass, ease of cultivation, high nutritional value and strong adaptability (Li et al.2012). Edible green leaves and red leaf amaranth can actively absorb Cd from the soil and transfer it from the roots to the aboveground parts (Chunilall et al.2005). Amaranth was shown to have a good enrichment capability for Cd in a recent study (Cui et al.2021); furthermore, amaranth exhibits excellent Cd accumulation in leaves under high Cd stress (Xie et al.2019). Therefore, amaranth has good potential for the remediation of Cd-contaminated soil and deserves further study. However, Cd can cause stomatal dysfunction, inhibit the activity of protective enzymes and damage cell membranes (Srivastava et al.2014; Abbas et al.2018). Therefore, alleviation of Cd toxicity to protect plant growth and improve Cd absorption efficiency is a key issue in the application of amaranth as an enriched plant to remediate Cd-contaminated soil.
Effects of lead and cadmium on photosynthesis in Amaranthus spinosus and assessment of phytoremediation potential
Published in International Journal of Phytoremediation, 2019
Yingping Huang, Ying Xi, Long Gan, David Johnson, Yonghong Wu, Dong Ren, Huigang Liu
Heavy metal hyper-accumulators are plants with the following three characteristics: (1) most of the heavy metals absorbed by plants are distributed in the aboveground parts so that they have a high aboveground/root concentration ratio; (2) the concentration of an element in the body is greater than a certain critical value (100 times higher than that of common plants under the same growth conditions); (3) the ability to grow normally in soil contaminated by heavy metals without heavy metal poisoning (Ent et al.2013; Pazalberto et al.2014; Zhang et al.2017; Kang et al.2018). Unfortunately, some hyper-accumulators with strong root systems are of low biomass and thus have limited extraction capacities. Moreover, some hyper-accumulators are selective for particular metals and have strong climate dependence, which can limit their potential for use in phytoremediation (January et al.2008; Zeng et al.2019). Thus, it is necessary to identify plant species that grow well in many climate regions and are capable of extracting multiple heavy metals from the soil. Several studies have investigated hyper-accumulators for one heavy metal, but studies on hyper-accumulators using two or more heavy metals have rarely been reported. Amaranthus spinosus, commonly known as spiny amaranth, is a potent medicinal plant that is known for its high antioxidant content (Amin et al.2006). Amaranthus spinosus grows rapidly and is distributed in many countries because it easily adapts to a wide variety of environmental conditions (Yahyaoui et al.2018). Due to these desirable characteristics, we selected A. spinosus to test for phytoremediation of soil contaminated with heavy metals.