Analysis on the main antioxidants of berries of

Transcription

1 Department of Chemistry and Agricultural Biotechnology, University of Pisa, Italy 01 February July 2010 Analysis on the main antioxidants of berries of tomato fruits irrigated with water rich in Boron Trainee: Miguel Ferro Sending organization Tutor: Fátima Carvalho Receiving Organization Tutor: Riccardo Izzo

2 Chapter 1 Since I have a degree in Environmental Engineering and I was searching for the first job in this area, I decided to concur to this internship to work for six months at the Department of Chemistry and Agricultural Biotechnology in a foreign country (Italy, Pisa), both to increase my working experience and also my language skills, in a more professional view, and also because I always had a great and special interest about Italy, and having the opportunity to be there working in my area was too tempting, so with this project I was able to fulfill all of my ambitions (for six months). The internship was developed in the Department of Chemistry and Agricultural Biotechnology of the University of Pisa where I worked under the supervision of Dr. Cristina Sgherri and Prof. Dr. Riccardo Izzo, developing a research about the nutritional value of tomato when irrigated with fresh water contaminated by Boron. This research had a special meaning in Italy, essentially in Tuscany, because they have most of the groundwater in the cost regions contaminated by saline water, which has high Boron s concentration. Italy is also a country Figure 1. Tomato plants growing in the greenhouse. where tomato is produced and consumed in very high quantities, since is an essential element for the Mediterranean diet. Página 2

3 The department where I worked was located at the agricultural faculty and had a link with the greenhouse of the University, where plants grow under controlled conditions, for posterior determination of nutrient and antioxidant compounds in the laboratory. During my internship I had the opportunity to visit the greenhouse and see the growing process of the plants (Figure 1) and the harvesting of the tomato fruits that I would pretreat and analyze at the department. As I previously said, my work consisted in the determination of the main antioxidants in tomato berries, such as Ascorbic Acid (Vitamin C), Phenols, Tocopherols (Vitamin E) and Lycopene. To perform the analyses I had to extract these compounds from the tomato fruit, extracting Ascorbic Acid and Phenols with water, aqueous extraction, and Tocopherol and Lycopene with a methanol/chloroform mixture, lipid extraction. From these extractions I analyzed separately each of these compounds, and also the total antioxidant power of both lipid and aqueous phases of the tomato fruit. For the determinations I used a spectrophotometer, except for Tocopherols that I had to with an HPLC (High Pressure Liquid Chromatography). The fist work I did at the department was carried out in two different harvests of tomato, performed with one month of interval, irrigated with fresh water contaminated by 2,0 mg/l of Boron. With this work we intended to see the effect of this concentration of Boron (considered toxic, being four times higher than the recommended by the World Health Organization) in the nutritional content of the fruit, and also its effect in time. After this work I started a second work (didn t finished by lack of time) where four different kinds of tomato were submitted to a higher Boron concentration (10,0 mg/l). During my internship I had also the opportunity to write a scientific article for the international magazine Agrochimica with my first experimental results. So, part of Página 3

4 my work was also a lot bibliography research and the study of related works to write this article. During my stay in Italy I was also invited for a four days international congress in Pisa (International conference on Environmental Pollution and Clean Bio/Phytoremediation) where very interesting presentations related with environmental pollution were exposed. Página 4

5 Chapter 2 In the beginning of my internship I participated in cultural and linguistic course of one week, where I learned the most basic and important aspects of Italian culture and language, but if I had another opportunity I m sure that I would do everything to, at least, complete the A1 course, to acquire a better communication capacity in Italian, since with one week only we just learn the extremely basic vocabulary. Maybe one of the main difficulties that I found during my stay in Italy was to find a good house for a reasonable price, since in the center of Pisa the houses are too degraded and very expensive, and on the other hand out of the center it s too far from everywhere. So I decided to go for a non central house but also not too far from the center and buy a bicycle, taking (by bicycle) 10 minutes from home to the center (Piazza Garibaldi) and 15 minutes to the Department, and I think it was the best choice to do, since in Pisa everyone goes to work/school by bicycle. In my house I was living with other two Portuguese, Joana and Carlos, that were doing the Erasmus program in Pisa. Living with other Portuguese was very good since I had a better initial interaction with my housemates, I could speak my language and have better communication, but on the other hand if I had spent this time living with Italian people I m sure I would have learned much more about the Italian language and culture, improving my intercultural competences. But since I made lots of friend from everywhere and I spent almost all my free time with theme this was not really a problem. Página 5

6 Italian was not the only language that I improved during these six months, since all my research project was carried out in English I spent many time reading and writing in English, improving a big deal my linguistic skills. I also had some foreign friends that didn t learn Italian, and so English was also a language that I spoke daily with friend and also at work. During my stay in Italy I worked at the Department from Monday to Friday, so Friday night was always going out night, we made dinner at home and invited some friend, and then we went to the center (Piazza Garibaldi), where there was always some party. The weekend was always reserved for travel. In the first 3 months I visited all the main cities in the northern part of the country, like Venice, Verona, Milan, Geneva, Bologna etc., I also visited Rome (didn t see the Pope), Florence, Vinci (home village of Leonardo Da Vinci) and the Island of Elba (where Napoleon was exiled) (Figure 2). For Figure 2. Visit around Italy. me, one of the best things of living in a foreign country is to have the opportunity to visit the country, and in my case, Italy is an amazing country that worth s visiting, and adding a very good train system and not too expensive we have the perfect conditions to use all the free time for travel. Página 6

7 I think that everyone should, at least try to have the opportunity to study/work in a foreign country, where we can learn so much and meet so many different people, it s an unique experience. I did my six months internship and I would do it again if I could. Página 7