The high level of soil contamination in Faxinal and Ivaí 1) constitutes a potential source of parasitic infection and 2) suggests that the treatment of human and animal excreta continues to be inadequate.

OBJETIVO: Analisar o estado parasitológico de famílias de comunidade indígena após instituição de medidas de controle para enteroparasitos. MÉTODOS: Estudo longitudinal realizado entre 2004 e 2006 com 447 pessoas da etnia Kaingáng, no município de Cândido de Abreu, PR. As medidas de controle de enteroparasitos foram: melhorias sanitárias em 2003, tratamentos antiparasitários realizados durante o período de estudo e atividades de educação em saúde iniciadas em 2005. Foram obtidos indicadores parasitológicos de saúde em três inquéritos coproparasitológicos em 2004, 2005 e 2006 quando foram coletadas 250, 147 e 126 amostras de fezes, respectivamente. Foram utilizados os métodos de sedimentação espontânea, centrífugo-flutuação e Kato/Katz. As condições de moradia e higiene foram determinadas utilizando-se questionário aplicado a 69 (2004), 57 (2005) e 38 (2006) das 90 famílias. RESULTADOS: As prevalências totais de enteroparasitos de 2004-06 foram, respectivamente: 91,6%, 94,6% e 87,3%, sem redução significativa. A prevalência de algumas espécies reduziu enquanto que a de outras aumentou significativamente. As infecções de alta intensidade por geoelmintos apresentaram taxas menores de 2% no período do estudo. Houve aumento nas taxas de entrevistados que relataram usar o banheiro (p<0,005) de 38,8% para 71,1% e ter tomado antiparasitário (p=0,001) de 70,2% para 100,0%. CONCLUSÕES: Houve melhora significativa de indicadores parasitológicos de saúde da população como a redução na prevalência de algumas espécies de enteroparasitos, além da manutenção de baixa carga parasitária, mostrando a importância de se associar o tratamento antiparasitário às melhorias sanitárias.

Propolis is a natural product widely known for its medicinal properties. In this work, fungi present on propolis samples were isolated, identified and tested for the production of antimicrobial metabolites. Twenty-two fungal isolates were obtained, some of which were identified as Alternaria alternata, Aspergillus flavus, Bipolaris hawaiiensis, Fusarium merismoides, Lasiodiplodia theobromae, Penicillium citrinum, Penicillium crustosum, Penicillium janthinellum, Penicillium purpurogenum, Pestalotiopsis palustris, Tetracoccosporium paxianum and Trichoderma koningii. These fungi were grown in liquid media to obtain crude extracts that were evaluated for their antibiotic activity against pathogenic bacteria, yeast and Cladosporium cladosporioides and A. flavus. The most active extract was obtained from L. theobromae (minimum inhibitory concentration = 64 μg/mL against Listeria monocitogenes). Some extracts showed to be more active than the positive control in the inhibition of Staphylococcus aureus and L. monocitogenes. Therefore, propolis is a promising source of fungi, which produces active agents against relevant food poisoning bacteria and crop-associated fungi.

Direct infusion electrospray ionization mass spectrometry in the negative ion mode (ESI(-)-MS) was employed to discriminate among fractions arising from the distillation of fermented sugarcane juice during the production of cachaça, a typical Brazilian alcoholic beverage. Aliquots were collected in the course of distillation and their ESI(-)-MS shown to be almost indistinguishable by a simple visual inspection. However, when the ESI(-)-MS data were treated by the principal component analysis (PCA) and hierarchical clustering analysis (HCA) statistical methods, four major groups were clearly determined, the so-called head (two distinct clusters), heart and tail fractions. Furthermore, the recognition of diagnostic ions (and their respective intensities) enabled a more confident establishment of the cutoff position (i.e. the initial and final points of each fraction). In conclusion, ESI-MS, in conjunction with PCA or HCA approaches, proved to be a quite efficient method that allowed for a prompt characterization of each fraction derived from the distillation of brewed sugarcane. The results described herein can, therefore, be useful not only to optimize the production of cachaça but also to improve the quality of the final product.

The work presents a control and supervision system especially designed for a pilot plant of the traditional cachaça production. This plant is designed to develop multidisciplinary research aimed at improving the distillate beverage in copper still by understanding the dynamics of the biochemical and physical phenomena. The real-time acquisition of the input and the output data of the fermentation and distillation processes is carried out by an embedded platform based on available microcontrollers. These data are made available via USB communication network to a friendly data acquisition interface that can be used to develop process models, to execute simulations and to design controllers. From the point of view of research and teaching, the use of the system during normal operation of the plant allows the use of modelling and identification techniques to study the slow and fast dynamics exhibited by the processes of fermentation and distillation as well as the nonlinearities typical of such processes. In addition to that, actual instrumentation and control problems inherent to these processes are investigated via the control and supervision system. Finally, identification tests and modelling techniques applied to a real plant are shown and discussed in a multidisciplinary approach.

Vitamin A deficiency continues to be a major public health problem affecting developing countries where people eat mostly staple foods. In Asia, rice is the main staple food providing up to 80% of the total daily energy intake. We used existing datasets from Bangladesh, Indonesia and Philippines where dietary intakes have been quantified at the individual level to 1) determine the rice and vitamin A intake among children 6‐59 months and women; 2) simulate the level of change in prevalence of inadequate intake of vitamin A based on a range of beta‐carotene (4‐20 ppm) and adoption (10‐70%) levels of the biofortified rice. PC‐Side software was used to perform the simulation analysis. Rice intake (mean ± SD, as raw fresh weight) among women and children were, respectively, 422 ± 83 and 138 ± 46 g/d in Bangladesh, 276 ± 60 and 100 ± 20 g/d in Philippines and 160 ± 125 and 95 ± 45 g/d in Indonesia. Depending on the age and physiological group the inadequate intake of vitamin A was 80‐100% in Bangladesh, 20‐80% in Indonesia, and 50‐90% in Philippines. As an example, introduction of biofortified rice at 10 ppm of beta‐carotene reduced the inadequacy of vitamin A intake by 10‐15% when 10% of the rice consumed was the biofortified rice and up to a 40‐50% decrease when a 70% adoption level was considered. Biofortification of rice with beta‐carotene could significantly improve the vitamin A intake in these countries.

This work presents a data survey regarding the qualitative chemical analysis of drugs seized by the Police in the state of Minas Gerais between July 2017 and June 2022, including an evaluation of labeling of 265 samples of anabolic androgenic steroids (AAS) seized in 2020. The Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (API) present in the samples were identified through chemical analysis and classified by system Anatomical Therapeutic Chemical (ATC) methods. Analysis of the labeling information for 265 samples of AAS followed the guidance of legislation RDC 71 (2009) from ANVISA. For this study 6355 seized pharmaceuticals underwent qualitative chemical analysis that corresponded to 7739 APIs successfully identified and classified. Among the components studied AAS, psychostimulants, anesthetics, and analgesics were the most commonly examined. AAS seized and tested increased by over 100% and for the majority of the samples analyzed were found to not match the labeling on the packaging.In the meantime, anti-obesity drugs presented a prominent increase of 400% from 2020/1 to 2021/2, during covid-19 quarantine. Seized pharmaceuticals and tests can support information in the planning of public health and safety policies. K E Y W O R D Sanabolic androgenic steroids, anti-obesity, drugs seized, drugs to improve performance and image, medicines falsified and substandard, therapeutic drug Highlights• Anabolic steroids, psychostimulants, anesthetics and analgesics were the most seized and tested drugs.• Androgenic anabolic steroids are the drugs that most require expert analysis.• During the covid-19 pandemic, there was an increase in anti-obesity seized and examined.• Psychostimulants have been associated with anesthetic and anti-obesity drugs.• Seized pharmaceuticals and tests can support the planning of public health and safety policies.

Pumpkin (Cucurbita moschata Duch) is one of the crop foods targeted for nutritional enhancement by biofortification due to the relatively high content of pro‐vitamin A carotenoids in some varieties. We investigated the effect of three common styles of home cooking of pumpkin on retention and the bioaccessibility of pro‐vitamin A carotenoids in five genotypes of biofortified pumpkin developed by Embrapa. Pulp from three of the biofortified genotypes contained greater than 450 µg/g FW total pro‐vitamin A carotenoids with all‐<em style=”mso‐bidi‐font‐style: normal;”>E‐βC being most abundant. Retention of pro‐vitamin A in pulp after boiling in water or water with 60% sucrose for 5 min or steaming for 7 min decreased pro‐vitamin A content by 5‐22% and 13‐22% in two of the genotypes with highest content of pro‐vitamin A, but there were no losses of pro‐vitamin A in the other genotypes. Bioaccessibility of pro‐vitamin A as assessed by <em style=”mso‐bidi‐font‐style: normal;”>in vitro digestion of cooked pumpkin was poor (0.3‐3.3%). Despite the low efficiency of micellarization, the amount of bioaccessible pro‐vitamin A provided in a 100g serving of boiled and steamed flesh of genotype 58 was approximately 30 and 21%, respectively, of the EAR of vitamin A for children 4‐8 and 9‐13 years of age, respectively.