Ítala Maria Gouveia Marx
@ceb.uminho.pt
Postdoctoral Associate University of Minho, Faculty of Engineering, Centre of Biological Engineering, Industry and Processes Laboratory
University of Minho, Faculty of Engineering, Centre of Biological Engineering, Industry and Processes Laboratory
RESEARCH, TEACHING, or OTHER INTERESTS
Food Science, Agricultural and Biological Sciences, Biotechnology, Biochemistry
Scopus Publications
Scholar Citations
Scholar h-index
Scholar i10-index
Scopus Publications
Ítala M. G. Marx
MDPI AG
Olive oil, a fundamental component of the Mediterranean diet, is recognized as a functional food due to its health-promoting composition. The concentration of phenolic compounds in olive oil is influenced by various factors such as genetics, agro-climatic conditions, and technological processes. Therefore, to ensure an ideal intake of phenolics through the diet, it is recommended to produce functional enriched olive oil that contains a high concentration of bioactive compounds. The co-extraction technique is used to create innovative and differentiated products that promote the sensory and health-related composition of oils. To enrich olive oil, various natural sources of bioactive compounds can be used, including raw materials derived from the same olive tree such as olive leaves, as well as other compounds from plants and vegetables, such as herbs and spices (garlic, lemon, hot pepper, rosemary, thyme, and oregano). The development of functional enriched olive oils can contribute to the prevention of chronic diseases and improve consumers’ quality of life. This mini-review compiles and discusses relevant scientific information related to the development of enriched olive oil using the co-extraction technique and its positive effects on the health-related composition of oils.
Ítala M. G. Marx
MDPI AG
Food quality and safety pose an increasing threat to human health worldwide [...]
Ítala M.G. Marx, Susana Casal, Nuno Rodrigues, Rebeca Cruz, Ana C.A. Veloso, José A. Pereira, and António M. Peres
Elsevier BV
John Dike N. Ogbonna, Edite Cunha, Anthony A. Attama, Kenneth C. Ofokansi, Helena Ferreira, Susana Pinto, Joana Gomes, Ítala M. G. Marx, António M. Peres, José Manuel Sousa Lobo,et al.
MDPI AG
Designing oral formulations for children is very challenging, especially considering their peculiarities and preferences. The choice of excipients, dosing volume and palatability are key issues of pediatric oral liquid medicines. The purpose of the present study is to develop an oral pediatric solution of a model bitter drug (ranitidine) following a patient centric design process which includes the definition of a target product profile (TPP). To conclude on the matching of the developed solution to TPP, its chemical and microbiological stability was analyzed over 30 days (stored at 4 °C and room temperature). Simulation of use was accomplished by removing a sample with a syringe every day. Taste masking was assessed by an electronic tongue. The developed formulation relied on a simple taste masking strategy consisting in a mixture of sweeteners (sodium saccharine and aspartame) and 0.1% sodium chloride, which allowed a higher bitterness masking effectiveness in comparison with simple syrup. The ranitidine solution was stable for 30 days stored at 4 °C. However, differences were noted between the stability protocols (unopened recipient and in-use stability) showing the contribution of the simulation of use to the formation of degradation products. Stock solution was subjected to acid and alkali hydrolysis, chemical oxidation, heat degradation and a photo degradation stability assessment. The developed pediatric solution matched the TPP in all dimensions, namely composition suitable for children, preparation and handling adapted to hospital pharmaceutical compounding and adequate stability and quality. According to the results, in-use stability protocols should be preferred in the stability evaluation of pediatric formulations.
Ítala M. G. Marx, Paula Baptista, Susana Casal, Nuno Rodrigues, Rebeca Cruz, Ana C. A. Veloso, José A. Pereira, and António M. Peres
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Ítala M.G. Marx, Susana Casal, Nuno Rodrigues, Rebeca Cruz, Fátima Peres, Ana C.A. Veloso, José A. Pereira, and António M. Peres
Elsevier BV
Ítala M. G. Marx, Susana Casal, Nuno Rodrigues, Rebeca Cruz, Ana C. A. Veloso, José A. Pereira, and António M. Peres
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Ítala M.G. Marx, Susana Casal, Nuno Rodrigues, Ana C.A. Veloso, José A. Pereira, and António M. Peres
Elsevier BV
Hiba Ghrissi, Ana C. A. Veloso, Ítala M. G. Marx, Teresa Dias, and António M. Peres
MDPI AG
Microorganism assessment plays a key role in food quality and safety control but conventional techniques are costly and/or time consuming. Alternatively, electronic tongues (E-tongues) can fulfill this critical task. Thus, a potentiometric lab-made E-tongue (40 lipid sensor membranes) was used to differentiate four common food contamination bacteria, including two Gram positive (Enterococcus faecalis, Staphylococcus aureus) and two Gram negative (Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa). Principal component analysis and a linear discriminant analysis-simulated annealing algorithm (LDA-SA) showed that the potentiometric signal profiles acquired during the analysis of aqueous solutions containing known amounts of each studied bacteria allowed a satisfactory differentiation of the four bacterial strains. An E-tongue-LDA-SA model (12 non-redundant sensors) correctly classified 98 ± 5% of the samples (repeated K-fold-CV), the satisfactory performance of which can be attributed to the capability of the lipid membranes to establish electrostatic interactions/hydrogen bonds with hydroxyl, amine and/or carbonyl groups, which are comprised in the bacteria outer membranes. Furthermore, multiple linear regression models, based on selected subsets of E-tongue sensors (12–15 sensors), also allowed quantifying the bacteria contents in aqueous solutions (0.993 ± 0.011 ≤ R2 ≤ 0.998 ± 0.005, for repeated K-fold-CV). In conclusion, the E-tongue could be of great value as a preliminary food quality and safety diagnosis tool.
Guilherme G. Teixeira, Luís G. Dias, Nuno Rodrigues, Ítala M.G. Marx, Ana C.A. Veloso, José A. Pereira, and António M. Peres
Elsevier BV
Ítala M.G. Marx, Nuno Rodrigues, Ana C.A. Veloso, Susana Casal, José A. Pereira, and António M. Peres
Elsevier BV
Ítala M.G. Marx, Susana Casal, Nuno Rodrigues, Teresa Pinho, Ana C.A. Veloso, José A. Pereira, and António M. Peres
Elsevier BV
Ítala M. G. Marx, Nuno Rodrigues, Ana C. A. Veloso, Susana Casal, José A. Pereira, and António M. Peres
Hindawi Limited
Oils from cv. Arbequina were industrially extracted together with olive leaves of cv. Arbequina or Santulhana (1%, w/w), and their olfactory and volatile profiles were compared to those extracted without leaves addition (control). The leaves incorporation resulted in green fruity oils with fresh herbs and cabbage olfactory notes, while control oils showed a ripe fruity sensation with banana, apple, and dry hay grass notes. In all oils, total volatile contents varied from 57.5 to 65.5 mg/kg (internal standard equivalents), being aldehydes followed by esters, hydrocarbons, and alcohols the most abundant classes. No differences in the number of volatiles were observed. The incorporation of cv. Arbequina or Santulhana leaves significantly reduced the total content of alcohols and esters (minus 37–56% and 10–13%, respectively). Contrary, cv. Arbequina leaves did not influence the total content of aldehydes or hydrocarbons, while cv. Santulhana leaves promoted a significant increase (plus 49 and 10%, respectively). Thus, a leaf-cultivar dependency was observed, tentatively attributed to enzymatic differences related to the lipoxygenase pathway. Olfactory or volatile profiles allowed the successful unsupervised differentiation of the three types of studied cv. Arbequina oils. Finally, a lab-made electronic nose was applied to allow the nondestructive discrimination of cv. Arbequina oils extracted with or without the incorporation of olive leaves (100% and 99 ± 5% of correct classifications for leave-one-out and repeated K-fold cross-validation variants), being a practical tool for ensuring the label correctness if future commercialization is envisaged. Moreover, this finding also strengthened that olive oils extracted with or without olive leaves incorporation possessed quite different olfactory patterns, which also depended on the cultivar of the olive leaves.
Daniel Martín-Vertedor, Nuno Rodrigues, Ítala M.G. Marx, Ana C.A. Veloso, António M. Peres, and José Alberto Pereira
Elsevier BV
Isabel Rodrigues, Nuno Rodrigues, Ítala M. G. Marx, Ana C. A. Veloso, Ana Cristina Ramos, José Alberto Pereira, and António M. Peres
MDPI AG
Sweet cherry is highly appreciated by its characteristic flavor, which conditions the consumer’s preference. In this study, four sweet cherry cultivars (Durona, Lapins, Summit, and Van cultivars) were characterized according to biometric (fruit and stone weights, length, maximum and minimum diameters, pulp/stone mass ratio), physicochemical (CIELAB color, penetration force, titratable acidity, and total soluble solids), and potentiometric profiles (recorded by a lab-made electronic tongue with lipid polymeric membranes). Biometric and physicochemical data were significantly cultivar-dependent (p-value < 0.0001, one-way ANOVA). Summit cherries had higher masses and dimensions. Lapins cherries had the highest penetration force values having, together with Summit cherries, the highest CIELAB values. Van cherries showed the highest total soluble solids contents. No significant differences were found for fruits’ acidity (similar titratable acidities). The possibility of discriminating cherry cultivars was also evaluated using a linear discriminant analysis/simulated-annealing algorithm. A discriminant model was established based on nine non-redundant biometric-physicochemical parameters (using a low-level data fusion), with low sensitivity (75 ± 15% for the repeated K-fold cross-validation). On the contrary, a discriminant model, based on the potentiometric fingerprints of 11 selected sensors, allowed a better discrimination, with sensitivities of 88 ± 7% for the repeated K-fold cross-validation procedure. Thus, the electronic tongue could be used as a practical tool to discriminate cherry cultivars and, if applied by fruit traders, may reduce the risk of mislabeling, increasing the consumers’ confidence when purchasing this high-value product.
Rosa Guilherme, Nuno Rodrigues, Ítala M.G. Marx, Luís G. Dias, Ana C.A. Veloso, Ana Cristina Ramos, António M. Peres, and José Alberto Pereira
Elsevier BV
Daniel Martín-Vertedor, Nuno Rodrigues, Ítala M.G. Marx, Luís G. Dias, Ana C.A. Veloso, José Alberto Pereira, and António M. Peres
Elsevier BV
Amira Jarboui, Ítala M.G. Marx, Ana C.A. Veloso, Daniel Vilaça, Daniela M. Correia, Luís G. Dias, Yassin Mokkadem, and António M. Peres
Elsevier BV
Ítala M.G. Marx, Ana C.A. Veloso, Susana Casal, José A. Pereira, and António M. Peres
Elsevier
Catiussa Maiara PAZUCH, Daneysa Lahis KALSCHNE, Francieli Begnini SIEPMANN, Itala Maria Gouveia MARX, Tatiane Cristina Gonçalves de OLIVEIRA, Wilma Aparecida SPINOSA, Cristiane CANAN, and Eliane COLLA
FapUNIFESP (SciELO)
The vinegar is a millenary food, appreciated by consumers worldwide. The rice bran is a rice-processing by-product produced in a large scale, mainly employed in feed. This study describes a method for defatted rice bran (DRB) vinegar production by submerged fermentation, with optimized aeration and stirring conditions, evaluating its physico-chemical properties and acceptance. A 2 2 Full Factorial Design (FFD) was applied to evaluate the aeration (0.25-1.00 VVM) and stirring (100-500 rpm) effect on the stoichiometric yield (SY), total concentration of ethanol and acetic acid yield (TCY), and acetic acid productivity (AAP). SY ranged from 26.26 to 79.97%, TCY ranged from 78.04 to 100.50%, and AAP varied from 0.056 to 0.473 g L -1 h -1 . The stirring had a positive effect in the SY and TCY, while both aeration and stirring had a positive effect in the AAP (p ≤ 0.05). The FFD allowed an acetic acid increase of ≅ 750 times under aeration of 1.00 VVM and stirring of 500 rpm, which made it possible to develop an industrially compatible method for vinegar production using DRB as substrate. Furthermore, DRB presents potential for vinegar production, with functional characteristics - including antioxidant activity - and sensorially accepted.
Nuno Rodrigues, Ítala M.G. Marx, Luís G. Dias, Ana C.A. Veloso, José A. Pereira, and António M. Peres
Elsevier BV
Nuno Rodrigues, Ítala M.G. Marx, Susana Casal, Luís G. Dias, Ana C.A. Veloso, José A. Pereira, and António M. Peres
Elsevier BV
Ítala Marx, Ana Veloso, Luís Dias, Susana Casal, José Pereira, and António Peres
MDPI AG
Electrochemical bioinspired sensor devices combined with chemometric tools have experienced great advances in the last years, being extensively used for food qualitative and quantitative evaluation, namely for olive oil analysis. Olive oil plays a key role in the Mediterranean diet, possessing unique and recognized nutritional and health properties as well as highly appreciated organoleptic characteristics. These positive attributes are mainly due to olive oil richness in bioactive compounds such as phenolic compounds. In addition, these compounds enhance their overall sensory quality, being mainly responsible for the usual olive oil pungency and bitterness. This review aims to compile and discuss the main research advances reported in the literature regarding the use of electrochemical sensor based-devices for assessing bioactive compounds in olive oil. The main advantages and limitations of these fast, accurate, bioinspired voltammetric, potentiometric and/or amperometric sensor green-approaches will be addressed, aiming to establish the future challenges for becoming a practical quality analytical tool for industrial and commercial applications.
Ítala M.G. Marx, Nuno Rodrigues, Luís G. Dias, Ana C.A. Veloso, José A. Pereira, Deisy A. Drunkler, and António M. Peres
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Ítala M.G. Marx, Nuno Rodrigues, Luís G. Dias, Ana C.A. Veloso, José A. Pereira, Deisy A. Drunkler, and António M. Peres
Elsevier BV