Cucurbita pepo spp. pepo has a unique ability to phytoextract Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) such as p,p’-DDE from the contaminated soil to plant compartments. Although the uptake mechanism of the POPs by the plants still remains unknown, p,p’-DDE has been accumulated in the plants grown in the contaminated fields, posing the environmental and human health risks. In this study, p,p’-DDE accumulation was investigated in the plants grown in contaminated soils amended with of 0%(control), 0.1%, 1%, and 10% of biochar produced from activated sludge under greenhouse conditions. The p,p’-DDE concentrations in soil and plant samples were measured by an Agilent 7890A GC with μ-ECD detector. The p,p’-DDE concentrations in roots and shoots of the plants were decreased 94% and 87% compared to the control set, respectively by 10 % biochar amendments which are significantly different from the other sets. On the other hand, p,p’-DDE concentrations in roots were not affected by biochar amendments and measured between 7 ng/g to 8 ng/g for the all sets. Biochar from activated sludge will help sustainable usage of the sludge as soil amendments to the contaminated fields, highlighting the importance of some future studies on the products from waste materials.

Microbial and chemical contamination is one of the biggest environmental problems since exposure to pathogenic microorganisms, such as food poisoning bacteria and their biological by-products, are often associated with disease and allergic reactions. Paenibacillus lautus is an aerobic or facultative anaerobic opportunistic bacterial pathogen, which is found in a variety of sources. In this study, we isolated and characterized P. lautus from Niğde Province, which is a wastewater disposal area and therefore presents a great source of contamination. The bacterial isolate was grown, colony morphology and Gram-reactions were observed. Bacteria were identified by 16S rDNA sequencing analysis, which was performed using DNA samples isolated from pure cultures and amplified by polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Sequencing results were compared against known bacterial strains using BLAST (Basic Local Alignment Search Tool) across databases. Antibiotic resistance against 20 different antibiotics and heavy metal resistance against different concentrations of zinc, copper, iron, cobalt, chromium and silver containing compounds were tested via disk diffusion method. Inhibition zones were examined and minimum inhibitory concentrations were recorded. Our results indicated that P. lautus was resistant to a certain set of antibiotics, while it was sensitive against others. Similarly, the bacteria were resistant against high concentrations of most metals tested. In summary, this study provided the first data regarding the isolation and characterization of Paenibacillus lautus strain from a local source in Turkey, which will account as preliminary data and guide our future efforts to fight against microbial contaminations.

As a result of the studies conducted in Bartın in 2019, it was determined that Garella musculana (Erschoviella musculana Erschoff 1874) caused damage to young shoots of Juglans nigra in the world for the first time. According to Eppo data,it is known that Garella musculana damages only in Juglans regia (major), but in this study, it has been revealed as the first record in the world that Garella musculana also causes damage in Juglans nigra (Black walnut) (young shoots).

The aim of this study is to understand Turkish consumers’ perception of functional dairy products in three different categories, namely milk, yogurt, and cream cheese, as well as their willingness to buy products with health claims. In this study, 50 untrained participants from the city of İstanbul, Turkey, were enrolled to evaluate three types of milk (calcium & vitamin fortified, soy, and whole), three types of yogurt (probiotic, strawberry flavoured probiotic, and plain) and four types of cream cheese (calcium, phosphate & vitamin fortified, reduced fat, light, and regular) using free listing testing and check-all-that-apply (CATA) questions together with Yes/No questions. Twenty-five participants were recruited from Yeditepe University’s Food Engineering Department and 25 participants from public places to form two clusters. In the free listing analysis, the number of frequent terms related to health dramatically decreased after the tasting session for all products, whereas sensory related terms became more important. CATA analysis showed that consumers look for different product properties in different dairy categories. The findings of both analyses showed that, regardless of their education and awareness, consumers still are not willing to compromise on the taste of dairy foods independent of how healthy the product might be. Their preference of functional dairy products was only 22%, 26% and 14% for fortified milk, probiotic yogurt, and fortified cream cheese, respectively. Moreover, only 30% of the participants were found to believe the health claims on the package, which is another obstacle the functional food industry has to face.

In this study, it is aimed to establish quality critical points in order to determine the quality of feeds prepared in compound feed factories before production. For this purpose, quality control points should be established and continuously monitored in compound feed production. With our study, the quality of the raw materials we use in the production of compound feed (feed nutrient contents), and then determined the important technological changes in feed mill; control points were established in mill, mixer, molasses mixer, conditioning, pellet press inlet, pellet press outlet, cooler and packaging sections. Four different mixed feeds (quail, laying hens, dairy cow, beef cattle feed) were sampled from these regions. The study was carried out in a commercial feed factory. Firstly, rations were prepared with the formulation program on the computer of these compound feeds. Then, samples were taken from the determined points and nutrient contents (dry matter, crude protein, crude oil, crude cellulose, crude ash, starch, sugar, metabolic energy value) were compared with both chemical and NIRS method. According to the data obtained; In the samples taken under the mill, both chemical and NIRS methods were used and the results did not reflect the formulation values. According to the findings of the research, the results obtained from the samples taken from the sub-mixer bunker showed close values from the formulation values of the mixed feeds and it was concluded that it may be the most appropriate quality critical point.

In this study, rooting performance of cuttings of local olive types of Northern Cyprus taken in spring and autumn seasons was investigated. Gemlik Olive cultivar was used as the control group and 14 different local olive types constituted the experimental groups. Green cuttings taken from local olive types were initially treated with 4000 ppm indole-3-butyric (IBA) and they were then rooted in perlite medium under fogging unit in a plastic greenhouse. Following 100-days of rooting, rooting ratios, root lengths, number of roots and shooting ratios were determined. As expected, the best rooting ratio was obtained from Gemlik Olive cultivar (control group). Among the local types, the best rooting ratio (58.67%) was obtained from Çamlıköy with Type 8 olive type and the best rooting performance (45.87%) was achieved in cuttings rooted in autumn season.

Water deficit is one of the main limiting factors affecting plant growth. Selection in water-limited environments can result in populations or species with improved response to drought. Water deficit decreases yield and quality, therefore, it is important to identify genotypes that are tolerant to deficit irrigation conditions. In this study, the water-deficit tolerance of 59 pepper-inbred lines was determined. Experiments were conducted in a growth chamber and under field conditions (Şanlıurfa) with a control (100% full-irrigation) and water-deficit treatment (50% irrigation). Fruit weight, fruit length and number of fruits were recorded. Pepper lines 1900, 896 A-W, 74, 760, 1560-W, 912 A-W, 405-A, 953-W, 226, 1105-W and 441 were identified as the most tolerant to water deficit conditions. Present findings revealed that these pepper lines could be used to develop cultivars that have satisfactory yield under water deficit conditions.

Particularly in the fruit juice industry, the remaining peels and pulp parts are not available for human consumption after the juices are used. It is possible to evaluate these wastes by adding them to poultry feeds. A number of studies have been conducted by researchers on the nutritional value of many fruit wastes and on the performance of poultry. Natural antioxidant content has been reported to have a positive effect on growth, microbial and immunological parameters when high fruit peels are used as feed additive in poultry feeding.

In this study, total phenolic compounds which possess health-promoting effects and provide basic nutrition were aimed to determine the alterations in different grapevine leaves. Total phenolic content was determined using Folin-Ciocalteu colorimetric method by using a spectrophotometer. At the result of the study, it was determined that contents of total phenolic in leaves collected from different grape cultivars were varied to cultivars and grape leaves had high phenolic compounds as berries. Therefore the grape leaves especially wine grapes such as Narince, Boğazkere ve Kalecik Karası may be used as an easily accessible source of natural antioxidants and food supplement at pharmaceutical and food industry.

Food spoilage pathogens threaten to human health. In this work was studied biological activity of plant known as the “kurtludiken” in Turkey and it is contributed to the literature. Cardopatium corymbosum L. from Mugla region were collected for antimicrobial and antioxidant activity studies. The antimicrobial activity studies were done by disc diffusion method. A total of 8 microorganisms were used at this study, one of them is yeast and the others are bacteria. The 2,2′-azinobis-(3 ethyl benzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid) (ABTS•+) was used for non-enzymatic antioxidant activity experiments. There are few studies on the biological activities of Cardopatium corymbosum. The aim of this study is to determine the antimicrobial and antioxidant effects of Cardopatium corymbosum against food pathogens. The radical scavenging percentage of plant was found to be 13%. As a result, Cardopatium corymbosum have antimicrobial and antioxidant capacities.