COST Action FA 1101: SAFFRONOMICS OMICS TECHNOLOGIES FOR CROP IMPROVEMENT, TRACEABILITY, DETERMINATION OF AUTHENTICITY, ADULTERATION AND ORIGIN IN SAFFRON Expert meeting on spectroscopic techniques Place: Athens (Greece), Agricultural University of Athens 3rd – 4th of July 2014 Date: Thursday, 3rd July 2014 Local organizer of the meeting Dr. P.A. Tarantilis, Prof. M. Polissiou and the Chair of action Prof Tsimidou, welcomed the participants that attended the meeting. Present: Prof Tsimidou (Chair), Prof. Polissiou (WG2 Leader), Dr. Tarantilis (WG3 Leader), Dr. Santana (WG4 Leader), Dr. Carmona (WG2 co-Leader), Dr. Ordoudi (WG3 co-Leader), Dr. R. Consonni, Dr. Laura Ruth Cagliani, Dr. Ch. Pappas, Ch. Mitsi MSc, E. Petrakis MSc, K. Astraka Msc. Discussion about the aims of the meeting and management of the foreseen publication(s) Prof. M. Polissiou, Leader of WG2 opened the discussion about the type of the foreseen publications. Dr. Tarantilis, WG3 leader and local organiser, proposed the creation of an open-access database as a scientific outcome. Prof. Tsimidou, Chair, proposed a book series under the title “Saffronomics”. Dr. Carmona, WG2 co-leader, proposed the construction of a website containing terminology, information about saffron plus scientific papers. All agreed that the latter idea complies better with the specific objective of the saffronomics Action concerning dissemination requirements. Prof. Tsimidou stressed the importance of COST-related scientific publications as deliverables to the Action. Prof. Tsimidou stressed the importance of COST-related scientific publications as deliverables to the Action. Dr. Consonni proposed a review article on Metabolomics but the idea was rejected due to the high cost which cannot be afforded by the authors even if some support is expected by Saffronomics. Among the previous ideas the one prevailed is that of a series of reviewe articles. After long discussions, the attendants agreed to work on a 2-parts review with a tentative title: “Saffron Analysis”. Part I will be devoted to metabolomics via spectroscopic techniques (UV-Vis, FT-IR, Raman and NMR) (teams from AUTh, AUA, UCLM and ISMAC will contribute) while Part II will focus on hyphenated techniques such as LC-DAD, LC-MS, GC-MS (teams from UCLM, AUA and AUTh will contribute). They agreed to look into several high-impact factor journals (e.g. Trends in Food Science and Technology) dedicated only to review articles. Prof. Tsimidou and Dr. Tarantilis agreed to write a letter to the editor(s) and kindly ask for a special issue on saffronomics. The attendants split into
Expert meeting on spectroscopic techniques Agricultural University of Athens 3rd – 4th of July 2014 Athens (Greece)
two groups and worked separately on the outlines and draft preparation of the texts for the two review articles using the materials already prepared. Prof. Tsimidou and Prof. Polissiou, being the coordinators of the groups working on UV-Vis, FT-IR and Raman techniques presented the progress of their work to the respective group. Dr. Carmona and Dr. Tarantilis coordinated the discussions within the group working with the Part II of the review. During the first day, the outlines with a tentative content for each article were prepared.
Date: Friday, 4th July 2014 Dr. Consonni made a presentation about “Applications of NMR and chemometrics to saffron quality and authenticity control” and discussed with everybody about what should be included in the review article (Part I). He reported about the submission of two manuscript performed in collaborations with prof. Tsimidou and prof. Polissiou groups: a) a minireview entitled “NMR spectroscopy studies in saffron authenticity and quality (within the frame SAFFRONOMICS Cost Action FA1101) that will be published in a special book by Royal Chemical Society, containing selected contribution at XII Internationational Conference on the applications of magnetic resonance in food science, held in Cesena on 20-23 May 2014. b) a manuscript concerning plant adulteration, has been submitted to Food Chemistry. Two others manuscript are in preparation. Dissemination of spectroscopic data available for saffron and wild relatives The attendants discussed about what data can be included in a databank. They agreed that it will contain every kind of literature data. Dr. Tarantilis and Dr. Ordoudi agreed to be the editors of the databank. They will prepare a document format to be sent to the WG leaders for distribution to the WG members. The attendants agreed to include data about European saffron. Prof. Tsimidou and Dr. Tarantilis will ask officially for the permission of Dr. J. A. Fernandez, to use data produced in the frame of the Crocusbank project. A tentative title will be “Spectral database for saffron metabolites by means of UV-Vis, FT-IR and Raman. The data from the analysis of samples distributed within the Saffronomics network will be included in the review articles. The Local organizer Dr P. A. Tarantilis WG3 Leader Dr S. Ordoudi WG3 co-Leader Athens, 04-07-2014
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