3 Short Oral Presentation Awards were given in 2022
Many Short Oral Presentations were submitted during the 15th #PolyphenolsWorldCongress, held on September 28-30 2022 in Valencia, Spain. The committee voted for the best 3 of these short oral presentations.
Paul Besrukow, Geisenheim University, Germany, was awarded the first prize of the Best Short Oral Presentation 2022 for his studies on "Grape Cane Stilbenoids as Biopesticides in Organic Viticulture".
Mr. Besrukow is working on the analysis, valorization and application of polyphenols extracted from agricultural by-products. In scope of the joint project VITIFIT, which focuses on the reduction of copper usage in organic viticulture, he investigates the antifungal efficacy of differently formulated stilbenoid-rich grape cane extracts on Plasmopara viticola, causal agent of grapevine downy mildew.
Cornelia Schmutz, University of Vienna, Austria, received the second best short oral presentation award for her contribution on "Anthocyanin-Rich Berry Extracts and Chemotherapy: A Critical Combination".
Irinotecan, as pro-drug of SN-38, is a frequently chosen chemotherapy option for colorectal cancer. Bioactive plant ingredients, so-called anthocyanins, are promising candidates to possibly alleviate adverse effects induced by the topoisomerase (TOPO) poison SN-38. Hence, the FWF funded project is centered on potential protective or adverse effects of anthocyanin-rich berry extracts during chemotherapy. In vitro experiments already showed reduced DNA/TOPO I intermediates, in both tumorigenic and non-tumorigenic colon cells.
Future work will focus on the relevance of the observed effects inin vivomodels of tumor-bearing animals.
The last Best Short Oral award was discerned to Learnmore Kambizi, Cape Peninsula University of Technology, South Africa, for his short oral contribution "Pigmented Potatoes: A Potential Panacea for Food and Nutrition Security and Health?"
Prof. Kambizi is a full professor of Botany at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology, South Africa. His main interests are Ethnobotany, Phytomedicine, Botany, Medicinal Plants, Sustainable utilization and conservation, Food and Nutrition Security.
His interests in working with Traditional Medical Practitioners are a major part of his work. Prof Kambizi was appointed the first Director of African Centre for Herbal Research based in Nigeria, a position he holds to date. Although Prof Kambizi is well vested in medicinal plants, he has interests in food and nutrition security with the vision 2030 UN Sustainable Development Goals in mind. These interests have led him to start work on indigenous underutilised pigmented potato cultivars. This is because of their immense potential in ameliorating food and nutrition insecurity as shown in this review that he put together. So far, he has worked on the role of root zone temperature on physiological growth and phytochemical constituents as well as biological activity, in Salad Blue, Pink Fir Apple and Highland Burgundy Red pigmented potato cultivars, among other studies. Although phytochemical constituent results look promising, the biological activities are not conclusive. Therefore, further studies are required to elucidate these activities.
Prof Kambizi stated: "Going forwards, I am interested in studying more cultivars from different parts of the world to see their responses to different biotic and abiotic stresses especially in South Africa where I am based, isolation of the main phenolic compounds, elucidation of their activities, and bioavailability of these compounds especially after processing. Bioavailability studies post processing will potentially open insights into the quality and quantity of the compounds that would be useful in human physiology and therefore link these compounds to the health benefits of these potatoes. I am actively looking for funding and collaborators to pursue these studies and I am open to any such around the globe."
If you wish to catch up on the presentations you missed, including these winning contributions, you can order the conference's replay or the abstracts book. Know more about it.
Polyphenols Applications 2022 Congress
September 28-30, 2022 - Valencia, Spain
#PolyphenolsWorldCongress
www.polyphenols-site.com
