Location: Functional Foods Research
2022 Annual Report
Objectives
Objective 1: Resolve the unknown biophysical properties of novel bio-based composites and their ingredients to enable commercial fabrication of engineered wood products.
Goal 1.1: Identify and develop techniques to convert low value ag-waste (i.e., fermentation residue solids and seed press cakes) and juvenile perennial biomass into marketable commodities.
Goal 1.2: Identify and evaluate the factors associated with the response of novel EWP panels to various environmental conditions and methods of their ultimate disposal once their utility function is fulfilled.
Objective 2: Convert agricultural wastes and low value byproducts into bio-based pesticides and enhanced soil amendments to increase commercial agricultural and horticultural yields.
Goal 2.1: Identify chemical and physical properties of biochars produced from renewable biomass sources and from low-value agricultural co-products and develop these biochars for use as novel, high-value horticultural substrates and for bio based products.
Goal 2.2: Evaluate the use of alternative pesticides from a variety of low value plant biomass and from harvesting and processing waste streams.
Objective 3: Utilize specific phytochemicals and nutraceuticals from agricultural wastes and low value byproducts to develop new or improve nutritional value in foods and animal feeds.
Goal 3.1 Identify key phytochemical components from low value products and wastes to characterize their chemical and biological activities when present alone or in mixtures for determining synergistic properties for new uses as food and feed ingredients.
Goal 3.2 Use collaborative studies to determine the role/activities of key phytochemical components for use as bio-pesticides in feeds, feed storage, and plant growth systems.
Objective 4: Enhance methodologies to quickly determine and evaluate chemical components and to rapidly and non-destructively assess levels of compositional components in large sample sets of raw agricultural harvests and products.
Goal 4.1 Determine if single step accurate mass spectrometric analysis can be used to accurately determine the chemical formulas of phytochemicals present in extracts of seeds, leaves, stems, or bark of several target plant species.
Goal 4.2. Determine if accurate NIR calibrations can be obtained for glucosinolate and flavonoid phytochemical components in plant species identified and characterized in the previous research project.
Approach
The overall goal of this project plan is to convert selected low-value agricultural feedstocks into value-added bio-products based upon their physiochemical or chemical properties. The specific bio-products being presented are: (a) engineered wood products (EWP) for indoor uses; (b) biochar as an adaptive for plant growth media; (c) slow-release bio-pesticides; (d) phytochemical (e.g. plant natural essences) based functional food and feed ingredients; and (e) phytochemical based pest control agents. In addition, it is proposed to develop convenient methods for phytochemical discovery and high-throughput methods for measuring amounts of known chemicals present in plant tissues. The feedstocks being investigated include residual pressed oil seed, distillers’ grains with soluble (DDGS) from corn ethanol plants, low-value Midwestern growing trees as well as cedars, and pelletized soybean hulls. Seed cakes will include from soybeans and oil seeds of belonging to the Brassica family that are of emerging interest for industrial applications: Lesquerella, cuphea, and pennycress. One notable aspect of this work is that the combination of feedstock and bioproduct were selected to exploit specific properties of each. The research will also make use of pre-existing expertise in supercritical fluids to develop “green” methods for recovery of bioactive chemicals from plants. Finally, the phytochemical discovery element will be expanded to other crops or plants of emerging interest to further arbitrage newly developed methods.
Progress Report
Objective 1: No further progress was made on this objective due to the retirement of one of our scientists last year.
Objective 2: Low-value agricultural co-products and bio-solids are being used to make biochar which can be combined with a variety of low-value wastes to create new liquid absorbents and new soil amendments with enhanced plant growth properties. Co-products include harvest residuals and waste products from agricultural processing, such as soybean hulls, bio-solids including municipal sewage solids, and agricultural processing waste streams such as wood sawdust. Biochar is the carbon-rich residual product created under anaerobic conditions by the pyrolysis of plant-based biomass. ARS researchers in Peoria, Illinois, determined the addition of processed biosolids and biochars to potting substrates in greenhouse systems and to large-scale turf systems such as golf greens, golf tees, and athletic fields can greatly increase water and nutrient retention, especially in sandy soils. An additional advantage of using biochar instead of other organic amendments is its resistance to microbial decomposition and hence longevity in these applications. Work has continued the development of new enhanced absorbents for litters and spill cleanups utilizing a variety of biochars produced from low value materials such as nut shells and low value wood processing waste.
Eastern red cedar is an abundant renewable resource in the United States and represents a vast potential source of valuable natural products that could serve as natural biocides. Cedarwood oil from cedars is toxic to a wide range of economically important arthropods but is safe for humans. Cedarwood oil has also been demonstrated to impart resistance against both termites and wood-decay fungi in treated wood. Two carbohydrate complexes were prepared with modified nitrogen containing structures in combination with oil from Eastern red cedar which was shown to provide equivalent protection against termites. However, the modified nitrogen containing compound was slightly more inhibitory towards wood-decay fungi. After extraction, the remaining eastern red cedar solid byproduct was used in biochar production further utilizing this material.
Ojective 3: ARS researchers in Peoria, Illinois, developed the use of liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) as a rapid method for determining phytochemical composition for a number of plant materials based on collaboration and funding opportunities including sugar beets, sorghum, soybeans, legume beans and peas, and mustard family plant seeds including broccoli, carinata, and canola. Ongoing work includes the isolation and characterization of saponins from sugar beet processing wastes for use as potential biological control agents of field pests; ferulic acid containing compounds from sorghum stems for elucidating their role in controlling insect pests; anthocyanins from pigmented corn and beans to develop new bioactive food colorants; and volatile isothiocyanates produced from characterized defatted mustard seed meals for use as fungicides. We have also been collaborating with scientists at South Dakota State University to determine if natural antibiotics can be elicited and accumulated in treated soybeans samples for use in animal feeds.
Objective 4: Nondestructive spectral analysis techniques such as near infrared spectrometry (NIRS) are rapid and have been shown to be comprehensive. We have shown that NIRS can be applied to the determination of certain phytochemicals in seeds such as the isoflavones in soybeans. We are applying this methodology to other agricultural products. This technology is now being applied to new analytical requirements such as the components in industrial hemp as noted below.
Objective 3: The new ARS project “Integration of Hemp Production into U.S. Farming Systems” has the objective to provide agronomic information that helps support the incorporation of hemp into farming operations within the United States. The Global Hemp Innovation Center (Corvallis, Oregon) is collaborating on ARS research in Peoria, Illinois; Lexington, Kentucky; and Corvallis, Oregon. We began research on postproduction aspects of hemp for use in a variety of new products and applications. Collaboration has been developed to 1) develop consistent and reproducible analytical methods for the analysis of the cannabinoids in hemp samples, and 2) use these methods to measure cannabinoid composition in hemp plant field trials coordinated by the Global Hemp Innovation Center at Oregon State University to develop an understanding of the effect of cultivar and environmental factors on cannabinoid accumulation in hemp. This is going to be integrated with hemp germplasm evaluation work in Oregon, California, and with the hemp breeding program coordinated by ARS researchers in Geneva, New York, and in Lexington, Kentucky.
This new hemp funding supported ARS researchers in Peoria, Illinois, to develop and validate a reproducible extraction and measuring procedure to be used worldwide for detecting the total tetrahydrohydrocannabinoid (THC) concentrations (total THC: the sum of delta-9 tetrahydrohydrocannabinol (d-9 THC) and tetrahydrohydrocannabinoic acid (THCA) concentrations) in hemp materials, which must be below 0.3% total THC to be used as hemp. Meeting this standard is a challenge to U.S. hemp producers and requires clear and reproducible analytical methodology.
Developing and proving a standard method will assist in the exportation of hemp and hemp products across state and international borders.
We have evaluated over 1000 samples sent to Peoria, Illinois, from hemp flower production from the southern Oregon study and another study done at the University of California at Davis. Manuscript preparation is underway. We have the evaluated the flower cannabinoid content of over 50 cultivars under study at the ARS location in Geneva, New York, and for the ARS location in Lexington, Kentucky, to provide them with accurate cannabinoid assessments for their breeding and evaluation programs. We participated in the National Institute of Standards and Technology cannabinoid evaluation test program with several other labs to examine the reproducibility of analytical methods, the results of which will be published sometime next fiscal year.
We have begun profiling other plant phytochemicals found in hemp, which includes phenolics, flavonoids, terpenoids, and anthocyanins.
Accomplishments
1. Developing and validating the measurement of phytochemical composition in hemp. New hemp funding supported ARS researchers in Peoria, Illinois, to develop and validate a reproducible extraction and measuring procedure to be used worldwide for detecting the total tetrahydrohydrocannabinoid (THC) concentrations (total THC: the sum of delta-9 tetrahydrohydrocannabinol (d-9 THC) and tetrahydrohydrocannabinoic acid (THCA) concentrations) in hemp materials, which must be below 0.3% total THC to be used as hemp. Meeting this standard is a challenge to U.S. hemp producers and requires clear and reproducible analytical methodology. Results were presented at two research conferences this year: At the 2022 Phytochemical Society of North America Annual Meeting at Virginia Tech University, Blacksburg, VA July 24-28, 2022; and at the 2022 Virtual Cannabis Research Conference August 8-10, 2022, hosted by Oregon State University Global Hemp Innovation Center and Institute of Cannabis Research at Colorado State University Pueblo.
Review Publications
Alhomodi, A.F., Kasiga, T., Berhow, M.A., Brown, M.L., Gibbons, W.R., Karki, B. 2022. Combined effect of mild pretreatment and fungal fermentation on nutritional characteristics of canola meal and nutrient digestibility of processed canola meal in rainbow trout. Journal of Food and Bioproducts Processing. 133: 57-66. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fbp.2022.03.002.
Castaneda-Reyes, E.D., Gonzalez De Mejia, E., Eller, F.J., Berhow, M.A., Perea-Flores, M., Davila-Ortiz, G. 2021. Liposomes loaded with unsaponifiable matter from amaranthus hypochondriacus as a source of squalene and carrying soybean lunasin inhibited melanoma cells. Nanomaterials. 11(8), Article 1960. https://doi.org/10.3390/nano11081960.
Alhomodi, A.F., Zavadil, A., Berhow, M.A., Gibbons, W.R., Karki, B. 2021. Daily development of nutritional composition of canola sprouts followed by solid-state fungal fermentation. Food and Bioprocess Technology. 14:1673-1683. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11947-021-02667-2.
Mukhlesur, R., Del Rio Mendoza, L., Anderson, J.V., Berhow, M.A., Roy, J., Eriksmoen, E., Ramsey, M., Pradhan, G., Rickertsen, J., Ostlie, M., Hanson, B. 2021. ‘NDOLA-2’, a high-yielding open-pollinated conventional spring type canola in North Dakota. Journal of Plant Registrations. 16(1):124-131. https://doi.org/10.1002/plr2.20189.
Hay, W.T., Anderson, J.A., McCormick, S.P., Hojilla-Evangelista, M.P., Selling, G.W., Utt, K.D., Bowman, M.J., Doll, K.M., Ascherl, K.L., Berhow, M.A., Vaughan, M.M. 2022. Fusarium head blight resistance exacerbates nutritional loss of wheat grain at elevated CO2. Scientific Reports. 12. Article 15. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-03890-9.
Flor-Weiler, L.B., Behle, R.W., Eller, F.J., Muturi, E.J., Rooney, A.P. 2022. Repellency and toxicity of a CO2-derived cedarwood oil on hard tick species (Ixodidae). Experimental and Applied Acarology. 86:299-312. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10493-022-00692-0.
Massmann, C.M., Berhow, M.A., Gibbons, W.R., Karki, B. 2021. The effects of fungal bioprocessing on air-classified pea protein concentrates. LWT - Food Science and Technology. 154. Article 112686. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lwt.2021.112686.
