Traditional and new products of cultivated and wild growing fruits and grape vines, and by-products durring processing, with special emphasis on indigenous varieties: chemical characterization and biological profile

Chemical characterization of selected cultivated and wild species of fruit trees and grape vines, and traditional and new products will be done. Special attention will be given to indigenous fruit varieties. Formulation of traditional products with added-value is planned together with a chemical characterization of by-products in fruits processing, as well as formulation of new products based on extracts prepared from by-products using modern technological procedures. Biological profile of fruit, grape, by-products, and related products will be studied by in vitro, ex vivo and in vivo experiments. Special emphasis will be put on the impact of fruit ingredients in inflammation and platelet activation as potential risk factors in the development of cardiovascular disease, and oxidative status of plasma, saliva and urine before and after consumation of fruit or products. In saliva samples flow and level of immunoglobulin A will be monitored. Several short-term studies is plan to conduct. Long-term epidemiological study will examine the quality of the students nutrition and the effects of food supplementation with selected fruit products. Agronomic research includes some kind of fruit that are not present in our flora but have high nutritional and medicinal value; existing plants, especially newly apple varieties resistant to apple scab as a raw material for the production of biologically valuable food and a selection of wild genotypes of fruit.