Chapters authored
Emerging Insect-Borne Diseases of Agricultural, Medical and Veterinary Importance
Current migrations, due to several causes, but mainly consequence of climate changes, are causing several problems in Southern Europe. Some migrations are evident and attract attention immediately; others are silent, but still important, like several ones involving agriculture and livestock. In the future, a number of products employed in pest control may lose their efficacy. Pesticide resistance should be considered an increasing problem, and more environmental-friendly control approaches against arthropod pests are urgently needed. Two examples from the South of Italy clearly explain the kind of arising alerts and the complex network involving abiotic and biotic causes. The first case is the growing number of blue-tongue disease outbreaks, vectored by Culicoides sp. The second case is the alarm concerning the olive trees epidemic disease in Apulia, due to the bacterium Xylella fastidiosa. The development of new pest control methods is required in order to minimize negative effects of currently marketed synthetic pesticides. In this scenario, natural product research can afford solutions as part of an integrated pest control system. Preliminary results concerning the use of neem, Azadirachta indica, in control of insect vectors are discussed.
Part of the book: Insecticides Resistance
Intelligent and Smart Packaging
Urgent need of increased food production and availability are crucial in humankind future. A key aspect concerns the food preservation, wherein packaging is a main aspect. Packaging is still in a primitive form, utilized as a way to separate food from environmental conditions, not considering the inside situation. Improvement of packaging means less cost, more food available, and waste decrease. Several solutions are emerging to face this challenge. They are focused on three aspects: the antimicrobial agent; the packaging material; and the technological implication in the final production of packaging. Biotechnology is expected to play a central role in the future food to solve central points, as retain integrity and actively prevent food spoilage. In this phase, several projects are moving, still waiting to converge in adequate products. The galaxy of smart packaging is rapidly moving and increasing in researches. This phase represents a chaotic period of several proposals production and tentative in solving the food preservative problems, using new technologies and advanced techniques, like nanotechnology. Waiting the collapse into a central paradigm, it is interesting and useful to follow the scenario of researches on smart packaging based on natural products here reported.
Part of the book: Future Foods