The doctoral student Begoña Fernández, awarded by the Royal Spanish Society of Chemistry

Writing / Irene Vega

The “Your research in 3 minutes” contest, organized by the Science and Technologies (Bio)Analytical Group (GCTbA) of the Royal Spanish Society of Chemistry (RSEQ), aims to disseminate the work carried out by young researchers who are studying degree, master's degree, doctoral thesis or who have recently obtained their doctorate. The participants had to present a static slide in which the most relevant aspects of their research must be summarized in an original way, with a maximum presentation time of 3 minutes.

In the second edition 14 young researchers from various national and international universities have participated in this contest. Begoña Fernández is a student in the Doctoral Program in Sciences at the URJC and a researcher in the consolidated Research Group in Analytical Chemistry Applied to the Environment, Food and Drugs (GQAA-MAF), directed by Dr. Isabel Sierra, professor in the area of ​​Analytical Chemistry. . Her presentation, which won second prize in this contest, focused on disseminating the importance of analyzing natural toxins in food, specifically in edible flowers that are trending in modern gastronomy.

“My work focuses on the development of analytical methodologies to guarantee food security. Specifically, I analyze a type of natural toxins, alkaloids, that can appear in certain foods such as, for example, edible flowers, and that cause various health damages if the maximum daily dose of them is exceeded," he points out. Begoña Fernández. In this regard, Dr. Isabel Sierra points out that “flowers for culinary use are having great acceptance among the population with different uses, both for fresh consumption, as part of salads, and dried for the preparation of infusions, for example. . Although the flowers are rich in healthy compounds, it must be guaranteed that their intake does not pose a risk to the consumer."

These investigations are part of the EVALKALIM-II and AVANSECAL-II-CM projects. Some relevant results have been published in scientific journals such as Food Bioscience and Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.