The constat growth of the Earth’s population brings with itself a higher demand for food and protein not only in human nutrition but also for the feeding of livestock. Currently, the feed industry is mainly built onseed-based protein, wherethebaseplant is soybean, which is large lycovered by imports in Hungary, similar toother European countr...ies. However, the long-term economically sustainable lifestock breeding demandschanges which has also worked out strategies. An alternative protein sources could be green leafy plants.

In current work the Jerusalem artichokes as an alternative source of protein was studied, compared to alfalfa as a valuable protein plant. Our results indicate that fiber fraction ofJerusalem artichoke shootswas 34 to 37% after pressing in the autumn period while alfalfa slightly lower values were obtained (30%). On the other hand extracted green leaf protein concentration was higher in alfalfa than in Jerusalem artichoke. Along with this higher protein content could be measured from the leaf protein concentration of alfalfa and almost each amino acids were more, as well comparing to Jerusalem artichoke.

Overall, the alfalfa proved to be advantageous as expected both in leaf protein extraction efficiency, both regarding the content of the protein in the Jerusalem artichoke. However, considering aminoacid composition and green biomass production, Jerusalem artichokecould be a promisingplant species asplant protein sourceinthefuture.

In our present study, we performed a quick test of the antioxidant capacity of domestic fruit and vegetable cultivars with a PHOTOCHEM® instrument (Analytik Jena AG, Germany). The instrument is special because it can measure both the total lipid-soluble antioxidant capacity (ACL method) and the total water-soluble antioxidant capacity. Another... advantage of the system is its quick measurement. With similar instruments, such measurement can take several hours, while PHOTOCHEM® can perform it within a few minutes.
In our model studies, we examined the changes in the antioxidant capacity of sour cherry, green pepper, carrot, pumpkin, red beet and Brassica sp. cultivars. We aimed to determine how suitable the instrument is for quick, routine measurements in the case of the different horticultural products and which species have high antioxidant capacity values.
On the basis of our examinations, we can state that the PHOTOCHEM® system is suitable for routine, semi-automated measurements of the total antioxidant capacity at several vegetables and fruits. Besides this, the system can be used for testing the quality of food products, for monitoring storability in post-harvest technologies, and for special breeding programmes and for physiological and biotechnological studies.

Selenium (Se) is an essential trace element for animals, microorganisms and some other eukaryotes. It has become increasingly evident that Se plays a significant role in reducing the incidence of lung, colorectal and prostate cancer in humans. Although there is evidence that selenium is needed for the growth of algae, the question of essentiali...ty of Se in vascular plants is unresolved. Therefore Raphanus sativus (Se accumulator) and Capsicum annuum (non Se accumulator) were treated with 0-200 mg/l natrium-selenate. The results showed that lower (2 mg/l) concentration natrium-selenate increased the fitomass and total antioxodant capacity in seedlings.