N hexane

Ethyl-acetate, toluene, and n-hexane were purchased from Carlo Erba Reagents (Milan, Italy); nonane from Promochem (LGC Standards, Teddington, UK) and dichloromethane from Romil Ltd. (Cambridge, UK). All solvents were picograde.
Pre-packed multi-layer silica, alumina, and carbon columns were produced by FMS (Fluid Management System, Billerica, MA, USA). The ¹³C-labeled recovery, clean-up, and standard injection solutions were provided by CIL (Cambridge Isotope Laboratories, Andover, MA, USA). For PCDD/Fs, EDF-9999 Method 1613 calibration solutions (CS1-CS5) were used. For PCB calibration, an in-house curve was prepared using PCB MIX-75 (Dr. Ehrenstorfer, Augsburg, Germany) and ¹³C-labeled solutions EC-4995 and EC-4978 (Cambridge Isotope Laboratories, Andover, MA, USA).
All solvents and reagents used for the analyses were tested to ensure the absence of contaminants at the levels of interest (i.e., below one-fifth of the limit of quantification (LOQ) for PCDD/Fs and below one-tenth of the LOQ for dl-PCB and ndl-PCB).

All chemicals and reagents used to carry out the experiments were of analytical grade. Acetylcholine was purchased from Sigma-Aldrich (St. Louis, MO). Potassium chloride (KCl) was supplied by Labosi (France). Tablets of 5 mg glibenclamide (Tongmei, Togo) were purchased at a local pharmacy in Ouagadougou, capital city of Burkina Faso. Dichloromethane, n-hexane, and butanol were obtained from Carlo-Erba (France). Ethanol and ethyl acetate were procured from Prolabo (France). Silica gel TLC plates F 254 grade were from Macherey-Nagel (Germany).

n-Hexane, chloroform, and methanol (analytical grade) were purchased from Carlo Erba Reagenti (Milan, Italy). β-Pinene, limonene, sabinene, myrcene, γ-terpinene, linalool, neral, linalyl acetate, geranial, geranyl acetate, and β-caryophyllene were supplied by Fluka (Milan, Italy). 2,2′-Diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) and 2,2′-azino-bis(3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid) diammonium salt (ABTS), and (±)-6-hydroxy-2,5,7,8-tetramethylchromane-2-carboxylic acid (Trolox) were from Sigma-Aldrich (Milan, Italy). Dulbecco’s modified Eagle’s medium (DMEM), fetal bovine serum, streptomycin, and penicillin were acquired from Lonza (Verviers, Belgium). Lipopolysaccharides (LPS, E. coli O111:B4) was obtained from Sigma-Aldrich (Schnelldorf, Germany). Griess reagents and nitrite standard were purchased from Cayman Chemical (Ann Arbor, MI, USA).

The Cocoa extract (CE) was realized as follows. Freeze-dried cacao powder was degreased by maceration with n-hexane (Carlo Erba, Milan, Italy) overnight. Following this, this mixture was immerged in an ultrasonic bath for 10 min at 130 kHz. Then, the mixture was centrifuged (5000× g, 4 °C, 10 min) and filtrated. This procedure was repeated five times and all supernatants were collected, then evaporated to measure fat content. The fat-reduced cocoa powder was then extracted following the same procedure with a mixture of acetone/water/formic acid (70:30:0.1, v/v/v) (Carlo Erba, Milan, Italy) three times. Acetonic extracts were evaporated, then dissolved in 50% methanol (Carlo Erba, Milan, Italy) at a concentration of 40 g/L. Finally, CEs were stored in the dark at −20 °C until analysis. These extractions were realized in triplicates.

Methanol and ACR standard ≥99.8%, were purchased from Sigma–Aldrich Chemical Company (St. Louis, MO, USA). Acetonitrile HPLC analytical grade, n-hexane and formic acid were obtained from Carlo Erba reagents S.r.l. (Cornaredo, Milan, Italy). Oasis HLB 200 mg, 6 mL solid phase extraction (SPE) cartridges were from Waters (Milford, MA, USA). Syringe filters (0.45- and 0.22-µm PVDF) were from Alltech Associates (Deerfield, Italy). PEC of a low-methylated citrus peel (7%) (Aglupectin USP) was purchased from Silva Extracts s.r.l. (Gorle, Bergamo, Italy) and Activa^®WM Streptoverticillium TGase was supplied by Ajinomoto Co (Tokyo, Japan). Sodium tripolyphosphate (TPP) and glycerol (GLY) was from Merck Chemical Company (Darmstadt, Germany). Chitosan (CH, mean molar mass of 3.7–104 g/mol) was procured from Professor R. Muzzarelli (University of Ancona, Ancona, Italy), with a degree of 9.0% N-acetylation. Grass pea seeds, corn oil, ground bulgur (wheat-based food), minced beef meat, onion, salt and spices were obtained from a local market in Naples (Italy).