QUALITATIVE FEATURES AND THERAPEUTIC VALUE OF CUSTARD APPLE FRUIT

Annona squamosa L. (Family: Annonaceae), popularly known as sugar apple or custard apple or sweetsop, native to tropical America, cultivated in different tropical countries around the world. It possesses a number of nutritional and medicinal properties. The ripe flesh portion is more valuable for diet having significant amount of nutrition. It exhibits antioxidant, anticancer, and antimicrobial properties. Custard apple contains vitamin A, C, magnesium and iron that maintains in body against the problem of arthritis and anemia. It also improves the metabolic system and reduces the deficiency of vitamin B6. Conclusively, it had been showed that sugar apple pulp and peel in grind form powder has better nutritional value and also have essential role in lowering the human health disorders

Lemongrass: a useful ingredient for functional foods

Functional foods are termed as “food for specified health useâ€, this term basically originated from Chinese saying “Food and medicine are isogenicâ€. Functional foods are on main focus due to their health benefits and nontoxic behavior. In addition to their nutritional benefits, functional foods found effective against some health problems due to their antimicrobial, anti-cancerous and anti-inflammatory properties. Large number of functional food products are being developed and have found prominent place in present market such as functional drinks, functional bakery and dairy products. One of the important herb is lemongrass (Cymbopogan citratus) with more than 500 species, wide growing capabilities and unique functional properties, catching usefulness in many of the daily life food commodities. All forms of lemongrass such as leave, stalk, oil, flavor used for having best minerals and antioxidants. A lot of work needed to explore the functional properties of this herb by analyzing in different conditions and utilizing in various food items for human consumption such as functional drinks at community level. The review designed to concise the nutrional and functional importance of lemongrass in addition to functional foods formulated from various sources. Â

Effect of Bioactive components of Pulses on Human health

The pulses are dried seeds of the legumes. These are used as the human diet that includes lentils, peas, chickpeas and beans etc. Pulses are known as the vital source of the protein in the human nutrition. They also provide other essential nutrients i.e dietary fiber, minerals, vitamins, and folic acid. Other than the essential nutrients, the pulses contain other non-nutritive bioactive compounds such as the isoflavones, phenols, phytic acid, enzyme inhibitors, saponins and lectins also. These non-nutritive components have biological activities and have metabolic and physiological effects but they also considered as antinutrients due to their effect on food quality. But these compounds show protective health effects on humans also. The protective effects of these components are due to their antioxidative properties and other properties such as antimutagenic, antihyperglycemic effects, anticarcinogenic etc. Those make the pulses a major crop for the human health

Application of non-thermal plasma for decontamination of thyme and paprika

The decontamination importance of spices as a widely used product in the world and the limitations of conventional decontamination methods conduct to find new and safe ways for microbial reduction of spices. Recently, cold plasma technology has been considered as a technique for disinfection in the food industry. In this study, microbial destruction of thyme and paprika through non-thermal plasma was investigated. The implemented method to create atmospheric cold plasma was dielectric barrier discharge (DBD). Plasma was applied to spices for 5 minutes. The results showed that by applying non-thermal plasma to thyme, total bacterial counts were reduced to 1.18 log cycle, but molds and yeasts were not changed. For paprika, considerable effects were not observed. It seems that cold plasma as an inexpensive, water-free and non-thermal method has the potential to reduce the bacterial contamination of thyme but further research is required to improve its effect. It is also possible to use DBD plasma treatment in combination with other technologies

Effect of Storage Conditions on wheat Quality

Wheat use as common staple food in South Asian country. Every year large amount of wheat loses occur due to improper handling after harvesting and inappropriate storage condition. By increasing population we have to store wheat by maintaining the temperature, moisture, relative humidity of storage house. Wheat is Store to improve the quality and can be used for longer time whenever we require. Wheat is non-perishable cereal crop very little requirement are need to store wheat. Method of wheat storage differ in temperature and moisture variation. In this review, we have study effect of storage on quality, moisture percentage, colour, protein, lipids and lipoprotein content, free lipids, biochemical and metabolic changes, germination rate at end of the storage. During storage the moisture of wheat should be maintained be low to prevent germination and insect infestation. Traditionally the wheat storage depend on environmental factor but new improved method does not depend on environmental condition that’s why they are largely implemente

ANTIDIABETIC POTENTIAL OF PERSIMMON PULP POWDER ON ALLOXAN INDUCED DIABETIC RABBITS

Diabetes, a condition when blood glucose level goes beyond the normal range. Natural treatments particularly through bioactive components from fruit and vegetable sources are becoming popular worldwide and are broadly accepted because of no side effects and cost effectiveness. The present study was planned to investigate the antidiabetic potential of persimmon pulp powder by using alloxan induced diabetic rabbits as an animal model. For this purpose, fifteen rabbits were induced Diabetes mellitus by alloxan and divided into three groups. Persimmon pulp powder supplemented diets (0%, 10% and 20%) were given to the diabetic rabbits for the duration of 21 days. The blood samples of rabbits were examined for glucose, serum creatinine and urea levels on weekly basis. The results indicated that there was a significant decline in glucose as well as creatinine and urea levels in blood of diabetic rabbits. The reduction of blood glucose level was ranged from 357.66 mg/dL to 256.45 mg/dL on administration of 20% persimmon peel powder in the feed of rabbits. Similarly, serum creatinine and urea levels were also significantly reduced 1.42 mg/dl and 1.22 mg/dl and 47.50 mg/dl and 24.22 mg/dl, respectively because of supplementation of 20% persimmon pulp powder. It is concluded from the results that persimmon pulp powder might be a potential natural antidiabetic treatment of diabetic complications

Prevalence of E.coli in indigenous Chicken meat; A Pakistan’s perspective

The consumers in the world now a day are more worried and paying attention to the health aspects and side effects of the food they are eating. Chicken is famous for its taste its nutritional composition and varieties of dishes all around the world. Consumers eat these readily available foods for their good composition and good taste but it becomes target to most of the microbial contamination. The safety of the chicken and for the support of the study about its safety literature has been reviewed under the heading given

The fatty acid compositions and É·-6/É·-3 ratios of the seeds of endemic three Achillea species

The seed oils of three endemic species of Achillea (A. cappadocica Hausskn.  Bornm., A. sivasica Çelik & Akpulat and A. sintenisii Hub-Mor.) were investigated for their total lipid contents, fatty acid compositions and ɷ-6/ɷ-3 ratios. The seed lipid contents were found to be 3.13%, 3.80% and 3.85%, respectively. The fatty acid compositions of these species were determined by gas chromatography. The seed oils of Achillea species contain palmitic (C16:0), stearic (C18:0) and myristic (C14:0) acids as the major component fatty acids among the saturated acids. The major unsaturated fatty acids found in the seed oils were linoleic (C18:2 ɷ-6), linolenic (C18:3 ɷ-3) and oleic (C18:1 ɷ-9c) acids. The ɷ-6/ɷ-3 ratios of the seed oils of A. cappadocica, A. sivasica and A. sintenisii were found to be 2.30, 2.40 and 3.52, respectively. From these results, it can be said ɷ-6 and ɷ-3 series fatty acids improved the seed oils quality of these Achillea species

Effect of Processing Conditions on the Quality of Wheat Protein

Wheat protein determines the biochemical and rheological properties of most wheat products. The final product depends critically upon the balance between different ratios of proteins that interact with each other through various processing methodologies. Protein is the most substantial component of our intake. As we belongs to Asia, wheat is enriched source of protein for us. Excessive amount of protein is found in wheat grain as compared to wheat flour. Wheat grains is transformed into variety of food products by enduring various food processing techniques. Nutritional quality is been correlatively effected by milling. Cell wall lysing in this process inflate the nutrients whereas it result in polysaccharide by stripping off wheat nutritional layers. Solubility of wheat protein rises through mixing which is further essential in dough kneading. Structural and functional properties of proteins is affected upon heating. Proteins became denature through heating and shearing during extrusion

Quality characteristics of shortcake biscuit produced from wheat flour using sprouted jack bean flour and jackbean protein concentrate as composites

This study evaluated the effect of adding sprouted jack bean flour (SJF) and jack bean protein concentrate (JPC) on the quality of shortcake wheat flour biscuits. Clean jack bean seeds (3kg) were soaked (6h) in cold water, washed and half of it sprouted (4 days). The sprouted grains were washed, de-hulled, dried (3days, 26 ±2OC; 55OC, 48 h) and milled into fine flour (SJF).  Un-sprouted grains (1.5kg) were de-hulled, dried (3d, 26 ±2OC; 55OC, 48 h) and milled into coarse powder. This was defatted using n-hexane (1:3, w/v), oven-dried (60OC, 6h) and milled into fine flour. Phosphate buffer solution (1:5, w/v; pH: 4.5) was used to extract the protein. The precipitate (protein concentrate (JPC)) was washed, oven-dried (55OC, 48 h) and milled into flour. Shortcake biscuits with added 0, 10 or 20% of SJF or JPC were baked using standard procedures. Proximate and mineral composition of SJF, JPC and biscuits were analysed. Physical and sensory attributes of biscuits were also analysed. Sprouting significantly (p>0.05) improved nutrient composition of jack bean seed flour. Protein content improved from 15.59 to 30.31%; calcium from 0.03 to 0.07mg/100g and magnesium from 0.37 to 0.4gmg/100g but carbohydrate content decreased from 70.55% to 55.10%. The SJF and JPC improved quality of biscuits. The 20% SJF and JPC addition in the shortcake biscuits significantly (p>0.05) improved ash contents of the biscuits from 1.44% to 2.57% and 2.52% respectively. Carbohydrate and protein contents, however, were not significantly (p 0.05) improved. The biscuits had good physical attributes and were all acceptable to the sensory panellists. Biscuits containing 10% sprouted jack bean flour could be adjudged the best in terms of nutrient and sensory properties