Assessment of fruits during shelf-life storage using biospeckle laser

Biospeckle is a phenomenon that interprets an optical pattern formed by illuminating a surface under changes with coherent light.  These patterns are usually analyzed by numerical as well as graphical methods.  Present work evaluated the application of different numerical methods to analyze biospeckle for the assessment of fresh mature fruits.  Quantitative first and second order moments namely Inertia moment (IM) and Absolute Values of Differences (AVD), based on the recording of time history of speckle pattern were used.  Results showed that during shelf-life storage of ten days of different fruits, the IM and AVD values were found to decrease.  In addition, to assess the impact of ripening of fruits on their optical properties, speckle grain size was measured and the variation of its dimensions evaluated.  This implied that speckle grain size evaluation could be a non-destructive evaluation of their maturity.Keywords: biospeckle, fruit, speckle grain, inertia moment, absolute value of the difference

Relation of Biospeckle Activity with Quality Attributes of Apples

Biospeckle is nondestructive optical technique based on the analysis of variations of laser light scattered from biological samples. Biospeckle activity reflects the state of the investigated object. In this study the relation of biospeckle activity (BA) with firmness, soluble solids content (SSC), titratable acidity (TA) and starch content (SC) during the shelf life of seven apple cultivars was studied. The results showed that the quality attributes change significantly during storage. Significant and pronounced positive correlation between BA and SC was found. This result shows that degradation of starch granules, which could be stimulated to vibration by intracellular cyclosis, causes a lesser number of laser light scattering centers and results in smaller apparent biospeckle activity

Mealiness Detection in Agricultural Crops: Destructive and Nondestructive Tests: A Review

Mealiness is known as an important internal quality attribute of fruits/vegetables, which has significant influence on consumer purchasing decisions. Mealiness has been a topic of research interest over the past several decades. A number of destructive and nondestructive techniques are introduced for mealiness detection. Nondestructive methods are more interesting because they are rapid, noninvasive, and suitable for real-time purposes. In this review, the concept of mealiness is presented for potato, apple, and peach, followed by an in-depth discussion about applications of destructive and nondestructive techniques developed for mealiness detection. The results suggest the potential of electromagnetic-based techniques for nondestructive mealiness evaluation. Further investigations are in progress to find more appropriate nondestructive techniques as well as cost and performance

Label-free optical interferometric microscopy to characterize morphodynamics in living plants

During the last century, fluorescence microscopy has played a pivotal role in a range of scientific discoveries. The success of fluorescence microscopy has prevailed despite several shortcomings like measurement time, photobleaching, temporal resolution, and specific sample preparation. To bypass these obstacles, label-free interferometric methods have been developed. Interferometry exploits the full wavefront information of laser light after interaction with biological material to yield interference patterns that contain information about structure and activity. Here, we review recent studies in interferometric imaging of plant cells and tissues, using techniques such as biospeckle imaging, optical coherence tomography, and digital holography. These methods enable quantification of cell morphology and dynamic intracellular measurements over extended periods of time. Recent investigations have showcased the potential of interferometric techniques for precise identification of seed viability and germination, plant diseases, plant growth and cell texture, intracellular activity and cytoplasmic transport. We envision that further developments of these label-free approaches, will allow for high-resolution, dynamic imaging of plants and their organelles, ranging in scales from sub-cellular to tissue and from milliseconds to hours

Biomedical Sensing and Imaging

This book mainly deals with recent advances in biomedical sensing and imaging. More recently, wearable/smart biosensors and devices, which facilitate diagnostics in a non-clinical setting, have become a hot topic. Combined with machine learning and artificial intelligence, they could revolutionize the biomedical diagnostic field. The aim of this book is to provide a research forum in biomedical sensing and imaging and extend the scientific frontier of this very important and significant biomedical endeavor

Nanotransporters for the release of bioactive molecules

In this project, the nanoformulation of plant extracts in phospholipid vesicles was performed to improve phytochemicals’ applicability in potential skin products. In recent years, the scientific community and pharmaceutical and cosmetic industries gave much attention to plant-derived products with active ingredients. The antioxidant, antibacterial, wound healing, anti-ageing, sun protection, and anti-inflammatory activities are some of their properties highlighted for topical application. Despite this, plant compounds present some drawbacks related to their poor solubility, instability, reduced skin permeation, and low skin retention time, which strongly restrict their topical application. Nanotechnology emerges as an innovative strategy to tackle these limitations: by manipulating materials and reducing their size at the nanometer scale, new structures able to incorporate different active molecules are produced. Nanocarrier-based delivery preserves biomolecules from degradation and increases their bioavailability, at the same time. In this project, the plant material was obtained through alcoholic extractions of different parts of some common plants. Their incorporation in phospholipid vesicles was carried out by a simple sonication of extracts and phospholipids in dispersant solutions. To verify that the nanoformulations had optimal features for skin delivery, a deep characterization was performed, in terms of size, surface charge, sample homogeneity, shape, degree of lamellarity, and entrapment efficiency of the main compounds characteristic of each extract. Their biocompatibility was assayed with different skin cell lines as well as their antioxidant potential. Our results suggest that phospholipid vesicles incorporating plant extracts could be good candidates for topical delivery