Fruits and Vegetables in the Management of Underlying Conditions for COVID-19 High-Risk Groups

: SARS-CoV-2 or COVID-19 is a novel coronavirus, which is the cause of the current pandemic with 107,411,561 infections and 2,351,195 death worldwide so far. There are multiple symptoms that are linked with the infection of COVID-19 such as coughing, shortness of breath, congestion together with fatigue, fever, loss of taste or smell, headaches, diarrhea, vomiting, and loss of appetite. The lack of or early stage of development of a cure for COVID-19 illness, there is need for insuring the best possible position of health to be able to fight the virus naturally through a robust immune system to limit severe complication. In this article, we have discussed the role of fruits and vegetables consumption to boost the immune system and major emphasis has been given to high risk group. We have taken into consideration a number of underlying conditions such as people with cardiovascular diseases, obesity, diabetes, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, chronic kidney disease, hemoglobin disorder such as sickle cell disease, weakened immune system due to organ transplant. Furthermore, factors to improve the immune system, risks associated with quarantine and lifestyle and food handling during COVID-19 has been discussed

Thoughts for Foods: Imaging Technology Opportunities for Monitoring and Measuring Food Quality

In recent decades, the quality and safety of fruits, vegetables, cereals, meats, milk, and their derivatives from processed foods have become a serious issue for consumers in developed as well as developing countries. Undoubtedly, the traditional methods of inspecting and ensuring quality that depends on the human factor, some mechanical and chemical methods, have proven beyond any doubt their inability to achieve food quality and safety, and thus a failure to achieve food security. With growing attention on human health, the standards of food safety and quality are continuously being improved through advanced technology applications that depend on artificial intelligence tools to monitor the quality and safety of food. One of the most important of these applications is imaging technology. A brief discussion in this chapter on the utilize of multiple imaging systems based on all different bands of the electromagnetic spectrum as a principal source of various imaging systems. As well as methods of analyzing and reading images to build intelligence and non-destructive systems for monitoring and measuring the quality of foods

Chocolate: Health, Processing, and Food Safety

Chocolate is a popular food product internationally, and it is consumed daily. Consuming chocolate has been linked to many human health benefits such as lower cholesterol levels, but there are some negative impacts such as weight gain because of its sugar content. Moreover, food safety issues related to chocolate have existed, and it can be contaminated by any biological, chemical, or physical hazards, which lead to many health issues. Regarding that, this chapter will discuss the benefits and negative impacts of consuming chocolate and provide the process of manufacturing the product

Fruits and Vegetables in the Management of Underlying Conditions for COVID-19 High-Risk Groups

SARS-CoV-2 or COVID-19 is a novel coronavirus, which is the cause of the current pandemic with 107,411,561 infections and 2,351,195 death worldwide so far. There are multiple symptoms that are linked with the infection of COVID-19 such as coughing, shortness of breath, congestion together with fatigue, fever, loss of taste or smell, headaches, diarrhea, vomiting, and loss of appetite. The lack of or early stage of development of a cure for COVID-19 illness, there is need for insuring the best possible position of health to be able to fight the virus naturally through a robust immune system to limit severe complication. In this article, we have discussed the role of fruits and vegetables consumption to boost the immune system and major emphasis has been given to high risk group. We have taken into consideration a number of underlying conditions such as people with cardiovascular diseases, obesity, diabetes, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, chronic kidney disease, hemoglobin disorder such as sickle cell disease, weakened immune system due to organ transplant. Furthermore, factors to improve the immune system, risks associated with quarantine and lifestyle and food handling during COVID-19 has been discussed

Selenium nanoparticles synthesized using an eco-friendly method: Dye decolorization from aqueous solutions, cell viability, antioxidant, and antibacterial effectiveness

International audienceSelenium nanoparticles (SeNPs) were fabricated using a green microwave technique in the presence of ascorbic acid. The morphological features indicated that the semi-spherical SeNPs with a diameter 8.5-22nm were configured in agglomerated spherical shapes with diameters around 0.47-0.71 μm. Furthermore, the removal of Fuchsin Basic dye from aqueous solutions was investigated upon variation of concentration of SeNPs. The degradation efficiency achieved 100 % for 10 mg of SeNPs after 34 min of visible light irradiation time. The antioxidant activity 2 was tested via DPPH radical scavenging assay and displayed that the highest scavenging capacity (311.115.72 mg/g) was achieved by SeNPs at a concentration of 106.25 mg/mL. Otherwise, the cell viability of SeNPs through human fibroblasts cell lines in-vitro was reduced to be 75.13.8 % with nanoparticle concentration around 500 μg/mL. The antibacterial activity was investigated against gram-negative and gram-positive bacteria such as Escherichia coli (E.coli), Pseudomonas aeruginosa (P. aeruginosa), Klebsiella pneumoniae (K. pneumonia), Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus), and Bacillus subtilis (B. subtilis) bacteria after one day of exposure. It was illustrated that SeNPs did not display an activity towards Staphylococcus aureus, while it possessed the highest one against Escherichia coli with MBC of 50 ± 1.76 g/mL compared with 26 ± 0.6 g/mL for the standard antibiotic. These tremendous properties of SeNPs indicate that manipulating multifunctional nanoparticles for versatile wound and skin treatment applications is highly encouraging

Electrospun nanofibrous scaffolds of ε-polycaprolactone containing graphene oxide and encapsulated with magnetite nanoparticles for wound healing utilizations

Wound healing treatment with a nanofibrous matrix is a serious demand to avoid associated complications, including bacterial infections. Magnetite nanoparticles (MNPs) were encapsulated into electrospun nanofibrous scaffolds of ε -polycaprolactone (PCL) containing graphene oxide (GO) nanosheets. The structural and morphological behaviors of the obtained scaffolds were investigated. The modification of nanofibers via the addition of MNPs generated a slight change of morphology, whereas the fibers’ diameters were around 0.2–0.5, 0.1–0.3, 0.1–0.2, and 0.1–0.3 μ m for 0.0NPs-GO@PCL, 0.1NPs-GO@PCL, 0.2NPs-GO@PCL, and 0.3NPs-GO@PCL, respectively. Moreover, the roughness average (Ra) increased from 119 nm to be about 169 nm from the lowest and the highest contributions of MNPs. The Human fibroblasts cell line (HFB4) reached around 98.4 ± 3.1% cell viability for 0.2MNPs-GO@PCL composition. The antibacterial activity of the highest contribution of MNPs reached about 11.4 ± 1.6 mm and 12.3 ± 1.2 mm against S. aureus and E. coli , respectively. The in-vitro cells’ attachment of HFB4 showed that cells were adhered to and proliferated through the nanofibrous scaffolds. Cells also spread and grew significantly as the modification via MNPs. Thus, indicating that designing of new scaffold for wound healing and disinfection utilization could be reached via tailoring of electrospun products encapsulating with biocompatible substances such as graphene oxide and magnetite

Sustainable PVP-Capped Silver Nanoparticles as a Free-Standing Nanozyme Sensor for Visual and Spectrophotometric Detection of Hg²⁺ in Water Samples: A Green Analytical Method

In the proposed method, microwave-assist heating and AgNO3/trisodium citrate were used to create the polyvinylpyrrolidone-capped silver nanoparticles (PVP-AgNPs) sensor. This sensor had a peroxidase-like activity that could catalytically oxidize O-phenylenediamine (OPD, colourless) into 2,3-diaminophenazine (ox-OPD, greenish-yellow colour) in the presence of H2O2, otherwise, in the presence of Hg2+, this pass has been effectively inhibited. The degree of colour fading was directly correlated with Hg2+ concentration. These results indicated the selectivity of Hg2+ ions toward PVP-AgNPs after establishing the PVP-AgNPs/OPD/H2O2 system. This selectivity was proved by the negative results obtained from other mon-, di-, and trivalent ions such as Na+, K+, Ca2+, Mg2+, Ba2+, Co2+, Ni2+, Cd2+, and Cr3+, instead of Hg2+. Consequently, a reliable, selective, and eco-effective spectrophotometric approach was designed for the detection of Hg2+ in various types of water samples. LOD was extended to lower than 0.1 µM, and a fading in the obtained colour was shown by the naked eye at a concentration higher than 1.5 µM of Hg2+. The elemental details for preparing the used PVP-AgNPs, such as particle size, morphology, polydispersity index (PdI), and their UV-visible spectrum, were identified by SEM technique, TEM, UV-visible spectrophotometer, and zeta-sizer device. Thus, the peroxidase mimicking the activity of OPD/H2O2 was confirmed by a fluorescence technique. The greenness profile of this work was confirmed after applying a reported assessment tool

Sustainable PVP-Capped Silver Nanoparticles as a Free-Standing Nanozyme Sensor for Visual and Spectrophotometric Detection of Hg2+ in Water Samples: A Green Analytical Method

In the proposed method, microwave-assist heating and AgNO3/trisodium citrate were used to create the polyvinylpyrrolidone-capped silver nanoparticles (PVP-AgNPs) sensor. This sensor had a peroxidase-like activity that could catalytically oxidize O-phenylenediamine (OPD, colourless) into 2,3-diaminophenazine (ox-OPD, greenish-yellow colour) in the presence of H2O2, otherwise, in the presence of Hg2+, this pass has been effectively inhibited. The degree of colour fading was directly correlated with Hg2+ concentration. These results indicated the selectivity of Hg2+ ions toward PVP-AgNPs after establishing the PVP-AgNPs/OPD/H2O2 system. This selectivity was proved by the negative results obtained from other mon-, di-, and trivalent ions such as Na+, K+, Ca2+, Mg2+, Ba2+, Co2+, Ni2+, Cd2+, and Cr3+, instead of Hg2+. Consequently, a reliable, selective, and eco-effective spectrophotometric approach was designed for the detection of Hg2+ in various types of water samples. LOD was extended to lower than 0.1 µM, and a fading in the obtained colour was shown by the naked eye at a concentration higher than 1.5 µM of Hg2+. The elemental details for preparing the used PVP-AgNPs, such as particle size, morphology, polydispersity index (PdI), and their UV-visible spectrum, were identified by SEM technique, TEM, UV-visible spectrophotometer, and zeta-sizer device. Thus, the peroxidase mimicking the activity of OPD/H2O2 was confirmed by a fluorescence technique. The greenness profile of this work was confirmed after applying a reported assessment tool