Effect of hot water treatments on physiological and biochemical changes in mango cv. Banganapalli during storage at ambient temperature

Mango fruits majorly suffers from anthracnose and fruit fly infestations during storage, transportation and marketing. Hot water treatments (HWTs) at specific levels have shown to control the incidence of these important threats. Application of HWT not only act as a quarantine measure, but also maintains the quality and enhance the marketability of fruits, even at room temperature (RT), leading to its vast applicability in local / international markets. In this study, post harvest application of HWTs (48°C for 60 min and 55°C for 10 min) in mango cv. Banganapalli recorded reduced ethylene production rate, physiological loss in weight, improved sugar content, ascorbic acid, total carotenoids, phenolics and antioxidants compared to control. Combination of HWTs (48°C for 60 min followed by 55°C for 10 min) resulted in degradation of some quality parameters compared to individual HWT and control

An Open Label Three Arm Controlled on the Effect of Udvarttana and Abdominal Pack in Central Obesity

Background: Obesity occupies first place among non-communicable diseases creating an enormous socioeconomic and public health burden in most of the countries. Body fat distribution, especially visceral adipose tissue accumulation, has been found to be a major correlate of a cluster of diabetogenic and atherogenic abnormalities that comes under the metabolic syndrome. Sthoulya is the nearest clinical entity in Ayurveda comparable to obesity. The treatment modality recommended for sthoulya is Langhana, Atarpana, Rookshana. Udvarttana, a procedure which gives rookshana with kapha medo samana   is usually applied in sthoulya. In Naturopathy, exposure of cold increases metabolic reaction and is effectively used in obesity. Aim: The present study was made to evaluate the combined effect of Udvarttana and Abdominal pack together to manage the central obesity. Study design: Open label three arm-controlled study. Materials and Methods: Patients were randomly divided into 3 groups (N= 60) and clinical study was conducted. Group 1(N=20) patients were given Sthaanika Udvarttana with Triphala Churna. Duration- 20 min. Group 2(N=20) patients were given Udvarttana with Triphala Churna and Abdominal pack. Duration -20 min Udvarttana and 30 min for Abdominal pack. Group 3(N=20) patients and all the patients were given diet restriction (14 days). The findings were recorded and, one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) with POST HOC TUKEY HSD was used to find the Significance between the groups. Results: By analysing the data, there was significant change in all assessment criteria’s (waist circumference, hip circumference, waist-hip ratio, abdominal skinfold measurement) of Group 2 while comparing with the means of other two groups i.e. Group 1 and Group 3. Conclusion: The combined treatment of Udvarttana with abdominal pack showed better results than Udvarttana alone or diet restrictions alone. Udvarttana along with Abdominal pack proves to be an effective remedial measure for central obesity. &nbsp

Dissolved inorganic carbonate sustain the growth, lipid and biomass yield of <em>Scenedesmus quadricauda </em> under nitrogen starved condition

702-710Microalgae being an aquatic photosynthetic organism, dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) sources like bicarbonate (HCO3-) and carbonate (CO32-) are used in the present study for carbon fixation and sustain the biomass yield of Scenedesmus quadricauda (Turpin) Brébisson under nitrogen starved condition, to overcome the practical drawbacks associated with supply of gaseous form of CO2. S. quadricauda produces 198 mg/L lipid, with 7.14 fold reduction in biomass under nitrogen starved condition. Cell number, the primary parameter that determines the biomass yield, was maintained steadily (257×104 cells/mL) in the presence of Na2CO3 and NaHCO3. However, carbonate sources did not improve the total photosynthetic pigments. The total chlorophyll content showed drastic reduction of 0.091 to 0.022 mg/L in the presence of Na2CO3 (0.5 g/L). Similarly, the lower carotenoid value of 0.121 mg/L was recorded for sodium carbonate (0.5 g/L). Significant (P 2CO3 and NaHCO3 treated cultures exhibited monounsaturated fatty acid as dominant fraction as 84.70 and 84.28%, respectively, suggesting suitability of these fatty acids as biodiesel precursors