Development of moringa infusion for green tea and its evaluation

Moringa oleifera leaves are known for its high nutritional quality. Its leaves are commonlyused for culinary purposes and it was explored as a potential nutraceutical in recent decades.Tea or herbal infusions have become an integral part of daily diet for a population who concernedabout a healthy lifestyle. Many herbs or plant parts have been used as infusions which providehealth promoting phytochemicals to the consumers. Therefore moringa infusions were preparedalong with some herbs/flavouring agents such as tulsi, ginger and lemon grass. Total polyphenolcontent in the infusions ranged between 685 and 1567 mg GAE/100 mL. Among phenolic acidsdetected, gallic acid was highest in all the treatments. Infusion containing moringa and tulsiscored high in organoleptic evaluation. Thus, moringa infusion can become an add-on varietyto the tea/herbal infusion consumers

Mushrooms for integrated and diversified nutrition

            Mushrooms were considered as “Objects of mystery” by the primitive man, and were realized as food much before civilization. Mushrooms have been variously used in different cultures from being priced as “Food of Gods” in the Roman culture to tools of psychological sedation for the Mexican warriors. Most of the edible mushrooms are saprophytic growing on decomposed organic plant matter. Mushrooms play varied and important roles in human nutrition and health. They are unique nutrition dense vegetables with quality high protein, very low fat, zero cholesterol, low carbohydrates, low glycemic index, high fiber, good cardiac friendly sodium to potassium ratio and some unique bioactive compounds like ergothioneine and polysaccharides. These unique nutritive properties of mushrooms make them a recommended food for diabetics, body weight management, hypertension and cardiac well-being. The concept of selenium rich mushrooms for slowing down the progress of AIDS has been gaining importance in the recent years. Apart from being a healthy vegetable, the unique lignocellulosic waste-based production system of mushrooms makes them the most ecofriendly zero waste green technology with immense environmental benefits (Gupta et al., 2004, Jain et al., 2014 and & Pandey et al., 2014). Despite many environmental and nutritional benefits; mushrooms yet have not become a part of daily nutrition in the Indian diet and the per capita consumption still remains very low at 70 grams per annum. There is a need to educate and enhance the awareness among the people about the nutritional and health potential of mushrooms. There is also the need to draw the attention towards integrating mushroom technology in successful agro-residue management programs, livelihood programs, national nutrition programs and women empowerment and rural development schemes which ultimately culminate in providing better daily nutrition

Virtual screening and in vitro assay of potential drug like inhibitors from spices against Glutathione-S-Transferase of Meloidogyne incognita

Glutathione S-transferases (GSTs) enzymes are critical antioxidant and detoxification system responsible for long-term existence of nematodes in host species. Hence, 16 phytochemicals predicted and reported to have potential nematicidal activity have been docked to GST enzyme of Meloidogyne incognita to assess their binding affinity and inhibitory activity. In vitro effects of these phytochemicals from in silico results have been done for validation of docking studies and efficacy in GST inhibition of following compounds such as alpha- pinene, alpha- terpineol, beta- caryophyllene, capsaicin, cinnamic acid, citronellol, curcumin, eugenol, geraniol, isoeugenol, linalool, myristicin, neral, NVA (N-vanillylnonanamide), piperine, vanillin have been revealed. Nematode inhibition in vitro bioassay for selected compounds could conclude that maximum mortality was observed with highest concentrations of beta- caryophyllene (78%) followed by eugenol (61.6%), cinnamic acid (55%) and N-vanillylnonanamide (49%). These findings thus suggest that the above phytochemicals could be potentially developed as nematicidal molecules against M. incognita infections

Comparative effect of different sugars instigating non-enzymatic browning and Maillard reaction products in guava fruit leather

Browning is a major quality deterioration process affecting both visual colour and nutritional value of guava leather. The aim of the study was to determine the role of different sugars viz., sucrose, fructose, glucose and sorbitol in non-enzymatic browning and antioxidant activity of guava fruit leather. The total free amino acids, ascorbic acid and antioxidant activities were at significantly lower levels in glucose and fructose treated guava leather, while the sorbitol added samples had all of above parameters at the highest level; while a reverse trend was observed in browning index and non-enzymatic browning. Among the browning intermediate products, Hydroxymethylfurfural was present at higher concentration (12.80-32.32 ng/g) than furfural (0.29-0.95 ng/g) in guava leather samples. Among the treatments, hydroxymethylfurfural was found lowest in sorbitol (12.8 ng/g) and highest in fructose (32.3 ng/g). In brief, this paper describes a novel effort in bringing the in-vitro studies related to sugars and total free amino acids, influencing the biochemical and nutritional attributes which are responsible for browning in guava fruit leather

Optimization of factors influencing osmotic dehydration of aonla (Phyllanthus emblica L.) segments in salt solution using response surface methodology

Optimization of process parameters is a critical requirement in food processing and food product industries for the development of highly acceptable product. Quantification of mass transfer kinetics under different processing conditions is essential step for optimizing the osmotic dehydration process. A Box-Behnken Design (BBD), adopted from response surface methodology (RSM) approach was used for evaluating and quantifying the moisture loss and solids gain kinetics of aonla segments in salt solution during the osmotic dehydration process. The independent variables were fixed at three levels (salt concentration- 2, 4, 6%; processtemperature - 45, 50, 55 OC and process time - 60, 120, 180 minutes). The process responses were water loss percentage (WL%) and solids gain percentage (SG%). Validation experiments were conducted at optimum conditions to verify predictions and adequacy of the models. The optimum conditions predicted were 5.02% salt concentration, 54.8 OC temperature and 60.64 minutes process time to attain a desired effect of maximum water loss (6.42%) and minimum solid gain (1.09%) in osmotic dehydration of aonla in salt medium

Variability in Phytophthora capsici (Leonian) isolates of black pepper (Piper nigrum L.) based on nutritional preferences and isozyme profiles

Experiments were conducted to study the intraspecific variability among five isolates ofblack pepper (Piper nigrum) foot rot pathogen, Phytophthora capsici, in its nutritional prefer-ences and isozyme profiles. The carbon sources most suited for the vegetative growth of theisolates were sucrose and glucose, followed by starch, fructose, cellulose and maltose. Amongthe nitrogen sources, the L-isomers of the amino acids, glutamate, proline, aspartate, aspar-agine, histidine, serine, arginine and glycine, and also the organic sources of nitrogen,urea, yeast extract, casein hydrolysate, peptone and tryptone supported good growth. Amongthe vitamins studied, only thiamine was essential for vegetative growth of P. capsici. A con-siderable degree of variation was observed among the five isolates in their preferences fornutrient sources for their optimal growth. From the isozyme profiles of esterase, acid phos-phatase, superoxide dismutase and catalase systems, the similarity between the isolates rangedbetween 25.0%–44.7%. &nbsp

Not Available

Not AvailablePresent study deals with antioxidant potential of sequential extracts of fresh and dried rhizomes of Curcuma caesia, using solvents viz., hexane, petroleum ether, benzene, chloroform, ethyl acetate, methanol and water, which was analyzed by 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl radical scavenging assay, total antioxidant capacity, ferric reducing activity and thiobarbituric acid reactive species assay. Total phenol content was estimated by the Folin-Ciocalteau method. C. caesia showed significant antioxidant activity in chloroform, benzene and ethyl acetate extracts. The chloroform extract was highly effective as free radical scavengers, electron-donating agents and reducing molybdate ions except for reducing lipid peroxidation. The highest total phenol content was also exhibited by chloroform and benzene extracts. Antioxidant potential expressed by C. caesia in the sequential extracts could be effectively utilized for identification of the bioactive compounds for future phytopharmacological applications.Not Availabl

Not Available

Not AvailableA study on biochemical factors involved in black pepper defense response against Phytophthora capsici, was carried out in P. capsici susceptible (Sreekara) and resistant (04-P24, shows root resistance to the pathogen) black pepper lines. Seven important factors e change in membrane conductance, total phenols, orthodihydroxy (OD) phenols, lignin and defense related enzymes (peroxidase, b-1,3 glucanase and b-1,4 glucanase) e were studied under uninoculated and pathogen (P. capsici, isolate 06-04) inoculated condition to know the preformed and induced responses. The pathogen was inoculated (soil inoculation) and plants were observed for changes, at 24 h intervals for 10 days. On 8th day after inoculation symptoms started appearing on Sreekara and increased the severity till 10th day. Both root and stem samples were subjected for biochemical analysis. Of the factors analyzed, it was found that membrane conductance, OD phenol, lignin and peroxidase activity play significant role in root resistance to P. capsici in 04-P24. Light microscopy of the portion of root e where pathogen found attached e was also done.Not Availabl

Not Available

Not AvailableMoringa oleifera leaves are known for its high nutritional quality. Its leaves are commonly used for culinary purposes and it was explored as a potential nutraceutical in recent decades. Tea or herbal infusions have become an integral part of daily diet for a population who concerned about a healthy lifestyle. Many herbs or plant parts have been used as infusions which provide health promoting phytochemicals to the consumers. Therefore moringa infusions were prepared along with some herbs/flavouring agents such as tulsi, ginger and lemon grass. Total polyphenol content in the infusions ranged between 685 and 1567 mg GAE/100 mL. Among phenolic acids detected, gallic acid was highest in all the treatments. Infusion containing moringa and tulsi scored high in organoleptic evaluation. Thus, moringa infusion can become an add-on variety to the tea/herbal infusion consumersNot Availabl