Efficiency of using Arabic Gum and Plantago Seeds Mucilage as Edible Coating for Chicken Boneless Breast

Edible coatings are an environmentally friendly technology that is applied on many food products to provide and protect food quality.  The objective of this work is to use Arabic Gum and Plantago seeds mucilage at concentration (15, 20 and 25% w/v) as edible coating for chicken breast to prolong its shelf life at 4 ?C. Coated samples produced the optimum deceases in pH, TBA, total bacterial count and enhanced the sensory attributes compered to untreated chicken breast. Samples treated with 25% Plantago showed the lowest value of TBA of 0.141mg malondialdehyde.kg-1 compared to 0.38mg malondialdehyde.kg-1 in control after 21 days of storage. Whereas, 25% Arabic gum was the most effective in reducing total bacterial count from 25×106 cfu.g-1 in control to 0.8×102 cfu.g-1. This study suggests that Arabic gum and plantago seeds mucilage showed a potential role in delaying chicken boneless breast spoilage. Keywords: Edible coating, Arabic Gum, Plantago seeds, Boneless chicken breast

Quality Evaluation of Some Commercially Fried Fast Food

Frying process is popular among all classes of people for being a rapid food preparation process and for the unique characteristics of flavor and appearance.  However, the frying oil eventually contains a number of harmful components affect the oil quality and therefore affects the quality of foods. The objective of this work was to determine the quality of 50 fried fast food samples (ten for each), french fries, burgol kuba, under pressured breaded chicken, meat pastry and falafels collected randomly from restaurants. Chemical composition was analyzed for all samples and the oil was extracted. The samples extracted oil were analyzed for level of oxidation by measuring acid value (AV), peroxide value (PV), thiobarbituric acid-reactive substances (TBARS), conjugated dienes and triens and color index. Free radical scavenging activity was also determined by measuring the decrease in the visible absorbance of 2, 2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) at 517nm. Our results indicate wide variations in the composition and degree of oxidation of the extracted oils across all samples. Fat content the most important parameter here ranged from 8.25 in falafel to 22.10 % in burgle cuba.Falafel and French fries samples exceed the criteria of PV< 10 mequiv/kg.  All samples complied with the limits of acid value < 2.5 mg/g. Except for meat pastry all samples were in permissible limits of TBARS. The DPPH test showed that all tested samples have free radical-scavenging activity ranged from 72.2 in French fries to 82.6%in Falafel. Falafels samples showed darkening of oil color significantly higher than all samples followed by French fries. The data highlight the need to evaluate the antioxidant activity of food itself not only the oil used for frying and enforcing legal regulations to maintain food quality in fast food restaurants. Keywords: fast food, oil stability, antioxidant activity

Antioxidant activity and mineral composition of three Mediterranean common seaweeds from Abu-Qir Bay, Egypt

AbstractAntioxidant activity and mineral composition were evaluated seasonally from spring to autumn 2010 in the three common seaweeds Ulva lactuca Linnaeus (Chlorophyta), Jania rubens (Linnaeus) J.V. Lamouroux and Pterocladia capillacea (S.G. Gmelin) Bornet (Rhodophyta). The antioxidant activity was measured with β-carotene, total phenol content and DPPH (2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl). Seaweeds were collected from the rocky site near Boughaz El-Maadya Abu-Qir Bay of Alexandria, Egypt. The results showed maximum increase of β-carotene in P. capillacea during summer. A significant increase in total phenolic content at P⩽0.05 was found in the red alga (J. rubens) during summer. Also, U. lactuca showed the maximum antioxidant scavenging activity especially during summer. Minerals in all investigated samples were higher than those in conventional edible vegetables. Na/K ratio ranged between 0.78 and 2.4mg/100g, which is a favorable value. All trace metals exceeded the recommended doses by Reference Nutrient Intake (RNI). During summer season, it was found that Cu=2.02±0.13 and Cr=0.46±0.14mg/100g in U. lactuca and Fe had a suitable concentration (18.37±0.5mg/100g) in P. capillacea. The studied species were rich in carotenoids, phenolic compounds, DPPH free radicals and minerals, therefore, they can be used as potential source of health food in human diets and may be of use to food industry

Acanthamoeba keratitis in Sudan: outcome of ketoconazole treatment in six patients

In an exploration of the acanthamoebic aetiology of chronic keratitis cases (not responding to antibiotics, antiviral or antifungal therapy), 138 Sudanese patients were seen over a 2-year period at two teaching eye hospitals in Khartoum State. Six (4.3%) of these patients were found to be suffering from Acanthamoeba keratitis. The present study focuses on the good outcome of oral ketoconazole in four patients at 18 months follow up period. The drug oral route, convenient frequency of doses, minimal side effects and availability at reasonable price favour ketoconazole therapy. Sudan Journal of Medical Sciences Vol. 1(1) 2006: 34-3

A Novel Photosynthesis of Carboxymethyl Starch-Stabilized Silver Nanoparticles

The water soluble photoinitiator (PI) 4-(trimethyl ammonium methyl) benzophenone chloride is used for the first time in the synthesis of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs). A new green synthesis method involves using PI/UV system, carboxymethyl starch (CMS), silver nitrate, and water. A mechanism of the reduction of silver ions to AgNPs by PI/UV system as well as by the newly born aldehydic groups was proposed. The synthesis process was assessed by UV-vis spectra and TEM of AgNPs colloidal solution. The highest absorbance was obtained using CMS, PI and AgNO3 concentrations of 10 g/L, 1 g/L, and 1 g/L, respectively; 40°C; 60 min; pH 7; and a material : liquor ratio 1 : 20. AgNPs so-obtained were stable in aqueous solution over a period of three weeks at room temperature (~25°C) and have round shape morphology. The sizes of synthesized AgNPs were in the range of 1–21 nm and the highest counts % of these particles were for particles of 6–10 and 1–3 nm, respectively

Heat and freezing pre-thermal treatments as a means of freeing potatoes from mosaic virus and its effects on potato plants quality characters

The aim of the study was to control of potato mosaic virus by using hot-air, hot-water and freezing as a physical pre-thermal treatments. Infected tubers of Lady Rosetta and Mondial potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) cultivars were treated by hot-air and hot-water treatments at 55± 2 ̊ C and freezing treatment at -18±2 ̊ C for 1, 2, 3 and 4 hours.  Hot-air and freezing treatments showed complete elimination of mosaic virus from treated tubers. Hot-water treatment caused tuber damage at different exposure times. In this respect, hot-air treatment at 55± 2 ̊ C and freezing treatment at -18±2 ̊ C for two hours gave the best results of eliminating the virus from tubers and did not affect on economic characters of potato cultivars.

SENSITIVE SPECTROPHOTOMETRIC ASSAY OF MUSCARINIC RECEPTOR ANTAGONIST TOLTERODINE TARTRATE IN BULK DRUG AND PHARMACEUTICAL FORMULATIONS

Objective: Simple, sensitive, and accurate spectrophotometric methods have been developed for the assay of tolterodine tartrate (TOL) in bulk drugand pharmaceutical formulations.Methods: The proposed methods are based on oxidation reaction of TOL with a known excess of cerium(IV) ammonium sulfate as an oxidizing agentin acid medium followed by determination of unreacted oxidant by adding a fixed amount of dye, e.g., amaranth (AM), rhodamine 6G (Rh6G), andindigo carmine (IC) followed by measuring the absorbance at 520, 530, and 610 nm, respectively. The effect of experimental conditions was studiedand optimized.Results: The Beer's law was obeyed in the concentration ranges of 1.0-10, 1.0-12, and 0.5-9.0 μg/mL using AM, Rh6G, and IC dyes, respectively, witha correlation coefficient ≥0.9995. The calculated molar absorptivity values are 1.868×104, 1.008×104, and 1.623×104 L/mol/cm using AM, Rh6G, andIC dyes, respectively. The limits of detection and quantification were reported. Intraday and interday accuracy and precision of the methods have beenevaluated. No interference was observed from the additives.Conclusion: The proposed methods were successfully applied to the assay of TOL in tablets preparations, and the results were statistically comparedwith those of the reported method by applying Student's t-test and F-test. The reliability of the methods was further ascertained by performingrecovery studies using the standard addition method