Rapid Methods for Analysis of Edible Oils and Fats by Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy

Analysis using Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy techniques on edible fats and oils extracted from palm fruit, groundnut, sesame seed, cottonseed and animal body fats rendered from cow, chicken, lamb and lard were investigated. The studies included development and applications of rapid FTIR techniques to determine some quality parameters such as moisture content in crude palm oil (CPO), soap and hexane residues in refined palm oil and groundnut oil, malondialdehyde (MDA) as a secondary oxidation product in refined palm oil, minor components such as sesamol and gossypol in sesame and cottonseed oils, and aflatoxins in groundnut and groundnut cake. The detection of lard in different mixtures with other animals' body fats such as cow, chicken and lamb was also investigated. Different sample handling techniques were used such as transmission cells of NaCl, BF2, KBr and attenuated total reflectance (ATR) using internal reflectance element (IRE) of ZnSe. Partial Least Square (PLS) and Principle Component Analysis (PCA) statistical methods were used to drive calibrations from FTIR versus actual or chemical values. In this study the frequency of 3700-3072 cm⁻¹ was used to determine moisture content in CPO as it indicates the absorption of compounds containing hydroxyl groups (OH). The frequency at 1675- 1500 cm⁻¹ was used to determine soap residues in refined edible oils. For the determination of hexane residue in oils, the frequency used included all the data from 2935-2817 cm⁻¹, 1 490-1333 cm⁻¹ and 1200-1000 cm⁻¹ for -CH₃ and -CH₂, and in-plane -CH bending. In the determination of MDA as a secondary oxidation product, the correlation and variance spectra were used to select the best regions (2900-2800 and 1800-1600 cm⁻¹) to derive calibration from FTIR versus values obtained by chemical methods with SEC of 1.49. The spectral regions included the data from 3650-3000, 1600- 1450 and 1200-900 cm⁻¹ that were used to determine sesamol in sesame seed oil. The study also included a qualitative and semi quantitative determination of palm and groundnut oils as adulterants in sesame seed oil using the spectral regions from 1504- 1503, 1400- 1397 and 917-914 cm⁻¹. The gossypol was also determined as an important quality factor in cottonseed oil and cakes using the spectral regions from 3600-2520 and 1900-800 cm⁻¹. The study also covered the detection of lard in mixture of body fats of chicken, lamb and cow by using changes in frequency and absorbance of spectral regions 3009-3000, 1418-1417, 1385-1370, 1126- 1085 and 966-967 cm⁻¹. The simple Beer-Lambert law was used to develop equations for the determination of mixtures. Aflatoxins exhibit characteristic absorption bands at wavelengths of 3004-2969 cm⁻¹ for CH₂, aromatic =CH, -C-H, C=C and phenyls, 1744-1720 cm⁻¹ for C=O, 1364-369 cm⁻¹ for methyl adjacent to epoxy ring, 1217-1220 cm⁻¹ for in plane -CH bending of phenyl, 1035-1037 cm⁻¹ for symmetric stretching of =C-O-C or symmetric bending of phenyl, and 900-902 cm⁻¹ which may be for isolated H. In this calibration set the spectral regions that showed the highest correlation between concentration information and spectral response were set to include the data from 3000-2932, 1832-1693, 1400-1329 and 1250-1187 cm⁻¹ for aflatoxins B₁, with standard errors of calibration (SEC) of 1.80 parts per million (ppm). All of the results were in good correlation and of comparable accuracy to the classical wet chemical methods such as the American Oil Chemists Society (AOCS), Association of Official Analytical Chemists (AOAC) and International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) methods. This study represents the use of FTIR spectroscopy as a new rapid analytical technique developed for determination of some quality parameters of fats and oils, together with the detection of adulterants and contaminants. The FTIR spectroscopic technique has the potential to replace the timeand effort-consuming chemical methods for fast analysis of fats and oils. This can also eliminate the use of toxic chemicals that are hazardous to the analysts as well as to the environment in the analysis

The University of Gezira Advisory System: Academic Advising of Excellent Students

Excellent students are the promising scientists and leaders of their professions in the future and hence universities must assume full responsibility of supporting and encouraging those students during the undergraduate and postgraduate studies; a policy which can help producing competent graduates who can contribute significantly in the total development of the country. Traditionally excellent students are rewarded by prizes and financial incentives and enrollment in the academic staff as teaching assistants. Although the university rewards are useful in motivating students to achieve excellence, their benefits to the excellent students and the universities are rather limited; they are usually late and do not contribute in strengthening and enriching the curricula. Faculties and departments should have a clear plan of guiding and supporting excellent students; to help them contribute in the academic activities and choose their future careers appropriately. The academic advising system was introduced very early during establishment of the University of Gezira (1975) and has been included in the academic regulations, ever since it has been implemented, upgraded and evaluated several times. Experience showed that it is useful and effective in helping students achieve the University requirements of graduation; teachers and students are now familiar with it. However the system focuses on poor students and neglects excellent students. Following is a proposal of academic advising of excellent students. Examples are drawn from the curriculum of the Faculty of Medicine and the model could be adopted by other faculties

Rapid methods for analysis of edible oils and fats by fourier transform infrared spectroscopy

The objectives of this study were to develop fast, accurate, low cost, sensitive and environmentally friendly analytical methods for selected quality factors and minor components in edible oils and fats and their associated products using Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy. These analyses include soap residues in the chemically refined vegetable oils, quantifying hexane residues in the solvent extracted vegetable oils, detection of aflatoxins in groundnut and groundnut cake, the determination of malondialdehyde (MDA) as one of the thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS) in edible oils, the determination of minor components in edible oils such as sesamol and gossypol in sesame seed and cottonseed oils, respectively. In addition, the FTIR techniques were also be used to determine the adulteration of sesame seed oil with other vegetable oils and lard in body fats of chicken, lamb and cow

Strategic Impact Assessment: A New Tool in achieving Sustainable Development in the Sudan in the wake of the Severance of Southern Sudan

This paper appraises the process and performance of Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) in the Sudan. The implications of the severance of Southern Sudan on the country’s natural resources and development policies are underscored. The main legislative and institutional constraints of) EIA) efficient application are highlighted, emphasizing its limitations to developmental projects. The new trend in addressing the complicated issues salient to policies, plans and programmes that calls for a higher tier of impact assessment is illustrated. Strategic Environmental Impact Assessments (SEA) which operates at the policies, plans and programmes level is defined. A comparison between (EIA) and (SEA) is portrayed. Justifications for the application of (SEA) in the Sudan and the steps and prerequisites needed are expressed. The institutional and legislative reforms as well as human resources capacity building are underlined

PROBLEM BASED LEARNING IN THE FACULTY OF MEDICINE – UNIVERSITY OF GEZIRA

This article describes the main objectives of a medical school, how effective is problem based learning (PBL) in helping the student achieve the educational objectives of the faculty, the approach to PBL adopted by the Faculty of Medicine University of Gezira (FMUG)

INCONVERTIBILITY LOSS AND MURABAHA: A RECOVERY OPTION FOR ISLAMIC POLITICAL RISK INSURERS

This paper attempts to illustrate the primacy of the Shari’a-compliant murabaha transaction as a means of inconvertibility loss recovery by Islamic political risk insurers.  In practical terms, the risk most likely to occur in an underdeveloped Muslim country is the risk of the local currency becoming inconvertible because of a certain action or inaction by the authorities of the host country which is the destination of an export trade transaction, or a foreign direct investment covered under a political risk insurance policy. The political risk insurance (PRI) operator most concerned with the subject of this paper is the Islamic Corporation for the Insurance of Investment and Export Credit (ICIEC), a member of the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) Group.  Where the PRI operator is established within the auspices of a lending agency which lends in local currency, and provided that the necessary legal arrangements are in place, the PRI’s local currency holdings could be passed on to the lending agency in the host country and the foreign currency equivalent thereof paid over to the PRI operator at its head office. In countries where a lender is not extending local currency financing and a speedy economic recovery is not expected, an attractive alternative for a PRI operator, as the authors argue, is the utilization of the local currency in murabaha transactions. PRI operators’ apprehension about the risk of inconvertibility finds expression in denial of the inconvertibility coverage altogether.  Where this is not the case, a PRI operator may impose recovery ceilings, demand the expiry of extended waiting periods, as well as compliance with a variety of other conditions prior to recovery. This paper argues that such measures are self-defeating. A Shari’a-compliant PRI operator is necessarily established to provide coverage against commercial and non-commercial risks in poor Muslim countries. To deny or restrict inconvertibility risk coverage in such countries is unacceptable. Murabaha is a panacea for currency inconvertibility: it is the most popular form of Islamic financing in the world, it is easy to structure, and its profits are almost certainly rewarding. While the risk of non-payment of the price by overseas buyers of Muslim country exports is minimal, risks associated with murabahacould be further minimized by means of export credit insurance coverage by local export promotion agencies

Breast Cancer Case Using Tamoxifen during Pregnancy: A Case Report and Literature Review

This is a case of 32 years old nulliparous female who was diagnosed  in November 2004 as a case of carcinoma of the right breast , luminal A , (Estrogen Receptor positive Progesterone receptor negative, Her 2 negative, Ki67 10 %), poorly differentiated invasive ductal cancer, TNM stage,T2 N0 MO.  She had a wide local excision and axillary clearance. As she is a case of low risk early stage luminal A breast cancer; she was not given chemotherapy, instead she had a course of external irradiation and was put on Tamoxifen (Astra Zeneca, 20 mg daily), and was advised not to get pregnant during this treatment,but she got pregnant and delivered normally a healthy infant, although Tamoxifen is potentially teratogenic

A new method for determining of gossypol in cottonseed oil by FTIR spectroscop

A new method was developed to determine the gossypol content in cottonseed oil using FTIR spectroscopy with a NaCl transmission cell. The wavelengths used were selected by spiking clean cottonseed oil to gossypol concentrations of 0–5% and noting the regions of maximal absorbance. Transmittance values from the wavelength regions 3600–2520 and 1900–800 cm−1 and a partial least squares (PLS) method were used to derive FTIR spectroscopic calibration models for crude cottonseed, semirefined cottonseed, and gossypol-spiked cottonseed oils. The coefficients of determination (R2) for the models were computed by comparing the results from the FTIR spectroscopy against those obtained by AOCS method Ba 8-78. The R2 were 0.9511, 0.9116, and 0.9363 for crude cottonseed, semirefined cottonseed, and gossypol-spiked cottonseed oils, respectively. The SE of calibration were 0.042, 0.009, and 0.060, respectively. The calibration models were cross-validated within the same set of oil samples. The SD of the difference for repeatability and accuracy of the FTIR method were better than those for the chemical method. With its speed (ca. 2 min) and ease of data manipulation, FTIR spectroscopy is a useful alternative to standard wet chemical methods for rapid and routine determination of gossypol in process and/or quality control for cottonseed oil

Rapid determinations of moisture content in crude palm oil by fourier transform infrared spectroscopy

A simple, rapid, and direct Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopic method was developed for the determination of moisture content of crude palm oil (CPO). The calibration set was prepared by adding double-distilled water to dried CPO in ratios (w/w) between 0 and 13% moisture. A partial least squares (PLS) regression technique was employed to construct a calibration model followed by cross-validation step. The accuracy of this method was comparable to the accuracy of the American Oil Chemists’ Society’s vacuum oven method, which is used for determination of moisture and volatile matter, with mean difference (MDa) of 0.0105, a coefficient of determination (R2) and a standard error of calibration (SEC) of 0.9781 and 0.91, respectively. It is also comparable to the accuracy of the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry’s distillation method with MDa, R2, and SEC of 0.0695, 0.9701, and 0.65, respectively. The study showed that midband FTIR spectroscopy combined with the PLS regression calibration technique is rapid and accurate for determination of moisture content of CPO samples with a total analysis time of less than 2 min and less than 2 mL of sample

The contribution of Banu Musa brothers in the self changing fountain

This chapter examines how Banu Musa, innovate and create system that is notthere at that time and documented until it becomes one of the main reference in the world at present