Extraction and characterization of pectin from grapefruit (Duncan cultivar) and its utilization as gelling agent

Globally, agro-industrial by products such as fruit waste has attained immense recognition to be used for the extraction of valuable functional ingredients. Pectin is naturally occurring biopolymer that is widely recognized in food industry as well as in biotechnology. Keeping in view, current research was conducted for extraction, characterization and utilization of grapefruit peel pectin from Duncan cultivar. The extracted pectin was characterized for different parameters that explored its role in value added products. Acid extraction was carried out and then pectin was characterized for equivalent weight, ash content and methoxyl content. With the addition of extracted pectin, jam was prepared and analysed for physicochemical analysis and sensory attributes. The maximum extraction (22.55%) was done from grapefruit peel at temperature-120°C with pH-1.5, while minimum extraction (0.41%) was obtained at temperature-120°C with pH-2. Moreover, adding pectin in jam formulation resulted in significant effect on texture of the final product. Conclusively, pectin holds a great potential to be extracted and utilized in fruit based products for best quality and value addition

Prevalence of Vitamin A Deficiency in South Asia: Causes, Outcomes, and Possible Remedies

Vitamin A deficiency (VAD) has been recognized as a public-health issue in developing countries. Economic constraints, sociocultural limitations, insufficient dietary intake, and poor absorption leading to depleted vitamin A stores in the body have been regarded as potential determinants of the prevalence of VAD in South Asian developing countries. VAD is exacerbated by lack of education, poor sanitation, absence of new legislation and enforcement of existing food laws, and week monitoring and surveillance system. Several recent estimates confirmed higher morbidly and mortality rate among children and pregnant and non-pregnant women of childbearing age. Xerophthalmia is the leading cause of preventable childhood blindness with its earliest manifestations as night blindness and Bitot\u2019s spots, followed by blinding keratomalacia, all of which are the ocular manifestations of VAD. Children need additional vitamin A because they do not consume enough in their normal diet. There are three general ways for improving vitamin A status: supplementation, fortification, and dietary diversification. These approaches have not solved the problem in South Asian countries to the desired extent because of poor governmental support and supervision of vitamin A supplementation twice a year. An extensive review of the extant literature was carried out, and the data under various sections were identified by using a computerized bibliographic search via PubMed, Web of Science, and Google Scholar. All abstracts and full-text articles were examined, and the most relevant articles were selected for screening and inclusion in this review. Conclusively, high prevalence of VAD in South Asian developing countries leads to increased morbidity and mortality among infants, children, and pregnant women. Therefore, stern efforts are needed to address this issue of publichealth significance at local and international level in lower- and middle-income countries of South Asia

A Novel Approach to Delignify Lignocellulosic Materials by Using Ligninolytic Enzyme Consortium

Lignin biodegradation is an attractive approach for producing value-added products. These valuable products are produced by the processing and refining of lignocellulosic residues. A set of ligninolytic enzymes including lignin peroxidase (LiP), manganese-dependent peroxidase (MnP), and laccase (Lac) were individually produced from Ganoderma lucidum, Trametes versicolor, and Pleurotus ostreatus. Solid state fermentation under pre-optimized culture conditions with varying ratios of enzymes were used for the delignification of lignocellulosic biomass residues. The fungal enzymes were purified in four steps including ammonium sulfate precipitation, dialysis, ion exchange chromatography, and gel filtration chromatography. The purified enzymes were subsequently used in varying ratios (with each containing 200 U/mL) for the delignification of wheat straw, sugarcane bagasse, and rice straw. The consortium of enzymes caused the removal of 58.5%, 46%, and 52% of the lignin from the wheat straw, sugarcane bagasse, and rice straw, respectively, at LiP: MnP: Lac ratios of 1:2:2, 1:1:2, and 2:1:2. The best delignification was observed in wheat straw (58.5%), exposing 76.54% cellulose content. The results suggested that the ligninolytic enzymes are effective catalysts for the selective partial delignification of lignocellulosic biomass residues. After delignification these lignocellulosic residues could be utilized as cost-effective substrates for the production of enzymes, biofuels, and other industrially significant products

Effect of CaCl2 and controlled atmosphere storage on phytochemical attributes of Guava

Abstract Guava is very delicate and alluring fruit which is being ignored since very long time despite of highly nutritious fruit and rich source of Vitamin C. It contains Vitamin C 2-3 times more than orange. Naturally the guava fruit is enriched with vitamin C and polyphenoles. Guavas fruits after harvesting were dunked in solutions of CaCl2 (1, 2 and 3%) at room temperature for 5 minutes and stored for 24 days in 5% CO2 level at temperature of 10±1°C, while the humidity level of storage chamber were 80%. The stored fruits were analyzed at 6 days of interval for sugars (glucose, fructose and sucrose g/100g) total phenolic contents (mgGAE/100g), antioxidant activity (µmolTE/g), and organic acids (citric, tartaric, ascorbic, and malic acids mg/100 g). The total phenolic content and antioxidant activity of guava fruits were declined during progression in storage but in fewer amounts as compared to room storage condition. Citric acid and ascorbic acid contents were reduced with the progression in storage, however tartaric and malic acid values were amplified at end of storage but the rate of changes were slower. The pretreatments in combination with modified atmosphere storage escalate the shelf life of guava and slow down nutritional degradation process

Evaluation of various soaking agents as a novel tool for heavy metal residues mitigation from spinach

Abstract Heavy metals pollution is a global threat to the environment and ecosystem due to various human and natural activities. Heavy metal intake through vegetables and diet leads to numerous ailments such as nervous disorder, kidney damage tubular growth and bone disease. The present study was conducted to mitigate the residue of heavy metals Hg, Pb, Zn and As in spinach collected from self-grown supervised field by using different washing treatments. Amount of trace metals was measured in fresh and chemically washed spinach samples with the help of Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer (AAS). Results revealed that highest reduction of mercury, lead, zinc and arsenic residues with 10% citric acid was 23%, 28%, 54% and 22% respectively among the tested solutions. However, tap water treatment also reduced 7%, 7%, 15% and 6, respectively. Among various washing solutions citric acid proved maximum reduction potential followed by Lemon extract, sodium carbonate, reddish extract and hydrogen peroxide respectively. The percent reduction by various solutions ranged from 7 to 23%, 7 to 28%, 15 to 54% and 6 to 22% for elimination of mercury, lead, zinc and arsenic, respectively. More reduction was found in zinc followed lead, mercury and arsenic

Removal of endosulfan residues from vegetables by household processing

849-852Effect of washing, peeling and cooking on endosulfan residue (ER) levels was determined in winter (spinach, cauliflower, potato) and summer vegetables (brinjal, tomato, okra) grown under controlled supervised field trials. Highest ER was found at raw stage in brinjal (2.43 mg/kg) followed by okra (1.83 mg/kg) and spinach (1.25 mg/kg) and lowest in potato (0.177 mg/kg). ER in vegetables was found to be reduced as follows: washing, 15-30; peeling, 60-67; and cooking, 13-35%. High levels of ERs exceeding maximum residue limits (MRLs) were observed in brinjal and tomato samples at raw stage. However, vegetable household processing reduced ER below the MRLs

Improvements in the Flavour of Soy Cheese

A review of biochemical and technological similarities and dissimilarities between soy cheese and Cheddar cheese is presented to provide guidelines for the improvements in the flavour of soy cheese. Processing technology as well as the final product of soy cheese have many similarities with Cheddar in terms of appearance, texture, mouth feel, chemical nature, biochemical processes, etc. Soy protein has many useful amino acids like Asp, Ile, Leu, Met, Phe, Trp, Tyr, Val, etc., which are precursors of flavouring compounds and the right choice of microbial cultures is necessary to benefit from them. Using low levels of sodium chloride, without the use of ethanol, and introducing new milk cheese starter and non-starter cultures like Lactococcus lactis ssp. lactis (formerly L. lactis ssp. lactis biovar. diacetylactis), Lactobacillus helveticus, Lactobacillus casei, Streptococcus lactis var. maltigenes and Lactococcus lactis ssp. cremoris that enhance flavour will be helpful to improve the flavour of soy cheese

Oplemenjivanje okusa sira od soje

A review of biochemical and technological similarities and dissimilarities between soy cheese and Cheddar cheese is presented to provide guidelines for the improvements in the flavour of soy cheese. Processing technology as well as the final product of soy cheese have many similarities with Cheddar in terms of appearance, texture, mouth feel, chemical nature, biochemical processes, etc. Soy protein has many useful amino acids like Asp, Ile, Leu, Met, Phe, Trp, Tyr, Val, etc., which are precursors of flavouring compounds and the right choice of microbial cultures is necessary to benefit from them. Using low levels of sodium chloride, without the use of ethanol, and introducing new milk cheese starter and non-starter cultures like Lactococcus lactis ssp. lactis (formerly L. lactis ssp. lactis biovar. diacetylactis), Lactobacillus helveticus, Lactobacillus casei, Streptococcus lactis var. maltigenes and Lactococcus lactis ssp. cremoris that enhance flavour will be helpful to improve the flavour of soy cheese.U ovom su revijalnom prikazu navedene biokemijske i tehnološke sličnosti te razlike između sira od soje i sira tipa Cheddar. Tehnološki postupak proizvodnje sira od soje, te izgled, tekstura, okus, kemijska i biokemijska svojstva gotovog proizvoda, imaju sličnosti sa sirom tipa Cheddar. Proteini soje sadrže mnoge aminokiseline poput Asp, Ile, Leu, Met, Phe, Trp, Tyr, Val, itd., koje su prekurzori spojeva što daju okus siru, pa se pravilnim odabirom mikrobne kulture mogu dobro iskoristiti. S malom količinom soli, bez uporabe etanola, i uvođenjem starter-kultura kao što su Lactococcus lactis ssp. lactis (prijašnjeg naziva L. lactis ssp. lactis biovar. diacetylactis), Lactobacillus helveticus, Lactobacillus casei, Streptococcus lactis var. maltigenes i Lactococcus lactis ssp. cremoris može se bitno poboljšati okus sira od soje

Prevalence of Vitamin A Deficiency in South Asia: Causes, Outcomes, and Possible Remedies

Vitamin A deficiency (VAD) has been recognized as a public-health issue in developing countries. Economic constraints, sociocultural limitations, insufficient dietary intake, and poor absorption leading to depleted vitamin A stores in the body have been regarded as potential determinants of the prevalence of VAD in South Asian developing countries. VAD is exacerbated by lack of education, poor sanitation, absence of new legislation and enforcement of existing food laws, and week monitoring and surveillance system. Several recent estimates confirmed higher morbidly and mortality rate among children and pregnant and non-pregnant women of childbearing age. Xerophthalmia is the leading cause of preventable childhood blindness with its earliest manifestations as night blindness and Bitot’s spots, followed by blinding keratomalacia, all of which are the ocular manifestations of VAD. Children need additional vitamin A because they do not consume enough in their normal diet. There are three general ways for improving vitamin A status: supplementation, fortification, and dietary diversification. These approaches have not solved the problem in South Asian countries to the desired extent because of poor governmental support and supervision of vitamin A supplementation twice a year. An extensive review of the extant literature was carried out, and the data under various sections were identified by using a computerized bibliographic search via PubMed, Web of Science, and Google Scholar. All abstracts and full-text articles were examined, and the most relevant articles were selected for screening and inclusion in this review. Conclusively, high prevalence of VAD in South Asian developing countries leads to increased morbidity and mortality among infants, children, and pregnant women. Therefore, stern efforts are needed to address this issue of publichealth significance at local and international level in lower- and middle-income countries of South Asia