Studies on Alum as Milk Coagulating Agent in the Manufacture of Paneer – An Indian Cottage Cheese

Alum is a white crystalline double sulphate of aluminum and potassium that is commonly used as an astringent. Utilising its protein binding property, alum was studied as coagulating agent of milk in the preparation of paneer. Paneer is a soft variety of cottage cheese very popular in Indian sub-continent, used in various culinary dishes. Its   preparation essentially involves acid coagulation of hot milk and pressing of the hot coagulum to form a compact block which is then cooled by immersing in chilled water. Citric acid and vinegar are commonly used as coagulating agents of milk during paneer manufacture. However, when alum was used as a coagulating agent, it was observed that most of the proteins were amalgamated during coagulation process resulting in enhanced yield of paneer. It also resulted in reduced solids losses in whey. However, use of alum resulted in a slight astringency in paneer, hence it was recommended to be used in combination with common coagulant i.e. citric acid. The solids content (losses) in whey were 6.62, 6.08, and 6.32 %, respectively for citric acid, alum and citric acid + alum mixture used as coagulating agents. Similarly, the yields of paneer were 16.42, 19.04 and 16.99 %. The alum coagulated paneer looked glossy and attractive which was indicated by reflectance values of 83.75% as against 79% for control paneer sample. The paneer made by alum coagulation had slightly brittle texture

Knowledge management in technical education using lean concept

Innovation, Flexibility and Rapid change-are the keywords for 21st century business environment.Industries that have traditionally delivered manufactured goods must streamline their processes and focus on the rapidly changing needs of their customers and the capabilities of their suppliers.Lean is one of the promising alternative strategy for achieving continuous improvement in business performance through identifying a company’s value stream and then systematically removing all waste.Educational Institutions are now focusing on knowledge management, and knowledge is a new paradigm for the way of work.The key issue in knowledge management in educational institution is faculty-subject allocation problem which can be solved by using the lean concept.This paper mainly concentrates on minimizing the knowledge wastage in technical institution by properly allocating the faculty to subjects. The faculty-subject allocation problem is solved using a meta-heuristic approach and a decision support system can be developed

<b style="">Some medicinal plants used by Irular, the tribal people of Marudhamalai hills, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu</b> <b style=""> </b>

382-388The present paper deals with ethnobotanical study on 75 plant species used for several common diseases like scabies, skin allergies, diabetes, headache, jaundice, scorpion bite, diarrhoea, leucoderma, rheumatism, earache, wounds, leprosy, asthma, dysentery, etc. by the Irulars (tribal) people of Marudhamalai Hills, Coimbatore district, Tamil Nadu. The botanical, vernacular and family names, mode of preparations and uses have been provided for further pharmacological and clinical evaluations

Improving nutritional value of velvet bean, <i>Mucuna</i> <i>pruriens</i> (L.) DC. var. <i>utilis</i> (Wall.ex.Wight) L. H. Bailey, an under-utilized pulse, using microwave technology

677-681The velvet bean is an under-utilized legume species grown predominantly in Asia, Africa and in parts of America. A hill tribe by name Kanikkars inhabiting Western Ghats bordering Tamil Nadu and Kerala traditionally consume the seeds as source of protein. However, the seeds also are known to possess several undesirable anti-nutritional factors which elicit adverse effects in the consuming people. In the present study, an attempt has been made to study the effect of soaking followed by microwave cooking on the elimination or reduction of anti-nutritional factors (ANF’s) and the overall improvement in nutritional quality of two germplasm seed samples collected from Western Ghats of Velvet bean. In both the germplasm, it has been detected and demonstrated that all the investigated ANF’s except the pharmacologically important L-Dopa are significantly eliminated. The reduction in contents of total free phenolics, tannins and phytic acid due to microwave cooking is significant (87.5%, 69.9-69.6%, and 78.7-82.1%), respectively. The reduction in levels of L-Dopa due to microwave cooking is insignificant (4.47-6.48%) where as TIA and CIA are found to be significant (TIA: 89.5-90.8%; CIA: 94.6-96%), respectively. Among the three erythrocytes, the loss of lectin activity in respect of ‘O’ blood group in Kailasa Nadu germplasm is low compared to other values (76%). At the same time the seed protein quality of both the germplasm is not adversely affected

<b>Antibacterial potential of some plants used by tribals in Maruthamalai hills, Tamil Nadu</b>

27-34In this study an attempt was made to assess the antibacterial potential of three medicinal plants used by tribals in Maruthamalai hills, Coimbatore District, Tamil Nadu. Antibacterial activity of 35 extracts at three different concentrations of various plant parts of Strychnos nux-vomica Linn.,  Pergularia daemia R. Br. and Toddalia asiatica var. floribunda Lam. collected from Maruthamalai hills, in Western Ghats was evaluated against certain bacterial pathogens such as Aeromonas hydrophila, Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Staphylococcus aureus and Salmonella typhi. All the extracts exhibited tested antibacterial activity at higher concentrations

Contributions of Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy in microplastic pollution research: A review

© 2020 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC. Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy has been extensively used in microplastic (MP) pollution research since 2004. The aim of this review is to discuss and highlight the recent advances in FTIR (spectroscopy and chemical imaging) techniques that are used to characterize various polymer types of MPs and to trace their fate and transport in different environmental matrices. More than 400 research papers dealing with FTIR techniques in MP pollution research, which are published between January 2010 and December 2019, have been identified from the Scopus and Web of Science databases. The MPs present in sediment, water (marine and freshwater), biota, air/dust, waste water treatment plants and salt are further classified according to (1) characterization and identification, (2) weathering and aging, (3) ecotoxicology, and (4) analytical methods. The results revealed that the ATR-FTIR technique is mostly used to identify and characterize the MPs found in water and sediment. The µFTIR (FTIR imaging) is extensively used to study the ingestion of MPs in biota (both marine and freshwater). In this article, we have summarized the current knowledge of application of FTIR spectroscopy to MP research and provided insights to future challenges for understanding the risk of MPs