Aamir Shehzad

Inulin: Properties, health benefits and food applications

Inulin is a water soluble storage polysaccharide and belongs to a group of non-digestible carbohydrates called fructans. Inulin has attained the GRAS status in USA and is extensively available in about 36,000 species of plants, amongst, chicory roots are considered as the richest source of inulin. Commonly, inulin is used as a prebiotic, fat replacer, sugar replacer, texture modifier and for the development of functional foods in order to improve health due to its beneficial role in gastric health. This review provides a deep insight about its production, physicochemical properties, role in combating various kinds of metabolic and diet related diseases and utilization as a functional ingredient in novel product development.

Modelling Wheat Flour Dough Proofing Behaviour: Effects of Mixing Conditions on Porosity and Stability

Kinetics of porosity and stability of dough expansion during proofing have been fitted with Gompertz and exponential models, respectively, for 24 distinct mixing conditions and same dough composition. Data for 10 conditions were used to relate the parameters of the models to mixing variables, specific power, and texturing time, through power regression models. Interpretation of the relationships between the mixing variables and the parameters of the Gompertz and exponential models emphasises the influence of dough rheological properties on dough expansion during fermentation and likely on bubbles distribution. The prediction performances of these porosity and stability models were evaluated using the root mean square error and mean absolute percentage error, for time series of the remaining 14 mixing conditions. The results show that integrating the mixing variables into the models significantly improves the prediction accuracy compared to control models whose parameters values are arithmetic means. Finally, we present an application where the mixing variables are determined in order to obtain a dough exhibiting the desired features during proofing, such as high levels of porosity and stability. Intensive mixing yields the best result but a more interesting trade-off can be obtained with intermediary mixing processes.

Antimicrobial activity of Syzygium aromaticum extracts against food spoilage bacteria

In this study, the emphasis was on extraction of aqueous and methanolic extract from whole clove (Syzygium aromaticum) that can be efficiently used as an antimicrobial agent with an ultimate objective of developing replacements for the synthetic chemical additives in food products. Antimicrobial activity of extract revealed that the solvent extract of clove has a great potential for the inhibition of microbial load. The value of antimicrobial activites of solvent extract ranged from 12 to 17 mm in the disc diffusion method as compared to aqueous extract i.e ranged from 12 to 16 mm. Minimum Inhibitory Concentrations were found from 17 to 23 mm for solvent extract and 13 to 17 mm for aqueous exract. The sensory characteristics of bread showed that the treatments had a highly significant effect on volume, color of crust, symmetry of form, evenness of bake, character of crust, grain, color of crumb, taste and texture and overall acceptability of bread. Significantly lower total scores for the bread were exhibited by the bread supplemented with 2 and 2.5% clove extract. The results revealed that bread containing up to 1% clove extract is acceptable.

Radical Scavenging Linked Antioxidant Comparison and Quantification ofConventional and Supercritical Fluid Ginger Extracts

Phytoceutics have been become increasingly famous with individuals anxious to mitigate the influence of unhealthy lifestyle as well as aging. Purposely, phytochemical analysis of ginger proved it as an excellent source of antioxidants and free radical scavengers. Regarding bioactive moieties especially gingerol and shogaol series extraction, ethanol showed maximum radical scavenging at 90 minutes than that of ethyl acetate and acetone. Ginger conventional extract showed maximum activity as 57.80 ± 1.97% superoxide anion radical scavenging, 38.23 ± 1.30% nitric oxide radical scavenging, 77.62 ± 2.64% hydroxyl radical scavenging and 52.61 ± 1.79% hydrogen peroxide scavenging activity in ethanol extract at 90 minute. Regarding to supercritical fluid extracts the maximum activity was observed at 3300 psi pressure and 40°C for 2 hr, followed by 3600 psi and 3000 psi pressure at same conditions. The maximum values were 78.13 ± 2.50%, 54.83 ± 1.75%, 86.71 ± 2.81% and 75.42 ± 2.26% for superoxide, nitric oxide, hydroxyl radical and hydrogen peroxide radical scavenging activity of supercritical fluid ginger extract. Afterwards, HPLC analysis portray that ginger extracts contain maximum amount of in gingerol (7.81 mg/g) at 3300 psi pressure followed by 3600 psi and 3000 psi pressure for supercritical and 5.74 mg/g in ethanolic extract among organic solvents.

Physico-Chemical and Organoleptic Perspectives of Ginger Marmalade

Herbal plants have been recognized as effective medicinal agents. Medicinal plants are growing massive importance towards the health of individuals and communities. Owing to phytochemical perspectives functional/nutraceutical foods are scoring more attention of the nutritionists. In this scenario, ginger is gaining importance due to its accessibility, low cost and allied therapeutic claims. In current investigation, functional and nutraceutical product i.e. marmalade were prepared after the addition of ginger against control to increase its health promoting ability. For marmalade prepared with 7% ginger powder (T1) and 3% ginger extract (T2) appeared to have non-significant impacts on color tonality, in total soluble solids, pH, acidity and brix. The substantial enhancement in brix was noticed during storage from 68.14 ± 2.34 to 69.20 ± 2.49 at 0 to 60th day, respectively whereas pH decreased from 3.68 ± 0.13 to 3.45 ± 0.12 and in the opposite pattern acidity increased from 0.60 ± 0.02 to 0.74 ± 0.05%. Sensory evaluation was also assessed to evaluate the color, flavor, taste, spread ability and overall acceptability of marmalade. Means squares for sensory evaluation of marmalade showed that all the parameters remained non-significant within the treatments and storage except spread-ability and only flavor and taste changed significantly with the treatment. During storage, scores assigned to taste of decreased from 7.36 ± 0.29 to 7.24 ± 0.25. The overall acceptability was highly admired by nutraceutical extract based ginger marmalade. Conclusively, the findings of current exploration showed that gingerol present in ginger did not impact any deleterious outcomes on the sensory response. Physico-Chemical and Organoleptic Perspectives of Ginger Marmalade

Evaluating therapeutic potential of coriander seeds and leaves (Coriandrum sativum L.) to mitigate carbon tetrachloride-induced hepatotoxicity in rabbits

Objective: To evaluate the hepatic and renal protective potential of coriander seeds and leaves using animal feed model. Methods: Coriander seeds- and leaves-based sauces were administrated to normal (Study I) and carbon tetrachloride (2 mL/kg B.W.)-induced hepatotoxic rabbits (Study II). Hepatic and renal biomarkers like aspartate aminotransferase, alanine aminotransferase, alkaline phosphatase, superoxide dismutase and catalase were measured. Results: Coriander leaves-based sauce exerted more decline (P<0.05) in serum aspartate aminotransferase, alanine aminotransferase and alkaline phosphatase levels in the study II as 18.32%, 19.91% and 21.24%, respectively. While, hepatic superoxide dismutase and catalase levels were raised significantly (P<0.05) in both studies. Renal parameters also depicted positive impact by the provision of developed sauces. Conclusions: Coriander seeds and leaves based sauces are effective in alleviating the hepato/renal toxicity. The hepatoprotective effect of coriander leaves is more pronounced as compared to coriander seeds.

Physico-chemical and sensory attributes of ginger based marmalade

H plants have been recognized as effective medicinal agents. Medicinal plants are growing massive importance towards the health of individuals and communities. Owing to phytochemical perspectives functional/nutraceutical foods are scoring more attention of the nutritionists. In this scenario, ginger is gaining importance due to its accessibility, low cost and allied therapeutic claims. In current investigation, functional and nutraceutical product i.e. marmalade were prepared after supplementing with ginger enriched fractions against control (T0) to prove its health boosting perspectives. For marmalade prepared with 7% ginger powder (T1) and 3% ginger extract (T2) appeared to have non-significant impacts on color tonality, in total soluble solids, pH, acidity and brix. The substantial enhancement in brix was noticed during storage from 68.14±2.34 to 69.20±2.49 at 0 to 60th day, respectively whereas pH decreased from 3.68±0.13 to 3.45±0.12 and in the opposite pattern acidity increased from 0.60±0.02 to 0.74±0.05%. Hedonic response was also assessed using 9-point hedonic scale for the estimation of color, flavor, texture, sourness and overall acceptability of the patties and marmalade. Means squares for sensory evaluation of marmalade showed that all the parameters remained non-significant within the treatments and storage except spread-ability and only flavor and taste changed significantly with the treatment. During storage, scores assigned to taste decreased from 7.36±0.29 to 7.24±0.25. The overall acceptability was highly admired by nutraceutical extract based ginger marmalade. Conclusively, the findings of current exploration showed that gingerol present in ginger did not impact any deleterious outcomes on the sensory response.I recent times, maize has become first among other grains and cereals in terms of annual area planted in Ghana. Unfortunately, the crop suffers several losses, such as aflatoxin contamination along the maize post-harvest value chain which affects both quality and quantity before reaching the final consumer. A study was carried out to assess the qualitative and quantitative losses of maize along the maize value chain in two regions, Brong-Ahafo and Eastern Regions of Ghana. Questionnaires administered to key informant of the value chain established the main causative factors of post-harvest losses; such as losses due to the effects of insects, rodents, monkeys, birds, bushfires, ruminants (sheep and goats) and rainfall causing grains to grow mould since most farmers allowed drying on stalk before harvesting. Results from questionnaires, focus group discussion, transect walk and biophysical measurements indicated significant difference between the two regions: Mold (P-0.007), insect pest (P-0.005) and other pest (P-0.005). Laboratory analyses also showed the presence of free fatty acids and high levels of aflatoxins in most maize sampled, indicating poor storage. Change in moisture content reduced the volume and weight of the grains and was perceived as source of losses, hence the need for maize variety with less moisture content. The study revealed that even though responses from these value chain actors indicated that with the help of the extension workers they are abreast with several technologies to prevent losses, most value actors are not implementing what they learnt. There is therefore the need to use more innovative approach to help value chain actors in the maize industry to adopt methods for reducing post-harvest losses in the sector. The rapid loss assessment tool was observed to be an effective tool for assessing loss from the flow of the product.T effect of clarification by 100 and 18kDa molar weight cut-off (MWCO) ultrafiltration membranes, as well as the storage period (1-2 months) on polyphenol profile, bioactivities (α-Glucosidase inhibition and antioxidant activities) and color properties of mulberry juice (MJ) were investigated. Results indicated that ultrafiltration processing (100kDa MWCO) enriched the phenolic compounds. Comparing to the crude, the clarified MJ showed improved color, α-Glucosidase inhibition activity (αIA) and antioxidant property. However, the excessive clarification by 18kDa MWCO membrane presented more losses of MJ polyphenols due to membrane fouling. At the end of the first one month, the crude MJ showed obvious instability in both the polyphenol content and their bioactivities, which were well retained or even enhanced in the filtered juice by 100kDa MWCO membrane. At the end of storage of two months, compared to MJ stored for one month, the clarified MJ showed significant improvement in contents of phenolic acids and flavonoids, as well as the bioactivities. Accordingly, ultrafiltration processing especially for 100kDa membrane favored the preservation of MJ polyphenols and their bioactivities.

Structural Characterization of Oat Bran (1→3), (1→4)-β-D-Glucans by Lichenase Hydrolysis Through High-Performance Anion Exchange Chromatography with Pulsed Amperometric Detection

Cereal mixed linkages (1 → 3) (1 → 4)-β-D-glucan is a linear polysaccharide composed of glucose units. Oat β-glucan is a natural polymer. The main products of β-glucanase are oligosaccharides with DP3 and DP4, i.e., 3-Ob-cellobiosyl-D-glucose and 3-Ob-cellotriosyl-D-glucose, which represent over 90% of the molecule. Keeping in mind all the benefits of oat bran, the present study was planned to investigate the structural properties of oat bran, high-performance anion exchange chromatography with pulsed amperometric detection was used to examine these oligosaccharides. The structural analysis of oat bran of two oat varieties revealed that the ratio of soluble and insoluble triose to tetraose in β-glucan fraction was 1.44 and 1.78, respectively, for Avon variety; while the ratio of soluble and insoluble triose to tetraose in β-glucan fraction for Sargodha-81 was 1.49 and 1.77. The major units determined were cellotriose and cellotetraose. Other units cellopentaose and hexaoses were also existed but in minor fractions. Lichenase hydrolysis high-performance anion exchange chromatography with pulsed amperometric detection appeared to be the best choice for structural analysis of purified samples of mixed-linkage β-glucan.