Muhammad Shoaib

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.

UTILIZATION OF MANGO WASTE MATERIAL (PEEL, KERNEL) TO ENHANCE DIETARY FIBER CONTENT AND ANTIOXIDANT PROPERTIES OF BISCUIT

Mango peels (MP) and kernels (MK) are the major bio-waste of mango processing industry, these are natural rich sources of bioactive substances that play a significant role in prevention of diseases. In present study, the effect of Mango Peels Powder (MPP) and Mango Kernels Powder (MKP) at different replacing levels (5, 10 and 15%) separately on rheological, proximate, physical, sensory and antioxidant properties of biscuits were evaluated. The results demonstrated that mango peel powder had high contents of crude fiber and antioxidant activity whereas mango kernel powder characterized by higher protein, total phenolic and ash contents as compared to mango peel powder. Farinograph study of composite flour of MPP and MKP revealed an increase in water absorption (WA) from 60 to 69.8%. The crude fiber contents of biscuits were improved from 0.22-16.79% by addition of mango peel and kernel powder. Their phenolic contents increased from 0.43 to 10.28 mg/g. The biscuits incorporated with MK and MP powder showed an increment in their antioxidant activity. Sensory performance exhibited that the biscuit acceptable with mango taste and flavor were obtained by substitution up to 10% mango peel powder and up to 5% with mango kernel powder. From the results, it is concluded that by incorporating of MPP and MKP played important role in enhancing the nutritional properties of biscuits through improving especially their fiber content, antioxidant activity during storage up to 30 days at room temperature.

A novel bioassay based on aptamer-functionalized magnetic nanoparticle for the detection of zearalenone using time resolved-fluorescence NaYF 4 : Ce/Tb nanoparticles as signal probe

Zearalenone (ZEN) is a non-steroidal estrogenic mycotoxin produced by fungi on stored grains. The earlier detection methods used for ZEN rely on expensive equipment, time-consuming sample preparation and temperature sensitive antibodies. The current work, proposed a novel strategy based on ZEN aptamer labeled with amine-functionalized magnetic nanoparticle (MNPs) as a capture probe and time-resolved fluorescence (TRFL) nanoparticles labeled with complementary DNA (cDNA) as a signal probe. Under the optimized conditions, TRFL intensity at 544 nm was used to measure ZEN (R2 = 0.9920) in the range of 0.001-10 ng mL-1 and limits of detection (LOD) for proposed method was 0.21 pg mL-1. The specificity of bioassay was also determined by using other mycotoxins (OTA, AFB2, DON and Patulin) and results showed that the aptamer are specific to recognize only ZEN. The analytical applications of the present bioassay in maize and wheat samples were also examined and results were compared with existing methods. Based on these findings, it is suggested to use current rapid and simple bioassay for the determination of ZEN in food and agricultural products.

Antimicrobial Potentials of Medicinal Plant’s extract and their derived Silver Nanoparticles: a Focus on Honey bee Pathogen

Infectious (or Communicable) diseases are not only the past but also the present problem in developing as well as developed countries. It is caused by various pathogenic microbes like fungi, bacteria, parasites and virus etc. The medicinal plants and nano-silver have been used against the pathogenic microbes. Herbal medicines are generally used for healthcare because they have low price and wealthy source of antimicrobial properties. Like medicinal plants, silver nanoparticles also have emergent applications in biomedical fields due to their immanent therapeutic performance. Here, we also explore the various plant parts such as bark, stem, leaf, fruit and seed against Gram negative and Gram-positive bacteria, using different solvents for extraction i.e. methanol, ethyl acetate, chloroform, acetone, n. hexane, butanol, petroleum ether and benzene. Since ancient to date most of the countries have been used herbal medicines, but in Asia, some medicinal plants are commonly used in rural and backward areas as a treatment for infectious diseases. In this review, we provide simple information about medicinal plants and Silver nanoparticles with their potentialities such as antiviral, bactericidal and fungicidal. Additionally, the present review to highlights the versatile applications of medicinal plants against honey bee pathogen such as fungi (Ascosphaera apis), mites (Varroa spp. and Tropilaelaps sp.), bacteria (Melissococcus plutonius Paenibacillus larvae), and microsporidia (Nosema apis and Nosema ceranae). In conclusion, promising nonchemical (plant extracts) are innocuous to adult bees. So, we strongly believed that this effort was made to evaluate the status of medicinal plants researches globally.

COMPARATIVE STUDY OF PHYSICAL AND BIOCHEMICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF GUAVA FRUIT (PSIDIUM GUAJAVA L.) CVS 'GOLA' AND 'SURAHI' DURING SUMMER AND WINTERSEASON

Institute of Horticultural Sciences, University of Agriculture Faisalabad-Pakistan ;National Institute of Food Science and Technology, University of Agriculture Faisalabad-Pakistan State Key Laboratory of Food Science and Technology, Synergetic Innovation Center of Food Safety and Nutrition, School of Food Science and Technology, Jiangnan University, Wuxi, Jiangsu 214122, People’s Republic of China 4Microbiology Department, Quaid-I-Azam, University Islamabad-Pakistan *Corresponding author’s e-mail: azam1087@gmail.com