Runu Chakraborty

Role of nutraceuticals in human health

Nutraceutical is the hybrid of ‘nutrition’ and ‘pharmaceutical’. Nutraceuticals, in broad, are food or part of food playing a significant role in modifying and maintaining normal physiological function that maintains healthy human beings. The principal reasons for the growth of the nutraceutical market worldwide are the current population and the health trends. The food products used as nutraceuticals can be categorized as dietary fibre, prebiotics, probiotics, polyunsaturated fatty acids, antioxidants and other different types of herbal/ natural foods. These nutraceuticals help in combating some of the major health problems of the century such as obesity, cardiovascular diseases, cancer, osteoporosis, arthritis, diabetes, cholesterol etc. In whole, ‘nutraceutical’ has lead to the new era of medicine and health, in which the food industry has become a research oriented sector.

Artificial sweeteners – a review

Now a days sugar free food are very much popular because of their less calorie content. So food industry uses various artificial sweeteners which are low in calorie content instead of high calorie sugar. U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved aspartame, acesulfame-k, neotame, cyclamate and alitame for use as per acceptable daily intake (ADI) value. But till date, breakdown products of these sweeteners have controversial health and metabolic effects. On the other hand, rare sugars are monosaccharides and have no known health effects because it does not metabolize in our body, but shows same sweet taste and bulk property as sugar. Rare sugars have no such ADI value and are mainly produced by using bioreactor and so inspite of high demand, rare sugars cannot be produced in the desired quantities.

Cereal based functional food of Indian subcontinent: a review.

Due to constant health awareness and readily available information on usefulness of different diet and their direct link with health, the demand of functional food is increasing day by day. The concept of functional foods includes foods or food ingredients that exert a beneficial effect on host health and/or reduce the risk of chronic disease beyond basic nutritional functions. Increasing awareness of consumer health and interest in functional foods to achieve a healthy lifestyle has resulted in the need for food products with versatile health-benefiting properties. Cereal- and cereal component-based food products offer opportunities to include probiotics, prebiotics, and fibers in the human diet. Various growth studies using probiotic Lactic acid bacteria on cereal-based substrates and utilization of whole grain or components as high-fiber foods in developing novel food products lend support to the idea that cereal-based media may well be good probiotic carriers. It is essential that science and traditional knowledge should go together to find mutually beneficial results. In the Indian subcontinent, making use of fermented food and beverages using local food crops and other biological resources are very common. But the nature of the products and the base material vary from region to region.

Transport of Te4+ through liquid surfactant membrane using D2EHPA as the carrier

Abstract A preliminary study of Te4+ transport through liquid surfactant membrane using di(2-ethylhexyl)phosphoric acid (D2EHPA) as the carrier and kerosene as the diluent has been made in a batch extractor. Extraction rate is studied as a function of stripping phase acid concentration, ratio of emulsion volume to external aqueous phase volume, Biot number, etc. A diffusion controlled, film model is proposed for the above system which adequately describes the permeation mechanism of the metal through the membrane. The model takes into account both the continuous phase and membrane phase resistances in the form of a Biot number. The computed results are found to be in good agreement with the experimental data. The continuous phase resistance is found to be the controlling factor for tellurium extraction under the present experimental conditions.

Supplementation of common white bread by coriander leaf powder

Coriander leaves are widely used worldwide as a very common garnish in almost all types of Western, Oriental, and Arabic culinary. It is rich in the beneficial components of antioxidants, trace elements, and essential oils. Bread enriched with coriander leaf powder is therefore likely to have greater acceptability to consumers compared to unfortified bread. In the present study the antioxidant and sensory analyses along with baking and staling characteristics of such breads at supplementation levels of 1.0, 3.0, 5.0, and 7.0%(w/w) on wheat flour have been investigated. Results show that supplementation with coriander leaf powder bettered the crumb moisture content with only a little increase in crumb firmness. A substantial improvement in sensory characteristics was observed with the supplemented breads. A sharp increase in antioxidant content was an important beneficial fortification effect observed in the fortified breads. Coriander leaf content between 3.0 and 5.0% was found to be the optimum supplementation level that offered the best compromise for highest acceptability of the fortified breads.

The 21st century form of vitamin E--tocotrienol.

Vitamin E family constitutes of tocopherol and tocotrienol. Each form has several isomers: alpha,beta, gamma, delta, desmo and didesmo. Although tocopherol is known much earlier, tocotrienol has been discovered more recently.Tocotrienol has higher antioxidant potential than tocopherol. Research shows that tocotrienol can inhibit the induced oxidative damage to lipids and proteins. Cholesterol biosynthesis pathway requires HMG Co A reductase. Tocotrienol degrades HMG Co A reductase protein and in turn lowers cholesterol synthesis. Tocotrienol can reverse ischemia-reperfusion which mediates cardiac dysfunction and induces c-Src protein expression. Tocotrienol prevents oxytosis and offers protection against Alzheimers disease, Parkinsons disease, Hungtingtons disease. Tocotrienol exerts anticancer property through cell cycle arrest, induction of apoptosis, inhibition of angiogenesis; antitumor activity. Tocotrienol also possesses anti-inflammatory, antidiabetic, antiadipogenic and antiatherogenic effect.

Effect of freeze drying and oven drying on antioxidant properties of fresh wheatgrass

The effects of freeze drying and hot air drying on total phenolics, total flavonoids and antioxidant properties of flour from seven-day-old fresh wheatgrass (Triticum aestivum L.) were investigated. In the quantitative analysis of antioxidative components, fresh wheatgrass samples had the highest amount of ascorbic acid and chlorophyll, but the lowest amount of total flavonoids and phenolics. In the analysis of ferric-reducing antioxidant power assay (FRAP), ethanolic extract from freeze-dried wheatgrass gave the highest value, while the α-tocopherol gave the lowest value. In the analysis of 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl scavenging ability, freeze-dried wheatgrass samples exhibited the highest activity among the three samples.

Role of Fermentation in Improving Nutritional Quality of Soybean Meal - A Review.

Soybean meal (SBM), a commonly used protein source for animal feed, contains anti-nutritional factors such as trypsin inhibitor, phytate, oligosaccharides among others, which limit its utilization. Microbial fermentation using bacteria or fungi has the capability to improve nutritional value of SBM by altering the native composition. Both submerged and solid state fermentation processes can be used for this purpose. Bacterial and fungal fermentations result in degradation of various anti-nutritional factors, an increase in amount of small-sized peptides and improved content of both essential and non-essential amino acids. However, the resulting fermented products vary in levels of nutritional components as the two species used for fermentation differ in their metabolic activities. Compared to SBM, feeding non-ruminants with fermented SBM has several beneficial effects including increased average daily gain, improved growth performance, better protein digestibility, decreased immunological reactivity and undesirable morphological changes like absence of granulated pinocytotic vacuoles.

Study on β-galactosidase enzymatic activity of herbal yogurt

Different types of herbal yogurts were developed by mixing standardized milk with pretreated herbs, namely tulsi leaf (Ocimum sanctum), pudina leaf (Mentha arvensis) and coriander leaf (Coriandrum sativum), with leaves separately and a 1:1(v/v) mixture of the strains of lactic starter cultures—Lactobacillus acidophilus (NCIM 2903) and Lactobacillus plantarum (NCIM 2083)—followed by incubation at 40°C for 6h. The β-galactosidase enzymatic activity of the abovementioned herbal yogurts was determined and interestingly noted to exhibit higher enzymatic activity compared with the control yogurt (without any herbs). Among all herbal yogurts, tulsi yogurt had the maximum β-galactosidase activity.

Evaluation of plasma H2S levels and H2S synthesis in streptozotocin induced Type-2 diabetes-an experimental study based on Swietenia macrophylla seeds

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the plasma H2S levels and H2S synthesis activity in streptozotocin induced type 2 diabetes rats compared to the healthy controls and also to observe the effect of the aqueous extract of Swietenia macrophylla (S. macrophylla) seeds on the experimental groups. METHODS Seeds of S. macrophylla were separated, washed, shed-dried and finally extract was prepared. Thirty two wistar rats were selected for the experimental study. Streptozotocin was used for the induction of diabetes. H2S concentration in plasma was measured. H2S synthesizing activity in plasma was measured. Statistical analysis have done using Microsoft excel, Office 2003. Values were expressed by mean±SD. P<0.05 were considered statistically significant. RESULTS Fasting blood glucose level (7.74±0.02) mmol/L was significantly increased in diabetic rats. The glucose levels are significantly lowered in the rats treated with metformin (5.48±0.03) mmol/L as well as with aqueous extract of S. macrophylla seeds (3.72±0.04) mmol/L. The HbA1c percentages in different groups of study subjects also indicate similar trends. Our study shows both the plasma H2S levels (22.07±0.73) mmol/L and plasma H2S synthesis activity (0.411±0.005 mmol/100 g) are significantly reduced in the streptozotocin induced diabetic rats. CONCLUSIONS Although considering a small sample size, it can conclude that the fasting blood glucose levels are inversely related to plasma H2S levels as well as H2S synthesis activity in plasma and the extract of S. macrophylla is associated with increased plasma H2S levels with effective lowering of blood glucose in streptozotocin induced diabetic rats.