Dinesh Joshi

Bottle gourd (Lagenaria. siceraria), a vigorous annual climbing vine with large leaves belongs to Cucurbitaceae family and known as calabash, lauki, white flowered gourd, trumpet gourd, calebassier, courage bouteille, cojombro, guiro amargo, upo, talayag, gucuzzi, zucca melon and mokwa, olo kwa. Bottle gourd fruits having the shape of a bottle are yellowish green with whiter pulp. Bottle gourd is one of the cheapest source of nutrients and potential source of natural antioxidants. The fruit is also a good source of vitamin B complex and choline along with fair amounts of vitamin C. Bottle gourd has long been an important component of indigenous herbal medicine, particularly in Asia. The fruits are traditionally used as a nutritive entity having cardioprotective, cardiotonic, general tonic, diuretic, aphrodisiac, antidote to certain poisons, alternative purgative, and cooling effects. It is also considered to be beneficial in insanity, epilepsy and other nervous diseases. Bottle gour...

Received: 22/10/2013 Revised: 11/11/2013 Accepted: 13/11/2013 Abstract Mango is one of the most important tropical fruits in the world and currently ranked 5 in total world production among the major fruit crops. As mango is a seasonal fruit, about 20% of fruits are processed for products such as puree, nectar, leather, pickles, canned slices, and chutney. These products experience worldwide popularity and have also gained importance in national and international market. During processing of mango, by-products such as peel and kernel are generated. Mango peels and seeds are rich in valuable bioactive compounds such as polyphenols, carotenoids, dietary fibres, enzymes phytosterols and tocopherol; whereas and the peel extract exhibits potential antioxidant properties. Processing of mango by-products reduces waste disposal problem, adds value to the product for food and other industrial use, and the isolated active component can be used in food fortification.

Biscuits were prepared by replacing wheat flour with pumpkin powder at different levels viz. 0, 2.5, 5.0 7.5 and 10% (w/w) in the standard formulation. The influence of replacement of wheat flour in biscuit with pumpkin powder in the formulation of biscuit resulted in a significant change in the textural and sensory qualities of biscuits. As the replacement level of wheat flour with pumpkin powder increased from 0 to 10% (w/w), the hardness and fracturability was increased. Biscuit prepared by replacing wheat flour with pumpkin powder at the level of 2.5% (w/w) was found to be more acceptable from sensory point of view and thereafter sensory score was reduced. Biscuits with more pumpkin powder had a more yellow color than those with less pumpkin powder. Adding more pumpkin powder increased the level of carotene in the biscuits.

Moringa oleifera tree is referred to as a miracle tree due to its rich source of certain macro and micro nutrients of great importance in human nutrition. There is considerable variation among nutritional values of moringa, which depends on factors like genetic background, environment and cultivation methods. The plant is proven with tremendous medicinal properties. moringa has been described as one of the most amazing trees God has created. Almost every part of the moringa tree, viz. fruit, flower, seed, bark, root and gum is a rich repository of proteins, vitamins and minerals including potassium, calcium, phosphorous, iron, folic acid as well as b-carotene.The review covers health benefits of moringa as well as technology of post-harvest handling and processing of moringa for utilization in value added products.

Millets or nutri-cereals are high-energy foods; that were domesticated and cultivated as early as 10,000 years ago. The millets cultivation is taken up usually in degraded and marginal lands that receive very less rainfall and are poor in soil nutrient content. Seven important millets cultivated globally are finger millet, pearl millet, foxtail millet, barnyard millet, proso millet, kodo millet, and little millet. Overdependence on cereals after the green revolution and the present-day sedentary lifestyle of people has proliferated health-related disorders like obesity, diabetes, coronary diseases, gastrointestinal disorders and risk of colon, breast, and oesophageal cancer. The only way to fight back is through the introduction of nutritionally rich millets in our daily diets. Millets are unique for their richness in dietary fibers, antioxidants, minerals, phytochemicals, polyphenols, and proteins; that act as elixir to fight against health-related disorders. Recent global phenomen...

Summary: We have examined the degradation of 14C ring- and side-chain-labelled 2,4,5-trichlorophenoxyacetic acid by Dichomitus squalens and Phanerochaete chrysosporium. The effects of Mn2+ on the degradation of these radiolabeled substrates by D. squalens and the effect of nitrogen limitation on their degradation by D. chrysosporium suggested that in both fungi, side-chain cleavage was catalysed by a mechanism independent of the lignin degradation system, whereas the degradation of the aromatic ring was dependent on the lignin degradative system. Using unlabelled substrates, a pathway for the degradation of chlorophenoxyacetic acids was elucidated in D. squalens. Time courses for the degradation of unlabelled chlorophenoxyacetic acids by D. squalens demonstrated that the corresponding chlorophenol was the initial product formed. The chlorophenol intermediate was xylosylated to form the chlorophenolxyloside. In turn, the chlorophenolxyloside could be hydrolysed by an intracellular -x...

Millets are staple food in the developing world, especially in the drylands of Africa and Asia. Most of the millets are indigenous to Africa and later domesticated to other parts of the world. Globally, millets are cultivated in 93 countries and only 7 countries have more than 1 M ha acreage of millets. In general, more than 97% of millets production and consumption is by developing nations. It has been estimated that from 1961 to 2018 around 25.71% area under millets cultivation has been declined across the continents. However, global millet productivity has increased by 36% from 1961 (575 kg/ha) to 2018 (900 kg/ha). The average data of the last 58 years indicated that millet production reduced in most parts of the world, except Africa. The highest increment was recorded in West Africa, almost double than the 1960s. In Asia, although the area under millet cultivation has declined production trend showed a gradual increase, which led to productivity enhancement. In the Indian scenar...

Alpha-lipoic acid is touted as a powerful antioxidant and possibly a conditionally essential nutrient in older mammals. The safety and efficacy of dl-alpha-lipoic acid was evaluated in 30 adult beagles that were evenly randomized into five groups, each of which was fed one of five different foods with varying inclusion rates of dl-alpha-lipoic acid (0, 150, 1500, 3000, and 4500 ppm). All dogs were fed their respective portion of food daily as their sole source of nutrition for 6 months. Evaluations included general health, body weight, food intake, hematologic and serum biochemical parameters, and glutathione:oxidized glutathione (GSH:GSSG) ratios in lymphocytes. No signs of toxicity were observed at any except the highest level of dl-alpha-lipoic acid inclusion, and no consistent abnormalities were noted in hematologic or biochemical measures at any level. There was a significant overall effect (P< .05) of food on the difference of GSH:GSSG ratio between Day 84 and Day 0. All in...

The demyelinating disease multiple sclerosis (MS) has an early inflammatory phase followed by an incurable progressive phase with subdued inflammation and poorly understood neurodegenerative mechanism. In this study, we identified various parallelisms between progressive MS and the dysmyelinating mouse model Shiverer and then genetically deleted a major neuron-specific mitochondrial anchoring protein Syntaphilin (SNPH) from the mouse. Prevailing evidence suggests that deletion of SNPH is harmful in demyelination. Surprisingly, SNPH deletion produces striking benefits in the Shiverer by prolonging survival, reducing cerebellar damage, suppressing oxidative stress, and improving mitochondrial health. In contrast, SNPH deletion does not benefit clinical symptoms in experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE), a model for early-phase MS. We propose that deleting mitochondrial anchoring is a novel, specific treatment for progressive MS.

ABSTRACT Puffed rice is one of the popular snacks in India, which is prepared from pregelatinized milled rice usually by sand roasting method. Twelve varieties of indica rice were screened for the best puffing quality based on their chemical composition and physical characteristics such as amylose content, protein content, length, width, thickness, hardness, husk content, true density, and bulk density. The data were analyzed using Pearson’s correlation, and a strong positive correlation was found to exist between amylose content and expansion ratio. At the same time, protein content was found to be negatively related with amylose content, length expansion ratio, and volume expansion ratio. From the analysis Gurjari, Jaya, GR-5, and GR-6 varieties were found to be suitable for puffing.

Dietary (n-3) fatty acids from fish oil have been used to modulate immune function in many mammalian species. Together, dietary antioxidants and behavioral enrichment have been shown to enhance neutrophil phagocytosis in geriatric Beagle dogs. The purpose of this study was to further investigate the effects of vitamins E and C, in combination with dietary fish oil, on neutrophil mediated bacterial killing, and on transcript levels of selected neutrophil mRNA. Fifty adult Beagle dogs were randomized into five dietary treatment groups for 60 days. All foods were complete and balanced and met the nutrient profiles of AAFCO for adult dogs. For 60 days before study initiation, dogs consumed a pretrial food that contained 74 IU/kg vitamin E and 0 mg/kg vitamin C. The five experimental foods were confirmed by analytical methods to contain ≥640 IU/kg vitamin E and 130 mg/kg vitamin C (as fed). Experimental foods ranged from low levels of EPA and DHA (pretrial food and lowest experimental food had 0.01% EPA and no detectable DHA) to the highest experimental food with 0.25% EPA and 0.17% DHA. Ex vivo bactericidal activity of activated, peripheral-blood neutrophils against Lactococcus lactis was determined after 1 h incubation. Bactericidal activity was calculated as a percentage of control values (bacteria incubated in media without neutrophils). Transcript levels of genes involved in neutrophil-mediated immune functions were determined by real-time qPCR. Dogs in all treatment groups had increased serum vitamin E concentration (P<0.01). After consuming experimental food for 60 days, neutrophils from dogs in all 5 treatment groups also had increased bactericidal activity (P<0.01). Dietary fish oil however, had no effect on bactericidal activity. Stepwise multiple regression analysis demonstrated that the change in neutrophil mediated bacterial killing was significantly correlated to changes in gene expression of interleukin-8 receptor (IL-8R), interleukin converting enzyme (ICE), and myeloperoxidase (MPO; r(2)=0.33; P=0.003). When stepwise multiple regression analysis was performed considering each mRNA as a dependent variable and change in selected individual and summed fatty acid concentrations as independent variables, change in the ratio of saturated fatty acids (SFA) to polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) was significant (P≤0.05) in the mRNA regression analyses for IL-8R, ICE, MPO, and cyclooxygenase-2. In summary, circulating neutrophils from dogs fed diets enriched in vitamins E and C had significantly increased bactericidal activity as well as altered gene expression. Change in SFA to PUFA ratio also altered neutrophil gene expression.

The relationship between high temperature stress injury and temperature dependence of the transverse relaxation time (T2) of leaf water was examined using NMR in four cultivars of wheat differing in their sensitivity to high temperature stress. The T2declined with increasing temperature between 25 and 35 °C. A comparison of relative injury based on electrolyte leakage and T2, between 40 and