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Sugarcane (Saccharum spp.) is an industrially and economically important agricultural commodity. It is used for the production of sugar and/or bioethanol. Ethanol’s use as a biofuel source helps in reducing the environmental degradation... more
Sugarcane (Saccharum spp.) is an industrially and economically important agricultural commodity. It is used for the production of sugar and/or bioethanol. Ethanol’s use as a biofuel source helps in reducing the environmental degradation caused by greenhouse gases and immoderate use of fossil fuels. In India, sugarcane molasses is used as a feedstock for ethanol production by the fermentation process, which is later used as biofuel by blending it with gasoline in different ratios. India’s biofuel policy acts as a significant contributor toward social and economic development of rural areas and mobilization of resources that create employment opportunities. In 2002, Ethanol Blending Program (EBP) was launched and implemented with a 5% blending target. The target was achieved in 20 states and 4 union territories and was later increased to 20% with a goal to reduce pollution, encourage bio-product engenderment, and enhance socioeconomic status in the rural areas. In this regard, this chapter details the current status and prospects of sugarcane ethanol blending in India.
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An entirely unknown species of coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak occurred in December 2019. COVID-19 has already affected more than 180 million people causing ~3.91 million deaths globally till the end of June 2021. During this emergency,... more
An entirely unknown species of coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak occurred in December 2019. COVID-19 has already affected more than 180 million people causing ~3.91 million deaths globally till the end of June 2021. During this emergency, the food nutraceuticals can be a potential therapeutic candidate. Curcumin is the natural and safe bioactive compound of the turmeric (Curcuma longa L.) plant and is known to possess potent anti-microbial and immuno-modulatory properties. This review paper covers the various extraction and quantification techniques of curcumin and its usage to produce functional food. The potential of curcumin in boosting the immune system has also been explored. The review will help develop insight and new knowledge about curcumin's role as an immune-booster and therapeutic agent against COVID-19. The manuscript will also encourage and assist the scientists and researchers who have an association with drug development, pharmacology, functional foods, and nutrace...
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Starch is one of the organic compounds after cellulose found most abundantly in nature. Starch significantly varies in their different properties like physical, chemical, thermal, morphological and functional. Therefore, starch is... more
Starch is one of the organic compounds after cellulose found most abundantly in nature. Starch significantly varies in their different properties like physical, chemical, thermal, morphological and functional. Therefore, starch is modified to increase the beneficial characteristics and remove the shortcomings issues of native starches. The modification methods can change the extremely flexible polymer of starch with their modified physical and chemical properties. These altered structural attributes are of great technological values which have a wide industrial potential in food and non-food. Among them, the production of novel starches is mainly one that evolves with new value-added and functional properties is on high industrial demands. This paper provides an overview of the rice starch components and their effect on the technological and physicochemical properties of obtained starch. Besides, the tuned techno-functional properties of the modified starches through chemical modification means are highlighted.HighlightsNative and modified starches varies largely in physicochemical and functional traits.Modified physical and chemical properties of starch can change the extremely flexible polymer of starch.Techno-functional properties of the modified starches through chemical modification means are highlighted.Dual modification improves the starch functionality and increases the industrial applications.Production of novel starches is on high industrial demands because it mainly evolves with new value added and functional properties.
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Research Interests: Biotechnology and Biology
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In December 2019, the severe acute respiratory syndrome-related coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2)—a novel coronavirus was identified which was quickly distributed to more than 100 countries around the world. There are currently no approved... more
In December 2019, the severe acute respiratory syndrome-related coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2)—a novel coronavirus was identified which was quickly distributed to more than 100 countries around the world. There are currently no approved treatments available but only a few preventive measures are available. Among them, maintaining strong immunity through the intake of functional foods is a sustainable solution to resist the virus attack. For this, bioactive compounds (BACs) are delivered safely inside the body through encapsulated food items. Encapsulated food products have benefits such as high stability and bioavailability, sustained release of functional compounds; inhibit the undesired interaction, and high antimicrobial and antioxidant activity. Several BACs such as ω-3 fatty acid, curcumin, vitamins, essential oils, antimicrobials, and probiotic bacteria can be encapsulated which exhibit immunological activity through different mechanisms. These encapsulated compounds can be recomm...
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Abstract Refractance WindowTM-Drying (RWD) is one such novel fourth-generation drying technology which has recently gained huge attention due to its several advantages. It is employed to dry the heat-sensitive products even juices and... more
Abstract Refractance WindowTM-Drying (RWD) is one such novel fourth-generation drying technology which has recently gained huge attention due to its several advantages. It is employed to dry the heat-sensitive products even juices and purees to retain the product color, aroma, antioxidant compounds, and nutritional properties. This technology dries the product through a thin, transparent infrared film which effectively forms a "window” for drying, keeping the product's temperatures very low and ensuring rapid drying, involving all modes of heat transfer. The drying temperature, time, cost, and energy consumption are also lower in this case, but thermal efficiency and product's quality are higher than conventional drying technologies like drum drying, freeze-drying, spray drying, tray drying, etc. which possess their own limitations. The present work, therefore, summarizes the recent trends in RWD, emphasizing its impact on process and food quality properties, and highlights differences between RWD and existing drying technologies. This manuscript discusses in detail the effect of RWD on physical, chromatic, biochemical, functional, structural, textural, and microbial properties of end-product. Further, the patents based on RWD have also been highlighted comprehensively for the first-time, considering their contribution to scientific knowledge and as a platform to support the upcoming developments in the field.
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Pigeon pea is one of the most important crops due to its high nutritional values especially in developing countries suffering from malnutrition and starvation. Severe loss of crops due to plant diseases is the prime cause of significant... more
Pigeon pea is one of the most important crops due to its high nutritional values especially in developing countries suffering from malnutrition and starvation. Severe loss of crops due to plant diseases is the prime cause of significant reduction in yield and threat to food security. Fusarium wilt (FW) of pigeon pea caused by Fusarium udum is listed as highly destructive disease causing huge loss. About 83 different fungal species including Fusarium fungi are contributing 100 % disease occurrence in pre pod stage and 67 % and 30 % at crop maturity and pre harvest stage respectively. The yield losses in pigeon pea indicate an extensive backdrop and hence, affect the productivity across the world. In India, total estimated loss is found to be approximately 97,000 ton per year. Outstanding efforts are being carried out by scientists and researchers to combat this fungal pathogen through biological control in both conventional and organic agriculture aiming to limit the crop loss and damage of plant health for sustainable food production. But, the technology and efforts are still in underway to find out the most suitable and best method to control the problem. Considering the milieu, this chapter emphasizes the ways and importance of biological control in diagnosis of FW as eco-friendly approach as well as the use of antagonistic microorganisms to combat the wilt diseases sustainably for higher agriculture production. It also explains the research challenges in use of biological agents, research opportunities in the development of innovative strategies to control this menace in a sustainable approach.
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ABSTRACT ABSTRACT Target identification is the first step in the drug and vaccine discovery process, in silico subtractive genomics is widely used in this process. We used this in silico approach for identification of essential proteins... more
ABSTRACT ABSTRACT Target identification is the first step in the drug and vaccine discovery process, in silico subtractive genomics is widely used in this process. We used this in silico approach for identification of essential proteins in Streptococcus pyogenes strain M1, a Gram-positive bacterium, which is an important human pathogen. S. pyogenes causes wide variety of disease, including pharyngitis (streptococcal sore throat), scarlet fever, impetigo, erysipelas, cellulitis, septicemia, toxic shock syndrome, necrotizing fasciitis (flesh-eating disease) and ...
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Manually peeling and slicing of pineapple is a time consuming and labour intensive process. Pine apple peeler and slicer are required for reducing the size, obtaining uniform thick slices, proper shape finishing and further processing of... more
Manually peeling and slicing of pineapple is a time consuming and labour intensive process. Pine apple peeler and slicer are required for reducing the size, obtaining uniform thick slices, proper shape finishing and further processing of pineapple quickly. Therefore a peeler-cum-slicer was designed with slicing plate of diameter 7 cm and core diameter of 2.5 cm. It removes the core and produces pineapple rings of uniform thickness & diameter in a single motion. This is a hand operated peeler cum slicer which works satisfactorily with easy operation. Twenty numbers of pineapple fruits can easily be peeled and sliced by skilled worker in one hour with this designed device. The designed peeler-cum-slicer has also proved to have high peeling efficiency (97.2 %) with less wastage percentage (5.3%).
Stepwise processing technologies (like plucking, withering, fixing, drying, rolling and shaping) play a vital role for retaining the quality and enhancing the additional characteristics of green tea. This article points out different... more
Stepwise processing technologies (like plucking, withering, fixing, drying, rolling and shaping) play a vital role for retaining the quality and enhancing the additional characteristics of green tea. This article points out different steps of processing green tea and the disease preventing characteristics of green tea which are used for eliminating the several human diseases and also focusing on the health benefits.
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Abstract The pseudospark (PS) discharge has been shown to be a promising source of high brightness, high intensity electron beam pulses. The PS discharge sourced electron beam has potential applications in plasma filled microwave sources... more
Abstract The pseudospark (PS) discharge has been shown to be a promising source of high brightness, high intensity electron beam pulses. The PS discharge sourced electron beam has potential applications in plasma filled microwave sources where normal material ...
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A single gap Pseudospark based hollow cathode plasma electron gun has been developed at CEERI. An experimental investigation for the above electron gun was conducted at different operating conditions in argon and hydrogen atmosphere. The... more
A single gap Pseudospark based hollow cathode plasma electron gun has been developed at CEERI. An experimental investigation for the above electron gun was conducted at different operating conditions in argon and hydrogen atmosphere. The electron beam (current � 50 amps, density � 700 Acm- 2 ) is travelling more than 200 mm in the drift region through gaseous environment
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Some physicochemical and cooking characteristics corresponding to different varieties and commercial samples of rice were analysed. Some mechanical properties determined by both, the viscoelastograf and the Instrom Universal Food Testing... more
Some physicochemical and cooking characteristics corresponding to different varieties and commercial samples of rice were analysed. Some mechanical properties determined by both, the viscoelastograf and the Instrom Universal Food Testing Machine were also analysed. Gelatinization time (Gt), gelatinization endotherm and amylose content were determined. The results showed that there was a very good correlation between gelatinization temperature and Gt, while no noticeable correlation among others phsycochemical characteristics was observed. Regarding the mechanical properties, both methods permited to show significant differences among most of the samples. However, when the samples order obtained with hardness (Instrom) values was compared with that corresponding to firmness (Viscoelastograf) values, some discrepancies were observed. This could be attributable to the number of grains and the cooking time used in each method. There was good linear correlation between hardness and amylo...
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Microbiology is the study of living organisms of microscopic size, which include bacteria, fungi, algae and protozoa and the infectious agents at the borderline of life that are called viruses. It is concerned with their form, structure,... more
Microbiology is the study of living organisms of microscopic size, which include bacteria, fungi, algae and protozoa and the infectious agents at the borderline of life that are called viruses. It is concerned with their form, structure, reproduction, physiology, metabolism and classification. It includes the study of their distribution in nature, their relationship to each other and other living organisms, their effects on human beings and on other animals and plants, their abilities to make physical and chemical changes in our environment and their reactions to physical and chemical agents. Thus, microbiology is being a part of science has given birth to the several branches viz. Bacteriology, Mycology, Protozoology, Virology, Parasitology, Phycology or Algology, Microbial Morphology, Microbial Physiology, Microbial Taxonomy, Microbial Genetics, Molecular Biology, Microbial Ecology, Food microbiology, Dairy microbiology, Aquatic microbiology, Industrial microbiology etc. each bein...