Application of desirability-function and RSM to optimize antioxidant properties of mucuna milk

Sustainable Utilization of Mushroom By-Products Processed with a Combined Osmotic Dehydration Pretreatment and a Hot-Air-Drying Step

Mushroom production and consumption are gaining increased interest due to their unique flavor and nutritional value. However, in the mushroom industry, large amounts of by-products are generated, which have a high negative environmental and economic impact. In this study, an osmotic dehydration process followed by hot-air-drying was applied to mushroom stems to produce dried mushrooms as the end product. The osmotic dehydration conditions (concentration of hypertonic solution, specifically, 10-30% maltodextrin and 20-40% oligofructose; a treatment time of 40-80 min; and a temperature range of 30-50 °C) were optimized using response surface methodology (RSM). The results showed that a four-factor three-level Box-Behnken experimental design was effectively implemented to evaluate the effect of the process parameters and identify the optimal osmotic dehydration conditions for producing osmotically dehydrated mushrooms. The main factor affecting mass transfer was the osmosis temperature, and the optimal conditions were found to be 38 °C, 40% oligofructose and 19.3% maltodextrin as the osmotic agents, and 80 min of immersion time. Moreover, the results showed that osmotic pretreatment, in the optimal conditions, significantly reduced the required drying time of the by-products compared to traditional hot-air-drying, especially at milder drying temperatures. Consequently, the required energy was also reduced by at least 40% at 50 °C.

Study of functional, biochemical, and sensory qualities of jackfruit pulp powder produced through optimized foam-mat drying parameters

Jackfruit (Artocarpus heterophyllus) production is abundant during the summer season in Southeast Asia and is also produced throughout the year in some parts of South India. Attributed to the absence of viable process technology, the pulp is predominantly consumed fresh and has not been used effectively for other applications such as in ice cream, beverages, custard preparations, or as a flavor enhancer. The conversion of the high sugar-containing pulp to powder is difficult. Hence, the foam-mat drying of jackfruit pulp was carried out using different foaming agents and stabilizers. The effect of maltodextrin (MD; 3%, 4%, and 5% w/w), glycerol-monostearate (GMS; 2%, 3%, and 4% w/w), or soy protein (SP; 0.5%, 1%, and 1.5% w/w), and 0.5% methylcellulose added to the pulp at a concentration of 8 °Brix on foam expansion (FE; %), foam retention (FR; %), total carotenoids (TC; mg/100 g pulp), and overall acceptability (OA) were investigated, and their levels were optimized using central composite design of response surface methodology. The foam mats were dried at a drying air temperature of 70°C along with a foam thickness of 4 mm. The samples were evaluated based on drying time, foaming, functional, biochemical, and sensory qualities. The optimum levels of MD and GMS were 3.96% (4.0%) and 3.01% (3.0%), respectively, which led to the foam-mat-dried jackfruit powder with properties within the desirable range. At these optimum conditions, the predicted FE, FR, TC, and OA were 69.84%, 89.42%, 0.152 mg/100 g pulp, and 7.73, respectively. The optimum levels of MD and SP were 3.95% (4.0%) and 1.02% (1.0%), respectively, and the corresponding properties (considered as responses) of this foam-mat-dried jackfruit powder such as FE, FR, TC, and OA were 74.45%, 84.80%, 0.14 mg/100 g pulp, and 7.6, respectively. PRACTICAL APPLICATION: This study is one of the few studies that is focused on the development of a technique for the long-term preservation of jackfruit powder for further applications that will also reduce the wastage of jackfruit attributed to its fast perishability. This technology can be replicated in other parts of the world. This article has demonstrated foam-mat drying as a useful technique to achieve high-quality jackfruit pulp powders with desirable drying, foaming, functional, biochemical, and sensory qualities using different foaming agents and stabilizers.

Evaluation of aerobic biodegradation of phenanthrene using Pseudomonas turukhanskensis: an optimized study

The ability of Pseudomonas turukhanskensis GEEL-01 to degrade the phenanthrene (PHE) was optimized by response surface methodology (RSM). Three factors as independent variables (including temperature, pH, and inoculum) were studied at 600 mg/L PHE where the highest growth of P. turukhanskensis GEEL-01 was observed. The optimum operating conditions were evaluated through the fit summary analysis, model summary statistics, fit statistics, ANOVA analysis, and model graphs. The degradation of PHE was monitored by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and the metabolites were identified by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). The results showed that the correlation among independent variables with experimental and predicted responses was significant (p < 0.0001). The optimal temperature, pH, and inoculum were 30 ℃, 8, and 6 mL respectively. The HPLC peaks exhibited a reduction in PHE concentration from 600 mg/L to 4.97 mg/L with 99% degradation efficiency. The GC-MS peaks indicated that the major end products of PHE degradation were 1-Hydroxy-2-naphthoic acid, salicylic acid, phthalic acid, and catechol. This study demonstrated that the optimized parameters by RSM for P. turukhanskensis GEEL-01 could degrade PHE by phthalic and salicylic acid pathways.

Response surface optimization of enzymatic hydrolysis and ROS scavenging activity of silk sericin hydrolysates

CONTEXT

Sericin, a protein found in wastewater from the silk industry, was shown to contain a variety of biological activities, including antioxidant. The enzymatic conditions have been continuously modified to improve antioxidant effect and scavenging capacity against various free radicals of silk sericin protein.

OBJECTIVE

Variables in enzymatic reactions, including pH, temperature and enzyme/substrate ratio were analysed to discover the optimum conditions for antioxidant activity of sericin hydrolysates.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Hydrolysis reaction catalysed by Alcalase^® was optimized through response surface methodology (RSM) in order to generate sericin hydrolysates possessing potency for % inhibition on 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) radicals, ferric-reducing power and peroxyl scavenging capacity. Flow cytometry was performed to evaluate cellular ROS level in human HaCaT keratinocytes and melanin-generating MNT1 cells pre-treated either with 20 mg/mL RSM-optimized sericin hydrolysates or 5 mM N-acetyl cysteine (NAC) for 60 min prior exposure with 1 mM hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂).

RESULTS

Among these three variables, response surface plots demonstrate the major role of temperature on scavenging capacity of sericin hydrolysates. Sericin hydrolysates prepared by using Alcalase^® at RSM-optimized condition (enzyme/substrate ratio: 1.5, pH: 7.5, temperature: 70 °C) possessed % inhibition against H₂O₂ at 99.11 ± 0.54% and 73.25 ± 8.32% in HaCaT and MNT1 cells, respectively, while pre-treatment with NAC indicated the % inhibition only at 30.26 ± 7.62% in HaCaT and 51.05 ± 7.14% in MNT1 cells.

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS

The acquired RSM information would be of benefit for further developing antioxidant peptide from diverse resources, especially the recycling of waste products from silk industry.

Plant-based milk: unravel the changes of the antioxidant index during processing and storage - a review

As a nutrient rich emulsion extracted from plant materials, plant-based milk (PBM) has been the latest trend and hot topic in the food industry due to the growing awareness of consumers toward plant-based products in managing the environmental (carbon footprint and land utility), ethical (animal well-fare) and societal (health-conscious) issues. There have been extensive studies and reviews done to discuss the distinct perspective of PBM including its production, health effects and market acceptance. However, not much has been emphasized on the valuable antioxidants present in PBM which is one of the attributes making them stand apart from dairy milk. The amounts of antioxidants in PBM are important. They offered tremendous health benefits in maintaining optimum health and reducing the risk of various health disorders. Therefore, enhancing the extraction of antioxidants and preserving their activity during production and storage is important. However, there is a lack of a comprehensive review of how these antioxidants changes in response to different processing steps involved in PBM production. Presumably, antioxidants in PBM could be potentially lost due to thermal degradation, oxidation or leaching into processing water. Hence, this paper aims to fill the gaps by addressing an extensive review of how different production steps (germination, roasting, soaking, blanching, grinding and filtration, and microbial inactivation) affect the antioxidant content in PBM. In addition, the effect of different microbial inactivation treatments (thermal or non-thermal processing) on the alteration of antioxidant in PBM was also highlighted. This paper can provide useful insight for the industry that aims in selecting suitable processing steps to produce PBM products that carry with them a health declaration.

Integration of Response Surface Methodology (RSM) and Principal Component Analysis (PCA) as an Optimization Tool for Polymer Inclusion Membrane Based-Optodes Designed for Hg(II), Cd(II), and Pb(II)

An optimization of the composition of polymer inclusion membrane (PIM)-based optodes, and their exposure times to metal ion solutions (Hg(II), Cd(II), and Pb(II)) was performed using two different chromophores, diphenylthiocarbazone (dithizone) and 1-(2-pyridylazo)-2-naphthol (PAN). Four factors were evaluated (chromophore (0.06-1 mg), cellulose triacetate (25-100 mg) and plasticizer amounts (25-100 mg), and exposure time (20-80 min)). Derringer's desirability functions values were employed as response variables to perform the optimization obtained from the results of three different processes of spectral data treatment: two full-spectrum methods (M1 and M3) and one band-based method (M2). The three different methods were compared using a heatmap of the coefficients and dendrograms of the Principal Component Analysis (PCA)reductions of their desirability functions. The final recommended M3 processing method, i.e., using the scores values of the first two principal components in PCA after subtraction of the normalized spectra of the membranes before and after complexation, gave more discernable differences between the PIMs in the Design of Experiments (DoE), as the nodes among samples appeared at longer distances and varyingly distributed in the dendrogram analysis. The optimal values were time of 35-65 min, 0.53 mg-1.0 mg of chromophores, plasticizers 34.4-71.9 of chromophores, and 62.5-100 mg of CTA, depending on the metal ion. In addition, the method yielded the best outcomes in terms of interpretability and an easily discernable color change so that it is recommended as a novel optimization method for this kind of PIM optode.

Ohmic heating as a new tool for protein scaffold engineering

Ohmic heating (OH) is recognised as an emerging processing technology which recently is gaining increasing attention due to its ability to induce and control protein functionality. In this study, OH was used for the first time in the production of scaffolds for tissue engineering. BSA/casein solutions were processed by OH, promoting protein denaturation and aggregation, followed by cold-gelation through the addition of Ca²⁺. The formation of stable scaffolds was mostly dependent on the temperature and treatment time during OH processing. The variations of the electric field (EF) induced changes in the functional properties of both gel forming solutions and final scaffolds (contact angle, swelling, porosity, compressive modulus and degradation rate). The scaffolds' biological performance was evaluated regarding their ability to support the adhesion and proliferation of human fibroblast cells. The production process resulted in a non-cytotoxic material and the changes imposed by the presence of the EF during the scaffolds' production improved cellular proliferation and metabolic activity. Protein functionalization assisted by OH presents a promising new alternative for the production of improved and tuneable protein-based scaffolds for tissue engineering.

Optimization of the Antioxidant Potentials of Red Pitaya Peels and Its In Vitro Skin Whitening Properties

In this study, response surface methodology (RSM) was employed for the optimization of the antioxidant potentials of red pitaya peels using independent variables: temperature (45–65 °C), ethanol concentration (70–90%, v/v) and time (80–120 min) through its responses, which were DPPH scavenging activity, ferric ion reducing antioxidant power (FRAP), and beta-carotene bleaching (BCB) inhibition, respectively. In Vitro anti-tyrosinase and vitamin C content assays were carried out spectrophotometrically to determine the skin whitening efficacy of the optimized red pitaya peel extract. A gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) analysis was employed to identify the chemical constituents present in the optimized extract. The optimized conditions were ethanol 82% (v/v) for 103 min at 56 °C with values of 75.98% for DPPH, 7.45 mM Fe2+/g dry weight for FRAP and 93.29% for BCB respectively. The in vitro anti-tyrosinase and vitamin C content evaluation of the optimized extract showed a good tyrosinase inhibition of 66.29% with IC50 of 24.06 µg/mL while the vitamin C content was 5.45 mg/g of the extract. The GC-MS analysis revealed the presence of thirty phytoconstituents with l-(+)-ascorbic acid 2,6-dihexadecanoate being the most abundant with a peak area of 14.66%. This study evidently suggests the potential of red pitaya peels to be exploited as a natural skin whitening agent in the cosmeceutical and pharmaceutical formulations.

Experimental and Modeling Study of Esterification Reaction for Synthesis of Butyl Butyrate: Desirability Function Approach for Optimization and Prediction Comparative Study of RSM and ANN

Butyl butyrate was synthesized by esterification of butyric acid with n-butanol using homogeneous catalyst methanesulfonic acid (MSA). The esterification process was optimized by the application of response surface methodology (RSM) and artificial neural network (ANN). 3 level-4 variables central composite design (CCD) of RSM and MLP 4-9-1 network of ANN was chosen for the experimental design and analysis. The quadratic response model of RSM was optimized using desirability function approach. Effects of independent variables on the yield of butyl butyrate were investigated. Various training algorithm such as IBP, QP, GA, LM, BFGS, and CG was used for training experimental response data for the ANN study. By sensitivity analysis, the relative significance of 36.98 % confirmed that the molar ratio was the main affecting parameter on the yield of butyl butyrate. In prediction comparative study, ANN model was found better than the RSM model with high values of R2 (0.9998) and lower values of RMSE (0.2435), SEP (0.324 %), and AAD (0.0086 %) compared to RSM (R2=0.9862, RMSE=2.3095, SEP=3.076 %, AAD=0.6459 %). The accuracy of the RSM and ANN models were judged by validation test by performing unseen data experiments.

Dehulling reduces toxicity and improves in vivo biological value of proteins in vegetal milk derived from two mucuna (Mucuna pruriens L.) seeds varieties

The present work was carried out to evaluate the nutritive quality (proximate and antinutrients composition) of vegetable milks prepared from whole and dehulled mucuna bean flours. Casein and mucuna milk diets were fed to rats (four weeks old; n = 8 per group) for 28 days to determine protein efficiency ratio (PER), net protein efficiency ratio (NPER), true and apparent digestibility (TD and AD, respectively), organ-to-body weight ratios and hematological parameters. The experimental design was a factorial design with two variety of mucuna (cochinchinensis and veracruz) and two treatments (whole and dehulled beans). Protein, total sugar, dry matter and ash-content of mucuna milks ranged from 6.40 to 12.13 g/100 mL, 10.52 to 13.08 g/100 mL, 8.59 to 12.88 g/100 g and 0.31 to 0.92 g/100 g, respectively. Milks from dehulled flours had lower contents of tannins (80-87.08 %), phytates (76.67-78.16 %) and L-Dopamine (44.45-66.66 %) than that from whole flours. The PER of dehulled mucuna diets were 22.76-21.74 %, but negative PER and low NPER was observed for whole mucuna milk diets. TD for dehulled mucuna milk (85.15-85.96 %) were higher and similar to casein when compared to that of whole mucuna milk (47.87-51.17 %). Rats fed with diets containing whole mucuna milk lost weight and had higher kidney weight. In addition, the rats fed with milk from whole mucuna flours showed significantly lower levels of lymphocytes, granulocytes, red blood cells, hemoglobin and hematocrit than that fed with dehulled mucuna milk.