Effect of dynamic high-pressure treatments on the multi-level structure of starch macromolecule and their techno-functional properties: A review

Over the past decades, dynamic high-pressure treatment (DHPT) executed by high-pressure homogenization (HPH) or microfluidization (DHPM) technology has received humongous research attention for starch macromolecule modification. However, the studies on starch multi-level structure alterations by DHPT have received inadequate attention. Furthermore, no review comprehensively covers all aspects of DHPT, explicitly addressing the combined effects of both technologies (HPH or DHPM) on starch's structural and functional characteristics. Hence, this review focused on recent advancements concerning the influences of DHPT on the starch multi-level structure and techno-functional properties. Intense mechanical actions induced by DHPT, such as high shear and impact forces, hydrodynamic cavitation, instantaneous pressure drops, and turbulence, altered the multi-level structure of starch for a short duration. The DHPT reduces the starch molecular weight and degree of branching, destroys short-range ordered and long-range crystalline structure, and degrades lamellar structure, resulting in partial gelatinization of starch granules. These structural changes influenced their techno-functional properties like swelling power and solubility, freeze-thaw stability, emulsifying properties, retrogradation rate, thermal properties, rheological and pasting, and digestibility. Processing conditions such as pressure level, the number of passes, inlet temperature, chamber geometry used, starch types, and their concentration may influence the above changes. Moreover, dynamic high-pressure treatment could form starch-fatty acids/polyphenol complexes. Finally, we discuss the food system applications of DHPT-treated starches and flours, and some limitations.

Modulation of Physical and Thermal Properties in Wild Banana (Musa balbisiana Colla) Seed Powder by Moisture Variations

Engineering and flow properties of banana seed powder as a function of moisture content are important for processing, handling, packaging, and transport processes. The bulk density, tapped density, and porosity increased from 377.37 to 427.36 kg m-3, 622.08 to 746.33 kg m-3, and 38.99-43.74%, respectively, within the increasing moisture content range. The Hausner ratio (Hr) and Carr's compressibility index (CI) significantly (p < 0.05) increased with an increase in moisture content (6.16-19.56% db) of banana seed powder, whereas HR fell in the range of 1.4-2.0, indicating cohesive characteristics of banana seed powder. The angle of repose, angle of spatula, and angle of fall exhibited a linear increase, ranging from 40.6° to 49°, 33.4° to 39.4°, and 35.6° to 42.6°, respectively, with increasing moisture content. The static coefficient of friction was found to be highest for aluminium and glass surfaces and least for stainless steel. The water activity and swelling power of banana seed powder showed a significant increase, while the solubility and oil absorption capacity exhibited a significant decrease within the range of increasing moisture content. The thermal characteristics of wild banana seed powder, such as thermal conductivity (0.16 to 0.20 Wm-1 K-1) and volumetric specific heat (0.58 to 0.99 MJm-3 K-1), demonstrated an increasing trend as the moisture content increased. However, the thermal diffusivity showed a decrease from 0.31 to 0.19 (×10-6 m2s-1) with the increase in moisture content.

Refractance window drying of food and biological materials: Status on mechanisms, diffusion modelling and hybrid drying approach

Refractance window (RW) dryer has an immense advantage in terms of final product quality (textural and color attributes, nutrient retention), energy consumption, and drying time over other conventional dryers. RW is a thin film drying system and a technologically evolving drying process. RW drying is an energy-efficient (re-circulation of water) short drying process as the drying of food materials occurs due to a combined mode of heat transfer conduction, radiation, and convection (hot air circulates over film). The high-quality dried product is obtained because the product temperature remains below 80 °C. RW dryer application is not only limited to drying food products, but it can also be further used for improving the gelling and emulsion properties, formation of leather and edible film, and can be used for handling high protein products, drying leafy vegetables or marine foods as this process does not change any functional properties. Due to these advantages over other drying techniques, RW drying has gained academic and industrial interest in recent years. The industrial application of this technology at large scale is becoming difficult due because of large surface area requirement for mass production. Researchers are trying to scale-up by combing this technology with others technology (Infrared, ultrasound, solar energy, and osmotic dehydration). RW dryer is now extending from the food sector to other sectors like pharmaceutical, cosmetic, pigment, edible film formation, and encapsulation. Majority of the reviews on RW drying focuses on the product quality aspects. This review paper aims to comprehend the RW drying system more mechanistically to understand better the principles, diffusion models explaining the transfer processes, and emerging novel hybrid drying approaches.

Dynamic high pressure treatments: current advances on mechanistic-cum-transport phenomena approaches and plant protein functionalization

Dynamic high pressure treatment (DHPT) either by high pressure homogenization or microfluidisation, is an emerging concept used in the food industry for new products development through macromolecules modifications in addition to simple mixing and emulsification action. Mechanistic understanding of droplets breakup during high pressure homogenization is used to understand how these compact and high molecular weight-sized globular plant proteins are affected during DHPTs. Plant protein needs to be functionalized for advanced use in food formulation. DHPTs brought changes in plant proteins' secondary, tertiary, and quaternary structures through alterations in intermolecular and intramolecular interactions, sulfhydryl groups, and disulfide bonds. These structural changes in plant proteins affected their functional and physicochemical properties like solubility, oil and water holding capacity, gelation, emulsification, foaming, and rheological properties. These remarkable changes made utilization of this concept in novel food system applications like in plant-based dairy analogues. Overall, this review provides a comprehensive and critical understanding of DHPTs on their mechanistic and transport approaches for droplet breakup, structural and functional modification of plant macromolecules. This article also explores the potential of DHPT for formulating plant-based dairy analogues to meet healthy and sustainable food consumption needs. HIGHLIGHTSIt critically reviews high pressure homogenization (HPH) and microfluidisation (DHPM).It explores the mechanistic and transport phenomena approaches of HPH and DHPMHPH and DHPM can induce conformational and structural changes in plant proteins.Improvement in the functional properties of HPH and DHPM treated plant proteins.HPH and DHPM are potentially applicable for plant based dairy alternatives food system.

Foam mat drying: Recent advances on foam dynamics, mechanistic modeling and hybrid drying approach

Drying is one of the oldest and most widely used methods for food preservation. It reduces the availability of moisture and inhibits microbial and enzymatic spoilage in food products. Foam mat drying is a mild drying technique used for semiliquid and liquid foodstuff. It is useful for heat-sensitive and sticky liquid food products. In this process, liquid food is converted into foam using surfactant additives, which can be a foaming agent or foam stabilizer. These additives are surface-active compounds of vegetative and animal origins. The foamed material is then convectively dried using hot air. The foam mat drying is an efficient and economical technique. With the emergence of different hybrid techniques such as foam mat freeze drying, foamed spray drying, foamed vacuum drying, and microwave assisted foam mat drying, the powders' physical, chemical, and functional properties have enhanced many folds. These strategies have shown very promising results in terms of cost and time efficiency in almost all the cases barring a few exceptions. This review article attempts to comprehensively summarize the mechanisms dictating the foam mat drying process, novel technological tools for modeling, mathematical and computational modeling, effects of various foaming additives, and various hybrid techniques employed to foam mat drying.

Fruit peel bioactives, valorisation into nanoparticles and potential applications: A review

Nanotechnology is a rapidly growing field with profound applications in different domains, particularly in food science and technology. Nanoparticles (NPs) synthesis, an integral part of nanotechnology-based applications, is broadly classified into chemical, physical and biosynthesis methods. Chemically sensitive and energy-intensive procedures employed for NPs synthesis are some of the limits of traditional chemical approaches. Recent research has focused on developing easy, nontoxic, cost-effective, and environment-friendly NPs synthesis during the last decade. Biosynthesis approaches have been developed to achieve this goal as it is a viable alternative to existing chemical techniques for the synthesis of metallic nanomaterials. Fruit peels contain abundant bioactive compounds including phenols, flavonoids, tannins, triterpenoids, steroids, glycosides, carotenoids, anthocyanins, ellagitannins, vitamin C, and essential oils with substantial health benefits, anti-bacterial and antioxidant properties, generally discarded as byproduct or waste by the fruit processing industry. NPs synthesized using bioactive compounds from fruit peel has futuristic applications for an unrealized market potential for nutraceutical and pharmaceutical delivery. Numerous studies have been conducted for the biosynthesis of metallic NPs such as silver (AgNPs), gold (AuNPs), zinc oxide, iron, copper, palladium and titanium using fruit peel extract, and their synthesis mechanism have been reported in the present review. Additionally, NPs synthesis methods and applications of fruit peel NPs have been discussed.

Mathematical Modeling of Total Volatile Basic Nitrogen and Microbial Biomass in Stored Rohu (Labeo rohita) Fish

The paper deals with the dynamical behavior of fish volatiles and microbial growth in stored Rohu fish through mathematical modeling. Total volatile basic nitrogen (TVB-N) is formed in stored Rohu (Labeo rohita) fish due to some complicated biochemical activities. It considered the biomass populace of volatiles (TVB-N) and microorganisms in fish stored at two different temperatures, separately. The different models may be used to forecast TVB-N, microbial populace (total viable count; TVC), and various properties change during nourishment stockpiling coordination and diverse preparing tasks. Models might be dynamic, exact, hypothetical, and stochastic in nature. Various parameters are required to build up a model which can be utilized to foresee the freshness and timeframe of realistic usability of storage duration. The ecosystem is represented by algebraic equations involving volatile compounds and microbial populations separately. TVB-N and TVC of stored rohu fish was determined at an interval of 4 days for 24 days. The initial and final biomass of TVB-N was 4.57 (fresh sample), 19.88 (24 days at 5°C), and 7.10 mg/100 g (24th day at 0°C), respectively. The TVC values were found to be 2.29 (fresh sample), 9.5 (24 days at 5°C) and 8.1 log (cfu/g) (24 days at 0°C). Exponential, modified exponential, Howgate, and adapted Howgate models were considered for modeling the TVB-N formation, whereas logistic, modified logistic, Gompertz, and modified Gompertz model were taken forward for modeling the microbial biomass developed in stored rohu fish. The exponential model found be the best fit model fit model for TVB-N prediction in rohu fish stored at 0 and 5°C as it showed the highest R2 (0.9796, 0.9887) the lowest χ2 (0.2782, 0.3976), RMSE (0.52741, 0.6306) AIC (−7.3122, −4.8106), AICc (−0.5122, 1.9894) and BIC (−7.4204, −4.9188), respectively. The Gompertz model was found to be the best fit model for microbial biomass prediction in rohu fish stored at 5°C (R2 = 0.9947, χ2 = 0.0537, AIC = −18.379, AICc = −6.3792 and BIC = −18.542), in contrast, both of the logistic and modified logistic models were the best suited at 0°C storage condition (R2 = 0.9919, χ2 = 0.0823).

Mechanistic understanding and potential application of electrospraying in food processing: a review

Electrospraying (ESPR) is a cost effective, flexible, and facile method that has been used in the pharmaceutical industry, and thanks to its wide variety of uses such as bioactive compound encapsulation, micronization, and food product coating, which have received a great attention in the food market. It uses a jet of polymer solution for processing food and food-derived products. Droplet size can be extremely small up to nanometers and can be regulated by altering applied voltage and flow rate. Compared to conventional techniques, it is simple, cost effective, uses less solvent and products are obtained in one step with a very high encapsulation efficiency (EE). Encapsulation provided using it protects bioactives from moisture, thermal, oxidative, and mechanical stresses, and thus provides them a good storage stability which will help in increasing the application of these ingredients in food formulation. This technique has an enormous potential for increasing the shelf life of fruit and vegetables through coating and improvement of eating quality. This study is aimed at overviewing the operating principles of ESPR, working parameters, applications, and advantages in the food sector. The article also covers new ESPR techniques like supercritical assisted ESPR and ESPR assisted by pressurized gas (EAPG) which have high yield as compared to conventional ESPR. This article is enriched with good information for research and development in ESPR techniques for development of novel foods.

Special Newborn Care Plus Project in India: Preliminary Findings from Community-Based Follow-up of Newborns Discharged from Facilities

OBJECTIVE

An innovation of structured community based followup of SNCU discharged babies by ANM and ASHA was piloted under Norway India Partnership initiative. The current study describes the survival status and other outcomes among newborns discharged from SNCUs and followed at community level in first 42 days of life.

METHODS

It is a retrospective cohort study on newborns discharged from SNCUs from 13 districts across four states of India. Routine health systems data have been utilized to record key parameters like birth weight, sex, weights during follow-ups, any illnesses reported, status of feeding and survival status. These were compared between normal and low birth weight babies. Newborns discharged from special newborn care units (SNCUs) and followed up at community level at 24 hours, 7 days after first visit, and at 6 weeks of life.

RESULTS

Follow up of 6319 newborns were conducted by the ANM (25.4%), ASHAs (4.7%) or both (69.8%); 97% of the babies were followed-up at all the visits. The median duration of follow- ups were 1 day post-discharge, 13th day and 45th days of life. Majority (97%) of them were breastfed, and were warm to touch at the time of the visit. More than 11% of the babies needed referral at every visit. Mortality rate in the cohort of babies discharged from SNCUs till 6 weeks of follow up was 1.5%. Among normal birth weight newborns, it was 0.4% while it was 2.02% among LBW babies. The proportion of girls among those who died increased from 20% in the first follow up to 38.1% at second follow up and 41% at 6 weeks.

CONCLUSIONS

Babies with LBW were at higher risk of death as compared to babies with normal birth weight. Follow-up at critical timepoints can improve survival of small and sick newborns after discharge from SNCUs.

A comprehensive review on freshness of fish and assessment: Analytical methods and recent innovations

Fish, a highly nutritious, containing a good amount of protein and fatty acids, has TMA and TVB-N present as major factors responsible for quality deterioration during storage and maintaining of fish freshness. Freshness is one of the most important parameters in the fish market. There are many methods of estimating fish freshness, out of which some are very costly while others are not user-friendly. However, with more technological innovations, there have been efforts to make a more reliable method of calculating and analyzing freshness. Parameters chosen for assessing the freshness are sensory, physical, chemical and microbiological including the recent trends such as SDS-PAGE, fast protein liquid chromatography, hyper Spectral Imaging Technique, etc. focused on reducing time, destruction and labor. Traditional and recent methods of evaluation of freshness along with their comparison based on several parameters are needed to link them and making it convenient for upcoming researchers to have a detailed study for having a universal indicator for assessing the freshness of fish. Information in the present article has all the methods of assessing the fish freshness been discussed in detail. There has also been focus on bringing the readers knowledge about the comprehensive information related to recent developments. The recommended limit for different indicators signifies the time period for which the particular fish can be stored and it depends upon several factors like species, surrounding environment and enzymatic and non-enzymatic actions. Based on these demands, this paper is uniquely worked upon to review the different literature which brought all the discussions from the past including the recent innovations in assessing the freshness of different fishes with the help of various indicators as well as a complete study of spoilage and toxicity mechanism leading to deterioration in quality, making it easy for the reader and researchers to have quick glance over the trends and innovations.

Hybrid drug combination: Combination of ferulic acid and metformin as anti-diabetic therapy

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE

Ferulic acid, an anti-oxidant phytochemical present in several dietary components, is known to produce wide range of pharmacological effects. It is approved for use in food industry as a preservative and in sports food. Previous reports from our lab have shown synergistic interaction of ferulic acid with metformin in cell lines and diabetic rats. The purpose of this review is to compile information about anti-diabetic activity of ferulic acid in in vitro and in vivo models with special emphasis on activity of ferulic acid when combined with metformin. The mechanism of synergistic interaction between ferulic acid and metformin is also proposed after carefully studying effects of these compounds on molecules involved in glucose metabolism.

METHODS

Scientific literature for the purpose of this review was collected using online search engines and databases such as ScienceDirect, Scopus, PubMed and Google scholar.

RESULTS

Ferulic acid forms resonance stabilized phenoxyl radical which scavenges free radicals and reduce oxidative stress. It improves glucose and lipid profile in diabetic rats by enhancing activities of antioxidant enzymes, superoxide dismutase and catalase in the pancreatic tissue. Combining ferulic acid with metformin improves both, in vitro glucose uptake activity and in vivo hypoglycemic activity of the latter. It is possible to reduce the dose of metformin by four folds (from 50 to 12.5 mg/kg body weight) by combining it with 10 mg of ferulic acid/kg body weight in diabetic rats. Ferulic acid improves glucose uptake through PI3-K pathway whereas metformin activates AMPK pathway to improve glucose uptake.

CONCLUSION

The synergistic interaction of ferulic acid and metformin is due their action on parallel pathways which are involved in glucose uptake. Due to synergistic nature of their interaction, it is possible to reduce the dose of metformin (by combining with ferulic acid) required to achieve normoglycemia. Since the dose of metformin is reduced, the dose associated side effects of metformin therapy can be reduced.

Improving Perinatal Health: Are Indian Health Policies Progressing In The Right Direction?

BACKGROUND

Strategic investments and policy directives of the Indian Government has demonstrated highest degree of political commitment for maternal and child health care.

OBJECTIVES

To evaluate the impact of the rise in institutional deliveries in India on perinatal mortality.

METHODS

Hospital delivery rate and perinatal mortality rate (PNMR), reported by Sample Registration System, Registrar General of India, on a representative sample was used. The correlation between relative change in hospital deliveries and PNMR was examined.

RESULTS

In rural areas of India, hospital deliveries have increased during 2005-2013 from 24.4 to 69.7% and PNMR has declined from 40 to 28 per 1000 births. At the state level, there was significant correlation between the rise in hospital delivery rate and decline in PNMR (r 0.4, p 0.04).

CONCLUSIONS

Decline in perinatal rates can be attributed to India's strategic initiatives in health policy and planning for increasing deliveries in hospitals.

Inpatient care of small and sick newborns in healthcare facilities

Neonatal units in teaching and non-teaching hospitals both in public and private hospitals have been increasing in number in the country since the sixties. In 1994, a District Newborn Care Programme was introduced as a part of the Child Survival and Safe Motherhood Programme (CSSM) in 26 districts. Inpatient care of small and sick newborns in the public health system got a boost under National Rural Health Mission with the launch of the national programme on facility-based newborn care (FBNC). This has led to a nationwide creation of Newborn Care Corners (NBCC) at every point of child birth, newborn stabilization units (NBSUs) at First Referral Units (FRUs) and special newborn care units (SNCUs) at district hospitals. Guidelines and toolkits for standardized infrastructure, human resources and services at each level have been developed and a system of reporting data on FBNC created. Till March 2015, there were 565 SNCUs, 1904 NBSUs and 14 163 NBCCs operating in the country. There has been considerable progress in operationalizing SNCUs at the district hospitals; however establishing a network of SNCUs, NBSUs and NBCCs as a composite functional unit of newborn care continuum at the district level has lagged behind. NBSUs, the first point of referral for the sick newborn, have not received the desired attention and have remained a weak link in most districts. Other challenges include shortage of physicians, and hospital beds and absence of mechanisms for timely repair of equipment. With admission protocols not being adequately followed and a weak NBSU system, SNCUs are faced with the problem of admission overload and poor quality of care. Applying best practices of care at SNCUs, creating more NBSU linkages and strengthening NBCCs are important steps toward improving quality of FBNC. This can be further improved with regular monitoring and mentoring from experienced pediatricians, and nurses drawn from medical colleges and the private sector. In addition there is a need to further increase such units to address the unmet need of facility-based care.

State of newborn health in India

About 0.75 million neonates die every year in India, the highest for any country in the world. The neonatal mortality rate (NMR) declined from 52 per 1000 live births in 1990 to 28 per 1000 live births in 2013, but the rate of decline has been slow and lags behind that of infant and under-five child mortality rates. The slower decline has led to increasing contribution of neonatal mortality to infant and under-five mortality. Among neonatal deaths, the rate of decline in early neonatal mortality rate (ENMR) is much lower than that of late NMR. The high level and slow decline in early NMR are also reflected in a high and stagnant perinatal mortality rate. The rate of decline in NMR, and to an extent ENMR, has accelerated with the introduction of National Rural Health Mission in mid-2005. Almost all states have witnessed this phenomenon, but there is still a huge disparity in NMR between and even within the states. The disparity is further compounded by rural-urban, poor-rich and gender differentials. There is an interplay of different demographic, educational, socioeconomic, biological and care-seeking factors, which are responsible for the differentials and the high burden of neonatal mortality. Addressing inequity in India is an important cross-cutting action that will reduce newborn mortality.

Combination therapy: a new strategy to manage diabetes and its complications

Diabetes mellitus is the most common metabolic disorder. The major cause of mortality and morbidity here is due to the complications caused by increased glucose concentrations. All the available commercial antidiabetic drugs are associated with side effects. The combination therapy could be a new and highly effective therapeutic strategy to manage hyperglycemia. Combination of commercial drugs with phytochemicals may reduce the side effects caused by these synthetic drugs. Herbal products have been thought to be inherently safe, because of their natural origin and traditional use rather than based on systemic studies. New formulation and cocrystallisation strategies need to be adopted to match the bioavailability of the drug and the phytochemical. This review describes in detail, the observed synergy and mechanism of action between phytochemicals and synthetic drugs in effectively combating. The mode of action of combination differs significantly than that of the drugs alone; hence isolating a single component may lose its importance thereby simplifying the task of pharma industries.

Evaluation of lacto-phenol cotton blue for wet mount preparation of feces

The use of lacto-phenol cotton blue (LPCB) stain for wet mount preparation of stools to demonstrate intestinal parasites by routine microscopy was evaluated in this study. LPCB-stained trophozoites and cysts and helminthic ova could easily be detected and identified in LPCB wet mounts of stools. The stain is recommended for routine use in the wet mount preparation of stools in a parasitology laboratory.