Ramanathan Parimalavalli

The mango, or Mangifera indica L., is India's national fruit. The by-products released during the processing of mangoes are peels and seeds. This study sought to understand the effects of starch extraction on the pasting, thermal, and morphological properties of mango seed kernels. Three distinct methods such as sedimentation, centrifugation and alkali methods of starch separation was used as per standard procedures. The ability of sedimentation starch had highest water binding capacity (90.2%) and alkali starch had high paste clarity (78.2%) among the isolation methods. The pasting properties of mango kernel starch indicated significant differences across each extraction method. The gelatinization and conclusion temperatures of the alkali method were high (63.4°C and 65°C, respectively) while having a low start temperature (30.1°C) and enthalpy (4.0J/g). The thermal properties of alkali process had a low onset temperature of 30.1°C and low enthalpy of 4.0 J/g, but a high gelatinization temperature of 63.4°C and conclusion temperature of 65.2°C. The starch structures could be easily observed under a light microscope and the alkali method of starch revealed a slight bulkiness in them, it was still possible to detect the shape of the starch granules. Despite using various extraction methods, the isolated mango seed starch SEM granules had smooth surfaces and oval, crooked, or cuboidal shapes. It strongly suggested that the alkali method used for starch extraction improved the starch yield from seeds and enhanced pasting, thermal, and morphological starch characteristics. These results proved the possibility of the utility of employing the alkali method of starch extraction as a functional element in food product compositions.

Oriental Journal of Chemistry is a peer reviewed quarterly research journal of pure and applied chemistry. It publishes standard research papers in almost all thrust areas of current chemistry of academic and commercial importance. It provides a platform for rapid publication of quality research papers, reviews and chemistry letters. Oriental Journal of Chemistry is abstracted and indexed in almost all reputed National and International agencies.

Background: A combination of heat-moisture treatment and citric acid was used to modify pearl millet starch in this study. Changes in structural, thermal and in vitro digestibility of the treated starches were investigated. Methods: Native starch was isolated using alkaline steeping method. Native starch was dual modified (Heat moisture treatment and citric acid) used for further analysis. To examine the granular morphology of dual modified starch using SEM, DSC, RC and in vitro starch digestibility assay was assessed to quantify the proportion of digestive starch fractions, including rapidly digestible starch (RDS), slowly digestible starch (SDS) and resistant starch (RS). Result: Granules of the native starches of pearl millet varied from polygonal to circular or oval in shape. Indentations were observed on the surfaces of dual modified starch. Relative crystallinity was less than native starch. Profound increased gelatinization temperature was witnessed, meanwhile enthalpy of gelatinization was decreased. In the dual modified pearl millet starches, the percentage of RDS contents was significantly decreased. The resistant starch (RS) content of the treated starches, however, significantly increased from 11.48% in native starches to 19.40% in HMT starches and 28.3% in dual modified starches.

This study is intended to evaluate the cytotoxicity of native and dual-modified black rice flour against the colon cancer cell line (HCT116) and mouse embryo cell line (3T3-L1) by using the MTT assay. The modification techniques applied to prepare rice flour samples were enzymatic modification and heat moisture treatment. In this study, the IC50 of native black rice flour and modified black rice flour was 255.78µg/mL and 340.85µg/mL, respectively. The result confirms that the native black rice flour has significant cytotoxic and anticancer potential against human colon cancer cells. In addition, the IC50 of native black rice flour and modified black rice flour on the 3T3-L1 cell line was found to be 345.96µg/mL and 1106.94µg/mL, respectively. The results showed that the native black rice flour had weak cytotoxicity, and modified black rice flour was nontoxic in both the cell lines. The active component of phytochemicals present in black rice flour has a potential role in preventing colon cancer.