Norazlin Abdullah

Sustainable valorization of Phyllanthus emblica and nipa palm sugar into a bioactive kombucha powder through microencapsulation.

This research aimed to evaluate the effects of ultrasound-assisted osmotic dehydration (UAOD) on the drying of pineapple core slices. This study compared conventional osmotic dehydration (OD) utilizing sucrose as the osmotic agent, at varying volumes of 10, 30, and 50 mL, as well as immersion times of 2, 31, and 60 mins. The OD process served as a control with no sonication treatment. Response variables including water loss, solid gain, hardness change, and stickiness change were measured. The optimal osmotic pretreatment conditions were determined after assessing the effect of sucrose solution volume and immersion time on response variables. The effect of the osmotic pretreatment conditions on the drying time and water diffusivity was also evaluated. The results showed that water loss increased with treatment time, while solid gain and texture exhibited a decline. The optimal conditions identified were a sucrose solution volume of 50 mL with a 2-min immersion time for OD and 37.76 mins for UOAD. Results indicated that UAOD significantly decreased drying time by 23% and allowed moisture content to reach as low as 15%, while OD could not reach moisture content below 30% without sonication. These findings suggested that UAOD can improve both the quality and drying efficiency in pineapple processing, while also positioning pineapple core as a valuable food product and improving energy efficiency in the pineapple processing industry.

Diabetes is a serious and chronic ailments affecting millions of people worldwide with high rates of morbidity and mortality including Malaysia. The used of ethno-medicinal plants among the traditional practitioners are still reliable to treat diabetes. Hence, this study aimed to collect information regarding polyherbal formulations used by the traditional practitioners in the management of diabetes via ethnobotanical survey. An ethnobotanical survey was conducted from February 2022 to March 2022 to discover the potential herbal plant formulations used by the practitioners in Peninsular Malaysia. Information was gathered from the informal semi-structured interview session with the selected herbal practitioner informants. The respondents were comprised of old or experience persons, traditional healers and medicinal herbal sellers who practice and have experience in the use of medicinal plants to treat the diabetes. A total of sixteen polyherbal formulations were gathered from the ethnobotanical survey conducted. The leaves are the most commonly used plant part, usually in the fresh form and mainly prepared through decoction method as well as administered orally for the diabetes remedies. This study has revealed sixteen potential polyherbal plant formulation remedies used by Malay practitioners in Peninsular Malaysia as diabetes remedies which could be beneficial as a guide in the development of plant-based medication in pharmaceutical or nutraceutical industries.

This study aims to characterise the physicochemical properties and stability of confectionery glazes made from various tropical fruit seed powders during storage. Physicochemical properties were evaluated at regular intervals throughout frozen...

Cinnamomum verum (kayu manis) is an herb that possesses antidiabetic properties and has been used for the treatment of diabetes traditionally. However, there is insufficient scientific data to provide optimum extraction parameters for C. verum leaves for antidiabetic activities. This research aims to determine the optimum extraction parameters of C. verum leaves towards α-glucosidase inhibition and evaluate the correlation between α-glucosidase inhibition, total phenolic content and DPPH radical scavenging activity. The C. verum was extracted with water through an infusion method under different temperatures (60.0°C, 77.5°C, 95.0°C) and extraction time lengths (10 minutes, 20 minutes, 30 minutes). The optimization process was designed using Design Expert software, which applied the Response Surface Method (RSM) and Central Composite Design (CCD). The analyses conducted were antidiabetic property (α-glucosidase inhibition assay), total phenolic content (TPC) (Folin-Ciocalteu colorimetric method) and antioxidant property (2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl, DPPH radical scavenging activity). Results showed that the obtained optimum extraction parameters for C. verum leaves (81.10°C, 19.54 minutes) exhibited α-glucosidase inhibition (87.30±0.67%), total phenolic content (0.12±0.00 mg GAE/g) and DPPH radical scavenging activity (51.25±0.48%). The α-glucosidase inhibition positively correlates with DPPH radical scavenging activity and total phenolic content. These findings have provided a positive relationship between extraction temperature and extraction time length on antidiabetic properties of C. verum leaf extract.

The effect of screw speed and oyster mushroom addition on the texture characteristics (hardness, gumminess, and chewiness) and specific mechanical energy (SME) was determined via factorial experiment design. Individually increasing screw speeds had little effect compared to the effects of oyster mushroom addition. However, the combined effects of screw speed and oyster mushroom addition significantly reduced (p ≤ 0.05) all the texture characteristics. The hardness (3521.35 g) and gumminess (2717.85) of the meat analog extruded at the maximum screw speed of 160 rpm and 15% oyster mushroom addition are close to the chicken breast’s characteristics, respectively. The oyster mushroom–soy protein extrudates are chewier than the non-hydrated texturized vegetable protein (TVP) and chicken meats. The SME values of the single-screw extrusion were linearly affected by the increasing screw speed, which also lies in the range < 200 kJ/kg for producing meat analog with acceptable characteristics. Applying the superposition technique successfully shifted the individual curves of the SME into a smooth master curve vertically, allowing an interpolating in the prediction of SME value at a given screw speed value.