Yusuf Byenkya Byaruhanga

Survival and Acidification Potential of Lactobacillus Plantarum MNC 21 Stored in Air-Dried Sorghum Flours

Drying processes including solar, oven, and refractance window were studied to determine their influence on the drying behavior of jackfruit slices and properties of resultant jackfruit powders. The loss of sample mass, converted to the ratio between the water content at time and the initial water content (moisture ratio), was used as the experimental parameter for modelling drying processes. Fifteen thin layer drying models were fitted to the experimental data using nonlinear regression analysis. Based on the highest and lowest SEE values, the models that best fit the observed data were Modified Henderson and Pabis, Verma et al., and Hii et al. for RWD, oven, and solar drying, respectively. The effective moisture diffusivity coefficients were , , and for RWD, oven and, solar drying, respectively. The solubility of freeze-dried jackfruit powder (75.7%) was not significantly different from the refractance window dried powder (73.2%) and was higher than oven-dried jackfruit powder (66.1%). Oven-dried jackfruit powder had a lower rehydration ratio and porosity. Differences in rehydration ratio and porosity under different drying methods could be explained by the microstructure. Fractal dimension (FD) and lacunarity were applied to study the structure and irregularities of jackfruit dried with the different methods. FD was significantly ( ) affected by the drying method. FD ranged from 1.809 to 1.837, while lacunarity ranged between 0.258 and 0.404.

Refractance window drying is a novel technology with high operational efficiency and high product quality retention compared with conventional drying methods. This study assessed the effect of refractance window dryer water temperature and pulp thickness on nutrient content and the antioxidant activity of jackfruit. Response surface methodology (RSM) was used to optimize the drying temperature and fruit pulp thickness. Optimal drying temperature and pulp thickness were found to be 93.4°C and 2.56 mm, respectively. The respective values for the response variables drying time (min), ascorbic acid (mg/100 g), antioxidant activity (mg/100 g AA equiv) and total carotenoid content (μg/g) were 60.47, 17.97, 82.34, and 13.34, respectively. Models for prediction of these values had R² values of .964, .980, .994, and .994, respectively, and nonsignificant lack of fit (p < .05). This indicates the suitability of the model in predicting the RWD operating conditions to produce quality dried jackfruit.

Microbial biomass is cultivated for different technological applications including food processing, medicine, waste management, and research. The conventional growth media used are generally expensive thus necessitating the development of more affordable alternatives. In this study, four sorghum grain varieties, SESO 1, SESO 3, Epuripur, and Eyera, and their malt extracts were characterized which is aimed at determining their suitability for growing microbial biomass. The varieties had kernel length, kernel width, kernel thickness, and thousand kernel weigh equivalent to 3.8-4.3 mm, 3.2-4.5 mm, 2.4-2.8 mm, and 12.4-20.2 g, respectively. SESO 1 and Epuripur had corneous endosperm textures whereas those of SESO 3 and Eyera were intermediate and floury, respectively. Varieties had % and %. SESO 3 had the highest ( ) crude protein (%) and dietary fiber (%) whereas Epuripur had the highest ( ) starch (%) and crude fat (%). There was no significant difference ( ) in the ash contents (<svg xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"...

Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is a complex metabolic disorder of glucose homeostasis associated with a status of insulin resistance, impaired insulin signaling, β-cell dysfunction, impaired glucose and lipid metabolism, sub-clinical inflammation, and increased oxidative stress. Consuming fruits and vegetables rich in phytochemicals with potential antidiabetic effects may prevent T2DM and/or support a conservative T2DM treatment while being safer and more affordable for people from low-income countries. Solanum anguivi Lam. fruits (SALF) have been suggested to exhibit antidiabetic properties, potentially due to the presence of various phytochemicals, including saponins, phenolics, alkaloids, ascorbic acid, and flavonoids. For the saponin fraction, antidiabetic effects have already been reported. However, it remains unclear whether this is also true for the other phytochemicals present in SALF. This review article covers information on glucose homeostasis, T2DM pathogenesis, and also the potential antidiabetic effects of phytochemicals present in SALF, including their potential mechanisms of action.

Cultivation of lactic acid bacteria cultures is vital for research and commercial production of fermented foods. However, the conventional growth media used are generally costly. Malt extracts from four sorghum varieties (SESO 1, SESO 3, Epuripur, and Eyera) were evaluated as alternative low-cost growth media for Lactobacillus plantarum MNC 21. Saccharified sorghum malt extracts were inoculated with 4 log cfu/mL MNC 21 and incubated at 30°C for 24h. MRS broth was the reference medium. Microbial counts, pH, titratable acidity (TA), free amino nitrogen (FAN), and total sugars were measured. Maximum microbial counts in the extracts and MRS broth were 9 and 10 log cfu/mL, respectively. Maximum growth rate in the extracts was 0.70.9 log cfu/mL/h and 0.8 log cfu/mL/h in MRS broth. The final pH of the extracts was 3.53.6, with an overall increase in TA of 1.2 in Epuripur and 0.2 in other varieties. Final pH and TA of MRS broth were 4.1 and 1.3, respectively. Total sugars dropped by 95.2 and FAN by 2.1 in MRS broth. In contrast, total sugars and FAN dropped by 5.69.1 and 24.932.7 respectively, in the extracts. Sorghum malt extracts can be adopted as alternative low-cost growth media for lactic acid bacteria cultures.

This study was aimed at establishing the variation in physico-chemical properties between and within different jackfruit varieties. Mature jackfruits from trees known to produce orange, yellow and white flakes were harvested and ripened at 28oC and 90% relative humidity. The weight, length and circumference of ripe fruits were measured. The fruits were cut into three equal sections: top, middle and bottom. Each section was separated into flakes, rind, abortive perigones, consolidated perigones, seeds and core. The percent weight of different fruit parts, and flake physico-chemical characteristics were determined. The average weight, length, circumference and maturation period for jackfruit varieties studied were 12 kg, 47 cm, 76 cm and 104 days, respectively. The mean proportions of flakes, rind, abortive perigones, consolidated perigones, seeds and core were 24.7, 20.0, 14.5 14.3, 13.1 and 11.3%, respectively. Ascorbic acid (AA), carotenoids, total soluble solids (TSS), TSS: acid ratio, color and texture varied significantly among jackfruit sections. Color did not vary among sections of yellow and white flaked varieties. Flake texture (hardness) was 12.1, 10.5 and 6.6 N/mm for the white, yellow and orange flaked varieties, respectively. Flake textural resilience was in the order: white > yellow > orange flakes. Principle component analysis showed white flakes correlated positively with flake resilience, hardness and color lightness. Orange flakes were associated with high carotenoids and TSS content. Yellow flakes exhibited intermediate properties between those of white and orange flakes. Jackfruit flake color and section can be used as flake quality predictor.

This study sought to determine the physicochemical and functional properties of yam bean (Pachyrhizus erosus) seed proteins. Pachyrhizus erosus seeds from two accessions (UYB 06 and UYB 07) were milled into flours and then defatted. A portion of the defatted flour was used for production of protein isolates and protein fractions. The physicochemical and functional properties, in vitro digestibility and electrophoretic pattern of the flour and protein isolate were determined. The results showed that albumins (53.3%) were the dominant protein fraction followed by globulins (18.7%), glutelins (8.8%) and prolamins (2.7%). Regarding functional properties, the Pachyrhizus erosus seed protein isolates exhibited 8% of least gelation concentration, water absorption capacity of 3.0 g g-1, oil absorption capacity of 0.8 g g-1, protein solubility of 81.0%, foaming capacity of 37.1%, foam stability of 73.8%, emulsion activity of 13.8% and emulsion stability of 9.2%. In vitro protein digestibility of the raw and cooked beans was 87.6% and 84.3%, respectively. The electrophoretic pattern of Pachyrhizus erosus protein showed major bands corresponding to molecular weight 13.3, 15, 29.8, 54.4 and above 84.7 kDa. The results, suggest that Pachyrhizus erosus seed protein has potential for use in both food and non-food applications such as films and coating.