Ashoka Shankarappa

The growing desire for healthier snack choices has driven significant interest in incorporating novel ingredients into food formulations to enhance both nutritional profiles and sensory attributes....

Polysaccharides are structurally diverse biopolymers composed of multiple monosaccharide units linked through glycosidic bonds. Their complexity, biodegradability, and functional versatility make them integral to biological systems as well as modern industrial application. Sourced from plants, fungi, marine organisms, animals, and microbes, these natural polymers exhibit a broad spectrum of bioactivities, including antioxidant, antimicrobial, immunomodulatory, and physicochemical protective functions. In the context of food preservation, polysaccharides have gained significant attention as sustainable alternatives to synthetic preservatives and conventional packaging materials. This review summarizes the classification and structural attributes of polysaccharides that influence their functional performance, particularly their ability to scavenge free radicals, inhibit foodborne pathogens, and form protective barrier systems. Special emphasis is placed on their use in edible films, coatings, and encapsulation systems that enhance the shelf life of fruits, vegetables, meats, dairy, beverages, and bakery products. Challenges related to stability, sensory impact, and regulatory compliance are also discussed. Overall, polysaccharides demonstrate substantial potential as eco-friendly, bioactive packaging agents and controlled-release carriers, contributing to safer, greener, and more sustainable food preservation technologies.

The increasing interest in functional foods has highlighted the potential advantages of resistant starch (RS), a dietary fiber with prebiotic characteristics, in improving gut health. This review investigates the importance of integrating RS into ready-to-eat (RTE) meals, analysing its impact on gut flora and enhancing overall digestive health. Also, assesses the influence of RS-enriched RTE meals on the diversity and activity of gut microbiota, emphasizing the production of short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) and other significant metabolites through a thorough examination of contemporary literature and emerging research. Furthermore, emphasizes the challenges and prospects of integrating RS into RTE food products while maintaining taste, texture, and consumer acceptability. The findings indicate that incorporating dietary RS into ready-to-eat meals may serve as an effective approach to promoting gut microbiota equilibrium, increasing digestive health, and aiding in the prevention of chronic disorders associated with gut dysbiosis.

Muffins are popular baked products that can be fortified nutritionally incorporating high-fibre natural flours such as millet, lotus dried flower flour, and flours obtained from by-products of fruits and vegetables. Also, the increasing demand for healthier food choices prompted the exploration of functional ingredients that can improve the nutritional profile of baked goods. A deep insight into the connected literature has highlighted the applications of various alternative flours in baked products as nutritional fortifying agents, but very limited research was documented, specifically on the use of lotus dried flower flour in muffin formulations. Consequently, the present research aimed to examine the potential of lotus dried flower flour as a source of dietary fibre in muffin preparations, focusing on the nutritional quality (physical and sensory attributes) and consumer acceptability of the developed muffins. Muffins were made using a combination of refined wheat flour and lotus-dried flower flour in comparison with 100% refined wheat flour muffins (control). The flour ratios used were 95% Refined Wheat Flour (RWF) to 5% Lotus Flower Flour (LFF) i.e., (T1), 90% RWF to 10% LFF i.e., (T2), and 80% RWF to 20% LFF (T3). The physical, textural, nutritional, and sensory properties, shelf life, and consumer acceptability of the developed muffins were investigated. The sensory evaluation revealed statistically significant differences (p < 0.05) among treatments, with overall acceptability (OAA) scores decreasing from 8.73 ± 0.49 in the control to 7.21 ± 0.60 in T3. The T2 formulation (10% LFF) maintained high acceptability with an OAA score of 8.26 ± 0.60. In contrast, colour analysis showed a darkening effect and shifts towards reddish and bluish hues. Physical characteristics revealed increased baking loss and altered texture as the level of lotus flour increased. Nutritional analysis indicated higher ash content (0.91 g vs. 0.83 g) and crude fibre (2.33 g vs. 1.97 g) in LFF muffins compared to the control, with minimal changes in energy content (366.96 kcal vs. 370.69 kcal). With this, the study concludes that lotus flower flour can effectively replace up to 10% of wheat flour in muffin preparation without compromising sensory and nutritional quality, making it a viable option for nutritionally enriched product development.

Postharvest management of lotus stems (Nelumbo nucifera) is critically underemphasized in the food industry, leading to significant quality degradation and postharvest losses due to mechanical damage during handling, transportation, and valorization. This study aimed to optimize drying conditions through various pretreatments to enhance the processing and valorization efficiency of lotus stems and to characterize lotus stem flour in terms of its proximate composition, functional properties, and amino acid profile. This is the first study to optimize the drying conditions of lotus stem flour using citric acid and potassium metabisulfite (KMS) pretreatments, ensuring better retention of quality attributes. Lotus stems exhibit substantial variability, with weights ranging from 32.55 to 245.65 g, length from 18.00 to 44.35 cm, and width from 1.30 to 3.80 cm. Lotus stem slices dried at 70°C for 2 h yielded the highest percentage (26.50%), although higher temperatures generally resulted in decreased yields due to moisture loss and structural changes. The color attributes of lotus stem flour are affected by the drying temperature and anti‐browning agents. The use of citric acid improved redness and yellowness, whereas potassium metabisulfite affected the color based on the concentration. Lotus stems pretreated with 2% KMS improved the lightness (L) by up to 18% (from 71.85 to 85.25), while the samples treated with 2% citric acid increased redness (a*) by approximately 57% (from 4.20 to 6.60) and yellowness (b*) by 33% (from 14.60 to 19.45), indicating enhanced color retention. Moreover, the lotus stem flour is characterized by moisture (6.30%), protein (7.60 g), carbohydrate (70.90 g), and fat (1.45 g), providing an energy value of 326.77 Kcal. It also contains appreciable amounts of essential minerals, including calcium, potassium, and magnesium, as well as negligible levels of toxic heavy metals. Flour is notable for its essential amino acids, particularly threonine, lysine, and leucine, and includes a range of nonessential and conditionally essential amino acids, contributing to its comprehensive nutritional profile. These findings highlight the potential of lotus stem flour as a functional ingredient for the food industry, particularly in the development of nutritionally enriched and shelf‐stable products.

Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) is one of the important commercial crops and India is the second largest producer of tomatoes in the world. Tomatoes are susceptible to different bacterial diseases. Among these bacterial diseases, bacterial spot disease caused by Xanthomonas vesicatoria poses a serious threat to tomato yield in India. According to the ICAR research data repository, a yield loss of 20 to 50% of tomatoes was observed in India due to bacterial spot disease. A broad-range antibiotic named streptomycin is used to treat infected crops and excess application of antibiotics can result in the development of drug resistance in pathogens. Hence there is a need to increase the innate immunity of plants to fight against the disease and this can be achieved by studying the interaction between plant protein and pathogen protein. The plant protein TIFY is involved in jasmonate signaling, which is critical for regulating plant defense. On the other hand, AvrBs1 is a bacterial effector protein produced by pathogens during the infection of plants. The interaction between the bacterial AvrBs1 effector protein and TIFY Protein is crucial in determining the plant’s defense against pathogens. The present study investigates the molecular basis of this interaction through bioinformatics. Protein sequences of the TIFY of tomato and AvrBs1 protein of Xanthomonas vesicatoria were retrieved from the NCBI database. Further, sequence similarity with TIFY and AvrBs1 as query sequences were performed to obtain query-like sequences, which were provided as input for phylogenetic analysis. After phylogenetic analysis, the plant sequence displaying the highest similarity with the pathogen protein sequence was evaluated for toxicity in ToxinPred2, which indicated the non-toxic nature of plant protein. Further protein structure was predicted for both plant and pathogen proteins, with Ramachandran favoured values of 66.54% and 98.08% respectively. Further protein-protein docking of plant and pathogen protein generated a docking score of -229.00 kcal/mol which indicated the formation of a stable complex between plant and pathogen protein. Later, molecular dynamics simulations of the plant-pathogen protein complex revealed the structural stability of the docked complex. These findings help to understand host-pathogen interactions in bacterial spot disease, for enhancing resistance in tomatoes against pathogen through protein engineering.

Millets are resilient crops with the ability to endure various climatic conditions, making them sustainable and drought-resistant. Over the past few decades, their production has increased to meet the nutritional needs of the growing global population. These grains are rich in essential nutrients, including proteins, carbohydrates, fats, minerals (iron, zinc, magnesium, calcium and phosphorus), vitamins (niacin, thiamine, riboflavin, folate and vitamin E) and bioactive compounds. Millets are recognized for their high-energy content, addressing malnutrition effectively. They serve as a valuable source of medicinal and nutraceutical properties, offering antioxidants that play a role in preventing health issues such as high blood pressure, heart disease, obesity, cancer, cardiovascular diseases, and diabetes. Additionally, millets contribute to a decrease in tumour cases. Due to their nutritional composition and bioactive components, millets are considered a long-term and sustainable solution for ensuring a stable supply of food and feed materials. This review aims to emphasize the scientific aspects of millets, focusing on their nutritional content, biologically active compounds, and pharmaceutical properties.

Background: Saccharomyces cerevisiae is one of the important yeast found to be superior in the fermentation technology. Methods: The present study was undertaken to study the periodical changes in TSS, pH, acidity and alcohol content during the fermentation process of wine preparation from coconut water. With different TSS levels (7, 9, 11 and 13°Brix) adjusted with sugar and 9°Brix was the optimized sugar level. Result: TSS in wine was constantly reduced until fermentation was complete. Though the TSS reduced significantly during the first stage of fermentation, it continued to decline at a considerably slower rate until the fermentation was complete. It was observed that the TSS level does not affect the pH of coconut wine, but pH decreased with the increase in fermentation period because of increase in titrable acidity and alcohol. It was also noticed that the titratable acidity was found least at 6th day and maximum at 12th day, titratable acidity increased as fermentation progressed which was consistent with the fall in pH. The higher the TSS levels yields high titratable acidity during fermentation. Immediately after inoculation, the yeast count rises sharply on the first day of fermentation. It then tends to rise drastically till the third day, after which the yeast count is found to have declined until the end of fermentation. The coconut wine was prepared from coconut water added with sucrose as a source of sugar. Saccharomyces cerevisiae (MTCC 171) was used as reference strain and yeast isolate BRYI-1 produced the best results of alcohol content and sensory characteristics when compared to reference yeast strain.

Background: Petha is a translucent soft candy historically and geographically originated from Agra that is usually rectangular or cylindrical made from the ash gourd. With growing demand and innovation, more varieties of the original preparation are available in the market. Watermelon is most relished fruit and people just eat reddish pulpy portion and discard the rind. But watermelon rind is by product with good amounts of protein, fat, carbohydrates, crude fiber and ash. Methods: The present study was carried out to develop petha from watermelon rind by osmotic dehydration with varied concentrations of Sugar viz., 50° Brix(T1), 60° Brix(T2) and 70° Brix(T3) and the sensory evaluation was carried out from initial to 45 days of storage at both room as well as refrigerated temperature and further evaluated microbial load, texture analysis and consumer acceptability of petha. Result: Among the three variations T2 was more acceptable than T1 and T3 after 45 days of sensory evaluation. The nutrient composition for the best accepted watermelon rind petha indicated low fat with adequate amount of crude fibre (0.6 g), carbohydrate (52.49 g), calcium (18.68 mg) and phosphorous (9.28 mg). Hence, it can be concluded that watermelon rinds can be better option for byproduct utilization for development of petha with good nutritional profile that is economical too.