Aflatoxins: Biosynthesis,Occurrence, Toxicity,and Remedies

Food contagion with aflatoxins is the modern concern and has received a great awareness during the last few decades. The intermittent incidence of these toxins in agricultural commodities has negative role on the economy of the affected regions where harvest and postharvest techniques for the prevention of mold growth, are seldom practiced. Aflatoxins are difuranocoumarin derivatives produced by a polyketide pathway by the fungus Aspergillus flavus and Aspergillus parasiticus via polyketide pathway which are highly hepatotoxic, hepatocarcinogenic, teratogenic, and mutagenic in nature and contaminate a wide variety of important agricultural commodities before, during, and after harvest in various environmental conditions. The production of aflatoxins in innate substrates depends upon the various factors, that is, type of substrate, fungal species, moisture contents of the substrate, minerals, humidity, temperature, and physical damage of the kernels. These toxins cause several ailments such as cancer, hepatitis, mutation abnormalities, and reproduction disorders. Minimization and inactivation of aflatoxins contaminants through proper crop management at farm level and with physical, chemical, and biological techniques are the limelight of the article.     

Food fortification strategy--preventing iron deficiency anemia: a review

Iron deficiency anemia (IDA) is a significant challenge in developing countries. It increases the risk of premature delivery and low birth weight. In children, IDA retards growth, impairs cognitive performance, and reduces physical activity. It also accelerates the mortality and morbidity rate in women. The key factors responsible include dietary elevated iron demand, socioeconomic, and disease status. To overcome IDA, disease control measures, dietary diversification, supplementation and iron fortification in food have been adopted. Iron fortification in food is considered a long term and sustainable strategy in the present scenario. For an efficient fortification program, the combination of iron fortificants and food vehicle must be safe, acceptable, and consumed by the target population. Moreover, it should not adversely affect acceptability and stability of the end product.     

Reduction of Cyanogenic Compounds in Flaxseed (Linum usitatissimum L.) Meal Using Thermal Treatment

Flaxseed (Linum usitatissimum L.) provides multiple nutritional benefits, including high quality protein, dietary fiber, and is the most abundant source of α-linolenic acid (C_18:3). However, the presence of anti-nutritional factors, such as cyanogenic compounds, restricts flaxseed's consumption as a food or feed. This study investigated the reduction of cyanogenic compounds, measured as hydrocyanic acid (HCN), in full-fat flaxseed using extrusion processing without a die by following the response surface methodology. The ranges of processing variables selected were: barrel exit temperature of 76.3–143.6°C; screw speed of 59.6–160.5 rpm; and feed rate of 26.4–93.6 kg/h. The experimental values of HCN reduction obtained were from 60.8 to 86.6%. Optimum extrusion conditions of barrel exit temperature, screw speed, and feed rate were found to be 143.6°C, 133.5 rpm, and 57.8 kg/h for maximum (89.1%) reduction of HCN. This effect was mainly dependent on barrel exit temperature, whereas screw speed and feed rate had no or minimal effect. The mutual interaction effect of barrel exit temperature and screw speed was found to be significant (p ≤ 0.01). The degree of correlation (R²) for HCN reduction was 97.2%, which showed the validity of applied second-order response model. The results of this study demonstrated that significant reduction of HCN in flaxseed can be achieved commercially using an extruder without a die.     

Predictive Modeling of Spring Wheat Varieties by Cluster Analysis

Spring wheat varieties were subjected to physico-chemical, mixographic and amino acid analysis. The data obtained was subjected statistically analyzed. The cluster analysis classification based on centroid method indicated that for lysine and overall cookie scores, generally most wheat varieties fell in one group, while for total chapati score most of the wheat varieties were classified into two groups. The wheat varieties falling in same cluster group have similarities in respect of lysine, chapati and cookie quality. This indicated that wheat varieties in Pakistan have narrow ranges of spectrum in their genetic make up for their quality attributes. However, some wheat varieties were distinguished into different groups having a wide distance range especially Shahkar 95 for lysine content, LU 26 and Punjab 96 for cookie quality and Punjnad 88 in case of chapati quality. The present grouping suggests that wheat varieties in cluster group with wider range for lysine content may be used further in a hybridization program to improve the nutritional quality of wheat.     

Optimizing throughput performance of FMIPv6 over legacy 802.11 networks using iterative scanning

Predictive handover protocols like FMIPv6 have been proposed to provide seamless handover to MNs with minimum handover latency and packet losses. An essential prerequisite of FMIPv6 protocol is the advance discovery of candidate access points while the MN is still connected to its Present Access Router, a process which is carried out by the underlying data link layer protocol. The FMIPv6 standard only specifies the seamless handover operation at the network layer and does not take into consideration the impact of the relevant mechanism, such as the advance access point discovery process, on the overall seamless operation in terms of packet losses. At the data-link layer, the MN may repeatedly preform channel scanning operations to discover the in-range candidate APs. During the scan process, a MN is unable to transmit or receive packets leading to service quality degradation.This paper will analyze the implication of the IEEE 802.11 scanning process, that is carried out in advance to the actual initiation of the FMIPv6 handover process as part of the candidate access points discovery process. The impact of such a scan process is assessed on the overall seamlessness of the FMIPv6 protocol and its impact on the user’s QoE. In this regard, an iterative channel scanning solution approach would be described, which has been proposed to offset the adverse affects of 802.11 channel scanning process on the overall seamlessness of the FMIPv6 protocol in a legacy 802.11 network, especially during the candidate AP discovery process. A detailed evaluation of the performance of our proposed scheme will be presented based on extensive simulation analysis.     

Fatty acids,mineral composition ond functional (bread and chapati) properties of high protein and high lysine barley lines

Six barley lines derived from corsses involving Hiproly (SV 73608×Mona⁵) and Riso 1508 with higher yield recipients V 43-42 and V 5681, along with the four parents, were analyzed for faty acids and mineral composition. Dough properties, bread and chapaties were charcterized by blending barley line (B82503) at 2.5-25% with bread wheat flour (pak 81). Fatty acid contents were myristic acid, 0.60-1.16%; palmitic acid, 16.68-20.84%; stearic acid, 1.30-3.33% and degree of unsaturation 1.40-1.50%. The derived lines contained similar amounts of essential fatty acids. Significant variation for magnesium, copper, zinc, phosphorus and potassium was observed but overlapped among the lines and parents. The calciu, iron, and manganese showed non-significant differences among lines and parents. Blending up to 10% barley flour with bread wheat flour gave farinograph characteristics comparable to those of pure wheat flour, but increasing the proportion of barley beyond this decreased the mix time and dough stability. Breadbaking tests verfied that up to 10% barley could be mixed with wheat without adversely affecting loaf volume and other quality attributes. For chapati making up to 20% barley could be blended into the wheat, yet yield acceptable quality.     

Improvement in end-use quality of spring wheat varieties grown in different eras

Evaluation of wheat cultivars from different eras allows scientists to determine changes in agronomic and end-use quality characteristics associated with grain yield and end-use quality improvement over time. Forty-four spring wheat cultivars introduced or released since 1933 were evaluated for quality improvement using canonical variant analysis. It was observed that there was a considerable improvement in protein content from 1933 to 1964 whereas the genetic potential for straight grade flour protein from 11.34% in 1933–1964 to 12.13% in 1991–1996. Crude protein increased by 6.95% from 1933 to 1996. Ash content and flour yield declined by 9.55% and 5.51%, respectively. Total chapati scores of modern cultivars were 8.97% higher than those of cultivars grown earlier. The average spread ratio and overall cookie scores increased almost 5.53% and 4.44%, respectively from 1933 to 1996. It was also observed that overall cookie scores were highest during the period 1981–1990. The average dry gluten and total chapati scores of varieties grown since 1991 were approximately 10.20% and 74.72% respectively, which were 4.72% and 8.97% higher than those of cultivars grown since 1933. Average spread ratio and overall cookie scores increased almost 5.53% and 4.44% from 1933 to 1996, respectively. The era (1991–1996) containing the modern varieties showed a substantial improvement in lysine content than the era containing the oldest wheat varieties. Similarly amino acid score was also found to be 4.26% higher than the varieties released during the period 1933–1964.