Antioxidant capacity, phenolic content and vitamin C in pulp, peel and seed from 24 exotic fruits from Colombia

Twenty-four exotic Colombian fruits were evaluated for antioxidant activity and total soluble phenolics (TP) (edible part, seed and peel) and ascorbic acid content (edible part). The antioxidant activities were evaluated by ABTS (free radical-scavenging capacity) and FRAP (ferric reducing antioxidant power) methods. The ABTS, FRAP, TP and ascorbic acid values in the edible part were 3.25 to 175 ??M Trolox equiv/g fresh weight (FW), 6.29 to 144 ??M Trolox equiv/g FW, 15.7 to 1018 mg gallic acid equiv/100 g FW, and 0.53 to 257 mg ascorbic acid/100 g FW respectively. There were positive correlations between antioxidant activity (assessed by both ABTS and FRAP) and TP and ascorbic acid with the FRAP and ABTS methods. The edible part of banana passion fruits (P. tarminiana and P. mollisima) exhibited the highest values of antioxidant activity and total phenolics, while the highest level of ascorbic acid was recorded in the edible part of guava apple and cashew. The seeds with the highest values of antioxidant activity and total phenols were cashew, algarrobo, arazá and coastal sapote, while the peel of coastal sapote and algarrobo had the highest values of antioxidant activity and total phenolics. To the best of our knowledge, this paper reports the first evaluation of pulp, seed and skin of Colombian tropical fruits with a view to their knowledge utilization for the development of novel functional food products.     

Synthesis of Na0.5Bi0.5TiO3 anisotropic particles with grain orientation by conversion of Na0.5Bi4.5Ti4O15 crystals

A novel method for synthesizing Na_0.5Bi_0.5TiO₃ (BNT) anisotropic particles with grain orientation is reported. Anisotropically shaped particles of BNT were prepared by conversion of Na_0.5Bi_4.5Ti₄O₁₅ (NBT15) single crystals. Platelet NBT15 was produced by molten-salt synthesis. They were converted to BNT by second molten-salt synthesis at 800–1200 °C. NBT15 single-crystal platelets were transformed into platelet particles of polycrystalline BNT. The reaction is topotaxial, those recrystallized BNT were oriented with (h 0 0) plane parallel to the platelet. The use of converted BNT particles as seed was confirmed by performing templated grain growth (TGG) of BNT with 5% grain-oriented, anisotropic particles of BNT.     

A novel method for fabricating of high-performance multi-seeding GdBCO bulk superconductors

A novel multi-seeding (NMS) method is proposed for improving the performances of GdBCO samples by optimizing the shapes and the space configurations of the single-domain GdBCO grains. Three multi-seeding GdBCO bulk superconductors with dimensions of 60 × 20 × 14 mm³ were fabricated by a Gd + 011 infiltration growth method with different seeding techniques: samples S1 and S2 by the traditional multi-seeding method (TMS) with two and three seeds, respectively; and sample S3 by the NMS method with three seeds. The results show that among the three, sample S3 has both of the largest levitation force, 111 N, and the largest magnetic field coupling ratio, 68.57%, which are clearly higher than the levitation force of 100 N and 90 N, and the magnetic field coupling ratios of 34.25% and 11.33% for the samples S1 and S2, respectively. These results indicate that the NSM method is a useful way to improve the mechanical strength, homogeneity, and performances of multi-seeding GdBCO samples.