Increasing demands for health-promoting compounds originated from natural sources have led to a surge of interest in studies in the field of extraction and purification of such components to be used in the formulations of value-added foods. Pomegranate is a rich source for mining biologically active or bioactive ingredients such as phenolic compounds, tannins, and anthocyanins. These compounds have various bioactivities such as antioxidant, antimicrobial, and anticancer properties. However, extraction and purification of such compounds from different parts of the pomegranate as efficiently as possible is a challenging task usually carried out by solvent extraction, microwave-assisted extraction, and ultrasound-assisted extraction techniques. Therefore, in the present study, first the bioactive compounds of pomegranate are highlighted and then common methods used to extract them are reviewed.
In this study, an attempt was made to identify the differences between the two rosewater samples by identifying the chemical volatile compounds present in the original and artificial rosewater using GC and GC-MS. Then, to determine the authenticity of the studied rosewater samples, the amount of ethanol and methanol in the original and artificial samples was measured by GC-FID. Differences between phenyl ethyl alcohol, citronellol, geraniol, and citronellol/geraniol ratio of original, artificial samples and 10 industrial samples were tested by the current method. The results showed that the amount of phenyl ethyl alcohol in the artificial samples were much lower than the original sample (p ≤ 0.05). The amount of citronellol in both samples was equal and did not have a statistically significant difference (p > 0.05). The geraniol content in the artificial samples was higher than the original sample while the citronellol / geraniol ratio showed a very low value in comparison to the original sample and other industrial samples. By examining the number of alcoholic compounds in rosewater, it was found that the original rosewater contained ethanol and methanol but no propylene glycol. By contrast, ethanol and methanol were not observed in the artificial samples, but the presence of propylene glycol alcohol. In addition to ethanol and methanol, some of the propylene glycols were observed in both samples. Consequently, this research showed that compounds such as ethanol, methanol, phenyl ethyl alcohol, geraniol, and citronellol/geraniol ratio can be used as markers in order to determine the originality of rosewater samples.
The aim of this study was to use two probiotic strains, Lactobacillus rhamnosus and Lactobacillus casei, in order to produce a functional fermented camel milk drink with anti-Helicobacter pylori activity. During a 35-day storage period, chemical (pH and acidity contents), sensory characteristics, and Helicobacter pylori inhibitory activity of fermented camel milk samples have been investigated; Helicobacter pylori activity was examined using the Berthelot Method. At the end of the cold storage period, the lactic acid bacteria count was acceptable for probiotic products. Camel skim milk and fermented milk samples showed promising Helicobacter pylori inhibitory activity. The IC50 results from this study were IC50=24.58 and IC50=55/73 .).Specific inhibition or reduction of urease enzyme activity would result in an increased sensitivity of the bacteria in an acidic medium, and therefore, it can be considered a new functional food for stomach problems.
Saffron is a spice derived from the flower of Crocus sativus L. The present study reports the antioxidant capacity and chemical compositions of various parts of saffron. The IC50 for stigma, style, stamen, petal and corm was found to be 4.94 ± 0.25, 123.68 ± 8.52, 58.97 ± 3.63, 46.02 ± 2.89 and 720.49 ± 14.32 μg/mL, respectively. The ferric reducing antioxidant power assay for these parts of saffron flower was determined and the stigma of saffron has the highest (2.36 ± 0.15 g Fe+2/100 g sample) and the corm of saffron has the lowest value (0.03 ± 0.001 g Fe+2/100 g sample). The Folin-Ciocalteu method was used to estimate the total phenolic content and the highest amount was found in stigma (183.25 ± 16.42 g quercetin/100 g sample) and the lowest amount in style of saffron (3.72 ± 0.89 g quercetin/100 g sample) respectively. The stigma and stamen of saffron were found to have 597.67 ± 11.12 and 159.14 ± 5.03 μg/g sample of carotenoid content which is highest among the selected parts of saffron. The aim of this study was to provide information about all of the saffron flower parts.
In this paper, it was aimed to investigate physicochemical and sensorial characteristics of cocoa sponge cake containing xanthan gum during maintenance interval. To reduce the stiffness of the texture, preserve moisture content and suitable sensorial properties during the shelf-life of these types of products using gums can be necessary. The treatments were included 0, 0.1, 0.2 and 0.3% xanthan gum. Moisture, ash, protein, volume values, texture and sensory evaluation of cake were evaluated and for investigating shelf-life, cakes were stored up to 30 days. It demonstrates xanthan gum improves the characteristics of the cake during storage. Using 0.2% of xanthan gum increased volume value (126 ml/g at first day). Moreover, a decreasing trend was observed up to 0.2% gum in hardness, cohesiveness, springiness, gumminess and chewiness of cake. In terms of sensory evaluation, no significant difference was observed between most of the treatment factors (only the aroma of control was significantly different from the treatments). So using xanthan gum in the cake formulation has economical positive aspect and affects quality of final product and its nutritional properties.
