Efficacy of chitosan‐coated paper incorporated with vanillin and ethylene adsorbents on the control of anthracnose and the quality of Nam Dok Mai mango fruit

Mango fruit is perishable and susceptible to anthracnose. Active‐coated paper is proposed as potential packaging for commercial application in wrapping mango fruit to control anthracnose and delay the ripening process of fruit. The surface of white standard bleached paper was coated using a vanillin‐chitosan coating solution containing varying amounts of zeolite or activated carbon at 0% (vanillin paper), 0.1%, 0.2%, and 0.4%, w/v of ethylene absorbers. The first objective was to study the effect of absorber types and their amounts on ethylene removal. After that, the coating formulation that provided the highest ethylene removal was selected to wrap commercial Nam Dok Mai mango fruit to study the quality changes. The efficacy of active‐coated paper on the severity index of anthracnose disease, change in physicochemical properties, and sensory acceptability during storage (13°C, 90% relative humidity (RH) for 30 days) were investigated. It was found that vanillin‐chitosan coated paper containing 0.2% (w/v) of zeolite (zeolite paper) exhibited the highest capacity of ethylene adsorption. Zeolite paper could delay the disease incidence of wrapped mango fruit and provided the lowest severity index of anthracnose disease throughout storage. Moreover, changes in physicochemical qualities (weight loss, firmness, titratable acidity, total soluble solid, and color) of mango fruits wrapped in zeolite paper was quite low, compared with those wrapped with vanillin and uncoated papers. In addition, mango wrapped by zeolite paper had the highest sensory acceptance score. The results suggest that zeolite paper can efficiently be applied as wrapping to extend the postharvest life of mango fruit.     

Effects of gamma irradiation dose and short-term storage on phytochemicals,antioxidants, and textural properties of boiled ‘Tainan 9’ peanuts

Boiled peanuts are preferable as a ready-to-eat healthy snack; however, gamma irradiation as a postharvest treatment of raw peanuts may induce unfavourable food components. Hence, the phytochemical, antioxidant, and the texture of boiled ‘Tainan 9’ peanuts pretreated with gamma irradiation (0, 2.5, 5, and 10 kGy) and stored at 29 ± 2 °C for up to 180 days were investigated. Both gamma irradiation and storage time contributed to testa darkening in raw peanuts. In boiled irradiated products, irradiation doses and storage time affected the moisture content (MC), total proteins, total oil, total soluble sugars, and antioxidant capacity (P ≤ 0.05). Total phenolic and flavonoid contents showed an increase at days 90 and decreased at days 180 across all treatments. A positive correlation was observed among ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP), total phenolics, and total flavonoids. Gamma irradiation at 10 kGy led to increase of peroxide value (PV) (P ≤ 0.05), but malondialdehyde (MDA) content was unaffected. Textural properties of boiled irradiated peanuts were soft. As a result, gamma irradiation at 5 kGy is recommended for postharvest treatment of raw peanuts with subsequent storage up to 180 days to obtain the eating quality of boiled peanuts with good phytochemicals and antioxidant properties, which is a challenge for food industry.     

Mechanism of antifoam behavior of solutions of nonionic surfactants above the cloud point

Aqueous solutions of nonionic surfactants exhibit low foaming above their cloud point, a temperature above which the homogeneous solutions separates into two phases: a dilute phase containing a low surfactant concentration and coacervate phase containing a very high surfactant concentration (e.g., 20 wt% surfactant). In this work, foam formation was measured for the dilute phase, the coacervate, and the mixed solution using the Ross-Miles method for nonylphenol polyethoxylates with 8, 9, or 10 ethylene oxide moieties per molecule. The dilute phase showed no antifoam effect above the cloud point if the coacervate phase was not present, and the coacervate phase foamed little in the absence of the dilute phase. The coacervate phase acts as an oil droplet antifoam to the dilute phase. From surface and interfacial tension data, entering, spreading, and bridging coefficients for this system make it appear probable that the coacervate phase is forming bridges across the film lamellae of the dilute-phase foam and acting to suppress foam formation through the bridging mechanism.     

Modified Dietary Fiber from Cassava Pulp and Assessment of Mercury Bioaccessibility and Intestinal Uptake Using an In Vitro Digestion/Caco‐2 Model System

The ability of modified dietary fiber (MDF) generated from cassava pulp to modulate the bioaccessibility and intestinal absorption of heavy metals may be helpful to mitigate health risk associated with select foods including select fish high in methyl mercury. Using a coupled in vitro digestion/Caco‐2 human intestinal cell model, the reduction of fish mercury bioaccessibility and intestinal uptake by MDF was investiaged. MDF was prepared from cassava pulp, a byproduct of tapioca production. The highest yield (79.68%) of MDF was obtained by enzymatic digestion with 0.1% α‐amylase (w/v), 0.1% amyloglucosidase (v/v) and 1% neutrase (v/v). MDF and fish tissue were subjected to in vitro digestion and results suggest that MDF may reduce mercury bioaccessibility from fish to 34% to 85% compared to control in a dose‐dependent manner. Additionally, accumulation of mercury from digesta containing fish and MDF was only modestly impacted by the presence of MDF. In conclusion, MDF prepared from cassava pulp may be useful as an ingredient to reduce mercury bioavailability from food such as fish specifically by inhibiting mercury transfer to the bioaccessibile fraction during digestion.     

Active wrapping paper against mango anthracnose fungi and its releasing profiles

Active wrapping papers varied in bio‐based coating materials (chitosan and carboxymethyl cellulose) and vanillin concentrations (0.5%, 1.0%, 2.0%, and 4.0% (w/v)) were prepared to study their antifungal effects and release properties. Chitosan‐coated paper with 1% (w/v) vanillin gave the best inhibition against mycelial growth of mango anthracnose fungi and could inhibit its conidiospores germination. The release of vanillin from a chitosan‐coated paper under different conditions of temperatures (13°C, 25°C, and 37°C), relative humidity (RH) (75%, 86%, and 96% RH), and pH values (pH 3.8, 5.2, and 6.2) was studied. Moreover, the vanillin release from the paper to mango fruit under an actual commercial storage condition (13°C, 90% RH) was also investigated. The predominant mechanism of vanillin release under low temperatures (13‐25°C) and all RH studied was a Fickian diffusion, whereas the high temperature (37°C) and in all buffers varying pH showed a non‐Fickian behaviour. Increasing temperature and RH enhanced in diffusion coefficient (D value) from 78.24 × 10^?10 to 162.10 × 10^?10 cm²/s and 42.87 × 10^?10 to 59.98 × 10^?10 cm²/s, respectively. Meanwhile, the increasing pH value reduced the D value from 233.87 × 10^?10 to 122.74 × 10^?10 cm²/s. The kinetic of vanillin release under an actual wrapping application exhibited a non‐Fickian behaviour, and the D value was considerably low (approximately 65.36 × 10^?12 cm²/s). The developed active wrapping paper can be great interest for food industry and is practically reasonable for postharvest mango fruits.     

King Boletus mushroom-derived bioactive protein hydrolysate: characterisation,antioxidant, ACE inhibitory and cytotoxic activities

The enzymatic-bromelain King Boletus mushroom protein hydrolysate (eb-KBM) was determined in terms of the biological properties (antioxidant, antihypertensive and cytotoxic activities) and compared with unhydrolysed or water-soluble King Boletus mushroom extract (ws-KBM). The eb-KBM showed high antioxidant activities, as assessed by ABTS (70.9%), DPPH (60.9%) assays and hydroxyl radicals (66.0%) scavenging method. Angiotensin-I converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitory activity of eb-KBM was 21.1% at 1 mg protein mL⁻¹. Anticancer activity-relevant cytotoxicity of eb-KBM in ChaGo-K1 (undifferentiated lung carcinoma) and HEP-G2 (hepatocarcinoma) cells was higher than that of ws-KBM, with lower IC₅₀ values (6.43 and 6.35 µg mL⁻¹, respectively). The great biological activities of eb-KBM were related to its amino acid composition, with high contents of hydrophobic amino acids and aromatic amino acids. These results indicate that King Boletus mushroom protein hydrolysate or bioactive peptide could be used as natural antioxidative, ACE inhibitory and anticancer activities in the nutraceutical and pharmaceutical industries.     

Evaluation of the impact of tablet screen size on children tracing performance

Tablet PCs are used in various situations in everyday life. Many researchers found that tablets have the potential to enhance young children in learning; however, the optimal of tablet size on finger tracing for young children was not investigated. In this paper, we explored the impact of three different sizes of touch screen tablets: iPad, Samsung Galaxy Tab 7″, and Samsung Galaxy S4 on efficiency and usability for young children ages between 4 and 6 year. Our study focused on the mechanics of tracing alphabets using finger on capacitive-touch tablets, while its outcome has potential implications towards tablet screen size for interfaces to support finger tracing on such devices. The performances were recorded and observed for the analysis of the data with respect to task efficiency and usability. Then, we adopted the Smileyometer based on a 1–5 Likert Scale as an instrument to measure perceived satisfaction. The usability evaluation’s results showed no significant difference in speed and accuracy performance. Nevertheless, tracing the alphabet on iPad was easier, more attractive and was able to increase more attention span than others. As well as the result from the Smileyometer, all of the participants preferred and felt more comfortable to use iPad.     

Continuous transmethylation of palm oil in an organic solvent

Palm oil was transmethylated continuously at 70°C in an organic solvent with sodium methoxide as a catalyst. The optimum ratio of toluene to palm oil is 1∶1 (v/v). When the methanol-to-oil molar ratio was 13∶1, transmethylation was 96% complete within 60 seconds. At higher molar ratio (17∶1), transmethylation was 99% complete in 15 seconds. For lower molar ratios of methanol-to-oil (9∶1 and 5.8∶1), yields of palm oil methyl ester (POME) were 84 and 58%, respectively. Benzene was also a good solvent for transmethylation, but the yield of POME was slightly lower than toluene. Tetrahydrofuran did not accelerate transmethylation.