• Preventive Nutrition and Food Science
• /
• v.19 no.2
• /
• pp.115-123
• /
• 2014

In the current study, wheat flour was mixed with high quality cassava flour (HQCF) in several ratios: 90:10, 80:20, 70:30, and 60:40, and used to prepare 10%, 20%, 30%, and 40% National Root Crops Research Institute (NRCRI) cassava bread, respectively. 100% wheat bread was prepared as a control (100% wheat bread). Five bread samples were prepared per group. Antioxidant assays [i.e., 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl radical (DPPH) scavenging assay, reducing power assay] revealed that the bread samples had considerable antioxidant capacities. Substitution of wheat flour with HQCF at various concentrations resulted in dose dependent decreases in the mineral and protein contents of the resulting bread samples. The crude fiber content of the bread samples was minimal, while the carbohydrate content of the bread samples ranged from 43.86% to 48.64%. A 20% substitution of wheat flour with HQCF yielded bread samples with a general acceptability that was comparable to that of 100% wheat bread. The mean bacteria counts of the bread samples ranged from $2.0{\times}10^3CFU/mL$ to $1.4{\times}10^4CFU/mL$, while the fungal counts ranged from 0 CFU/mL to $3{\times}10^3CFU/mL$. There was a positive correlation between the DPPH antioxidant activities and the reducing powers of the bread samples ($R^2=0.871$) and a positive correlation between the DPPH antioxidant activities and the flavonoid contents of the bread samples ($R^2=0.487$). The higher microbial load of the NRCRI cassava bread samples indicates that these bread samples may have a shorter shelf life than the 100% wheat bread. The significant positive correlation between total flavonoid content and reducing power ($R^2=0.750$) suggests that the flavonoids present in the lipophilic fractions of the bread samples could be responsible for the reductive capacities of the bread samples.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
• /
• v.9 no.3
• /
• pp.163-172
• /
• 2018

This study investigated the effect of organic matter on the precipitation of struvite and calcium phosphate for phosphorus recovery from synthetic dairy wastewater. Batch precipitation experiments were performed to precipitate phosphorus from solutions containing $PO_4{^{3-}}$ and $NH_4{^+}$ by the addition of $Mg^{2+}$ and $Ca^{2+}$, separately, at varying pH, Mg/P and Ca/P molar ratios, and organic matter concentrations. Soluble total organic solids exhibited more inhibition to precipitation due to potential interaction with other dissolved ionic species involved in phosphorus precipitation. Xylan with low total acidity only exhibited significant inhibition at very high concentrations in synthetic wastewater (at up to 100 g/L). No significant inhibition was observed for Mg and Ca precipitation at relatively lower concentrations (at up to 1.2 g/L). MINTEQ simulations show that dissolved organic matter (DOM) as humic substances (HS) can cause significant inhibition even at relatively low concentrations of 0.165 g/L fulvic acid. However, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis suggested that xylan altered the crystal structure of both precipitates and had caused the formation of smaller sized struvite crystals with slightly rougher surfaces This could be due to xylan molecules adhering on the surface of the crystal potentially blocking active sites and limit further crystal growth. Smaller particle sizes will have negative practical impact because of poorer settleability.

• International Journal of Industrial Entomology and Biomaterials
• /
• v.45 no.2
• /
• pp.56-69
• /
• 2022

Silk is a unique natural biopolymer with outstanding biocompatibility, high mechanical strength, and superior optical transparency. Due to its excellent properties, silk has been widely reported as an ideal biomaterial for several biomedical applications. Recently, fluorescent silk protein, a variant of native silk, has been reported as a biophotonic material with the potential for bioimaging and biosensing. Despite the realization of fluorescent silk, the traditional degumming process of fluorescence silk is crude and often results in fluorescence loss. The loss of fluorescent properties is attributed to the sensitivity of silk fibroin to temperature and solvent concentration during degumming. However, there is no comprehensive information on the influence of these processing parameters on fluorescence evolution and decay during fluorescent silk processing. Therefore, we conducted a spectroscopic study on fluorescence decay as a function of temperature, concentration, and duration for fluorescent silk cocoon degumming. Sodium carbonate solution was tested for degumming the fluorescent silk cocoons with different concentrations and temperatures; also, sodium carbonate solution is combined with Alcalase enzyme and triton x-100 to find optimal degumming conditions. Additionally, we conducted a molecular dynamics study to investigate the fundamental effect of temperature on the stability of the fluorescent protein. We observed degumming temperature as the prime source of fluorescent intensity reduction. From the MD study, fluorescence degradation originated from the thermal agitation of fluorescent protein Cα atoms and fluctuations of amino acid residues located in the chromophore region. Overall, degumming fluorescent silk with sodium carbonate and Alcalase enzyme solution at 25 ℃ preserved fluorescence.