Fatemeh Nazoori; Elaheh ZamaniBahramabadi; Hossein Rezaei
Abstract
Since processing may affect the quality and benefits of foods, a study was conducted to compare some properties of fresh, sun-dried (constant water content of 4%) and oven-roasted (130 °C for 25 min) pistachio nuts of two cultivars. Carotenoid, iron, copper, manganese, total saturated, total unsaturated, ...
Read More
Since processing may affect the quality and benefits of foods, a study was conducted to compare some properties of fresh, sun-dried (constant water content of 4%) and oven-roasted (130 °C for 25 min) pistachio nuts of two cultivars. Carotenoid, iron, copper, manganese, total saturated, total unsaturated, palmitic, and linolenic fatty acids showed no statistical difference (P≤0.05) among the samples. Comparing the ‘Akbari’ cultivar, the ‘Ahmadaghaei’ cultivar had less anthocyanin and less palmitoleic acid. Drying and roasting reduced antioxidant activity, flavonoid content, and arachidonic acid while increasing kernel firmness, malondialdehyde, and hydrogen peroxide. Chlorophyll content was higher in dried and roasted than fresh status in both cultivars. Stearic acid had a stable content in ‘Ahmadaghaei’, but increased by drying and roasting in ‘Akbari.’ Oleic acid increased by drying and roasting in ‘Ahmadaghaei.’ In ‘Akbari,’ oleic acid first decreased by drying and then increased to the initial level by roasting. Linoleic acid decreased by drying and roasting in ‘Ahmadaghaei’. In ‘Akbari’, it revealed an increasing trend by drying, but again decreased to the initial content after roasting. In conclusion, the conditions in this experiment for drying and roasting the pistachios were not harmful and had some advantages, leading to better pistachios storage.
Fares Alhaj Alali; Mohammad Ali Askari Sarcheshmeh; Mesbah Bababalar
Abstract
Peach fruit (Prunus persica L.) was harvested at the stage of commercial harvest and was then treated with 0, 1, 2, 3 mM citric acid (CiA). A factorial model was planned on a completely randomized block design with three replications. Two factors were used in the experimental design, i.e. 4 storage durations ...
Read More
Peach fruit (Prunus persica L.) was harvested at the stage of commercial harvest and was then treated with 0, 1, 2, 3 mM citric acid (CiA). A factorial model was planned on a completely randomized block design with three replications. Two factors were used in the experimental design, i.e. 4 storage durations × 4 concentrations of CiA. The impact of CiA was evaluated on postharvest quality parameters, decay incidence (DI), vitamin C, total phenolic compounds, and antioxidant capacity, as the peach fruits were maintained in cold storage at 0 ± 0.5 ˚C and 85-90% relative humidity (RH) for 40 days. By the end of the storage time, peach fruits that were treated with 3 mM CiA showed statistical significance and resulted in the highest values of fruit firmness (FF) (1.75 N), titratable acidity (TA) (0.24%), vitamin C (VC) (3.58 mg.100g-1 FW), total phenolic compounds (TPC) (58.49 mg GAE.100g-1 WF) and antioxidant capacity (AC) (52.96%). CiA treatments significantly controlled the DI by about 30.17 % and remarkably extended the shelf life by about 11.66 days, compared to the control samples during the cold storage. Our findings suggested that using CiA, especially at 3 mM, could be a promising treatment in helping to maintain edibility and to inhibit decay in peach fruits. While these can play an important role in the marketing and export of peach fruits, other benefits include a low cost of the chemical inputs and more safety for human consumption. AbbreviationsCitric acid (CiA), Decay incidence (DI), Vitamin C (VC), Total phenolic compounds (TPC), Antioxidant capacity (AC), Fruit Weight loss (FWL), Fruit firmness (FF), Titratable acidity (TA), Total soluble solid (TSS), Relative humidity (RH)
Mohsen Azadbakht; Mohammad Vahedi Torshizi; Mohammad Javad Mahmoodi; Ahmad Abbaszadeh-Mayvan
Abstract
The current study was aimed to evaluate the physiological properties of pear influenced by two dynamics of loading force and the storage time. In this experiment, the pears were subjected to dynamic loading (300, 350 and 400 g) and different storage periods (5, 10 and 15 d). The amounts of fruit total ...
Read More
The current study was aimed to evaluate the physiological properties of pear influenced by two dynamics of loading force and the storage time. In this experiment, the pears were subjected to dynamic loading (300, 350 and 400 g) and different storage periods (5, 10 and 15 d). The amounts of fruit total phenol, antioxidant and Vitamin C contents were evaluated after each storage period. In the present study, multilayer perceptron (MLP) artificial neural network featuring a hidden layer and two activating functions (hyperbolic tangent-sigmoid) and a total number of 5 and 10 neurons in each layer were selected for the loading force and storage period so that the amounts of the total phenol, antioxidants and Vitamin C contents of the fruits could be forecasted. According to the obtained results, the highest R2 for dynamic loading in a network with 5 neurons in the hidden layer and a sigmoid activation function were obtained for total phenol content (R2 = 0.980), antioxidant (R2 = 0.983) and Vitamin C (R2 = 0.930). Additionally, considering the value of Epoch and Run for the network, the ability of the neural network to predict total phenol, antioxidant and Vitamin C contents can be used. According to the obtained results, the neural network with these two activation functions possesses an appropriate ability in overlapping and predicting the simulated data based on real data.
Marzieh Babashpour-Asl; Marzieh Piryaei
Abstract
This study aimed to determine the amount of flavonoids, anthocyanins, total phenolic compounds, ascorbic acid and antioxidant activity of the peel and pulp of the quince (Cydonia oblonga Mill.) in the polar and nonpolar sub-fractions of methanol extracts with two extraction methods, Soxhlet and microwave. ...
Read More
This study aimed to determine the amount of flavonoids, anthocyanins, total phenolic compounds, ascorbic acid and antioxidant activity of the peel and pulp of the quince (Cydonia oblonga Mill.) in the polar and nonpolar sub-fractions of methanol extracts with two extraction methods, Soxhlet and microwave. The antioxidant properties were assessed by the ability to quench the stable free radical 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH), ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP) and β-carotene bleaching assays. The results showed that the Soxhlet method extracted higher amount of the phytochemicals. In the DPPH system, the highest radical scavenging activity was seen by the polar sub-fraction of the methanol extract in the peel of quince fruit (IC50=52±7.3 μg/mL). Among all the extracts analyzed, the polar sub-fraction of the peel extract exhibited a significantly higher total flavonoid (62.33±3.1 mg CTE/100 g), anthocyanin (1.54±0.24 μg C-3-GE/100 mg fresh weight), phenolic content (108.14 μg GAE/mg) and antioxidant activity than other samples with Soxhlet extraction method. Fruit has a number of bioactive ingredients and many of them were concentrated in the peel of the fruit rather than the flesh. Therefore, enjoy the benefits that unpeeled fruit offers! The present study revealed that the peel of quince fruit has higher phytochemicals and antioxidant properties when compared to the pulp.
Masoud Haghshenas; Mohammad Javad Nazarideljou; Akbar Shokoohian
Abstract
The moderating role of salicylic acid (SA) and putrescine (PUS) as plant growth regulators (PGRs), on the growth parameters and phytochemical and qualitative characteristics of strawberry fruit 'Selva' under osmotic stress was investigated under soilless culture. The osmotic potential (salinity) of the ...
Read More
The moderating role of salicylic acid (SA) and putrescine (PUS) as plant growth regulators (PGRs), on the growth parameters and phytochemical and qualitative characteristics of strawberry fruit 'Selva' under osmotic stress was investigated under soilless culture. The osmotic potential (salinity) of the nutrient solution containing different NaCl concentrations (0, 7.5, 15, 30 and 45 mM) and foliar application of PUS (0 and 1.5 mM) and SA (0 and 1.5 mM) were studied. The results showed a significant decrease in plant leaf area (79.6%), total chlorophyll content (48%), fruit yield (73.5%), leaf relative water content (33%), total protein (33.4%), total phenol (7.8%), and vitamin C content (24.5%) under osmotic stress. Moreover, peroxidase (POD) and superoxide dismutase (SOD) enzymes activity, leaf ion leakage, and soluble carbohydrate and proline content increased significantly under osmotic stress. Application of PGRs had a significant effect on all the studied traits (except for SOD activity). Interactive effects of salinity and PGRs were significant on all the traits except for leaf ion leakage, POD activity, soluble carbohydrates, and protein. The highest total phenol and vitamin C contents were obtained with 15 mM salinity along with foliar application of PGRs. In conclusion, foliar application of PUS and SA ameliorate negative effects of salt stress on growth, yield, and quality of strawberry fruit.
Masoud Sharifkhah; Davood Bakhshi; Mohammadreza Pourghayoumi; Soma Abdi; Hossein Hokmabadi
Abstract
To obtain the best quality and quantity of pistachio fruits, knowing the most suitable time of pollination, is of paramount importance. This study was conducted to investigate the effect of pollination time, different stages of female flower development, including A (lower florets opened and clusters ...
Read More
To obtain the best quality and quantity of pistachio fruits, knowing the most suitable time of pollination, is of paramount importance. This study was conducted to investigate the effect of pollination time, different stages of female flower development, including A (lower florets opened and clusters were green), B (lower and medial florets opened and clusters were green), C (all florets opened and clusters were light green), D (the stigma in the lowest florets was light pink), and E (the stigma in the lowest and medial florets was pink) on quantitative and qualitative characteristics of fruits in three pistachio cultivars (‘Ghermez Peste’, ‘Kal Khandan’, and ‘Kaleh Bozi’). Results showed that the highest yield in ‘GhermezPeste’ obtained when the manual pollination carried out at the stage that the cluster were green (early flowering period) while the highest yield In ‘KalKhandan’ and ‘KalehBozi’ were observed when the pollination carried out at the full bloom stage. The highest amount of total phenolics, total flavonoid, and antioxidant activity of fruits observed when pollination carried out at the stage that lower florets opened and clusters were green. The Lowest amount of total flavonoid and antioxidant capacity were obtained in the fruits that pollination carried out in the stage that the stigma in middle and lower florets were pink. As a first step towards identifying the best time for manual pollination of pistachio trees, our results showed manual pollination in the suitable blooming stage led to higher yield and quality of pistachio nuts.
Bahareh Parsa Motlagh; Parviz Rezvani Moghaddam; Zabihollah Azami Sardooei
Abstract
In order to evaluate the effects of sowing date and intra rows spacing on yield, yield components and some phytochemical characteristics in Roselle, a field experiment was conducted as a split plot layout based on randomized complete block design with three replications in 2013 and 2014 growing seasons. ...
Read More
In order to evaluate the effects of sowing date and intra rows spacing on yield, yield components and some phytochemical characteristics in Roselle, a field experiment was conducted as a split plot layout based on randomized complete block design with three replications in 2013 and 2014 growing seasons. Five sowing dates were considered as the main plots (11th and 30th of March, 14th of April, 5th and 22th of May) and three intra rows spacing were considered as the subplots (50, 75 and 100 cm). The results indicated that delayed sowing date significantly reduced plant height, number of bolls, number of branches per plant, calyx dry weight, calyx yield, seed yield and biomass yield. Plant height, calyx yield, seed yield and biomass yield were increased by reducing intra rows spacing. Reducing the intra rows spacing caused decrease in number of branches, number of bolls, seed weight, calyx and plant dry weights. Anthocyanin and vitamin C were significantly reduced by delaying in sowing date. Although sowing dates had no significant effect on total phenol but antioxidants were influenced by sowing date. Furthermore, intra rows spacing did not caused any significant effect on phytochemical traits of Roselle. Based on the obtained results, it seems sowing hibiscus tea in the late of March to mid-May and 50 cm intra rows spacing, under hot and dry climate condition would be suitable for increase the final yield of Roselle.