Volume 20, Issue 8

Coffee consumption could provide various benefits for human health, but also could contribute to several health problems. The growing trend of coffee consumption has created a rising demand for decaffeinated coffee that is safe for consumers with low caffeine tolerance. Decaffeination process, however, can result in the alteration of several properties of coffee which affect overall coffee taste. This review discussed current decaffeination methods such as water decaffeination, solvent decaffeination, supercritical decaffeination, and biodecaffeination which includes their mechanisms, benefits, and drawbacks as well as their effect in the physicochemical and sensory characteristics of coffee. Solvent decaffeination has showed potential improvements in the future such as the incorporation of membrane and ultrasonic technology. In addition, the mathematical model for caffeine diffusion has been arranged according to Fick’s second law of diffusion, based upon spherical and rectangular coordinates with several assumptions. Further research should be aimed to maintain the properties of coffee after decaffeination process. Furthermore, utilizing new solvents that are safe and non-toxic will potentially be favorable research in the development of decaffeination methods in the future.

The study aims at investigating the impact of ultrasound enhancement on the water change and quality characteristics of dried carrots by heat pump drying (HPD). The results showed that ultrasound had obvious strengthening effect on the drying and dehydration process of HPD, but there was an attenuation effect of ultrasound in the propagation process of materials, and the magnetic resonance imaging results could visually demonstrate the change and migration of moisture inside carrot slices. Higher drying temperature and ultrasonic power could cause more micropores and higher content of polyphenols, flavonoids and niacin of carrot slices. Conversely, the elevated drying temperature reduced rehydration ratio. β -carotene content showed a trend of increasing first and then decreasing due to excessive temperature and ultrasonic power. Based on AHP-CRTITC method, the highest comprehensive score was attained at drying temperature of 60 °C and ultrasonic power of 80 W. Therefore, the reinforcement effect of ultrasound on HPD process could significantly enhance dehydration rate and improve product quality.

The biofilm-forming pathogens with acquired antibiotic resistance and associated disease outbreaks are increasing worldwide, especially in the seafood industry. This study hypothesised that the bioengineered iron nanoparticles using the myrobalan (Terminalia chebula) extract (M-FeNPs) and its resin coating have an effective antibiofilm properties. 12 seafood waste-based biofilm-forming strains (SSS) were isolated from SS-316 metal coupon and screened for their antibiotic-resistant profile as per CLSI (2016) standards. M-FeNPs were characterised by UV, FTIR, etc. Over 50 % of SSS were resistant to Ciprofloxacin, Cefalexin and Penicillin-G. The antibiofilm activity of the M-FeNPs showed an excellent inhibition zone (16–24 mm), and the combination of M-FeNPs + Methicillin also showed better activity. in vitro antibiofilm study shows that upon adding M-FeNPs, biofilm formation was reduced from 1.425 g to 0.83 g at the end of the eighth day. The CLSM and SEM images indicated that the M-FeNPs are effective antibiofilm agents against biofilm strains.

This paper is concerned with a numerical approach for grain drying process in a packed moving grain dryer, where the grain drying process is regarded as steady process based on a newly proposed steady state equation for moisture content of grain. The present method is compared with antecedent results suggested by Zare (Zare D. Computer simulation of rough rice drying in a batch dryer. Energy Convers Manag 2006;47:3241–54) conducted experiments for moisture content and temperature of grain dried in a fixed bed dryer, and shows good agreement. The present model is then extended to the case of the cylindrical dryer with a packed falling bed. The effects of operating parameters of the dryer (i.e. temperature and flow rate of inlet hot air and moving velocity of packed bed) on moisture content of grain are considered. The present approach can be applied to predict the positional distribution of physical quantities such as temperatures of air and grains as well as the relative humidity of air and the moisture content of grains in an arbitrarily-shaped packed moving grain dryer.

Different agarose-based (agar-based) hydrogels for Se-enriched cultures of mature vegetables were successfully synthesized, and their structure and morphology were characterized using FT-IR, XRD, TGA, and SEM. The growth indices and Se content of pakchoi plants grown on different agar-based hydrogels were measured. The results showed that the Agar-NS-SeCA-AC hydrogel system can support plant growth for prolonged periods under Se-enriched cultivation. The introduction of the three additives accounted for a 191.09 % increase in the pakchoi yield compared with that of the pristine Agar hydrogel but improved the Se content of the pakchoi by 10.77 %. Moreover, an orthogonal experimental design was used to analyze the influence of NS, SeCA, and AC on the growth and Se enrichment effect of pakchoi grown on agar-based hydrogels. Our findings provide a novel substrate for plant Se-enriched cultivation and could lead to the development of new strategies for indoor Se-enriched farming and space Se-enriched farming.

Annually, amounts of orange waste are directed into the environment. The orange waste oil is a potential source of compounds of interest and alternatives have been explored to highlight their potential. Appropriately, this study investigated the effects of oil extraction processes involving pressurized liquids (PLE) and supercritical CO 2 (SC-CO 2 ) on orange residues. The results were compared with the standard Soxhlet procedure. The optimization of the operational parameters was established based on the adjustment of different process conditions for pressure (150 and 350 bar), extraction time (20 and 60 min), and temperature (40 and 60 °C). The results indicated that the maximum oil yields for orange peel and pomace were 37.76 % and 43.39 %, respectively, for the PLE approach. The SC-CO 2 expressed maximum yields of up to 0.50 % and 0.38 % for peel and pomace, respectively. The GC-MS analysis reported the concentration of bioactive compounds after the distinct extraction methods.