The effect of dietary supplementation of milk fermented with indigenous probiotic Lactobacillus plantarum (LP625) alone and in combination with herbs (Aloe vera and Gymnema sylvestre) was investigated on high fat diet (HFD, 60 kcal% fat) fed mice for 12 weeks. Administration of LP625 alone or in combination with both herbs lowered the final body weight, however, a significant difference was observed with LP625 supplemented Gymnema sylvestre only as compared to the HFD fed group (25.06±0.18 vs 27.29±0.72 g, P<0.05). Similarly, the epididymal fat mass, fasting blood glucose and serum insulin levels were significantly (P<0.05) decreased by all treatment groups. In addition, a protective effect against the rise in serum and liver triglycerides, and in liver total cholesterol levels was found with the consumption of LP625 alone or in combination with herbs. Furthermore, the HFD fed mice showed a remarkable increase in the epididymal fat cell size, whereas administration of LP625 alone or in combination with herbs exhibited a significant decrease in the size. Finally, a significant increase in the relative mRNA expression of thermogenic proteins, i.e. uncoupling protein-2 (UCP-2, 1.16±0.25 fold change, P<0.05) and a decrease in pro-inflammatory markers, such as tumour necrosis factor-α and interleukin-6 (1.55±0.18 and 3.10±0.58 fold change, respectively, P<0.05) were due to LP625 supplementation in the HFD fed group. This shows that LP625 alone or supplemented with herbs seems to protect against diet induced obesity by decreasing the body and epididymal fat weight through upregulation of UCP-2 expression and reduced expression of pro-inflammatory cytokines.

Dextranase was produced from fungus Paecilomyces lilacinus by submerged fermentation under different cultural conditions viz. pH, incubation temperature, inoculum size and days of incubation for maximum enzyme production. Maximum enzyme production was achieved at pH 6.0 of Mandel media and at temperature 30°C. Inoculum size of 1 × 10 7 spores/ml was found to be optimum for maximum enzyme production. Enzyme production increased with the increase in days of incubation from 3 to 5 days and then declined thereafter. Dextranase units (from 1 to 15 U/100 ml juice) were exogenously added to sugarcane juice with an aim to optimize dextranase application for removal of dextran from cane juice. Addition of dextranase in juice of cane variety CoS 8436, resulted in relatively less increase in dextran content as compared to control during storage. Whereas, dextran content in untreated juice increased 10 times during 24 h of storage, the increase during this period was only 2.3 times in juice treated with 15 U of dextranase. With the application of 1, 2, 5, 10 and 15 units of dextranase in 100 ml of juice, dextran content was decreased by 15.51, 30.82, 50.20, 68.20 and 73.30 % as compared to the control (with no dextranase added) after 24 h of storage. This study finds application in minimizing the dextran problem in sugar industry.

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The objective of this study was to characterize mongrel dog seminal plasma proteins with SDS-PAGE and to determine the correlation between different proteins and semen characteristics. Ejaculate volume, sperm motility, total sperm count, live sperm percent, percentage abnormalities and membrane integrity (hypo osmotic swelling test) were assessed in 5 ejaculates of seven dogs. For each dog, seminal plasma was also pooled from five ejaculates and proteins were separated by SDS-PAGE using polyacrylamide concentration of 13% and 15% in separating gels. There was considerable variation in the semen characteristics among the ejaculates of different dogs. Total protein content of seminal plasma varied from 12.06 to 21.3 mg/ml in different dogs. The number of protein bands ranged from 10-12 in different dogs. The proteins with mol wt of 42, 33, 29, 24 and 14.0 kDa were major proteins in seminal plasma of mongrel dog and ranged from 61.3% to 74.3% in different dogs. There were differences in live sperm percent (CD 5% =21.7) and HOS positive spermatozoa (CD 5% =21.01) among different dogs. There was strong correlation between volume of semen and total sperm concentration (r= +0.87), whereas the correlation between motility vs HOST (r=+0.58) and motility vs live percent (r=+0.60) was moderate. A positive correlation was observed between concentrations of 82, 70, 24, 14 kDa proteins vs percent motility, live sperm percent and percent HOS positive spermatozoa. Our study confirmed the previous conclusion that HOS-test could also be included in routine evaluation of semen. The positive correlation of 14, 24, 70 and 82 kDa proteins with semen characteristics also inferred the role of these proteins in the fertility of mongrel dog semen, which needs to be worked out further for their role in the process of fertilization.The author(s) have nothing to declare.