Thanks to its rich content, propolis has been used to protect the hive from all kinds of external influences and for disinfection by bees. Furthermore, it is an important marker for monitoring environmental pollution because the main sources of propolis are plant and secretions. So, the present study aimed to research radiation attenuation capability and the natural radioactivity level of propolis samples. For this reason, both natural radioactivity concentrations (226Ra, 232Th and 40K) and attenuation coefficients (Linear and Mass) in the propolis samples collected from 10 different points in Turkey were measured using high purity germanium detector (HPGe). The average natural radioactivity concentrations in samples were found to be 0.56 ± 0.19, 2.65 ± 0.31 and 70.08 ± 2.42 Bq/kg for 226Ra, 232Th and 40K, respectively. These values were much lower than the average world values (35 Bq/kg for 226Ra, 30 Bq/kg for 232Th and 400 Bq/kg for 40K) reported by United Nations Scientific Committee on Effects of Atomic Radiation (UNSCEAR) in foodstuff. The average linear attenuation coefficient, mass attenuation coefficients and half value layer values for gamma rays with 59.54 keV energy were determined as 0.1970 cm−1, 0.1831 cm2 g−1 and 3.56 cm, respectively. In addition, antioxidant properties of the samples were measured using total phenolic content and ferric reducing antioxidant power. Their correlations with radioactivity were investigated.
Drinking yogurt (ayran) is one of the valuable traditional Anatolian dairy products. Ayran is prepared traditionally through adding water and salt to yogurt or manufactured industrially by fermentation of yogurt culture added diluted milk. Nowadays, interest and consumption of traditional different fermented dairy products have spread rapidly around the world. Although cucumber-yogurt (cacik), soda ayran, fruitful ayran have a commercial face, there is still locally consumed drinking yogurt ayran types. One of the locally consumed ayran types is herby-hot ayran from Puturge-Malatya. In the preparation of herby-hot ayran, the flavoring herbs/spices are added to the ayran in earthenware pots then buried under the soil and left to ferment spontaneously for at least 15 days. The objectives of this study were to determine physicochemical, microbiological, and sensory properties of traditional purslane and/or Cayenne pepper added drinking yogurt from Puturge-Malatya, Turkey. The analysis results were found total dry matter 5.80-7.03 %, pH 3.77-4.30, titratable acidity 0.61-1.17 % lactic acid, serum separation 11.17-21.5 mL (50 mL)-1. Levels of lactic acid bacteria (LAB) ranged from 7.00 to 8.04 log cfu mL-1 and the mold and yeast (MY) levels varied from 5.25 to 6.98 log cfu mL-1 for studied samples. Properties of traditional herby-hot ayran are found different from plain ayran. The results demonstrated that this product may have the potential for consumer preference. To reveal the changes occurring in product characteristics during the fermentation period would be thus of interest.
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