Treatment or processing of starch with organic acids (citric, stearic, succinic, and malic acids) can be used to obtain starch properties like low retrogradation, desirable viscosity, shear resistance, and high resistant starch. Esterification, cross linking, and hydrolysis of starch may occur after modification with organic acids (citric, succinic acid, malic acid) whereas a complex between starch and stearic acid may be formed on use of stearic acid. The conditions of reactions namely duration, starch acid concentration ratio, and temperature may influence physicochemical and structural properties of starch. Citric acid, succinic acid, stearic acid, and malic acid are regarded as "GRAS" and thus the starch citrate, starch succinate, starch stearate, and starch maleate are widely used in manufacturing of starch films, blends, nanoparticles, fat replacer, viscosity enhancer, and many other products. This review paper discusses the reaction conditions of organic acid modification of starches along with their influence on physicochemical and structural characteristics.

No abstract

Background: Anaemia is a global public health problem. To optimize iron delivery in pregnancy, new intravenous complexes like Ferric carboxymaltose (FCM) have been developed in the few years. This study aims to compare the efficacy and safety of FCM vs the iron sucrose during pregnancy.Methods: This study was conducted in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Shri Maharaja Gulab Singh (S.M.G.S.) Hospital, Government Medical College Jammu, Jammu and Kashmir over a period of 1 year. 100 pregnant females with haemoglobin (Hb) in the range 7-9.9 g/dl between 28 to 36-week gestation, were selected randomly out of which 50 were administered FCM (Group A) and 50 were administered Iron Sucrose (Group B). Hb and serum ferritin were assessed 2 weeks and 4 weeks after treatment and side effects of each drug was studied.Results: The rise in mean Hb level at 2 weeks and 4 weeks in FCM group was significantly higher as compared to Iron Sucrose group (1.09 versus 0.52 g/dl and 1.80 versus 1.09 g/dl, respectively). Similarly, the rise in mean serum ferritin level at 2 weeks and 4 weeks was more in FCM as compared to Iron Sucrose group (144.25 vs 95.84 mcg/L and 121.31 vs 84.46 mcg/L, respectively). The adverse reactions were observed in 30% of patients in FCM group and 48% patients in iron sucrose group.Conclusions: Ferric carboxymaltose was found to be more safe and efficacious as compared to iron sucrose.

No abstract

No abstract