Abstract-

No abstract

The need for storage is one of the crucial factors considered in food preservation, due to deterioration and spoilage of food materials. Drying as a means of preservation has been adopted in processing of food materials by exposing the material to heat to heat for the reduction of moisture content to the level unfavorable for mold growth. Monkey cola is a nutritional indigenous seed known with its pleasant taste and medicinal values. Moisture kinetics and drying time were used to examine the drying characteristics of Monkey cola seed. Monkey kola seed and a suitable mathematical model was developed by fitting the drying data gotten from the open sun drying and oven drying of monkey kola at different temperatures (40, 50, 65, 60 and 70 0 C) to properly predict the drying characteristics of the seed using statistical tools. This gives the highest R ₂ and lowest RMSE and provided the longterm performance of correlation for each degree of temperature. The best model fitted for each temperature at 40, 50, 65, 60 and 70 0 C for oven drying were Diffusion approach, Verma, Hii, and Midili Kucuk models, respectively, and Midili Kucuk model, for open sun drying. Temperature dependence of the effective diffusivity (Deff) coefficient was expressed by an Arrhenius type relationship and the activation energy (Ea) was determined.

Currently, the demand of food far exceeds agricultural production in most developing countries including Nigeria as a result of unsustainable agricultural practices and environmental degradation. Increase in agricultural importation has subsequently increased the government’s expenditure and yearly budget, while also influencing the price of food in the nation. Therefore, a look into other sustainable food options to fight hunger and poverty in Nigeria is imperative. This study attempts to investigate how genetically modified food can help solve the numerous challenges of food security. The study revealed the shortfall in domestically produced food in Nigeria for instance, which is as a result of rapid population growth rate of 3.2% as opposed to food production rate of less than 1%. Advancement in genetic modification technologies has ensured the production of virus, stress-resistant crops and also disease resistant animals. Although these technologies are predominantly employed on plant than animals. Genetically modified foods employ biotechnological processes to alter inherent features of living organisms by replacing the natural gene sequence. Across the globe, several products modified and regenerated by genetic alteration have already been patented and certified by health institutes to be consumable. Foods such as rice, potato, corn, wheat, and soya ranks top in the list of products derived from Genetic Modified species. As research deepens in biotechnology, more uncertainties and controversies surround the consumption of GM products through cutting edge scientific research checked in legal framework, consumers will no longer react negatively towards GM foods.

The research evaluates the extraction yield and antioxidant potentials of essential oil (EO) of sweet orange peels using pressurized liquid extraction (PLE), Soxhlet (Sox) and hydro distillation (HD). The extracts were investigated to find out the antioxidant properties using 2, 2 -diphenyl-1-picryl-hydrazyl (DPPH) and 2, 2 azino-bis (3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonate) radical (ABTS•+). PLE and Soxhlet extracted essential oil showed additional polyphenol compounds and tannins using thin layerchromatogram (TLC) and chemical analyses,respectively. Hydrodistillation indicating a pure essential oil without identified tannins and polyphenols with the highest ABTS activity compared to other produced essential oils of PLE and Soxhlet. The major chemical constituents of the pure essential oil were identified by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) and they include limonene (90.72%), myrcene (2.82%) and octanol acetate (1.24%). PLE had moderate high yield within short extraction time and the highest antioxidant (DPPH) and can be adjusted to individual materials to maximize the extraction yield and antioxidant property.