Abstract-Commercially available, fourteen different rice varieties (improved and traditional) in Sri Lanka

The perishable nature and seasonality of fruits make them harder to use in the food industry. Hence, the aim of this study is to preserve antioxidant-rich Syzygium caryophyllatum (L.) fruit using different drying techniques and evaluate the efficiency of drying methods in terms of antioxidant capacity. Fruits were dried using five different drying methods, namely, sun drying, dehumidified air drying, oven drying, vacuum drying, and freeze-drying. Highest 2,2-diphenyl-2-picryl-hydrazyl free radical scavenging activity (DPPH%) and Ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP) value retention were observed in vacuum drying and lowest in sun drying. Furthermore, during fruit drying, it is important to maintain the drying time as minimum as possible to minimize the loss of antioxidant activity. Therefore, vacuum drying was selected as the best drying method in preserving antioxidantrich Syzygium caryophyllatum (L.) fruit pulp.

No abstract

Reverse spherification is a common technique used in molecular gastronomy to produce innovative products with an improved texture by shaping a liquid into an edible semisolid sphere that gives a burst in the mouth sensation. In this study, liquid-core hydrogel beads (LHBs) were prepared using Syzygium caryophyllatum fruit pulp adapting reverse-phase molecular gastronomy as a minimal processing technique to promote it as a healthy snack. Three types of hydrogel beads were formulated while considering the stability of LHBs. Long-term hardening of fruit juice in sodium alginate solution and the addition of plasticizer was used as two methods to increase the textural stability of LHBs. Results revealed that the addition of the plasticizer imparted to improve all the physical and textural properties of beads; however, it affects the transparency of the hydrogel membrane as well. Although the plasticizer increased the textural stability of LHBs, prolong inlaying them in it (the plasticizer) contribute to occur adverse consequences on the quality. Hence, the inlaying of LHBs in glycerol for 2 min was selected as the best treatment (HBP1). Since HBP1 had a low hardness (125.00 g) and high resilience (0.21), it imparted a chewing gumlike texture to LHBs. Hence, it (HBP1) can be used as a healthy snack. While HBP1 was capable of retained 90% antioxidant activity of fresh fruit of S. caryophyllatum, total polyphenolic content, 2,2-diphenyl-2-picryl-hydrazyl scavenging activity %, and ferric reducing antioxidant power value of this formulation were 59.50 GAE/g of dried LHBs, 68.96% and 139.69 TE/g of dried LHBs, respectively.

Presently, there is a blooming recognition in using the herbal medicine to treat the Diabetic mellitus due to the negative side effects of usage in synthetic drugs. The present study was aimed to evaluate the potential of anti-amylase activity of three different leaf extracts of Thebu (Costus speciosus), Kowakka (Coccinia grandis) and Masbadda (Gymnema sylvestre) following different drying techniques i.e; shade drying at room temperature, oven drying at 45 oC and freeze drying. Dried plant leaves were macerated with n-hexane, ethyl acetate and ethanol for 24 hours at room temperature separately. Obtained extracts were used to determine the anti- amylase activity. Results revealed that freeze dried ethanolic leaf extracts of all selected species showed the highest anti- amylase activity compared to the other drying methods. Further, there was a significant effect (p <0.05) on the drying techniques and solvents used to extract in inhibition of alpha amylase activity. Freeze dried C. speciosus and C. grandis ethanolic extracts displayed an effective inhibition against alpha amylase with an IC50 value of 4 mg/ml and 4.16 mg/ml respectively. Therefore, this study revealed that the drying methods significantly affected on the inhibition of alpha amylase enzyme. Freeze-drying was the most promising drying method and ethanol was the best solvent in extracting anti-amylase bioactive compounds from leaf extract of C. speciosus, C. grandis and G. sylvestre.