Baladi bread is a staple food in Egypt and high nutritive value however, stales rapidly. The aim of the study was to conduct a comparative evaluation of pullulan and hydrocolloid combinations on rheological properties and quality parameters of wheat-soy baladi bread. Pullulan polysaccharides (Pu) and hydrocolloids as Arabic gum (AG), K-carrageenan (KC), pectin (P), and xanthan gum (XG) were applied. Rheological properties of samples included Pu and hydrocolloids were analyzed through extensiograph and farinograph. The crust color, staling, and sensory attributes of bread were evaluated. Results revealed that wheat flour (WF) has lower water absorption capacity, dough development time, mixing tolerance index, and resistance to extension however, has higher dough stability, extensibility, and dough energy compared to wheat-soy flour (WSF). Pu and/or hydrocolloids addition to WSF dough evidently improved bread quality. Pu was significantly enhanced crust color and yielded fresher bread relative to control. Additionally, Pu showed the highest Alkaline Water Retention Capacity (AWRC) value after 5 days at 25˚C ± 2˚C. Results demonstrated that hydrocolloids especially pullulan can significantly improve dough properties, baking quality, sensory acceptability, and delay staling of wheat-soy baladi bread.

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The current study was carried out during the two consecutive winter seasons of 2019/2020 and 2020/2021 at the Experimental Farm of Ash-Shoubak University College, Jordan, as a pot experiment. This experiment was planned to evaluate the impact of various soil salinity levels (1.17, 3.34, 6.51, and 9.68 ds/m) and amino acid types (control, L-tryptophan acid at 100 ppm, glutamine acid at 200 ppm, and L-tryptophan acid + glutamine acid) as well as their combinations on growth, salt resistance index, and some of the chemical constituents of rosemary plants. The obtained results indicated that plant height and the total herb dry weight of rosemary, the salt resistance index (SRI), and the total chlorophyll in leaves were discernably reduced with increasing soil salinity levels compared with the control. However, salinity enhanced leaf proline content. Each amino acid or its mixture improved plant growth, chlorophyll content, and SRI parameters. The SRI percentage of R. officinalis enhanced to more than 100% under a soil salinity level of 1.17 ds/m, combined with amino acids at any type, when compared with the other combination treatments. Furthermore, GC/MS showed that the identified compounds ranged from 98.39% to 99.18% and the unidentified compounds from 0.82% to 1.61% from the volatile oil of rosemary plants. The major constituents of volatile oil samples were camphor (34.95% to 40.21%), D-verbenone (13.74% to 15.23%), and α-pinene (13.21% to 16.73%).

Coffee is one of the most common drinks worldwide. Due to the variability of elements composition, coffee is important for human health. The aim of this study is to assess the concentration of certain selected elements of commercial samples of roasted ground coffee available in Jordanian markets. The concentrations of macroelement components (sodium, potassium, and calcium), transition elements (lead, cadmium, iron, nickel, and copper), and anion contents (sulfate, nitrate, fluoride, chloride, and phosphate ions) have been determined in nine samples using atomic absorption spectroscopy. Obtained results showed that all tested samples contain macroelementscalcium, sodium, and potassium, in a concentration ranging from 6.18 to 162.6 μg/gram of dry weight (in detail: calcium, 6.96–9.81 μg/g; sodium, 121.54–162.60 μg/g; potassium, 6.18–10.23 μg/g). Regarding transition elements, all samples tested contained variable concentrations of iron and copper (1.26–2.07 and 0.24–0.66 μg/g, respectively), while they lacked lead, cadmium, and nickel (only one sample contained 0.1 μg/g for nickel). In addition, all tested samples contained variable anionic concentrations. The lack of toxic selected elements (lead, cadmium, and nickel) in these samples appears to indicate the significance of these coffee samples as a source of useful selected elements for human health.

A field experiment was conducted at the National Center for Agricultural Research and Extension in the Jordan Valley, during summer 2015 to evaluate the effect of cattle manure on antioxidant activity of maize leaves. The study also measured the effect of cattle manure on the bioavailability of heavy metals in maize leaves at harvest. Six treatments were compared, no cattle manure (T1, control), and 4 tons ha −1 (T2), 8 tons ha −1 (T3), 12 tons ha −1 (T4), 16 tons ha −1 (T5), and 20 tons ha −1 (T6) cattle manure. ANOVA followed by LSD test were used to compare the treatments at the 5% significance level. Antioxidant activity using DPPH and ABTS were measured for the six leaves extracts representing six treatments of organic manure. A wet digestion method was used to extract the heavy metals from the dry leaf powder samples using atomic absorption spectroscopy. Antioxidant activity for leaves increased significantly with increasing cattle manure amount applied to soil according to DPPH and ABTS radical scavenging activity. The highest antioxidant activity was reached at the highest amount of cattle manure while the control had the lowest. Concentrations of Ni, Cu, Mn, Zn, Cr and Fe contents in maize leaves of plants grown in soil amended with cattle manure were higher compared to plants grown in no-amended soil. Cattle manure amended soil increased Ca, K and P concentrations in the seeds and leaves of maize. The cattle manure was able to encourage a raise on mineral buildup in aerial parts of tested plants.