Malay cherry fruit or locally known as Ceri Terengganu (Lepisanthes alata Leenh.) is a local tropical exotic fruit and it is native to Malaysia. The Ceri Terengganu tree is widely distributed in the east coast of Peninsular Malaysia particularly in Terengganu, Pahang and Johor and commonly cultivated as an ornamental plant in the villages and gardens. A limited number of studies had been done on the proximate analysis and postharvest quality of Ceri Terengganu fruit, but the studies on the antioxidant and antibacterial activities of Ceri Terengganu fruit extract are still lacking. Hence, this study aimed to determine the antioxidant and antibacterial activity in the peel, flesh and seed extracts of Ceri Terengganu. The Ceri Terengganu was extracted using 60% ethanol and the total phenolic content (TPC), total flavonoid content (TFC), total monomeric anthocyanins, antioxidant and antibacterial activities were measured using standard methods. The results showed that the seed of Ceri Terengganu had the highest amount of TPC, TFC and antioxidant activity, followed by the peel and flesh extracts whilst the peel extract had the highest total monomeric anthocyanins content. Furthermore, all three extracts of Ceri Terengganu showed inhibition against selected pathogens tested. In conclusion, the seed of Ceri Terengganu possessed the greatest potential to be explored as a source of natural antioxidant and antibacterial agent in the food industry, and thus warrant further investigation.

Roselle has a brilliant red colour, high in vitamins and has a unique flavour that makes it suitable for juice production. Meanwhile, Gum Arabic (GA) is the edible dried exudate attained from stem and branch of Acacia senegal that contains high dietary fibre which can serve as prebiotic. Therefore, the application of GA into roselle juice might promote health benefits to consumers. GA is categorised as hydrocolloid and its application might affect important properties and acceptability towards the product. Hence, this study was conducted to investigate the effect of different concentrations of Gum Arabic (GA, Acacia senegal) addition (0%, 2%, 4% and 6%) on physicochemical properties and sensory acceptability of roselle juice. Increasing the GA concentration resulted in increased pH, total soluble solids, viscosity and turbidity values of roselle juice (p<0.05). However, the addition of GA had reduced the total anthocyanin content in roselle juice. For colour analysis, the addition of GA significantly (p<0.05) reduced the redness (a*) and yellowness (b*) properties. There was no significant difference in all attributes for sensory evaluation except for colour attribute. In conclusion, the addition of GA up to 6% into roselle juice caused an increase in pH, total soluble solids, viscosity and turbidity, but no effect to the sensory attributes.

This article presented a survey data on the lecturers' perception on online teaching during the COVID-19 outbreak. The study adopted a quantitative approach with an open-ended survey questionnaire to establish lecturers' readiness and their emotional presence in adopting 100% online teaching from home. The questionnaire consists of two sections, quantitative and qualitative. As for the quantitative section, the data comprised of demographic characteristics of research respondents and the qualitative section consisted of staff feedback. The data inclusive of 180 academic staff of Universiti Malaysia Terengganu, Malaysia and was analysed using SPSS 22.0. Therefore, these results offer invaluable evidence for university's management as well as policy makers to make further improvements of online teaching and learning as well as lecturers' readiness in online teaching.

The citral compound that contributes to the strong-lemony odour of lemongrass has high volatility and low physicochemical stability. To overcome the problems, the inclusion complex of the encapsulation technique was applied with rice starch as a coating material to improve the stability and protect against any unfavourable reaction. Therefore, this study was conducted to determine the structural characterization, citral retention and thermal properties of native rice starch, gelatinised rice starch, inclusion complex of rice starch–citral compound, and inclusion complex of rice starch–lemongrass extract. Lemongrass extract and standard citral compound were homogenised into rice starch dispersion at 80oC for 15 mins and freeze-dried at −50.0±2.0oC. The formation of the inclusion complex powder was determined using different analyses including morphological structure using the scanning electron microscope, crystallinity structure was determined with X-ray diffractometer, identification and quantification of citral compound using HS-SPME-GC-FID and the thermal properties of inclusion complex analyzed using differential scanning calorimetry. The microstructure of both inclusion complex of rice starch-lemongrass extract and rice starch-citral compound exhibited a laminated multiangular shape with crumble formation together with the characteristics of V-type pattern of crystalline complexes. The low degree of crystallinity of the inclusion complex of rice starch–lemongrass extract obtained high in citral entrapment (29.34±3.13%) with the highest concentration of citral retention (7.33±0.78 ppm). Both inclusion complex of rice starch-citral compound and rice starch-lemongrass extract displayed an endothermic peak at 138oC, which is attributed to an inclusion complex occurrence with significant difference (p<0.05) of enthalpy of 0.44±0.05 J/g and 1.61±0.70 J/g, respectively. These findings showed that rice starch was effective in complexing with aroma compounds in improving the stability and protecting the citral compound of lemongrass extract from any unwanted changes. This inclusion complex should be regarded as an important strategy in designing a novel model of citral compound of lemongrass for food flavouring application.ha

Kefir is fermented milk obtained by fermenting milk with kefir grains. Chemical composition from dairy and non-dairy sources may affect the growth and characterisation of lactic acid bacteria (LAB). In this study, different sources of milk (cow milk) and non-dairy milk (soymilk and coconut milk) were used as fermentation media for kefir products. The objectives of the study were to isolate and characterise LAB from Kefir drink using dairy and non-dairy milk. LAB were isolated using different cultural methods such as MRS Agar, MRS with 0.8% CaCO3 and M17 Agar. The characteristics of LAB isolates were determined using morphological, biochemical tests and API 50 CHL Kit. Sensory evaluation of the sample of kefir drinks was also determined. Results confirmed that the isolates identified were Lactobacillus buchneri, Lactobacillus brevis 1, Leuconostoc mesenteroides, Lactobacillus acidophilus 3 and Lactobacillus plantarum 1. The L. buchneri, L. brevis, Leu. mesenteroides and L. acidophilus are heterofermentative bacteria, whereas, L. plantarum is homofermentative bacteria. Four LAB isolates have the potential to be used as probiotic strains due to their high resistant to pH and bile salt. The sensory score of these products in the range of 5.00 to 8.00 in nine point hedonic scale. Most of the sensory panelists preferred cow milk (p < 0.05) than coconut milk kefir and soy milk kefir in the sensory evaluation in all attributes. Meanwhile, the preference between coconut milk kefir and soy milk kefir was similar (p>0.05) in all attributes. Therefore, this study will provide benefits to probiotic manufacturers to produce alternative probiotic drink using dairy and non-dairy milk.