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The gut microbiome has trillions of bacteria which play an important role in human health and disease. Several animal and human studies have shown that dysbiosis, microbial imbalance as the causative factor in obesity and metabolic syndrome. Significant research evidence demonstrates that changes in the proportion of Bacteroidetes and Firmicutes has been associated with obesity, but this has been recently challenged. Similar studies were carried out in several populations, however, there are no such studies, to date, among Asian Indians. We aimed to examine the usefulness of gut microbiome testing in developing personalized diet for managing obesity. In this study, we selected individuals, generally healthy, free- living adults, both men and women with BMI 25-40 kg/m2 and with previous history of failures at weight loss who visited a Weight Loss Clinic, based in Coimbatore, India & were offered a gut microbiome test. We included 54 individuals in the intervention group who received personalized dietary advice for weight loss based on the gut microbiome test and another set of 52 individuals visiting the same clinic were included in the comparison group based on their age, height, weight and BMI who received generic diet. A statistically significant increase in the Bacteroidetes genus was observed in the personalized nutrition group (p = .04). The change (delta) values in gut microbiome composition in personalized nutrition group were significantly higher at the end of 120 days. Gut microbiome-based personalized microbiome modulation through diet significantly improves gut microbiome profiles among obese individuals. We would further need studies with larger sample size to validate these study findings and long-term follow-up are needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ranunculus wallichianus is a rare medicinal plant endemic to Western Ghats, India. Nodal explants were inoculated on MS medium with 1.0 to 5.0 mg L−1 of 6-benzyladenine (BA), kinetin (KIN), or thidiazuron (TDZ) resulting in a low percentage of shoot regeneration. Coconut water (CW) was added to MS medium containing the above mentioned cytokinins to promote in vitro plantlet growth. Multiple shoots were regenerated on half-strength Murashige and Skoog (MS) medium containing 1.0 to 5.0 mg L−1 BA, KIN, or TDZ in combination with 5%, 10%, and 20% CW. The highest percentage of shoot multiplication was observed from cultures incubated on half-strength MS medium supplemented with 3.0 mg L−1 TDZ in combination with 10% CW. The cut ends of well-elongated shoots were transferred to medium containing 0.5 to 3.0 mg L−1 indole-3-acetic acid (IAA) or indole-3-butyric acid (IBA) to induce in vitro root induction. Half-strength MS medium with 2.5 mg L−1 IBA and 250 mg L−1 activated charcoal shows high frequency of root formation. The well-rooted plantlets were transferred to pots for hardening with survival rate of 93% after 30 d. The present work indicates the addition of CW with the cytokinins in half-strength MS medium is suitable for rapid micropropagation of R. wallichianus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Open drying is practiced for drying Capsicum frutescens in the cottage industries of India. In order to improve drying, an experimental set-up of solar rack dryer is constructed and studied different heat transfer augmentation techniques. A passive heating coil extended from the header of a water-in-glass evacuated tube coupled with parabolic trough is used to augment the heat in the collector section of the dryer. The drying rate in rack dryer is found to be 62% higher than that of open air drying of green chillies. Moreover, the drying rate in augmented rack dryer is found to be 7% higher than that of rack dryer. In addition to this, an effective design for the dryer cabinet with respect to air circulation is arrived through computational fluid dynamics analysis. Through this new design, the drying rate is improved further by 3%. Based on energy analysis, the specific energy consumption during the drying of this particular product using the augmented dryer is found to be 1.27 kWh/kg. The exergy efficiency of the drying chamber is found to be in the range of 4%-45% with an average of 16% for Capsicum frutescens. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]