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Probiotics are live microorganisms and offer health benefits to the digestive system and used in the production of many fermented foods. Non-digestible carbohydrates are dietary fibers which cannot be digested and absorbed by the small intestine. Strains of Lactobacillus, are among the most common and popular group of probiotics and added to many dairy products and dietary supplements. Besides, Lactobacillus acidophilus can exhibit many useful benefits such as showing thermostability, maintaining the growth activity at a wide pH range, and offering strong inhibition actions against spoilage of food and pathogenic bacteria. Aims of this study are to analyse the ability of non-digestible carbohydrates to act as a carbon source in enhancing the growth activity of L. acidophilus in vitro and to determine which type of non-digestible carbohydrate sources contributed a high biomass production. L. acidophilus was grown on de Man, Rogosa and Sharpe (MRS) medium. The optical density and pH of the cell biomass produced were measured and cell dry weight was determined. The highest biomass production recorded was for barley 10.02 g. L-1 followed by yam 8.79 g. L-1, 7.17 g. L-1 for garlic, 6.81 g. L-1 for banana and 4.86 g. L-1 for sweet potato, while positive control (glucose) recorded 4.20 g. L-1 of cell biomass. The results also showed a decreasing in the pH values which indicated the formation of lactic acids in the medium after 24 h of incubation at 37°C on rotary shaker set at 200 rpm. The overall results, confirmed that L. acidophilus helps in the hydrolysis of non-digestible carbohydrates and subsequent conversion of the sugars to cell biomass and decrease the pH compared to the negative control (without carbon source). This shows that in future, production of a synbiotic products using these non-digestible carbohydrates and probiotics strains is promising to offer many benefits to human’s health.

Annona muricata L. (Magnoliales: Annonaceae) is a tropical plant species known for its edible fruit and well known for the medicinal value. In this study, the antioxidant properties of A. muricata leaves is evaluated for different extracts and fractions. The airdried leaves of A. muricata leaves were successively extracted with n-hexane and methanol. The methanolic crude extract was further semi-purified by utilizing solid-phase extraction (SPE) in a mixture of mobile phase aqueous: methanol to methanol and resulted in four semi-purified fractions (ALM 1 – ALM 4). Antioxidant properties of extracts and fractions were evaluated by free radical scavenging activity against 1,1-Diphenyl-2- picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) radicals comparing with standard ascorbic acid, quercetin, and catechin. Results indicated that methanolic extracts showed exceptionally higher radical scavenging activity compared with n-hexane crude extract with IC50 44.21 µg/mL and 302.41 µg/mL, respectively. Meanwhile, fractions ALM 2 (aqueous: methanol; 50: 50) exhibited the highest scavenging activity with the IC50 of 12.46 µg/mL followed by ALM 1 (aqueous: methanol; 80: 20) with 51.44 µg/mL, ALM 3 (aqueous: methanol; 20: 80) with 54.39 µg/mL and ALM 4 (100% methanol) with 89.02 µg/mL, respectively. In conclusion, ALM 2 could be potentially applied as a natural antioxidant agent in both food, nutraceuticals or pharmaceuticals fields for health promotion. However, ALM 2 has to be further purified to study the constituents which possibly condensed mainly with phenolic and flavonoids that known to possess the highest antioxidant effects.

This study sets out to probe into total bioactive contents, UHPLC-MS secondary metabolites profiling, antioxidant (DPPH, ABTS, FRAP, CUPRAC, phosphomolybdenum and metal chelating) and enzyme inhibi...

In the recent years, lactic acid bacteria species such as Lactobacillus are considering one of the important species of probiotics used in the food processing sector to produce fermented products and play a significant role for the transformation and preservation of food products. Besides, there is a huge exploration of new molecules that promote health and exhibit potential for technological applications such as non-digestible carbohydrates. The non-digestible carbohydrates provide various health benefits such as balancing and sustaining the microbiota in the intestine and increasing the production of short chain fatty acids (SCFA). The aim of this review is to review some types of non-digestible carbohydrates as an enhancer for the growth of probiotics. These compounds can help in improving many characteristics of food such as sensory and textural properties.

The purpose of dehydration process is to reduce moisture content to prolong shelf life, to promote convenience and at the same time to assist transportation of delicate and perishable products across long distances. Freeze drying is known as one of the best methods to retain quality compared to other dehydration processes. This is due to lower instances of rupture of the structure and minimal loss of nutrient. These parameters are important to consumers and also for the food industry. This mini-review compares methods of dehydration processes, as well as their advantages and disadvantages when used in combination with other technologies. Data compilation on nutritional properties and mineral components of tropical fruits, namely guava, pineapple, papaya and jackfruits which had underwent freeze drying technologies are also reviewed.

A study of the literature indicates that chloroplasts synthesise a range of molecules, many of which have nutritional value for humans, but as yet no one has established the nutritional credentials of chloroplasts recovered from plant cells. Chloroplast-rich-fractions (CRFs) were prepared from green plant species and the macro- and micronutrient composition compared with the whole leaf materials (WLMs). The results indicated that, on a dry weight basis, CRF material from a range of green biomass was enriched in lipids and proteins, and in a range of micronutrients compared with the WLM. Vitamins E, pro-vitamin A, and lutein were all greater in CRF preparations. Of the minerals, iron was most notably concentrated in CRF. Spinach CRFs possessed the highest ?-tocopherol (62 mg 100 g-1 , dry weight (DW)), ?-carotene (336 mg 100 g- 1 DW) and lutein (341 mg 100 g-1 DW) contents, whilst grass CRFs had the highest concentration of alpha-linolenic acid (ALA) (69.5 mg g-1). The higher concentrations of ?-tocopherol, ?-carotene, lutein, ALA and trace minerals (Fe and Mn) in CRFs suggest their potential use as concentrated ingredients in food formulations deficient in these nutrients.

Cinnamon leaf oil contains a high percentage of eugenol and has antimicrobial, antioxidant and antiinflammatory properties. However, the undiluted oil can cause irritation to the skin. Therefore, the aims of this study were to develop and evaluate cinnamon leaf oil nanocream using palm oil. Nanocream base was prepared using different ratios of oil, surfactants and water. The surfactant used were mixture of Tween 80:Carbitol or Tween 80:Span 65 at different hydrophile-lipophile balance values. The pseudoternary phase diagrams were constructed to identify the nanocream base areas and the results showed that the nanocream bases using Span 65 as co-surfactant produced bigger cream area. Fifteen formulations using mixtures of Tween 80:Span 65 were further evaluated for accelerated stability test, droplet size, zeta potential, rheological properties and apparent viscosity. The nanocream base which had an average droplet size of 219 nm and had plastic flow with thixotropic behavior was selected for incorporation of 2% cinnamon leaf oil. The nanocream containing cinnamon leaf oil had the average size of 286 nm and good rheological characteristics. The in vitro release study demonstrated that eugenol as the main constituent of cinnamon leaf oil was released for about 81% in 10 h. The short-term stability study conducted for 6 months showed that the cinnamon leaf oil nanocream was stable at a temperature of 25° and thus, cinnamon leaf oil nanocream is a promising natural based preparation to be used for topical application.