Infectious diseases are leading cause of death world wide due to multidrug resistant strains of bacteria, reduced susceptibility to antimicrobics and increase in untreatable bacterial infections. Natural products provide unlimited opportunities for new drug leads because of the unmatched availability of chemical diversity. Because of increasing threat of infectious diseases, the need of the hou...

Cold–active polygalacturonase and amylase producers were screened using enrichment culture technique. The diverse sources screened were cold stored spoilt fruits and vegetables from different local super markets, market waste dumped soils, fruit waste dumped soils, mountain soils and Himalayan soils. About sixty yeasts showing pectinolytic activity were isolated by ruthenium red plate assay. Ei...

In the food industry, syrups containing a high concentration of sugar used for fruit preservation is abundantly discharged as a food processing waste and disposed by incineration, resulting in the rise of the manufacturing cost and environmental pollution. This study demonstrates how waste syrup can be utilized as carbon source for production of docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and astaxanthin by the...

Removal of Cr(VI) from aqueous solution was studied using charred pomegranate fruit waste [CPW] as a new low cost biosorbent under batch method at room temperature. Its efficiency for removal of Cr(VI) was compared with raw pomegranate fruit waste[RPW]. Various sorption parameters such as contact time, initial concentration of Cr(VI) ion and effect of pH on the adsorption capacity of the biosor...

OBJECTIVE To assess whether a Smarter Lunchroom intervention based on behavioural economics and adapted for students with intellectual and developmental disabilities would increase the selection and consumption of fruits, vegetables and whole grains, and reduce the selection and consumption of refined grains. DESIGN The 3-month intervention took place at a residential school between March and...

Recommendations towards a food supply system framework that will deliver healthy food in a sustainable way. In 2007, Emily Morgan was one of fifteen Americans to be granted a Fulbright Postgraduate Scholarship to Australia. A Tufts University postgraduate student and former Mount Holyoke College graduate, Emily carried out her Fulbright research on the relationship between food, health and the ...

BACKGROUND Uganda's banana industry is heavily impeded by the lack of cheap, reliable and sustainable energy mainly needed for processing of banana fruit into pulp and subsequent drying into chips before milling into banana flour that has several uses in the bakery industry, among others. Uganda has one of the lowest electricity access levels, estimated at only 2-3% in rural areas where most of...

Municipal solid waste compost (MSWC) and/or fertigation used in greenhouse pepper (Capsicum annuum L.) cultivation with five different substrates with soil (S) and/or MSWC mixtures (0-5-10-20-40%) used with or without fertigation. Plants growth increased in 10-20% MSWC and fertigation enhanced mainly the plant height. Fruit number increased in S : MSWC 80 : 20 without fertilizer. Plant biomass ...

A lipase producing bacterium, Bacillus cereus MSU AS was isolated from the gut of a marine fish Sardinella longiceps. In total, seven agricultural waste substrates (coconut oil cake, neem oil cake, onion skin waste, wheat bran, jack fruit waste, banana skin peels and pomegranate skin peel) were selected for solid state production of lipase by B. cereus MSU AS. Among the tested substrates, onion...

Oils of a significant value both as fuels as well as for cosmetic applications can be extracted from the fruits of the jojoba plant. After extracting the oil, the remains of the fruit can still be further utilized as a solid fuel in furnaces or feedstock to animals. In the present work, the solid waste jojoba remains have been processed chemically to extract more biodiesel oil. The physical and...