In commercial practice cucumbers are brined in wooden vats ranging in capacity from about 100 to 1,200 bushels. The vats, after being filled with green cucumbers, are fitted with false heads, and salt brine of a given concentration is added to a level a few inches above the head. Next, dry salt is added on the false head of the vat to maintain the initial concentration, which otherwise would be...

BACKGROUND The cucumber, Cucumis sativus, is one of the most widely consumed fruit vegetables the world over. The history of its dispersal to the Occident from its centre of origin, the Indian subcontinent, has been incorrectly understood for some time, due to the confusion of cucumbers with vegetable melons. Iconographic and literary evidence has shown that cucumber was absent in Roman times, ...

UNLABELLED The naturally occurring compound, fumaric acid, was evaluated as a potential preservative for the long-term storage of cucumbers. Fumaric acid inhibited growth of lactic acid bacteria (LAB) in an acidified cucumber juice medium model system resembling conditions that could allow preservation of cucumbers in the presence of sodium benzoate. Forty millimolars of fumaric acid were requi...

Analyses of various lipid fractions of sections of cucumbers and of good and bloated dill pickles showed that marked changes occur in all lipid fractions during fermentation. The most striking difference noted was the decrease in the phospholipid fraction. A nearly fourfold increase in free fatty acid, as well as a marked increase in the neutral fat fatty acids and unsaponifiables, occurred. Ga...

Oasis farming system is common in some parts of the world, especially in the Arabian Peninsula and several African countries. In Oman, the farming system in the majority of farms follows a semi-oasis farming (SOF) system, which is characterized by growing multiple crops mainly for home consumption, but also for local market. This study was conducted to investigate fungal diversity using pyroseq...

Previous studies (Costilow et al., 1955) demonstrated that the yeasts found to be most prevalent in cucumber fermentations were completely inhibited by 0.01 per cent sorbic acid in an 8 per cent salt (NaCl) medium at pH 4.6. As the pH was increased and/or the salt concentration decreased, more sorbic acid was required for complete inhibition of some of the yeasts tested. Cultures of Pediococcus...

Coastal waters of Pakistan have considerable biodiversity of sea cucumbers and to date 11 genera and fifteen species of sea cucumbers belonging to 3 families have been recorded. In the present study the biochemical composition and nutritional quality of two most common sea cucumbers (Holothuria arenicola and Actinopyga mauritiana) were determined. The study includes their proximate, amino acid,...

Sea cucumbers are found in various sea environments like sea floors from the deep sea to intertidal areas (Foster and Hodgson, 1995; Uthicje et al., 2009). Sea cucumbers belong to the phylum Echinodermata and they mainly feed on detritus containing organic matter, microalgae, and bacteria (Massin, 1982; Moriarty, 1982; Yingst, 1976). Gut microorganisms are important for digestion of diets, but ...

Soft and firm stem end tissues of cucumbers fermented at a low concentration of sodium chloride were examined by a combination of light microscopy {LM), transmission electron microscopy { TEM), and scanning electron microscopy { SEM) . When compared to firm tissue, softened tissue cell walls were swollen and striated, and the middle lamellae were poorly stained by the uranyl acetate-1 ead citra...

introduction: diazinon is a moderately toxic broad-spectrum organophosphate, with a ld50 of 350 to 400 mg/kg for humans. diazinon is absorbed through the skin and gastrointestinal tract and is rapidly metabolized within a few hours. diazinon residues in melons and cucumbers have recently became a major health concern in iran. thus we decided to investigate diazinon levels in melon and cucumbers...