FOOD SCIENCE

Pyridoxine

2012-02-13T05:34:00.000-08:00

Vitamin B6 also known as pyridoxine, is part of the enzyme systems that removes CO2 from the acid group (COOH) of certain amino acids and transfers amine groups (NH2) from one compound to another in the body.

It is also needed for the metabolism of protein and the proper utilization of stored glycogen as fuel for muscles.

Pyridoxine also participates involved in the production of neurotransmitters, the chemicals signaling agents of the nervous system. This including dopamine, serotonin, epinephrine, norepinephrine and gamma aminobutyric acid.

It is also critical in the synthesis of many hormones, such as insulin and growth hormone. It is necessary for the formation of red blood cells and plays an essential role in amino acid and fatty acid metabolism.

Deficiency is rare except in cases of alcoholism and severe malnutrition.

Pyridoxine is unique in that both the deficiency and toxic states result in neurological symptoms.

Deficiency manifestations are dermatitis around the eyes, eyebrows, and angels of the mouth.

Pyridoxine deficiency disorders are characterized by fatigue, nervousness, irritability, depression , insomnia and walking difficulties.

There are also a sensory neuritis, and a decrease in certain white blood cells and an increase in others.

Prolonged deficiency leads to fall in hemoglobin, mental depression, confusion, vomiting, diarrhea, abdominal distension and convulsions.

Since pyridoxine is involved in the synthesis of serotonin, deficiency of pyridoxine may play a role in the pathogenesis of hypertension. Low serotonin levels can lead to general stimulation of the sympathetic nervous system.

The best source of pyridoxine include chicken, fish, kidney, and liver. Good source include egg, brown rice, soybeans, oats, whole wheat bread, peanuts and walnuts.

Because of the widespread occurrence of the vitamin in food, pure pyridoxine deficiency is uncommon, except when the pyridoxine content of food is destroyed or covered to less available protein bound forms during processing.
Pyridoxine

The process of gelatinization

2012-02-07T03:05:00.000-08:00

Gelatinization occurs when starch granules are heated in a liquid. It is responsible for the thickening of food systems. The process is an important physic-chemical change associated with the cooking of starchy materials.

When the liquid is heated, the hydrogen bonds holding the starch together weaken, allowing water to penetrate the starch molecules, causing them to swell until their peak thickness is reached.

During the gelatinization, water will be absorbed into the individual starch granules and held there tightly, actually becoming bound water. Bound water is no longer able to flow; the water that is bound in the granules causes granule themselves to swell significantly.

The gelatinizes starch mixtures are opaque and fragile and the ordered crystalline structure of starch is lost.

Gelatinization takes place over a temperature range that varies according to the source of starch and its amylose/amylopectin ratio.

The most important factors that affect the gelatinization temperature are:
*Type of starch
*Amount of tenderizer: sweeteners and fats
*Amount of acid

The process of gelatinization

Function of leavening agents food

2012-01-30T23:12:00.000-08:00

The presence of a leavener causes the flour mixture to rise. Leavener may be physical, biological or chemical.

Leavening is increasing the area of a dough or batter by creating or occluding in them small bubbles of gas, mainly carbon dioxide – produced by yeasts or chemical agents, air or water vapor. It aerates the mixture and thereby lightens it.

These gasses must be retained in the product until the structure is set enough – by coagulation of gluten and egg proteins and the gelatinization of starches, to hold it shape.

Water can acts as a leavening agent in food preparation. When batters and dough are exposed to heat the water present is converted to steam. The steam expands and is responsible for the leavening effect.

For bicarbonate, it produces carbon dioxide in the presence of heat and moisture. Sodium bicarbonate NaHCO3 is the most commonly used product, but ammonium bicarbonate, NH4HCO3 and potassium bicarbonate KHCO3 are used as well.

The type of food is the primary determinant of what type of leavening agent will be used, yeast breads are usually leavened with biological agents such as yeast.

In the labeling, ingredients that act as leavening agents in food may be declared in the ingredient statement by stating the specific common or usual name of each individual leavening agent in parenthesis following the collective name “leavening”.

Function of leavening agents food

Food fortification

2012-01-23T23:31:00.000-08:00

In countries where existing food supplies and or limited access fail to provide adequate levels of these nutrients in the diet, food fortification is a promising approach.

Food fortification is the intentional addition of one or more micronutrients (vitamin and minerals) to processed foods to increase people’s intake of the micronutrients and provide a health benefits.

Food fortification is important alternatives which complement food based approaches to satisfy the nutritional needs of people in developing and developed countries.

The benefits of food fortification
*Correcting or preventing nutrient deficiencies in the population or specific population
*Replacement compensates for losses during production
*Standardized the nutrient content of specific products
*Achieve nutritional equivalence of substitute foods
*Ensure appropriate nutrient content of special purpose foods

Food fortification has more likely played an important role in the decline of deficiency diseases, e.g. niacin fortification of flour and bread in the elimination of pellagra, iodine fortification of salt in the decline of goiter and vitamin D fortification of margarine and milk in the disappearance of rickets.

Fortification of what are known as ready-to-eat breakfast cereal, though not designed initially to combat any specific disease, has also made a major contribution to nutritional health for many.

Food fortification

Vitamin D3 and D2

2012-01-17T18:14:00.001-08:00

Vitamin D is required for calcium and phosphorus absorption, normal mineralization of bone, and mobilization of calcium from bone.

Vitamin D is a fat soluble with two chemicals forms, vitamin D2 and vitamin D3. In nature only a few food contain vitamin D, such as fatty fish, liver and egg yolks.

Vitamin D is a generic term of all steroids including vitamin D3 and vitamin D2. Vitamin D3, also known as cholecalciferol, and D2, known as ergocalciferol. The former, produced in the skin on exposure to UVB radiation (290 to 320 nm) through transformation of the precursor, 7 dehydrocholestrol. It is said to be more bioactive. It derived from the precursor 7-dehydrocholestrol.

Vitamin D2 or ergocalciferol is derived from plants and only enters the body via the diet, from consumption of foods such as oily fish, egg yolk and liver.

Vitamin D is absorbed from the diet in the intestinal tract in association with liquids and the presence of the bile slats. Once in the liver, one metabolite 25 hydroxy-vitamin D3 is formed, which is a about four times as active as vitamin D.

Vitamin D deficiency is characterized by inadequate mineralization of the bone. In children, vitamin D deficiency results in rickets, which is deformation of the skeleton including abnormal softness of the skull, enlargement of epiphyses of the long bones and costochondral junction that causes bow legs and knock knees. In adults it manifests as osteomalacia.

Vitamin D (D3 and D2) in physiologic replacement and pharmacologic doses has been used to correct vitamin D depletion in the elderly and to prevent vitamin D deficiency at all ages.

Vitamin D3 and D2

The Meaning of Food Additives

2012-01-17T18:08:00.000-08:00

Food additives are used to preserve the quality of the food and maintain its appeal and at times to restore diminished nutritional value.

Additives are added to food to perform different technological functions, for example, to increase shelf life (preservative), or to protect against rancidity (antioxidants).

Food additives also improve the taste or appearance of processed food and keeping quality or stability of a food.

Wastage of food is a loss and should be avoided at all costs.

Food additive can be divided into two major groups, intentional additives and incidental additives.

Intentional additives are chemical substances that are added to food for specific purpose.

The use of additives in food is controlled by separate legislation relating to for example, colors in food, sweeteners, miscellaneous additives (other than colors and sweeteners) and flavorings.

What is the definition of food additive:
The term food additive means any substance the intended use of which result, or may reasonably be expectedly to result, directly or indirectly in its becoming a component or other wise affecting the characteristics of any food (including any substance intended for use in producing, manufacturing, packing, processing, preparing, treating, packaging, transporting or holding food; and including any source of radiation intend for any such use).

There are three classes of intentional additives:
*Additives generally recognized as safe (GRAS)
*Additives with prior approval
*Food Additives

Adverse reactions to food additive occur in a small proportion of the population. More people are intolerant to foods themselves than to food additives.

Intolerance does not depend on whether the food additive is derived form natural or synthetic source.
The Meaning of Food Additives

Acesulfame potassium

2012-01-11T23:09:00.000-08:00

Acesulfame potassium entered the food world in 1967. It was discovered at Hoechst AG in Germany.

Approved for use in the United States in 1988, acesulfame potassium is marketed under the brand name Sunette.

It was approved for use in Europe in 1983 and used in more than 3000 products in the world. Approval for use in confections was granted by FDA in 1993.

Acesulfame potassium occurs as a white, free flowing crystalline powder. It is freely soluble in water and very slightly soluble in ethanol.

Acesulfame potassium is a non-caloric sweetener that is 200 times sweeter than table sugar, adding its sweet taste to candies, baked goods, desserts, noncarbonated drinks, dairy products, sauces, alcoholic drinks, and tabletops sweeteners.

It can supplement sugar alcohols in sugar free ice cream without affecting melting and whipping properties. Use at 500 mg/kg. It can be used to unpleasant taste characteristics of other products.

Acesulfame potassium is used with other sweeteners such as aspartame because it has a long shelf life, and tastes sweet right away. It also has a synergistic effect with other sweeteners so less of each is necessary to achieve the same sweetness.

Acesulfame potassium

Mangiferin in mango

2012-01-02T18:01:00.000-08:00

Mangiferin, the xanthone, which is C-glycosylated is very widespread, occurring in ferns as well as in higher plants.

It was reported, a natural chemical mangiferin, found in the stem bark of the mango tree inhibits tumor growth in early and late stages of cancer.

Mangiferin imparts cardiotonic, diuretic and hepato-protective properties to the mango. Mangiferin concentration of 4.4 ug/g was determined in a mango puree.

Mangiferin has been reported to show protective against CCl4 induced liver injury in rats.

Mangiferin was tested in bowel carcinogenesis of a male rat and showed great inhibitory effects and can be classified as a potential chemopreventive agent.

Xanthone mangiferin has been shown to lower blood glucose levels for type 2 diabetes. It improve hyperinsulinemia, possible by decreasing insulin resistance, and to exhibit alpha-glucosidase and aldose reductase-inhibitory activities.

Mangiferin, together with epigallocatechin gallate has been found to be able to have a protective effect on lipid peroxidation in red blood cells. Possibly due to its antioxidant activity.

Mangiferin in mango

What is laxative?

2011-12-30T16:47:00.000-08:00

A laxative is a substance that makes a bowel movement easier. Laxatives may be taken in the form of tablets, liquids, or suppositories in the treatment of constipation.

It enhances the expulsion of food residues from the body. Strong laxatives are called purgative or cathartic.

Laxatives work in the large bowel, expelling whatever is in the bowel along with water. Food is digested and absorbed in the stomach and small intestine, far before the laxative takes action.

There are five different types of laxatives:
*Bulk forming laxatives
*Osmotic laxatives
*Lubricant laxatives
*Stimulant laxatives
*Emollients laxatives

One of the major component do food which has conclusively been shown to be laxative is dietary fiber.

Fiber is a laxative in bulk forming laxatives. Bulk forming laxatives work by absorbing liquid in the intestines to help form a bulky stool that is soft enough to pass without effort.

Prunes are famously laxative, possibly due to their content of a complexed magnesium salt, and rhubarb contain rheins which are anthraquinones like senna and cascara.

Berries are also wonderful laxative foods. Cherries are very high in iron, but they are laxative to the body. Apricots also are a wonderful laxative foods.

What is laxative?

Role of Sodium in Human Body

2011-12-30T01:40:00.000-08:00

The human body contains approximately 1.3 g of sodium. About a third is found in our bones. The rest is our body fluids. It ensures a proper fluid and electrolyte or pH balance in our body, together with chlorine and potassium.

Sodium in the form of sodium chloride is ingested directly though food and many food materials contain this material.

Sodium helps our body retaining the body’s water and pH. It enables our cell walls to draw in nutrients. It plays a role in nerve function and muscle contraction. Sodium works in close association with chlorine and potassium.

Sodium also plays a special role in controlling the heartbeat by helping in its origin and maintenance.

Food sources of sodium including salt, smoked, pickled or refined foods, crisps, condiments such as tomato sauce, bread and breakfast cereals.

Many dieticians say that adding any salt to our food means we’re having too much in our diet. High levels of sodium in the body are associated with high blood pressure and hypertension.

Salt tablets may be recommended for dehydration and low blood pressure. Any active sport participation leads to a considerable loss of water.

Sufficient quantities of water should therefore be consumed during and after exercising. Drinking at least eight glasses of water a day will also reduce cravings for sweet and savory things.

Daily requirement is about 3-5 g for a normal adult. It is absorbed nearly completely from diet in the intestinal tract. Normally kidney excretes the excess if the sodium and deregulate the sodium content in the body.

Sodium deficiency results in muscle cramps. Headache. Poor appetite and dehydration, but the main sign is fatigue.
Role of Sodium in Human Body

Protein as a color in food

2011-12-19T07:26:00.000-08:00

The role of protein in color of foods is not clear cut. In most instances it may either play a role through its interaction or as part of a complex molecules.

The brown color produced during the heating of many different foods comes, in part, from the Maillard reaction.

Maillard Reaction is a browning reaction between an amino group and a reducing group of a carbohydrate.

This reaction contributes to the golden crust of baked products, the browning of meats and the dark color of roasted coffee.

Proteins are directly involved in the color of the protein happens to be a pigment. Selected color pigments, such as chlorophyll are bound in the chloroplasts in a protein lipid matrix.

The meat turn grayish brown during cooking when protein holding the pigment becomes denatured. While milk appears white as light reflects odd the colloidal dispersion of milk protein.

The color of raw salmon flesh is a translucent deep pink red, which on smoking turns a more opaque light pink, as the conformation of the protein changes during processing light scattering within the fish increases.

The visible light range is only a small portion of the electromagnetic energy spectrum which ranges from wavelengths of 60 m for radio waves to 0.0001 nm for gamma waves.

Protein as a color in food

What is flavonoids?

2011-12-14T18:11:00.000-08:00

The term ‘flavonoid’ is generally used to describe a broad collection of natural products that include a C6-C3-C6 carbon framework, or more specifically a phenylbenzopran functionality.

Flavonoids known for their health promoting qualities and disease preventing dietary supplements, are found in whole grain, soy, vegetables, fruits, herbs, spices, teas, chocolate, nuts, olive oils and red wine. Many flavonoids act as antioxidant and may protect against cancers.

Epidemiological, in vitro and animal studies indicate that flavonoids exert protection against cardiovascular diseases.

The cardio-protective effect of flavonoids can be attributed to its antioxidant, anti-thrombogenic and lipid lowering properties and also its effect on promoting endothelial function.

Because flavonoids often impart a bitter taste to foods, food producers may refine away natural flavonoids to please consumers who generally prefer milder flavors.

The type and the concentration of individual flavonoids change during ripening and within the different fruit tissue, thus demonstrating the spatial and temporal dynamics of flavonoids occurrence in tomato fruits.

What is flavonoids?

Vitamin in general

2011-12-11T08:11:00.000-08:00

Mention the word vitamin, and almost magical image comes to mind. Vitamins have been purported to do everything from boosting one’s energy level to increasing sexual prowess to curing disease.

In 1912, a Polish chemist named Casimir Funk, proposed that disease may be caused by a missing ingredient that should be in the diet. He suggested that this ingredient was responsible for giving life and contained nitrogen.

Although not all vitamins contain nitrogen, the word “vitamin” has survived since its naming by Funk who set in motion the idea that many disease may be cured by administering foods rich in certain vitamins.

Vitamins are essential dietary substance needed in small amounts to regulate chemical reactions in the body.

Vitamins needed to make enzymes and hormones – important substances of the body uses to make all the many chemical reaction for the body to live.

Vitamins are important for proper growth and maintenance of good health, but they appeared to posses no greater properties beyond their basic chemical function.

Vitamins do indeed participate in the chemical reactions that release energy from carbohydrates, and proteins, and fats, but contain no inherent energy themselves.

Vitamins are required for normal reproductive metabolism, but they are not aphrodisiac. And inclusion of vitamins in the diets will cure disease, but only the specify deficiency diseases that develop in their absence.

Vitamins are generally found throughout the food supply in developed countries and are consumed in adequate amounts, so despite popular believe belief, a vitamin supplement is usually not needed.

Vitamins are divided into two groups: fat soluble and water soluble.

Solubility confers on vitamins many of their characteristics,. It determines how they are absorbed and transported around by the bloodstream, whether they can be stores in the body, and how easily they are lost from the body.
Vitamin in general

Deficiency of manganese

2011-12-10T08:50:00.000-08:00

A deficiency of manganese (which is extremely rare) may lead to atherosclerosis, confusion, eye problems, hearing problems, heart disorders, high cholesterol levels, hypertension irritability, memory loss, muscle contradiction, pancreatic damage, profuse perspiration, rapid pulse, teeth grinding, tremors and a tendency towards breast ailments.

Although people who consume normal varied diets do not appear to be at risk for manganese deficiency, certain disorders may cause suboptimal status.

Manganese deficiency has been shown to lead to bone demineralization and impaired growth in children, decreased serum cholesterol levels and a transient skin rash in young men, and mildly abnormal glucose tolerance in young women.
Deficiency of manganese

Starch gelatinization process

2011-12-02T06:52:00.000-08:00

Gelatinization process is characterized by the gelatinization temperature, above which the gelatinization of the starch suspension starts due to heat and moisture transfer phenomena.

It is the process that starch molecules undergo to thicken a liquid. It was defined by the expert as phase transition of granules from an ordered state to a disordered one.

When moist heat is applied to starch, the granules gelatinize, forming a mixture of thick, soft and creamy consistency.

This behavior makes starch useful for many purposes in food as an adhesive and thickening agent and industrial applications such as making paper paint and cosmetics.

There are three stages of gelatinization using starch:
*Heating the starch
*Absorbing the liquid
*Thickening the liquid

The process is essential for many industrial processes as it alters the rheology and viscosity properties of the system that the starch is in and it also makes the starch more accessible to enzymatic action.
Starch gelatinization process

Starch in food

2011-12-02T00:19:00.000-08:00

Humans and their ancestors have always eaten starchy foods derived from seeds, roots and tubers. The practical use of starch products and perhaps of starch itself, developed when Egyptians, in the pre-dynastic period, cemented strips of papyrus together with starch adhesive made from wheat.

Starch is second only to water as the most abundant component of food.

Starches are carbohydrates that are storage materials in the seed and roots of many plants. Starches are commonly derived from corn, wheat, rice and other grains, as wee as potatoes and other root-like vegetables.

Starch has a negligible osmotic pressure, which allows plants to store large reserves of carbohydrate without disturbing the cell’s water relations.

Starch molecules are polymers of anhydroglucose and occurs in both linear and branched form. The degree of polymerization and accordingly, the molecular weight of the naturally occurring starch molecules vary radically.

Starch is, made up of many units of glucose linked together in different forms. In the intestine, starch is broken down to glucose and utilized of energy.

Moist heat causes starch grains to swell and rupture, thus converting starch to a form that is readily digested.

In the body, much of the glucose may be utilized directly as a source of energy, but some of it is converted into fat, the muscles utilizing fatty acids indirectly as fuel for energy. Excess carbohydrates not required for energy, when ingested (eaten) will be stored in the body as fat.

Food starches are commercially manufactured and available for use in products such as baked food, beverages canned, frozen and glassed foods, confections, dairy products, dry goods, meat products and canned
Starch in food

Secondary texture profile

2011-12-01T16:25:00.001-08:00

The physical or the mechanical textural characteristics of foods are related to the reaction of the food to stress and can be divided into primary parameters of hardness, cohesiveness, viscosity, elasticity and adhesiveness and into secondary parameters of brittleness, chewiness and gumminess.

The three secondary parameters of texture profile:
Brittleness – the force with which the material fractures. This is related to hardness and cohesiveness. In brittle materials, cohesiveness, is low and hardness can be either low or high.

Brittle materials often create sound effects when masticated e.g. toast, carrot, celery. The cells offer moderate resistance to fraction by the pressure of the teeth. It is the properties of certain solids to fail or shatter after very small deformation. In the case of compressed cellular foods, brittleness causes fracture of cell wall material.

Chewiness – the energy required to masticate a solid food product to a sate ready for swallowing. It is related to hardness cohesiveness and elasticity. It is the texture term relating to the extent to which a product needs chewing, or a measure of the effort to chew.

Gumminess – the energy required to disintegrate a semisolid food to a state ready for swallowing. It is related to hardness and cohesiveness. Gumminess was defined as the product of hardness and cohesiveness. It required energy to disintegrate a semisolid food to a state of readiness for swallowing.
Secondary texture profile

Essential fatty acids

2011-11-24T20:05:00.001-08:00

Essential fatty acids are as important to out health as oxygen and water. It is a substantial part of human nutritive makeup of fats, vitamins and minerals.

The basic building blocks of any fats are the fatty acids. Fatty acids are either essential or non essential. Fatty acids is considered essential of:

*The body is unable to synthesize it
*The only way it can be obtained it though the diet

There are two main essential fatty acids. These are alpha-linolenic acid and linolenic acid and arachidonic acid.

Linoleic acid is the primary member of the omega-6 family. When the body receives linoleic acid from the diet, it can make other members of the moega-6 family. – such as the 20-carbon polyunsaturated fatty acid, arachidonic acid.

Arachidonic acid is one of the essential polyunsaturated acid. Once the body bleed from a cut, arachidonic acid is is metabolized to a substance known as thromboxane A2, that initiates a series of events to form a clot and prevent from bleeding to death.

Some of the other important polyunsaturated and essential fatty acids are known by the common abbreviations, EPA - eicosapentaenoic and DHA – docosahexaenoic acid. These two may be better known and recognized as omega-3 fatty acids.

Linolenic acid is the primary member of the omega-3 family, Like linoleic acid, linolenic acid cannot be made in the body and must be supplied by foods.

Essential fatty acids are converted in the body into hormones called prostaglandins. Which are responsible for a healthy brain, correct vision, healthy skin and a healthy vascular system.

They also assist the body in its stability to reduce inflammation, regulate stress and most importantly, participate in cellular renewal.
Essential fatty acids

History of Sugar

2011-11-20T21:46:00.000-08:00

History of Sugar
Sugarcane cultivation and sugar refining were practiced in India, Arabia and the Mediterranean in the Middle Ages, apparently spread from a point of origin in northeastern India though the Muslim world.

By the time of the discovery of the Americas in the late 15th century, sugarcane cultivation had already spread to the Canary Islands.

Columbus and other early explorers of the Caribbean recognized that the climate weather was ideal for sugarcane cultivation and Columbus brought the first sugarcane from the Canary Islands to Santo Domingo in 1493.

The first sugar mill in the Western Hemisphere was built there in 1509, and by 1511, sugarcane was being harvested in Cuba. It spread rapidly to the other islands and to Mexico and Brazil.

The estates granted to Hernan Cortes in Mexico after his conquest there in 1524 were largely devoted to sugarcane production.

The Africa slaves trade stimulated a need for products that the European could barter for slaves in Africa which included distilled spirits.

Rum could be made from molasses, one of the by products of the sugar refining process.

The sugar and rums became essential parts of the triangular trades that brought millions of Africans to the New World over the 300 years from about 1520 to about 1820. Since reducing the sugarcane to raw sugar and molasses required a heating process the island regions were soon denuded of firewood.

Planters would crush the sugarcane to separate the fibers in heavy roller mills usually powered by draft animals or slaves.

The crush cane would be rinsed repeatedly with water to extract the sugar juices. After the exhaustion of firewood, planters used the fibrous remains of the canes, called bagasse, as fuel for the crude boiling pits to crystallize the raw sugar.

By the 1600s, the refining process had been separated from the plantations. Raw sugar was shipped to refineries in Lisbon Marseilles, London and Amsterdam and later to New York and other cities in colonies North America.

The history traced that the industrialization to Europe and the northern American colonies to the place in the sugar induced triangular trade and the reduction of the Caribbean region to a plantation economy based on cheap labor to the same factor.

When France became isolated from its sugarcane colonies following the French revolution, the loss of Haiti (the French part of the island of Santo Domingo) to a slave-led revolution led the French to begin sugar beet production.

The process of refining sugar from beets had been develop in about 1750 by German chemist Andreas Margraf.

A small sugarcane plantation economy developed in Louisiana Territory between 1750 and 1800 and remained in place after the purchase of that territory by the United States in 1803.
History of Sugar

Cinnamon

2011-11-19T19:48:00.001-08:00

Cinnamon is widely used aromatic spice obtained from the dried inner bark of trees belonging to several species of Cinnamomum.

The dried bark of the cinnamon tree is one of the world’s oldest known spices. It is mentioned in the earliest Chinese botanical dialogue, which dates back to about 2800 BC, as well as in Egyptian papyruses and the Bible.

Cinnamon is important tree spice of the family Lauraceac. The generic name is derived from the Arabic or Persian mama, via the Greek amomum meaning spice, and the prefix chini to its believed origin.

Cinnamon of commerce is the dried inner bark of Cinnamon verum.

The bark contains about 1% essential oil. The active principles are eugenol, cineole, and cinnamaldehyde. It is used in stick form in fruit preserves.

Cinnamon is said to be antispasmodic, carminative, orexigenic, antidiarrhoeal, antimicrobial, refrigerant and anthelmintic.

According to a research, cinnamon helps control blood sugar and cholesterol in people with Type 2 diabetes increases cells’ sensitivity to insulin.

It also has been used for anorexia, intestinal colic, infantile, diarrhoea, common cold influenza and socially for flatulence colic and dyspepsia with nausea.

Cinnamon bark is an agreeable astringent and cordial and as such is used with advantage in dysentery and looseness, proceeding from a weekend and languid state of the bowels, and in indigestion and chronic nervous debility.

Cinnamon is a tree of the wet tropics and has a somewhat restricted natural range in Sri Lanka, India and South-east Asia.

Cinnamon is used in ground form in cakes, cookies and puddings, sauces and pickles. When stewing pears, a stick of cinnamon improves the flavor. With the advances in science, cinnamon is increasingly applied in various products.
Cinnamon

Vitamin B12 Deficiency

2011-11-17T08:02:00.000-08:00

Vitamin B12 or cobalamin is a very complex chemical compound. Cobalamin is referring to the group of cobalt containing vitamer compound, this include cyanocobalamin, hydroxocobalamin, 5-deoxyadenosylcobalamin and methylcobalamin.

This vitamin required for the normal development of red blood cells, and a deficiency it causes acute pernicious anemia and a variety of other disorders. The exact requirement of Vitamin B-12 is yet unknown, since some B12 is synthesized by bacteria in the intestine. The organs of animals are excellent sources of Vitamin B12 and the muscles of warm-blooded animals and fish are good sources.

Vitamin B12 deficiency is commonly asymptomatic, but can also present as anemia characterized by enlarged blood corpuscle, so called megaloblastic anemia. However in serious case deficiency can potentially cause severe and irreversible damage to the nervous system.

Since body stores of vitamin B12 are adequate for up to five years, deficiency is generally the result of failure to absorb it. In older people, is also caused by inadequate intake of impaired absorption.

Megaloblastic anemia, Crohn's disease and other intestinal disorders are the most frequent causes of vitamin B12 deficiency.

Symptoms are attributable primarily to anemia, although glossitis, jaundice, and splenomegaly may be present. Vitamin B12 deficiency may cause decreased vibratory and positional sense, ataxia, paresthesias, confusion.

Apart from anemia due to vitamin B12 deficiency, the neurologic symptom of vitamin B12 deficiency include numbness and tingling of the arms and more commonly the legs, difficulty walking, memory loss, disorientation and dementia with or without mood changes.

Neurological or psychiatric symptoms occurs in about 40% of patents with vitamin B12 deficiency, in association with progressive damage to the spinal cord, peripheral nerves and cerebrum.
Vitamin B12 Deficiency

Health Effects of Cobalt Toxicity

2011-11-10T19:31:00.000-08:00

Cobalt is a component of cynocobalamin (vitamin B12), which is an essential mineral and coenzymes in many enzymatic reactions, including hematopoiesis.

No function of cobalt in human nutrition other than as an integral part of vitamin B12. The vitamin plays important role in the body, especially in cells where active division is taking place, such as in blood forming tissues of bone marrow.

The main target organs for cobalt toxicity appear to be lungs and heart.

Acute toxicity of cobalt nay be observed as effects on the lungs, including asthma pneumonia and wheezing, that have been found in workers who breathed high levels of cobalt in the air and exposed to its dust and fumes.

Cobalt can erythropoietic when excessive amounts are ingested by humans. Chronic oral administration of high levels of cobalt for the treatment of anemia can cause goiter.

Cobalt toxicity is classically identified with several instances of severe cardiac failure in heavy beer drinkers. In addition who drink large amounts of beer, containing 1-2 ppm of cobalt salts added as a foam stabilizer, in many cases polycythemia, pericardial effusion, thyroid epithelia hyperplasia and neurological abnormalities.
Health Effects of Cobalt Toxicity

Maillard reaction in food

2011-11-09T16:09:00.000-08:00

The term Maillard reaction is related to reactions between amines and carbonyl compounds, especially reducing sugars. It is also called nonenzymatic browning reaction.

Amino acids and reducing sugars are the most common sources of the amine and carbonyl groups, respectively.

The nutritional value of a food can be reduced by the destruction of essential amino acids, specially lysine, via this reaction.

Several changes in the properties of foods have been attributed to the Millard reaction. These include: changes in the flavor and aroma compounds; changes in color, particularly browning and, to a lesser extent, fluorescence; production of bioactive compounds, both beneficial and toxic; loss of nutritive value and the formation of stabilizing or mutagenic compounds.

The earliest reported studies of nonenzymatic browning reactions were initiated by Louis Camille Maillard who heated amino acids in solution with high levels of glucose as he investigated the biosynthesis of proteins.

In 1913, he hypothesized the reaction that accounts for the brown pigments and polymers produced from the reaction of the amino group of amino acids and the carbonyl group of sugar.

The Maillard reaction is dependent upon factors such as pH, time, temperature, concentration of reactants and reactant type.

Many foods qualities are affected by the Maillard reaction in foods during processing and storage and the potential rewards of deconvoluting this maze of reactions in food are enormous.
Maillard reaction in food

RDA Recommendation Intake of Calcium

2011-11-07T03:05:00.000-08:00

Calcium plays a key role in the integrity of the skeleton. Adequate intakes throughout childhood and adolescence are essential for optimal peak bone mass, which occurs between 20 and 30 years of age.

The RDA for children (1-10 years) and adults 25 years and older is 800 mg/day.

The recommended dietary allowance (RDA) for the adult male and female (800 mg/d) has been based upon calcium balance studies conducted with groups of individuals accustomed to ample intakes of the mineral.

Additional calcium (1200 mg) has been recommended during adolescence when rapid growth and bone mineralization are occurring. Government surveys have revealed, however, that much of the population (particularly females over 12 years of age) fails to consume the recommended amounts of calcium.

All these amounts of calcium can easily be obtained if dairy products are included in the diet. A balanced diet furnishes, in addition to calcium, other nutrients necessary for bone health.
Calcium metabolism in adolescent is not fully understood. Researcher found that the growth demands of girls were met by a more effective net absorption and retention of calcium compared with the young adult women, suggesting that the body is able to respond appropriately to increased need.

Inadequate calcium intake during the period of bone mineralization is a real concern because of the high incidence of osteoporosis among elderly women and the significantly correlation shown to exist between present bone density and past calcium intake.

The calcium absorption rate has been reported to increase during pregnancy and lactation. This evidence suggest it is prudent to recommend a calcium intake of 1200 mg throughout pregnancy and lactation, irrespective of age.

When body mass is taken into account, growing children require as much as two to four times as much calcium as adults and the United States recommended dietary allowance for calcium is greatest during adolescence (11-18 years) and early adulthood (19-24 years), being in the order of 1200 mg/day.

Although the exact age at which peak bone mass is achieved is uncertain, it is believed to be no earlier than 25 years. Meanwhile 800 mg/d is sufficient for the adult woman (over 25 years) even after menopause. Postmenopausal osteoporosis is regarded primarily as a medical rather than a nutritional problem.

Adequate calcium should be obtained through ingesting calcium rich foods.

The reason for poor calcium intake amongst female athletes and non-athletes lies in the lack of knowledge about good calcium sources and a desire for leanness. It is a common misconception that all dairy sources of calcium are high in fat.
RDA Recommendation Intake of Calcium

Sucrose

2011-11-04T08:22:00.001-07:00

Three disaccharides are important in nutrition: maltose, sucrose and lactose. All three have glucose as one of their single sugars.

Sucrose is the most common disaccharide and it contains glucose and fructose joined together by an alpha-1,2-glyccosidic link.

Sucrose is the chemical name for what is commonly called white sugar, table sugar, granulated sugar or simply sugar. Sucrose provides some of the natural sweetness, of honey, maple syrup, fruits and vegetables.

The carbonyl groups of both the glucose and the fructose molecule are involved in the glycosidic bond; thus, the configuration of each monosaccharide become fixed.

Sucrose can be hydrolyzed to glucose and fructose by heat and acid or by the enzymes invertase or sucrose.

Sucrose is found in many plants and is especially abundant in sugar cane and sugar beets. These plants can be crushed to produce a juice that is recessed to make a brown liquid called molasses.

The equimolar mixture of glucose and the fructose produced in this way is called invert sugar.

Production of inverts sugar is important during the formation of candies and jellies, as inverts sugar prevents unwanted or excessive crystallization of sucrose.

Manufacturers use a refining process to extract sucrose from the juices of sugar cane or sugar beets. Full refining removes impurities white sugar and powdered sugar are so highly refined that they are virtually 100 percent sucrose.
Sucrose