International Journal of Biochemistry Research & Review

Aims: To detect the adulterant in edible oil rapidly.

Study Design: Authenticity and adulteration detection in edible oils are the increasing challenges for researchers, consumers, industries and regulatory agencies. Traditional approaches may not be the most effective option to combat against adulteration in edible oils as that’s are complex, laborious, expensive, require a high degree of technical knowledge when interpreting data and produce hazardous chemical. Consequently, a cost effective, rapid and reliable method is required.

Place and Duration of the Study: The experiment was conducted jointly in the laboratory of the Department of Food Technology and Rural Industries, Bangladesh Agricultural University, Mymensingh and the Institute of Food Science and Technology, BCSIR, Dhaka.

Methods: In this study, Fourier Transform Infrared spectroscopy coupled with multivariate analysis was used for adulteration detection in sunflower and rice bran oil. Sunflower oil was adulterated with soybean oil in the range of 10-50% (v/v) and rice bran oil was adulterated with palm oil in the range of 4-40% (v/v) at approximately 10% and 5% increments respectively. FTIR spectra were recorded in the wavenumber range of 4000-650cm^-1.

Results: FTIR spectra data in the whole spectral range and reduced spectral range were used to develop a partial least square regression (PLSR) model to predict the level of adulteration in sunflower and palm oils. Good prediction model was obtained for all PLSR models with a coefficient of determination (R²) of >= 0.985 and root mean square errors of calibration (RMSEC) in the range of 0-1.7325%.

Conclusion: The result suggested that FTIR spectroscopy associated with multivariate analysis has the great potential for a rapid and non-destructive detection of adulteration in edible oils laborious conventional analytical techniques.

Rice is a major food crop in China and Japonica rice production in Heilongjiang Province ranks No.1 in total annual rice production in the country. Rice is prone to invasion by fungi and mycotoxins produced by the fungi are proven to be serious threats to human health. The objective of the present study was to investigate fungal diversity of freshly harvested rice in the four main cultivation regions of Heilongjiang Province in order to find the difference of dominant fungi among the four regions. Through high throughput sequencing we detected Ascomycota accounts for absolute dominant phylum; Dothideomycetes, Sordariomycetes, Tremellomycetes, Microbotryomycetes, and Eurotiomycetes were dominant classes; Capnodiales, Hypocreales, and Pleosporales were the main orders; Cladosporiaceae, Pleosporaceae, Nectriaceae, Clavicipitaceae, Tremellaceae, Phaeosphaeriaceae, Trimorphomycetaceae, Sporidiobolaceae, Bionectriaceae, and Trichocomaceae were major family; Cladosporium, Epicoccum, Fusarium, and Alternaria were the most abundant phylotypes at genus level; Epicoccum nigrum, Gibberella zeae, and Fusarium proliferatum were the dominant fungal species. Great fungal diversity was observed in the rice samples harvested in the four major Japonica rice-growing regions in Heilongjiang province. However, no significant difference in diversity was observed among the four regions, likely due to the relatively close geographical proximity leading to very similar climatic conditions. Since some of the fungal species produce mycotoxins, it is necessary to take precautions to ensure the rice is stored under safe conditions to prevent the production of mycotoxins. This is the first report on investigation of field fungal diversity in freshly harvested Japonica rice in Heilongjiang Province in China.

Lead is a heavy metal found in earth’s crust. It is a widespread and insidious environmental toxin known as a severe and aggressive contaminant to human and animal organisms’ health status. This work is aimed at evaluating the effect of aqueous extract of Ocimum gratissimum (OG) on lead induced changes in the thymus of adult albino wistar rats. Thirty five male Wistar rats were used in the study and were randomly divided into seven groups with five rats in each group. The rats in Group one (G1) served as the Control and received distilled water. Group 2 received 120 mg/kg body weight (bwt) of lead acetate, G3 received 375 mg/kg bwt of OG only. G4 received 120 mg/kg bwt of lead acetate and OG extract at 375 mg/kg bwt., G5 received 120 mg/kg bwt of lead and OG at 750 mg/kg bwt. G6 received 375 mg/kg bwt of OG in two weeks followed by 120 mg/kg bwt of lead acetate for one week, while G7 received 120 mg/kg bwt of lead acetate and Vitamin C at 11900 mg/kg. All the administrations were carried out orally for twenty one (21) days. At the end of the administration, the rats were fasted for 24 hours. They weighted and humanely sacrificed via cervical dislocation. The thymus were harvested in all the groups and prepared for histological studies using routine haematoxylin and eosin (H&E) staining techniques. The result of the present study shows that lead possessed a distortive effect in the histoarchitecture of thymus of the wistar rat in G2 when compared with G1. Treatment of these experimental animals with vitamin C prove to posses more ameliorative effect in restoring the histoarchitecture on lead toxicity in the thymus closed to normal than OG. Therefore, it is suggested that aqueous extract OG can act via the same pathway as vitamin C, in maintaining the normal histological structures of the thymus of adult albino wistar rat exposed to lead toxicity.

Maize is a major crop in China and maize production in Heilongjiang Province ranks No.1 in the country in annual maize production in the whole country. Maize is prone to invasion by fungi and mycotoxins produced by these fungi are proven to be serious threats to animals as well as human health. Through high through-put sequencing we detected the dominant phylum to be Ascomycota; Dothideomycetes, Sordariomycetes, Eurotiomycetes and Tremellomycetes, Saccharomycetes were the dominant classes; Hypocreales, Eurotiales, Capnodiales, Saccharomycetales, Tremellales, and Pleosporales were the main orders; Nectriaceae, Trichocomaceae, Cladosporiaceae, Debaryomycetaceae, Tremellaceae, and Pleosporaceae were major families; Gibberella, Cladosporium, Papiliotrema, Penicillium, Scheffersomyces, Talaromyces, and Epicoccum were the most abundant phylotypes at the genus level. Epicoccum_nigrum, Gibberella_zeae, Papiliotrema_flavescens, and Scheffersomyces_shehatae were the dominant fungal species. Great fungal diversity was observed in the maize samples harvested in the five major maize-growing regions in Heilongjiang Province. Maize-1 in Nenjiang County was observed to have the greatest fungal diversity and abundance among the five regions. Since some of the fungal species are mycotoxin producing, it is necessary to take precautions to ensure the maize is stored under safe conditions to prevent the occurrence of mycotoxins and the growth and reproduction of other fungi which results in deterioration in the quality of maize.

Discussions about what is life continue to struggle; there are pros and cons for whether a virus is alive. However, an opposite thing – cell death – appears to be tantamount important and equally not-easygoing to define. Nevertheless, our current knowledge about eukaryotic cell death has made a long way and resulted in a fruitful outcome: starting from three types of cell death (type I, II and III which are mainly applicable to eukaryotic cells of organisms from the biological kingdom animalia) in 1970s, Nomenclature Committee on Cell Death has named already twelve cell death forms in 2018, including the above mentioned apoptosis, autophagy and necrosis among them. How the scientific attitude towards cellular demise evolved and various aspects of different cell death modes are reviewed in this article.