Browsing by Author "Pal, K."

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Effect of pumpkin seed powder on the properties of cake batter prepared with whole wheat flour
(Elsevier eBooks, 2024) De, Suprakash; Bharti, D.; Pradhan, B. K.; Behera, H.; Kim, N. M.; Wickramarachchi, S.; Pal, K.; Sarkar, P.
Nutrition plays a crucial role in overall health. Recently, different fruit and vegetable seeds have been incorporated into various food products to increase their nutritional values. Due to its higher nutritional content, the research community has recently explored pumpkin seed powder (PSP) as an ingredient in different bakery products. In the current study the batter composition prepared by whole wheat flour at varying PSP concentrations (5%, 10%, 15%, and 20% w/w) has been studied. The obtained results from the current study suggested that incorporating PSP significantly alters the color, texture, and microstructure of the prepared batter samples. Also, the water retention and air incorporation capacity of the batter samples showed a significant increase after the PSP incorporation. From the 2,2-diphenyl-1-picryl-hydrazyl-hydrate scavenging assay, the antioxidant properties of the prepared batter samples were analyzed. The results suggested an increased antioxidant activity after PSP addition. Though PSP adds to the nutritional value, adding PSP greater than 10% adversely affects the texture of the batters. With 10% of PSP replacement the prepared batter showed a balanced textural property in our study.
Effects of abuse of bhang on autonomic nervous system and cardiac electrophysiology: a study of Indian farmers.
(International Research Symposium on Pure and Applied Sciences, 2017 Faculty of Science, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka., 2017) Nayak, S.K.; Pal, K.
Cannabis sativa products are widely abused across the globe, just next to the abuse of alcohol because of their exultant impact. In India, the abuse of cannabis products is very much prevalent. This can be attributed to the fact that the price of making of the cannabis products is very low. The plant is cultivated comfortably in the Indian environment. Also, the cannabis products have been reported to be associated with a very low level of toxicity. Although the Government of India (GoI) has imposed restrictions on the abuse of the cannabis products, their abuse is widespread among the ordinary people. However, the restrictions imposed on the abuse of bhang (a product made from the leaves of cannabis plant) are not much strong. The people following Hindu religion also abuse bhang because of their religious perception. Bhang is employed by them to make drinks in some carnivals. Recently, several studies have reported that the abuse of cannabis products may lead to many cardiovascular as well as non-cardiovascular diseases and even death. An in-depth literature survey on the effect of cannabis products on human health suggested that only few studies have been performed to divulge information about the effect of cannabis products on physiology of the heart and the ANS. In the last few decades, the analysis of electrocardiogram (ECG) signal has received a special attention of the researchers. This is because it provides information about the cardiac electrophysiology. Heart rate variability (HRV) analysis provides a non-invasive method to analyze the physiology of the ANS. Taking a note of the afore-mentioned facts, a study was performed on Indian paddy field workers (volunteers) to understand the effect of bhang abuse on ANS and cardiac activity by acquiring their ECG signals for 5 min. The RR intervals (RRIs) were extracted from the ECG signals, and the time-domain, the frequency-domain, and the non-linear HRV features were computed from the RRIs. An in-depth analysis of the HRV features suggested that the abuse of bhang has increased the sympathetic activity in the volunteers abusing bhang regularly. Alteration in the cardiac electrophysiology was examined from the wavelet-based analysis of the ECG signals. The Daubechies (db06) wavelet was used to decompose the ECG signals into level 8, and the signal reconstruction was performed using D7+D8 sub-bands. 12 statistical features were extracted from the reconstructed signals and the statistical significance of the extracted features was examined using linear and non-linear statistical methods. Some of the features were found to be significantly different among the population abusing bhang and the population not abusing bhang, suggesting an alteration in the cardiac electrophysiology due to the abuse of bhang. Artificial neural network (ANN) was able to classify the HRV and the ECG data with an accuracy ≥90%.
Gelatin/chitosan-lactate/curcuma hydroethanolic extract-based antimicrobial films: Preparation, characterization, and application on chicken meat
(Food Hydrocolloids, 2024-04) Thakur, Rahul; Wickramarachchi, Suranga; Pal, K.; Sarkar, P.
The demand for active food packaging to extend the shelf-life of food products is increasing worldwide. The target of this work was to prepare and characterize the gelatin (G), gelatin/chitosan-lactate (G/ChL), and gelatin/chitosan-lactate incorporated with Curcuma hydroethanolic extract (G/ChL/CEE) based films with different formulations. Furthermore, the films were used to wrap the fresh chicken meat to study its shelf-life during storage. The rheological properties demonstrated an improvement in dynamic moduli and apparent viscosity in G/ChL as compared to the G-based film-forming solution (FFS). Simultaneously, a slight improvement in apparent viscosity was observed in G/ChL/CEE-based FFS. The addition of ChL in the film increases the percentage elongation of the film due to its hydrophilic nature. Stress relaxation study revealed that the films blended with ChL and CEE showed better resistance to stress relaxation. FTIR results demonstrated an increase in hydrogen bonding between G, ChL, and phenolic compounds of CEE. XRD results revealed that the incorporation of ChL reduced the crystallinity of G/ChL films, whereas the addition of CEE increased the crystallinity of G/ChL/CEE films. DSC results showed that adding ChL reduced the Tg while incorporating CEE slightly increased it. The G/ChL/CEE-based films demonstrated improved antioxidant, antimicrobial, and water vapor barrier properties compared to G and G/ChL films. The wrapping of chicken meat with G, G/ChL, and G/ChL/CEE films significantly prevented the quality parameters (in terms of pH, color, TBARS, and total aerobic bacterial count) of chicken as compared to unwrapped chicken meat.
Influence of pumpkin seed powder on the characteristic properties of whole wheat cake
(Elsevier eBooks, 2024) De, Suprakash; Bharti, D.; Pradhan, B. K.; Behera, H.; Kim, N. M.; Wickramarachchi, S.; Sarkar, P.; Pal, K.
Pumpkin seeds are a good source of unsaturated fatty acids, dietary fibers, and minerals. It can be used as a food supplement as the nutritional value of the seeds is relatively high. This study incorporates PSP (pumpkin seed powder) in varying amounts (0%, 5%, 10%, 15%, and 20%) in cake samples. Afterward, their effects on physicochemical, thermal, mechanical, and electrical characteristics were observed. Adding PSP to the cake recipe significantly increased the porosity of the cake by only up to 10% PSP incorporation. The PSP improved the hardness and other textural properties of the cake samples. Also, we can deduce that the water retention capacity of the cake samples increased with the addition of PSP, which increased the moisture content of the cake samples. From the results, we can observe that the browning of the cake increased with the incorporation of PSP in the cake samples. From all the characteristics, we can conclude that the cake sample with 10% PSP had the best texture. This means that PSP can be incorporated into cake samples only up to 10% without compromising the texture and taste.