ABSTRACT
ABSTRACT Corn husks are the major wastes of corn industries with meagre economic significance. The present study was planned for value addition of corn husk through extraction of xylan, followed by its enzymatic hydrolysis into xylooligosaccharides, a pentose based prebiotic. Compositional analysis of corn husks revealed neutral detergent fibre 68.87%, acid detergent fibre 31.48%, hemicelluloses 37.39%, cellulose 29.07% and crude protein 2.68%. Irrespective of the extraction conditions, sodium hydroxide was found to be more effective in maximizing the yield of xylan from corn husks than potassium hydroxide (84% vs. 66%). Application of xylanase over the xylan of corn husks resulted into production of xylooligosaccharides with different degree of polymerization namely, xylobiose and xylotriose in addition to xylose monomer. On the basis of response surface model analysis, the maximum yield of xylobiose (1.9 mg/ml) was achieved with the enzymatic hydrolysis conditions of pH 5.8, temperature 44°C, enzyme dose 5.7U/ml and hydrolysis time of 17.5h. Therefore, the corn husks could be used as raw material for xylan extraction vis a vis its translation into prebiotic xylooligosaccharides.
ABSTRACT
Exercises induce pro-inflammatory cytokines. We assessed the effect of different grades of exercises on inflammatory cytokine response. Twenty healthy volunteers performed a single bout of moderate exercise, a single bout of strenuous exercise and one month regular moderate exercise using standardized 10m Shuttle Walk Test. Interleukin-6 (IL-6) and Tumour Necrosis Factor Alpha (TNF-∝) were estimated by Sandwich ELISA method after each exercise regime. Statistics were run using SPSS software version 11.0, Systat software. Repeated measures ANOVA has been used for analysis of IL-6 values and Friedman test has been used for analyzing TNF-∝ and IL-6 values. Twenty healthy volunteers (18 to 30 years) were chosen for this study. The mean and SEM of plasma levels (pg/ ml) of IL-6 before exercise was 10.70±1.11 pg/ml, whereas, after acute moderate exercise and acute strenuous exercise it was 12.00±1.09 pg/ml and 13.35±0.89 pg/ml respectively. Interestingly, after one month of moderate exercise the values decreased to; 8.80±0.65 pg/ml. Mean and SEM of TNF-α before exercise was 121.78±29.06 pg/ml. With acute moderate exercise and after acute strenuous exercise the values were 132.90±35.75 pg/ml and 112.05±29.89 pg/ml respectively. After one month moderate exercise the levels decreased to 94.95±27.29 pg/ml. The observed changes in both IL-6 and TNF-α levels before and after both moderate and strenuous exercise were statistically significant. Although there was a slight decrease in the value of both the cytokines after one month of regular moderate exercise compared to baseline value, the difference in the values was not statistically significant. However, both IL-6 and TNF-∝ levels showed overall statistically significant difference among the different grades of exercise. Plasma IL-6 and TNF-∝ increase with acute moderate exercise and IL-6 increases further with acute strenuous exercise. Their levels tend to fall below baseline with one month of regular moderate exercise indicating that regular moderate exercise has beneficial effects.
ABSTRACT
During a two year period, a total of 15 strains of S. typhimurium were isolated and analysed by phage typing. Of these, 13 were found untypable, while two strains belonged to phage 76 and 22. All the strains were sensitive to Gentamicin and Cephaloridine. All but one showed multiple drug resistance.