Hard-to-cook phenomenon in chickpeas (Cicer arietinum L): effect of accelerated storage on quality.

Storage, at high temperature (> or = 25 degrees C) and high relative humidity (> or = 65%), causes development of hard to cook (HTC) phenomenon in grain legumes. The objective of this work was to study the effect of storage simulating tropical conditions on chickpeas quality. The hardening of the Surutato 77, Mocorito 88, and Blanco Sinaloa 92 chickpea varieties was produced using adverse storage (32 +/- 1 degrees C, RH = 75%, 160 days) conditions. For all samples, the Hunter 'L' values decreased and deltaE values increased during storage, meaning a loss of color lightness and development of darkening. Accelerated storage caused a significant decrease in the water absorption capacities and cooking times of whole seeds, cotyledons and seed coats of all samples, being more pronounced in The Blanco Sinaloa 92 variety. Furthermore, storage produced significant decreases in the seed coat tannin content of the three materials; this parameter increased significantly in the cotyledon. In all samples, the levels of phytic acid decreased significantly with the seed hardness. Hardening of chickpea grains caused a decrease in the in vitro protein digestibilities of all varieties. These results suggest that both the cotyledon and seed coat play a significant role in the process of chickpea hardening. Blanco Sinaloa 92 and Mocorito 88 might be classified as varieties with high and low proneness, respectively, to the development of the HTC condition.

Treatment of chronic amebiasis in pediatric patients with a suspension of quinfamide.

Quinfamide, a dichloroacetyl quinolol synthesized and tested at Sterling Winthrop Research Institute, is a potent luminal amebicide with potential utility for a one-day treatment of chronic and subacute amebiasis caused by Entamoeba histolytica. Previous studies demonstrated that quinfamide is a safe and efficacious drug for adult patients when given as a one-day treatment regimen of 300 mg taken in tablet form at a dosage of 100 mg every eight hours. To test the drug in suspension form in pediatric patients, 46 children from newborn to 12 years old, assigned to groups according to age, were administered quinfamide in doses ranging from 50 to 300 mg/day as either single or divided doses. In all age groups quinfamide suspension, given as multiple doses in a single day, was shown to be highly effective in eliminating trophozoites from the stool. Cure rates ranged from 77.8% to 100%.