Impact of non-thermal plasma on betel leaf powder for essential oil extraction and its quality characteristics.

BACKGROUND: Betel leaf is an essential oil (EO)-rich plant from the Piperaceace family used as traditional herbal medicine. The minimum EO yield by the conventional extraction method was increased by adopting cold plasma (CP) as pretreatment. Thus, the present study involved optimizing the CP conditions and analyzing the EO's qualities. RESULTS: Optimization of the CP parameters like electric voltage (A = 25-35 kV), treatment duration (B = 4-12 min) and extraction time (C = 60-180 min) was done for maximum EO yield (R1) and total phenolic content (TPC; R2) using response surface methodology with Box-Behnken design. Maximum EO yield (20.76 ± 1.15 g kg-1 ) and TPC (29.43 ± 1.7 mg GAE mL-1 ) were derived under optimal conditions: A = 34 kV, B = 10 min and C = 110 min. A quadratic polynomial model developed by multiple regression analysis revealed that the three independent variables significantly influenced the oil yield and TPC with R2 values of 0.9909 and 0.9962, respectively. The CP treatment significantly altered the betel leaf powder morphology and increased the EO's radical scavenging capacity and bioactive compounds like chavibetol, chavibetol acetate, hydroxychavicol and γ-muurolene. Conversely, the functional groups, refractive index and specific gravity were unaffected by CP treatment. CONCLUSION: The EO yield and its qualities were improved by applying CP under optimal conditions which can be helpful for scaled-up industrial processes with further studies. The identified bioactive compounds are valuable in the food and pharmaceutical industries. © 2023 Society of Chemical Industry.

Edible insects as emerging food products-processing and product development perspective.

Edible insects (EI) are also becoming as a part of the diet due to their nutritional value and health benefits in many regions of the world. These EI are inexhaustible sources accessible by garnering from the wild with high feed conversion efficiency. Appreciating the budding of EI in justifiable food production, enlightening food security and biodiversity conversion, is promising a sufficient supply of the insect resource for future food to the world. These insects are processed to develop new products, improve organoleptic and nutritional parameters as well as the extension of shelf life. In this review, we discuss the edible insect characteristics, the potential application of EI in food industry, processing, pretreatments, drying, extraction of edible compounds like protein, lipid and chitin various food products formulation, safety regulation. Availability of broad nutritional spectrum of EI includes protein, mono and poly unsaturaturated fatty acids, amino acids, vitamins, amino aids and minerals has been used as an ingredient in development of various forms of food products such as flours in the form of whole insect powder, protein isolate, canned products, extruded products, hard candies, spreads, liquor infusion, cookies and other products.

Feasibility of Laparoscopic Hysterectomy in Stage IV Pelvic Endometriosis: Our Technique and Outcomes.

CONTEXT: The definitive surgical treatment of severe endometriosis remains to be hysterectomy whether done by laparoscopy or laparotomy. AIM: The aim of this study was to assess the feasibility and outcome of laparoscopic hysterectomy in severe pelvic endometriosis. SETTINGS AND DESIGN: This retrospective study was carried out in a tertiary center over a period of 5 years (January 2013-December 2017). SUBJECTS AND METHODS: A total of 70 patients who underwent laparoscopic hysterectomy for severe pelvic endometriosis with a score of more than 40, which was defined by the revised American Fertility Society classification, were included in the study. Feasibility of laparoscopic hysterectomy and other clinical parameters such as operative time, blood loss, recurrence of the disease, and need for postoperative medical treatment was analyzed. RESULTS: The mean age of the patients was 43.2 ± 4.56. Majority of the women (62.8%) had dysmenorrhea as the primary complaint, followed by menorrhagia (21.4%). Intraoperatively rectovaginal septum was involved in 95% of the cases with complete obliteration of the pouch of Douglas in 80% of the cases. The ureter was involved in 34% of the cases. The bladder was densely adherent in 71.4% of the patients. There was no conversion to laparotomy in any of these patients and no visceral injuries. The mean duration of surgery was 3 h. The estimated blood loss ranged from 100 to 500 ml. The duration of hospital stay was 2-5 days. There was no recurrence during follow-up in any of these patients. CONCLUSIONS: Laparoscopy in experienced hands is feasible and safe even in difficult cases of Stage IV pelvic endometriosis apart from offering superior results.