An approach to manufacturing well-being milk chocolate in partial replacement of lecithin by the functional plant-based combination.

Lecithin is constituted of a glycerophospholipid mixture and is abundantly used as an emulsifying agent in various food applications including chocolate production. However, overconsumption of lecithin may create an adverse effect on human health. Thus, this study aims to replace the lecithin with plant-based gums. Different ratios of guar and arabic gum (25%-75%) and their blend (25%-75%) were employed as partial replacement of lecithin. Milk chocolate prepared using 40% guar gum (60GGL [guar gum, lecithin]), 25% arabic gum (75AGL [arabic gum, lecithin]), and a blend of 15 arabic gum and 10 guar gum (65AGGL [arabic gum, guar gum, lecithin]) showed similar rheological behavior as compared to control chocolate (100% lecithin). The fat content of 65AGGL (37.85%) was significantly lower than that of the control sample (43.37%). Rheological behavior exhibited shear-thinning behavior and samples (60GGL-75GGL-80GGL, 65AGL-75AGL, and 65AGGL-75AGGL) showed similar rheological properties as compared to control. The chocolate samples (60GGL and 65AGGL) showed significantly (p < .05) higher hardness values (86.01 and 83.55 N) than the control (79.95 N). As well, gum-added chocolates exhibited higher thermal stability up to 660°C as compared to the control sample. The Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) analysis revealed predominant ß-(1 → 4) and ß-(1 → 6) glycosidic linkages of the gums and lecithin. Sensory evaluation revealed a comparable score of gum-added milk chocolate in comparison to control samples in terms of taste, texture, color, and overall acceptance. Thus, plant exudate gums could be an excellent alternative to lecithin in milk chocolate, which can enhance the textural properties and shelf life.

Automated liquid-liquid extraction method for high-throughput analysis of rosuvastatin in human EDTA K2 plasma by LC-MS/MS.

BACKGROUND: Liquid-liquid extraction has been widely used for the analysis of rosuvastatin due to its many attractive features, such as low cost and clean extract. However, manual transfer of the organic phase poses a challenge, particularly when a batch size is large. To overcome the challenge, a simple automated high-throughput (192 samples per batch) liquid-liquid extraction method with short (3.0-min) chromatographic run time was proposed. Rosuvastatin was separated using a gradient on a reversed-phase C18 column and detected in the multiple reaction monitoring made with a mass transition of m/z 482.3→258.2 amu. RESULTS: The assay exhibited a linear range from 50 to 25000 pg/ml (r ≥ 0.9976). The intra- and inter-day accuracy ranged from 98.16 to 103.84% and 101.18 to 103.95%, respectively. The intra- and inter-day precision ranged from 0.70 to 6.17% and 2.19 to 5.07%, respectively. CONCLUSION: Finally, the validated method was successfully applied to bioequivalence studies.

Validation of LC/MS electrospray ionisation method for the estimation of ursodiol in human plasma and its application in bioequivalence study.

A novel High Performance Liquid Chromatography-electrospray mass spectrometric method has been developed for the estimation of Ursodiol (Ursodeoxycholic acid)--a bile acid, in human plasma using Ornidazole as internal standard. The methodology involved solid phase extraction of the analyte from human plasma matrix. The chromatographic separation was achieved within seven minutes by an isocratic mobile phase containing 1.0 mM ammonium acetate and Acetonitrile (65:35, v/v), flowing through XTerra MS C18, 100 x 2.1, 3.5 microm analytical column, at a flow rate of 0.2 ml/min. Ion signals were measured in negative mode for Ursodiol and internal standard at m/z 391.3 and 278.1, respectively. A detailed validation of the method was performed as per USFDA guidelines and the standard curves were found to be linear in the range 50.0 ng/ml to 3000.0 ng/ml with the mean correlation coefficient more than 0.99. The absolute recovery was more than 54.90% for Ursodiol and 76.51% for internal standard. Ursodiol was stable for sixty-nine days at -70 degrees C and for eight hours at ambient temperature. After extraction from plasma, the reconstituted samples of Ursodiol were stable in autosampler at 10 degrees C for forty-eight hours. Upon subjecting to three freeze thaw cycles, there was no change in the recovery of the analyte. The integrity of the plasma samples remained unaffected even upon four-fold dilution with drug free human plasma. The method was simple, specific, sensitive, precise, accurate and suitable for bioequivalence and pharmacokinetic studies. It was successfully applied to the pilot bioequivalence study of Ursodiol in male human subjects.