Influence of convective hot air drying on physico-functional, thermo-pasting and antioxidant properties of elephant foot yam powder (Amorphophallus paeoniifolius).

The present study focused on the effect of different drying temperatures (40, 50, 60 and 70 °C) and combination of pre-treatments: potassium metabisulphite (KMS), potassium metabisulphite + Citric acid + blanching (KCB)] on functional, thermo-pasting and antioxidant properties of elephant foot yam (EFY) powder. Drying temperature and pretreatment reduces the water and oil absorption capacity, and the highest values were 2.34 g/g and 1.19 g/g for drying at 40 °C for the untreated sample, respectively. KMS pretreatment enhanced the bulk density, foaming capacity, emulsion capacity, and emulsion stability with an increase in drying temperature. Pasting temperature and viscosity decreased with an increase in drying temperature, and the maximum was observed at 40 °C for KMS pretreatment. Blanching increases the gelatinization temperature resulting in higher mid-and end-temperatures for KCB pretreatment. The antioxidant properties decreased with an increase in the drying temperature and were found to be minimal in the case of KCB treated samples.

Augmentation of pyrethrins content in callus of Chrysanthemum cinerariaefolium and establishing its insecticidal activity by molecular docking of NavMS Sodium Channel Pore receptor.

Pyrethrins are effective food-grade bio-pesticides obtained from the flowers of Chrysanthemum cinerariaefolium and this crop cannot be cultivated widely in India due to its specific agro-climatic requirement. Hence pyrethrins are mostly imported from Kenya. Therefore, the present study aims to develop a process for augmentation of pyrethrin contents in C. cinerariaefolium callus and establish the correlation between early knockdown effects through docking on grain storage insect. In vitro seedlings were used as explants to induce callus on MS medium with different concentrations of auxins and cytokinins. Pyrethrin extracted from the callus was estimated by RP-HPLC. In callus, total pyrethrin was found to be 17.5 µg/g, which is higher than that found in natural flowers of certain Pyrethrum cultivars. The concentrations of cinerin II, pyrethrin II and jasmoline II were quite high in callus grown on solid medium. Bio-efficacy of pyrethrum extracts of flower and callus on insect Tribolium sp., showed higher repellency and early knock-down effect when compared with pure compound pestanal. Further, the rapid knockdown effect of all pyrethrins components was established by molecular docking studies targeting NavMS Sodium Channel Pore receptor docking followed by multiple ligands simultaneous docking, performed to investigate the concurrent binding of different combinations of pyrethrin. Among the six pyrethrin components, the pyrethrin I and II were found to be a more efficient, binding more firmly to the target, exhibiting higher possibilities of insecticidal effect by an early knockdown mechanism.