A Systematic Review of Phytochemistry, Nutritional Composition, and Pharmacologic Application of Species of the Genus Viola in Noncommunicable Diseases (NCDs).

Viola L. is the largest genus of the Violaceae family with more than 500 species across the globe. The present extensive literature survey revealed Viola species to be a group of important nutritional and medicinal plants used for the ethnomedicinal treatment of noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) such as diabetes, asthma, lung diseases, and fatigue. Many plant species of this genus have also received scientific validation of their pharmacological activities including neuroprotective, immunomodulatory, anticancer, antihypertensive, antidyslipidemic, analgesic, antipyretic, diuretic, anti-inflammatory, anthelmintic, and antioxidant. Viola is highly rich in different natural products some of which have been isolated and identified in the past few decades; these include flavonoids terpenoids and phenylpropanoids of different pharmacological activities. The pharmacokinetics and clinical studies on this genus are lacking, and the present review is aimed at summarizing the current understanding of the ethnopharmacology, phytochemistry, nutritional composition, and pharmacological profile of medicinal plants from the Viola genus to reveal its therapeutic potentials, gaps, and subsequently open a new window for future pharmacological research.

Shelf life extension of wheat bread by alhydwan flour and Carboxymethylcellulose and improvement of their quality characteristics, dough rheological and microstructure.

Alhydwan, has been used in bakery products for many years in South of Yemen. Alhydwan primary function in bakery products is to inhibit moisture content during storage, leading to improved shelf life. However, as a fresh strategy to bread staling, no extensive study has been conducted to evaluate its potential. The present study therefore examined the alhydwan as a comparison with Carboxymethylcellulose (CMC) at 0.5% (w/w) level in dough rheology improvement, microstructure, quality parameters and delayed wheat bread staling. The CMC or alhydwan for farinograph characteristics comprising the dough's portrayed showed greater water absorption, while growth and stability time was significantly decreased. Staling of bread, the findings showed that in both alhydwan and CMC minimized crumb hardening frequency and enhanced freshness, quality and retention ability for moisture, making the bread softer and postponed staling. The microstructure of CMC or alhydwan supplemented formulation showed the distinguishable characteristics and constituents that could explain, to some degree, that the CMC and alhydwan had antistaling effect. The incorporation of alhydwan such as CMC into the formulation of bread could thus play a sustainable role in improving the quality of bread by having an extended shelf life.