Effect of different drying technologies on drying characteristics and quality of red pepper (Capsicum frutescens L.): a comparative study.

BACKGROUND: Hot air drying and sun drying are traditional drying technologies widely used in the drying of agricultural products for a long time, but usually recognized as time-consuming or producing lower-quality products. Infrared drying is a rather effective drying technology that has advantages over traditional drying technologies. Thus, in order to investigate the application of infrared drying in the dehydration of red pepper, the drying characteristics and quality of infrared-dried red pepper were compared with those of sun-dried and hot air-dried red pepper. RESULTS: The infrared drying technology significantly enhanced the drying rate when compared with hot air drying and sun drying. Temperature was the most important factor affecting the moisture transfer during the process of infrared drying as well as hot air drying. Effective moisture diffusivity (Deff ) values of infrared drying ranged from 1.58 × 10(-9) to 3.78 × 10(-9) m(2) s(-1) . The Ea values of infrared drying and hot air drying were 42.67 and 44.48 kJ mol(-1) respectively. Infrared drying and hot air drying produced color loss to a similar extent. Relatively higher crispness values were observed for infrared-dried samples. CONCLUSION: Sun drying produced dried red pepper with the best color when compared with hot air drying and infrared drying. Meanwhile, infrared drying markedly improved the drying rate at the same drying temperature level of hot air drying, and the products obtained had relatively better quality with higher crispness values. © 2015 Society of Chemical Industry.

[Production of monoclonal antibodies to Cymbidium mosaic virus and application in orchids virus detection].

Three hybridoma cell lines, 2C6, 5B7 and 12G9, secreting monoclonal antibodies (McAbs) against Cymbidium mosaic virus (CymMV) were produced by fusing mouse myeloma cells (SP2/0) with spleen cells from BALB/ C immunized by the CymMV particles. The three McAbs could specifically react with CymMV. The titres of ascitic fluids of two McAbs are up to 10(-6) in I-ELISA. Isotypes and subclasses of the the three McAbs belong to IgG1. Isotypes of light strains of the three McAbs all belong to kappa. They were used in antigen-coated plate (ACP)-ELISA for CymMV detection, and ACP-ELISA could successfully detect 0.487 ng of purified CymMV or virus in plant sap diluted 1:10240. The presence of CymMV in field Orchids tissues was investigated with ACP-ELISA.

A new cytotoxic indole-3-ethenamide from the halotolerant fungus Aspergillus sclerotiorum PT06-1.

A new cytotoxic indole-3-ethenamide (1) and two known compounds, 7-(3-methylbut-2-enyl)-1H-indole-3-carbaldehyde (2) and emodin (3) were isolated and identified from the ethyl acetate extract of Aspergillus sclerotiorum PT06-1 in a hypersaline nutrient-rich medium. On the basis of spectroscopic analysis and amino-acid analysis, the new structure of 1 was determined to be (S,E)-3-methyl-2-(N- methylacetamido)-N-(2-(7-(3-methylbut-2-enyl)-1H-indol-3-yl)vinyl)butanamide within 3:1 ratio of rotamers along the acetamido single bond in DMSO-d(6) at room temperature. Compound 1 showed moderate cytotoxicity against A-549 cells and weak cytotoxicity against HL-60 cells with the IC(50) values of 3.0 and 27 µM, respectively. Compound 2 has been separated as natural product for the first time, and its NMR data were also reported for the first time in this study.