Search Results (6)

Natural food colourants are gaining momentum in the food industry due to their clean-label appeal, safety, and potential health benefits. However, their practical application is often constrained by instability under environmental stressors such as pH fluctuations, heat, light, and oxygen. In response, both traditional and innovative strategies have emerged to improve pigment stability, with some studies reporting up to 50–80% retention of colour intensity under optimised conditions. Most existing research focuses on extraction, with limited emphasis on post-processing stability. This article reviews a wide range of food processing strategies aimed at enhancing the stability of natural pigments. It covers conventional and emerging approaches, including natural chemical stabilisers such as co-pigments, antioxidants, and metal ion chelators, physicochemical methods such as micro- and nanoencapsulation using biopolymers, and physical interventions involving drying technologies, particle size modification, and protective packaging. Modern technologies such as high-pressure processing, pulsed electric fields, ultrasound, and cold plasma are discussed as promising non-thermal alternatives, demonstrating 20–70% improvement in pigment retention compared to untreated controls. By integrating these diverse approaches, this article highlights current advancements, identifies knowledge gaps, and discusses future directions to support the development of stable, sustainable, and functional natural colourant systems for next-generation food products. Collectively, these approaches demonstrate significant potential to improve the performance and resilience of natural pigments in complex food systems. Full article

Shallow geothermal energy usually uses underground buried pipes to achieve the purpose of extracting heat while storing cold in winter and extracting cold while storing heat in summer. However, the heat transfer mechanism under the alternate operation of heat–cold extraction in winter and summer under multiple heat exchanger groups is still worth studying. Based on the constructed flow and heat transfer model in pipelines and reservoirs, this study first analyzes the temperature field evolution of a shallow buried pipe system (SBPS) under the alternate operation of heat–cold extraction, and then discusses the heat transfer performance under different pipeline flow rates, pipeline wall thermal conductivity, heat injection durations, numbers of heat exchanger groups, and flows of underground fluid. The results show that the continuous alternating process of heat–cold extraction has a promoting effect on the temperature increase or decrease in the next operating cycle due to the low- or high-temperature zone produced in the previous operating cycle. As the number of multiple heat exchanger groups increases, the heat transfer efficiency of the SBPS significantly improves. With a rise in the groundwater flow velocity, the heat transfer efficiency first decreases and then increases. Full article

Antibiotic drug resistance is a global public health issue that demands new and novel therapeutic molecules. To develop new agents, animal secretions or products are used as an alternative agent to overcome this problem. In this study, earthworm (Pheretima posthuma) coelomic fluid (PCF), and body paste (PBP) were used to analyze their effects as antibiofilm agents against four bacterial isolates MH1 (Pseudomonas aeruginosa MT448672), MH2 (Escherichia coli MT448673), MH3 (Staphylococcus aureus MT448675), and MH4 (Klebsiella pneumoniae MT448676). Coelomic fluid extraction and body paste formation were followed by minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs), biofilm formation time kinetics, and an antibiofilm assay, using heat and cold shock, sunlight exposure auto-digestion, and test tube methods. The results showed that the MIC values of PCF and PBP against S. aureus, P. aeruginosa, K. pneumoniae, and E. coli bacterial isolates ranged from 50 to 100 μg/mL, while, the results related to biofilm formation for P. aeruginosa, S. aureus, and K. pneumoniae strains were observed to be highly significantly increased (p < 0.005) after 72 h. E. coli produced a significant (p < 0.004) amount of biofilm after 48 h. Following time kinetics, the antibiofilm activity of PCF and PBP was tested at different concentrations (i.e., 25–200 μg/mL) against the aforementioned four strains (MH1–MH4). The findings of this study revealed that both PBP (5.61 ± 1.0%) and PCF (5.23 ± 1.5%) at the lowest concentration (25 μg/mL) showed non-significant (p > 0.05) antibiofilm activity against all the selected strains (MH1-MH4). At 50 μg/mL concentration, both PCF and PBP showed significant (p < 0.05) biofilm inhibition (<40%) for all isolates. Further, the biofilm inhibitory potential was also found to be more significant (p < 0.01) at 100 μg/mL of PCF and PBP, while it showed highly significant (p < 0.001) biofilm inhibition at 150 and 200 μg/mL concentrations. Moreover, more than 90% biofilm inhibition was observed at 200 μg/mL of PCF, while in the case of the PBP, <96% biofilm reduction (i.e., 100%) was also observed by all selected strains at 200 μg/mL. In conclusion, earthworm body fluid and paste have biologically active components that inhibit biofilm formation by various pathogenic bacterial strains. For future investigations, there is a need for further study to explore the potential bioactive components and investigate in depth their molecular mechanisms from a pharmaceutical perspective for effective clinical utilization. Full article

Arc brazing is an alternative joining technology well-suited for processing thermally sensitive materials and to produce mixed material connections. Due to the technological similarities of gas metal arc brazing to gas metal arc welding, it can be assumed that the process-related hydrogen input is of similar magnitude for both joining technologies. Since diffusible hydrogen is known to cause embrittlement in metallic materials, it is necessary to know the amount of diffusible hydrogen introduced by different manufacturing processes. Regarding the qualification of welding procedures, hydrogen ingress is an important factor to evaluate the risk of hydrogen-assisted cold cracking, especially when processing high-strength steels. For arc brazing, there is a lack of knowledge about the process-related hydrogen input. Hence, to study the influence of different brazing filler materials and varying levels of heat input on the diffusible hydrogen concentration in arc braze metal, a methodology to determine hydrogen content in arc weld metal in accordance with international standard ISO 3690 based on carrier gas hot extraction was applied to arc brazed specimens. Very low diffusible hydrogen concentrations of about H_D = 0.1 to 0.3 mL/100 g were found for GMAB without significant influence of arc energy or filler metal used. Full article

Even though food by-products have many negative financial and environmental impacts, they contain a considerable quantity of precious bioactive compounds such as polyphenols. The recovery of these compounds from food wastes could diminish their adverse effects in different aspects. For doing this, various nonthermal and conventional methods are used. Since conventional extraction methods may cause plenty of problems, due to their heat production and extreme need for energy and solvent, many novel technologies such as microwave, ultrasound, cold plasma, pulsed electric field, pressurized liquid, and ohmic heating technology have been regarded as alternatives assisting the extraction process. This paper highlights the competence of mild technologies in the recovery of polyphenols from food by-products, the effect of these technologies on polyphenol oxidase, and the application of the recovered polyphenols in the food industry. Full article

Cotton is the second largest crop of Pakistan in terms of area after wheat and is being suffered by multiple shocks over the time due to conventional agricultural management practices, climate change, and market failures. Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA) was introduced by the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) in 2010, as an innovative cleaner production alternative to conventional farming that aimed at increasing the efficiency of natural resources, resilience, and productivity of agricultural production system, while reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The adverse effects of climate change on cotton production at the farm and regional level can be minimized by using CSA practices and technologies. The present study investigated the financial performance and explored the impact of CSA through sustainable water use management on cotton production in Lower Bari Doab Canal (LBDC) irrigation system of Punjab, Pakistan by using Cobb-Douglas production function. The adopters of CSA in cotton cultivation were identified by conducting six focus group discussions. Data were collected through well-structured questionnaire from 133 adopters of CSA and 65 conventional cotton growers for the cropping season 2016–2017. It was found that water-smart (raising crops on bed, laser land levelling, conjunctive use of water and drainage management), energy-smart (minimum tillage), carbon-smart (less use of chemicals) and knowledge-smart (crop rotation and improved varieties i.e., tolerant to drought, flood and heat/cold stresses) practices and technologies of CSA were adopted by the cotton farmers in the study area. Most of the farmers were of the view that they are adopting CSA practices and technologies due to the limited supply of canal water, climate change, drought-prone, massive groundwater extraction, rapidly declining groundwater table and increasing soil salinity over the time. Results revealed that uniform germination, higher yield and financial returns, the concentration of inputs and increase in resource use efficiency are the main advantages of CSA. The econometric analysis showed that implementation of CSA practices and technologies as judicious use of water and fertilizer, groundwater quality, access to extension services, and appropriate method and time of picking have a significant impact on the gross value of cotton product (GVP). The findings of the study would be helpful for policy makers to formulate policies that can minimize farmer’s financial burden to adopt CSA technologies and implement for scaling out in Punjab and beyond. Full article