Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, Ghana has recorded a total of 130, 727 confirmed cases with 1,207 deaths at the time of writing this article. The COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant influence on nations and regions all... more
Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, Ghana has recorded a total of 130, 727 confirmed cases with 1,207 deaths at the time of writing this article. The COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant influence on nations and regions all around the world since it started and Ghana is no exception. This systematic review discusses COVID-19 measures in Ghana, the impact of COVID-19 on the import and export of Agricultural inputs and food, as well as the impact of COVID-19 on local food system actors. In the second part, measures to prevent food insecurity in Ghana during the outbreak of the pandemic, emerging lessons, and building resilience have also been presented. In several production regions, the Ghanaian food system experienced disturbances that resulted in reduced output due to limited labor mobility; nevertheless, these disruptions were minor and did not appear to have a significant impact on production. The COVID-19 epidemic has disrupted food supplies, putting billions of peop...
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Abstract This chapter explored the nutritional properties and feeding values of Hibiscus sabdariffa and their products. Essentially, Roselle is a medicinal plant with a global fame and is estimated to have more than 300 species... more
Abstract This chapter explored the nutritional properties and feeding values of Hibiscus sabdariffa and their products. Essentially, Roselle is a medicinal plant with a global fame and is estimated to have more than 300 species distributed in tropical and subtropical regions. Roselle known as functional foods contains significant levels of active biological components, mainly anthocyanins, flavonoids, vitamins, and polyphenolic acids, which provide specific health benefits to humans beyond the traditional nutrients. Many parts of Roselle including seeds, leaves, fruits, and roots are used in various foods as well as in herbal medicine as a potential nonpharmacological treatment. Roselle is primarily cultivated commercially for its calyx, which comes in three types: red, green, and dark red. Products produced from Roselle include Roselle tea, Roselle powder, Roselle tablets, Roselle juice, Roselle extracts, Roselle jam, and Roselle seed oil, among others.
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A Thesis submitted to the Department of Horticulture, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Postharvest Technology, 2011
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Highlights • 16 batches of ginger slices were pretreated by VOS, VSON, VOD and control (untreated).• The variously pretreated ginger slices were then dried by infrared drying.• The metabolomes and other quality parameters of the dried... more
Highlights • 16 batches of ginger slices were pretreated by VOS, VSON, VOD and control (untreated).• The variously pretreated ginger slices were then dried by infrared drying.• The metabolomes and other quality parameters of the dried samples were determined.• The VOS-pretreated samples exhibited superior quality characteristics over the rest.• The trend of significance for the various pretreatments: VOS > VSON > VOD > Control.
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Pests and diseases are the limiting factors of Roselle production worldwide. They are found in various parts of Roselle plants (including calyces, roots, leaves, stems, and rhizosphere). The damage they cause may range from minor to... more
Pests and diseases are the limiting factors of Roselle production worldwide. They are found in various parts of Roselle plants (including calyces, roots, leaves, stems, and rhizosphere). The damage they cause may range from minor to major, but the most important one is that these have a destructive effect on the yield quality. The incidence of diverse species of pests and diseases will demand effective control measures that will improve Roselle productivity. First, establishment of pest- and disease-free areas or growing areas with minimal pest and disease incidences in Roselle is recommended. This chapter attempts to highlight the types of pests and diseases and their effects on yield qualities. It also analyzes the achievements made with respect to the management (chemical and nonchemical) of pests and diseases of Roselle.
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An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper.
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Antagonistic yeasts can inhibit fungal growth. In our previous research, Meyerozyma guilliermondii, one of the antagonistic yeasts, exhibited antagonistic activity against Penicillium expansum. However, the mechanisms, especially the... more
Antagonistic yeasts can inhibit fungal growth. In our previous research, Meyerozyma guilliermondii, one of the antagonistic yeasts, exhibited antagonistic activity against Penicillium expansum. However, the mechanisms, especially the molecular mechanisms of inhibiting activity of M. guilliermondii, are not clear. In this study, the protein expression profile and transcriptome characterization of P. expansum induced by M. guilliermondii were investigated. In P. expansum induced by M. guilliermondii, 66 proteins were identified as differentially expressed, among them six proteins were upregulated and 60 proteins were downregulated, which were associated with oxidative phosphorylation, ATP synthesis, basal metabolism, and response regulation. Simultaneously, a transcriptomic approach based on RNA-Seq was applied to annotate the genome of P. expansum and then studied the changes of gene expression in P. expansum treated with M. guilliermondii. The results showed that differentially expr...
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The proteomic and lysine acetylation (Kac) changes, accompanying degradation of patulin in Rhodotorula mucilaginosa were analyzed using tandem mass tagging and N6-acetyllysine affinity enrichment followed by LC-MS/MS. Proteomic results... more
The proteomic and lysine acetylation (Kac) changes, accompanying degradation of patulin in Rhodotorula mucilaginosa were analyzed using tandem mass tagging and N6-acetyllysine affinity enrichment followed by LC-MS/MS. Proteomic results showed that expression level of short-chain reductase protein and glutathione S-transferase involved in detoxification was significantly up-regulated. In addition, the expression levels of zinc-binding oxidoreductase and quinone oxidoreductase that are involved in antioxidant process, ABC transport and MFS transport responsible for chemical transport were activated when treated with patulin. The quantitative real time PCR (qRT-PCR) result also indicated these genes expression levels were increased when treated with patulin. Kac changes accompanying degradation of patulin in R. mucilaginosa were also observed. Totally, 130 Kac sites in 103 proteins were differentially expressed under patulin stress. The differentially up expressed modified proteins wer...
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This study was conducted to investigate the effect of lactic acid bacteria (LAB) strains on color properties, phenolic profile and antioxidant activities of mulberry juice. Mulberry juice was separately fermented at 37 °C for 36 h using... more
This study was conducted to investigate the effect of lactic acid bacteria (LAB) strains on color properties, phenolic profile and antioxidant activities of mulberry juice. Mulberry juice was separately fermented at 37 °C for 36 h using Lactobacillus plantarum, Lactobacillus acidophilus and Lactobacillus paracasei. The results showed that lactic acid fermentation impacted on the color of the juice. Moreover, the study demonstrated that LABs impacted on the phenolic profile of the juice. Syringic acid, cyanidin-3-O-rutinoside and quercetin were the predominant phenolic acid, anthocyanin and flavonol respectively in the lactic-acid-fermented mulberry juice. The degree of radical scavenging activity was species-specific with the L. plantarum fermented juice having the highest radical scavenging activities. The correlation analysis demonstrated that flavonols and anthocyanins were mostly responsible for the increased in 2,2'-azino-bis (3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid) scaveng...
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Citrinin (CIT) is a toxic secondary metabolite produced by fungi belonging to the Penicillium, Aspergillus and Monascus spp. This toxin has been detected in many agricultural products. In this study, a strain Y3 with the ability to... more
Citrinin (CIT) is a toxic secondary metabolite produced by fungi belonging to the Penicillium, Aspergillus and Monascus spp. This toxin has been detected in many agricultural products. In this study, a strain Y3 with the ability to eliminate CIT was screened and identified as Cryptococcus podzolicus based on the sequence analysis of internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region. Neither uptake of CIT by cells nor adsorption by cell wall was involved in CIT elimination by Cryptococcus podzolicus Y-3. The extracellular metabolites of Cryptococcus podzolicus Y-3 stimulated by CIT or not showed no degradation for CIT. It indicated that CIT elimination is attributed to the degradation of intracellular enzyme(s). The degradation of CIT by C. podzolicus Y3 was dependent on the type of media, yeast concentration, temperature, pH and initial concentration of CIT. Most of the CIT was degraded by C. podzolicus Y3 in NYDB medium at 42 h but not in PDB medium. The degradation rate of CIT was signific...
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Abstract In this study, the activitiesof defense-related enzymes andthose involved in reactive oxygen species (ROS) and their corresponding genes coding for PPO , APX , CHI , PAL and CAT in response to Hanseniaspora uvarum and... more
Abstract In this study, the activitiesof defense-related enzymes andthose involved in reactive oxygen species (ROS) and their corresponding genes coding for PPO , APX , CHI , PAL and CAT in response to Hanseniaspora uvarum and Hanseniaspora uvarum harvested from NYDB supplemented with 2% w/v trehalose in nutrient yeast dextrose broth (NYDB) were investigated. Conventional methods and qRT-PCR were used to perform defense-related enzyme activities and relative genes expression respectively. The results indicated that H. uvarum enhanced with 2% w/v trehalose demonstrated biocontrol efficacy against Aspergillus tubingensis in grapes.Furthermore, it was noticed that H. uvarum supplemented with 2% w/v trehalose in NYDB had a significantly effect on the induction of defense-related genes expression andenzyme activities compared to the control, 2% w/v trehalose and H. uvarum after storage at 20 °C for 72 h. CAT relative gene expression level in grapes treated with H. uvarum supplemented with 2% w/v trehalose was the highest with 23-fold increase compared to the control. These results suggested that H. uvarum pretreated with trehalose up-regulatedthe defense-relatedgenes expression and enzyme activitiesin the grapes. These findings indicated that, the application of H. uvarum harvested from NYDB supplemented with 2% w/v trehalose enhanced the defense-related mechanism of grapes against A. tubingensis .
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The aim of the study was to produce cookie by partial substitution of wheat flour (WF) with Parkia biglobosa Flour (PBF) and use D-optimal design to enhance the baking time (BT), the cookie diameter (CD), the cookie width (CW) and the... more
The aim of the study was to produce cookie by partial substitution of wheat flour (WF) with Parkia biglobosa Flour (PBF) and use D-optimal design to enhance the baking time (BT), the cookie diameter (CD), the cookie width (CW) and the cookie hardness (CH). The cookie sensory attributes (taste, aroma, texture, colour and overall likeness) were also evaluated in the study. The results established that it is possible to obtain Parkia biglobosa flour-based cookies that have slightly more sensory acceptability than those made from only wheat flour. In general, cookie acceptability was influenced by the different compositions of the formulation. Increasing the proportion of PBF in the composite flour resulted in an increase in width of the cookie as well as induced a significant increase in the hardness of the cookie. The optimum formulation was WF (208.133 g), PBF (200 g) and MA (241.867 g) with a correspondent BT of 7.9266 min, CD of 161.674 mm, CW of 46.3052 mm and CH values of 40.2973 mm with a desirable value of 0.896. Using these predicted parameters, the experimental results obtained were BT = 7.0 ± 0.10 min, CD = 162.0 ± 2.0 mm, CW = 45.0 ± 1.0 mm and CH = 44.50 ± 2.00 N.
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Synthetic fungicides are commonly employed for the control of postharvest diseases of fruits. However, due to health concerns about the use of these chemicals, alternative control methods including biocontrol based on antagonistic yeasts... more
Synthetic fungicides are commonly employed for the control of postharvest diseases of fruits. However, due to health concerns about the use of these chemicals, alternative control methods including biocontrol based on antagonistic yeasts are gaining in popularity. In this study, we investigated the effects of two biocontrol yeasts, Rhodotorula mucilaginosa strain 3617 and Rhodotorula kratochvilovae strain LS11, on blue mold and patulin (PAT) contamination caused by Penicillium expansum strains PY and FS7 in artificially inoculated Fuji apples stored at 20°C for 9 days. To correlate the development of the P. expansum strains in yeast-treated and untreated apples with PAT production, we quantified their biomass in the infected fruits using a recently published quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction method based on specific primers for patF, a gene from P. expansum that is involved in PAT biosynthesis. Both yeasts significantly reduced the disease incidence caused by the two ...
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In this study, seven strains of Fusarium graminearum were isolated from wheat, of which six were identified to produce deoxynivalenol and the production of deoxynivalenol was assessed. F. graminearum strain Fg1 was noted to produce 1.0... more
In this study, seven strains of Fusarium graminearum were isolated from wheat, of which six were identified to produce deoxynivalenol and the production of deoxynivalenol was assessed. F. graminearum strain Fg1 was noted to produce 1.0 μg/g deoxynivalenol during the incubation period in the Czapek yeast broth, while none was detected in F. graminearum strain Fg2. Hence, the differences in proteomes and transcriptomes of Fg1 and Fg2 were compared to analyze the mechanism underlying deoxynivalenol production. Among the 66 significantly differentially expressed proteins in Fg1, 39 and 27 were more or less abundant expressed. Functional analysis suggested that the enzymes involved in the methylerythritol 4-phosphate and mevalonate pathways, which provide a substrate for biosynthesis of farnesyl pyrophosphate, a precursor of DON, were activated in Fg1. The transcriptomics data demonstrated that the expression level of a majority of genes, including trichothecene biosynthetic genes, prote...
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Morus nigra is an excellent source of polyphenols which, are associated with its functional properties. Lactic acid bacteria have been reported to hydrolyse complex polyphenols into simpler and more bioactive compounds during... more
Morus nigra is an excellent source of polyphenols which, are associated with its functional properties. Lactic acid bacteria have been reported to hydrolyse complex polyphenols into simpler and more bioactive compounds during fermentation. Fermentation process depends on multiple parameters to obtain a desired product. The study evaluated the effects of fermentation parameters [temperature (TF), pH, inoculum concentration (IC) and brix (°Bx) on the phytochemical properties of lactic-acid-fermented mulberry juice (LFMJ)]. Correlation analysis showed that quadratic polynomial model could be used to illustrate the influence of fermentation parameters on phytochemical properties of LFMJ. Response surface plots showed that these independent variables significantly influenced the phytochemical content of LFMJ. The outcome of the study demonstrated that lactic acid fermentation significantly impacted on the total phenolic, anthocyanin and flavonoid contents of the beverage. The optimum fermentation conditions to obtain the highest phenolic, anthocyanin and flavonoid contents were TF (40 °C), pH (4.0), IC (3.90% v/v) and °Bx 14. Under the above-mentioned conditions, the experimental results obtained [total phenolic content (928.12 ± 3.05 mg/100 ml), total anthocyanin content (131.85 ± 1.03 mg/100 ml) and total flavonoid content (440.50 ± 2.00 mg/100 ml)] were in line with the predicted values—total phenolic content (879.25 mg/100 ml), total anthocyanin content (128.99 mg/100 ml) and total flavonoid content (436.63 mg/100 ml)) and an overall desirability of 0.911. The LFMJ was found to have a significant (P < 0.05) better colour, aroma, flavour, taste and overall acceptability compared to the non-fermented mulberry (NFMJ).
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Abstract The effect of phosphatidylcholine (soybean extract) on the biocontrol efficacy of the antagonistic yeast Hanseniaspora uvarum Y3 against green mold of oranges was investigated. The results showed that H. uvarum Y3 significantly... more
Abstract The effect of phosphatidylcholine (soybean extract) on the biocontrol efficacy of the antagonistic yeast Hanseniaspora uvarum Y3 against green mold of oranges was investigated. The results showed that H. uvarum Y3 significantly inhibited green mold of oranges at different concentrations compared with the control. Besides, phosphatidylcholine was observed to enhanced the biocontrol efficacy of H. uvarum Y3. Among the different concentrations, phosphatidylcholine at 1.5% w/v combined with H. uvarum Y3 exhibited the best control effect, the green mold incidence of oranges was only 4.63%, while the incidence was 33.33% when treated with H. uvarum Y3. After 24 h incubation, phosphatidylcholine at the different concentrations did not significantly influence the population of H. uvarum Y3 in NYDB. However, it was found that, phosphatidylcholine (1.5% w/v) significantly improved the population dynamics of H. uvarum Y3 in orange wounds at 20 °C. The scanned electron microscope (SEM) results showed that H. uvarum Y3 combined with phosphatidylcholine (1.5% w/v) significantly inhibited the spore germination and mycelial growth of Penicillium digitatum in orange wounds. Moreover, H. uvarum Y3 in combination with 1.5% phosphatidylcholine treatment did not impair postharvest qualities of oranges. Conclusively, H. uvarum Y3 in combination with phosphatidylcholine offers a great potential as an alternative method against postharvest green mold of oranges.
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In this work, we examined the mechanisms involved in the degradation of patulin by Pichia caribbica. Our results indicate that cell-free filtrate of P. caribbica reduced patutlin content. The heat-killed cells could not degrade patulin.... more
In this work, we examined the mechanisms involved in the degradation of patulin by Pichia caribbica. Our results indicate that cell-free filtrate of P. caribbica reduced patutlin content. The heat-killed cells could not degrade patulin. However, the live cells significantly reduced the concentration of the patulin. In furtherance to this, it was observed that patulin was not detected in the broken yeast cells and cell wall. The addition of cycloheximide to the P. caribbica cells decreased the capacity of degradation of patulin. Proteomics analyses revealed that patulin treatment resulted in an upregulated protein which was involved in metabolism and stress response processes. Our results suggested that the mechanism of degradation of patulin by P. caribbica was not absorption; the presence of patulin can induce P. caribbica to produce associated intracellular and extracellular enzymes, both of which have the ability to degrade patulin. The result provides a new possible method that ...
Research Interests: Biology, Medicine, Yeast, Toxins, Antifungal Agents, and 4 moreExtracellular, Patulin, Intracellular, and Cycloheximide
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The mycotoxin zearalenone, also known as F-2 mycotoxin or RAL is a potent estrogenic metabolite produced by some Gibberella and Fusarium species. It is a common contaminant of cereal crops, livestock and poultry products. However,... more
The mycotoxin zearalenone, also known as F-2 mycotoxin or RAL is a potent estrogenic metabolite produced by some Gibberella and Fusarium species. It is a common contaminant of cereal crops, livestock and poultry products. However, detoxification of zearalenone (ZEN) remains a challenge. Recently, biological approach for ZEN detoxification is being explored. In this study, we investigated the biodegradation of ZEN by using Saccharomyces cerevisiae and the possible mechanisms involved. The findings revealed that, after 48h of incubation of S. cerevisiae in combination with ZEN, the ZEN was completely degraded by S. cerevisiae. On the contrary, heat-killed cells and cell-free culture filtrates of S. cerevisiae could not degrade ZEN. Furthermore, addition of cycloheximide to S. cerevisiae combined with ZEN at time 0h prevented ZEN degradation, while addition of cycloheximide at 12h significantly slowed down degradation. The results also indicated cellular proteomics of S. cerevisiae. Se...