Turmeric (Curcuma longa L.) is an underground rhizome that is an essential ingredient in day-to-day life. India is the major turmeric production and exportation country in the world. However, since December 2019, Sri Lanka has banned the importation of turmeric from other countries like India. Curing is a significant step during the processing of turmeric, which can be described as cooking fresh turmeric rhizomes before going to the drying step. Curing helps to avoid the raw odor, to reduce the drying time, to distribute the pigment product uniformly, and facilitate uniform drying. This study was conducted to identify the best protocol for turmeric processing and compare the quality of local turmeric samples prepared by using different processing steps such as, uncured and dried as slices, water boiled and dried as slices, steamed and dried as slices with imported turmeric from India. All the samples were separately analyzed for phytochemical properties (moisture content, volatile oil content, curcumin content, oleoresin content, etc.). Curcumin is an important attribute when considering the quality of turmeric. Curcumin content is varied with the curing step. The lowest curcumin content was shown by the uncured and sliced sample (2.86 ± 0.13 %). Steamed and dried as slices sample showed the highest curcumin content (4.51 ± 0.02 %). Curing and Slicing also decreased the drying time. However, water boiled and sliced sample (T-2) showed a high yield (wet to dry ratio 5.41:1), volatile oil content 4.40 ± 0.00 %, and oleoresin content 14.81 ± 2.36 %. According to the results, among the locally produced turmeric, steamed and dried as slices sample (T-3) showed good quality especially for curcumin content.
Bus priority measures are widely considered effective at reducing traffic congestion and bus travel times. Traditionally, the performance of a bus priority measure is evaluated using traffic survey-based methods. However, traffic simulations can also be used as a decision support tool for transport planners to test different bus priority measures in a simulation environment and evaluate the measure's performance before physical implementation. This research presents the development of a microscopic traffic simulation framework to simulate traffic flows when a bus priority lane (BPL) is in operation and compares its performance against the case where no BPL is in operation. A test-bed along the Galle Road corridor (in Colombo, Sri Lanka) from Cross Junction to Ratmalana was chosen to test the developed simulation framework. The performance of the BPL was evaluated by considering the changes in the vehicle speeds before and after implementing the BPL. Different demand configurations were simulated by varying the general traffic flow and bus flow to understand the BPL's feasible demand configuration(s). The simulation results showed that the BPL was feasible with a relatively high bus flow (240 buses per hour) and a relatively moderate general traffic flow (2,000 / 2,500 vehicles per hour).
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.