Cowpea (Vigna unguiculata), is an important arid legume with a good source of energy, protein, vitamins, minerals and dietary fibre. Sprouting of legumes enhances the bioavailability and digestibility of nutrients and therefore plays an important role in human nutrition. Improved varieties of grain cowpea viz. Pant Lobia-1 (PL-1) and Pant Lobia-2 (PL-2) and Pant Lobia-3 (PL-3) were examined for sprouting characteristics and associated changes in nutritional quality. Soaking time, sprouting time and sprouting temperature combinations for desirable sprout length of ¼ to ½ inch for cowpea seed samples were standardized. All the observations were taken in triplicate except soaking time, where six observations were taken in a completely randomized design of three treatments. Results revealed that optimum soaking time of PL-1 and PL-2 seed was 3 h whereas PL-3 required 9 h. Sprouting period of 24 h at 25 °C was found to be desirable for obtaining good sprouts. Significant improvement in nutritional quality was observed after sprouting at 25 °C for 24 h; protein increased by 9-12 %, vitamin C increased by 4-38 times, phytic acid decreased by 4-16 times, trypsin inhibitor activity decreased by 28-55 % along with an increase of 8-20 % in in-vitro protein digestibility.
Fresh wheatgrass was dried using shade, oven and freeze drying methods. The ascorbic acid and b-carotene and content of oven dried wheatgrass was significantly lower (133.13 lg and 1.98 mg) in comparison to shade dried (193.62 lg and 2.30 mg) and freeze dried (230.35 lg and 3.18 mg) wheatgrass. A significantly lower iron and zinc was observed in freeze dried (13.19 and 6.55 mg) wheatgrass in comparison to shade dried (28.94 and 7.40 mg) and oven dried (19.65 and 8.35 mg) wheatgrass. The chlorophyll in freeze dried (3.61 g) wheatgrass was significantly higher than shade dried (2.35 g) and oven dried (2.14 g) wheatgrass. The tannin content in wheatgrass was significantly higher in oven dried wheatgrass (8.18 mg/100 g) as compared to shade dried (6.68 mg/ 100 g) and freeze dried (6.34 mg/100 g) wheatgrass. The antioxidant activity of shade, oven and freeze dried wheatgrass was 50.13, 48.94 and 53.78%, respectively. The study concluded that freeze drying had preserved maximum amounts of chlorophyll, flavonoids, saponins and antioxidant activity in wheatgrass.
A study was conducted on different yield groups of coconut palm (West Coast Tall) to investigate the relationships among root CEC, yield and monoand divalent cations. The results showed that correlation between root CEC and yield was negative but not significant. The foliar content of (K + Na) decreased with increase in root CEC while (Ca + Mg) increased with increase in root CEC. The uptake of cations by the palm was found to be governed by their ratios in soil. Highly significant correlations were obtained between K/Na, K/(Ca + Mg) and K/Mg in soil and their corresponding ratios in the leaf. Among the nutrients studied, potassium content of soil as well as that of leaf correlated positively with yield. The critical level of K, 0.8 to 1.0 per cent, was found to hold good in coconut. The interaction between leaf nutrients showed that the leaf potassium level was affected by the combined level of (Na + Ca + Mg). The impact of this interaction on critical levels of Na, Ca and Mg is discussed. Based on this, a level of 43.8 to 47.3 me per 100 g (or 0.75 to 0.82 per cent) was suggested as 'satisfactory level' for (Na + Ca + Mg) together. The negative correlation of root CEC and positive correlation of both soil and leaf potassium with yield, indicate the role of potassium in increasing the yield of coconut.
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