Honey is a natural, sweet, syrupy fluid collected by bees from nectar of flowers. The pleasant aroma and taste of this viscous liquid ranging in color from pale yellow to dark amber varies according to geographical and seasonal conditions. Its use as a sweetener is well known in different parts of the world. In early history, honey occupied a very important place on religious occasions. The high content of sugars, small amounts of amino acids, lipids, along with some vitamins and minerals imparts its high nutritional value. Honey has good medicinal and antimicrobial properties and is used in different cuisines. Proper processing is essential for a product of good sensory qualities. ISI/Agmark specifications for honey, its adulteration and detection of adulteration are well recorded. The application potential in bakery, confectionery, snack foods, fruit and vegetable products and beverages is ever increasing. A bird's-eye view of these aspects along with possible lines of future research are discussed.

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In this study, an attempt has been made to maximize the lipid production using response surface methodology (RMS). Levels of nitrogen, carbon, and inoculum were chosen as factors. The results indicated that inoculum level was very important in lipid production, followed by carbon and nitrogen levels. At higher levels of inoculum, the strain was found to be more tolerant to higher concentrations of sugar, and significantly increased lipid production was noticed. Through the fitted models of second order, as per RSM, carbon at 10.24%, nitrogen at 0.37 g/L, and inoculum at the 20% level resulted in maximum biosynthesis of lipids.

The market demand for novel foods and beverages is increasing. The blending of flavour notes to create an exotic one, to satisfy the tastes and fantasies of the modern generation, may soon become a major task for researchers. In order to achieve this, it is essential to study the single flavourant thoroughly, and the dominant and subtle notes in them, prior to blending. In the present study, profiling of four essential oils, viz. lemongrass, rosemary, geranium and davana, were carried out by two methods, GC-olfactometry (GC-O) and per se odour profile by trained panelists. The attributes of odour analysis and GC-O were compared using spider-web plots. The study showed that although some odour notes perceived by sniffing the oils directly and those perceived by sniffing the effluent of GC at different retention times (RTs) varied, the dominant notes were similar. The odour profiling per se depicts the overall odour perceived, while the GC-O aromagrams represent the picture of odour notes of fractionated volatiles at the respective retention times. The results of the study gives an in-depth description of odour notes in the essential oil and helps the technologist to blend them to achieve the required flavour notes. Thus, the study finds its application in the development of designer beverages containing essential oils or blends of oils with the desired odour characteristics.

& . o n the valuable stigmafromflowers of Crocus sativus L, valued essentially for delicate flavor har specijic testing methoa3 for physical, chemical, microscopic parameters, in addition to pigments, and bitter principle but not for flavor. m e flavor projle pattern as cob-web diagrams are reported. lke dose-response relationship for saflon flavor (due to the principal f i v o r component, safanal) is established with n = 0.75 for a modified Stevens ' equation. Importance of examination of flavor is highlighted for grading in view of new developments in postharvest technology and synthetic safanal entering the market. The GC peak identijcation of safanul by liquid and headspace GC and GC-MS is demonstrated and conjrmed from bioassay at the exit port by sni' ng.

Plackett±Burman design was used to ef®ciently select important media components in¯uencing lactic acid production in a two step screening procedure. A total of 36 screening experiments were conducted for studying the effect of various media components such as carbon and nitrogen (simple and complex) sources, minerals/buffering agents and a speci®c inducer for the production of lactic acid by Lactobacillus plantarum NCIM 2084. The eleven ingredients chosen after the ®rst screening experiments were further screened by a Plackett-Burman design consisting of 12 experiments. Lique®ed starch, wheat bran extract, ammonium nitrate, manganese sulphate and sodium acetate were chosen as promising ingredients for further optimisation studies. The highest yield of 41.9 g/l of lactic acid was obtained at the end of 24 hours of fermentation which corresponded to 90% conversion, on the basis of sugar supplied. IntroductionLactic acid ®nds application in food industry, as an additive to soft drinks and essences, in pharmaceuticals, leather and plastic industries. The fermentation route, is gaining importance in recent years in the context of rising cost of petrochemicals, and the availability of improved and better methods of fermentation. Work on the development of an ef®cient and economical process for lactic acid in our laboratory involved the optimisation of the nutritional parameters of the fermentation medium. This required the screening and selection of the media components including carbon, and nitrogen sources, minerals and trace elements etc.Screening of various nutrients by conventional single dimensional search, involves changing one independent variable, at a time while ®xing the others at a constant level which is time consuming and cumbersome. Statistical approach for the optimisation of media effectively tackles the problem which involves speci®c design of experiments which minimises the error in determining the effect of parameters and the results are achieved in an economical manner.Plackett±Burman saturated orthogonal designs [1] work at two levels, and can be constructed on the basis of fractional replication of a full factorial design. This design allows reliable short listing of a small number of ingredients for further optimisation and allows one to obtain, unbiased estimates of linear effects of all the factors with maximum accuracy for a given number of observations, the accuracy being the same for all effects [2].A number of reports are available on the effect of various carbon and nitrogen sources on lactic acid production. Molasses, whey, corn starch are some of the commonly used carbon sources while malt sprouts, malt extract, yeast extract, corn steep liquor are the nitrogenous sources used for lactic acid production. Media optimisation for lactic acid production has generally been carried out by the conventional single factor approach which is time consuming and cumbersome. The use of Plackett±Burman design for screening a large number of carbon and nitrogen sources, minerals, inducers etc, for lact...

Green leafy vegetables which supply minerals and vitamins to the diet, are highly perishable. Therefore, post harvest losses are extremely high. Limited studies are available in the literature with regard to preservation of greens. The effect of microwave drying and storage on physical and sensory properties of selected greens (coriander, mint, fenugreek, amaranth and shepu) were therefore studied. Microwave drying was carried out at 100% power and a frequency of 2450 mHz. The drying time varied from 10 to 16 min for different greens. Microwave drying affected color, appearance and odor of all the greens. The relative reconstitution capacity (RRC) for different greens was coriander-10.3, mint-10.3, amaranth-38.3, fenugreek-31.7 and shepu-32.8. The RRC appeared to influence acceptability. Coriander and mint, which exhibited the lowest RRC (10.3%), had the lowest scores for flavor and color while amaranth, with the highest RRC (38.3%), had scores similar to those of fresh amaranth. Scores for the products prepared with dried fenugreek and shepu, although low, were not statistically significant. Microwave drying was highly suitable for greens such as amaranth; moderately suitable for shepu and fenugreek and less suitable for coriander and mint.