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Repeated use of oils and fats for frying of food brings about many changes in their physical and chemical properties. Due to increasing health concerns, the assessment of the quality of reused oils has received much attention, since such assessment is useful in determining the discarding point of the oils. The official analytical methods used in laboratories for this purpose need skill, time, and a large consumption of solvents. To make the oil testing simpler, several rapid test kits have been developed based on either physical parameters (such as viscosity or dielectric changes) or chemical parameters (such as free fatty acids, oxidized fatty acids, or carbonyl compounds). These test kits usually comprise a portable instrument or colorimetric reaction sticks, capable of providing a direct or indirect measurement of a single parameter. The review presented in this paper evaluates the use of such rapid test kits and highlights the need to develop multi-parameter test kits in order to establish the quality of reused oil and the point at which it should be discarded. The review also encompasses pertinent details on the standard analytical methods, and deterioration of frying oils that occur during and after their use and the associated health consequences.

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In excess of 300 Indian Robin (S. fulicata Lin.) males were examined during different phases of the reproductive cycle (180 during the breeding phase and 140 during the remaining phases) for the presence of melanin pigment in the testes. Melanosis (melanin localization) was evident during the regression (31%), preparatory (40%), and progressive (31%) phases in one or both testes of a specimen but was never observed in the breeding phase. Further, melanin was localized only in the intertubular area and was never found in the tubular elements or the tunic. Histomorphological studies of pigmented and nonpigmented testes and of the adrenals taken from these specimens suggest that spermatogenesis in the nonpigmented testes is slightly more advanced than in the pigmented testes and that the melanosis might have developed due to a malfunction of the adrenals.