The present study was aimed to maximize the production of natural pigments from Monascus ruber Went AUMC 5705 by solid state fermentation of broken rice to be a safe and healthy substitute of the harmful chemical dyes in the coloring of some flavored dairy products. Maximum pigments productivity was achieved under the following conditions: initial substrate moisture content 39%, substrate particle size 2-2.5 mm, PH 6.5, inoculums size 126×104 spores per 10 g dried rice and incubation period of 15 days at 30°C. The favorable nitrogen source was monosodium glutamate at 2% concentration. The obtained pigments mixture was extracted with 95% ethanol and further separated into red, orange and yellow water soluble pigments. These pigments were applied as coloring agents of flavored yoghurt and milk beverages. On the sensory evaluation, application of these natural colorants in a preparation of flavored dairy products was found to be highly acceptable.
A mango picking machine was manufactured from selected light materials to be capable to reach to the high position of mango fruits. The innovated design was depended on confirming the right cutting of the stem position to decrease latex bleeding, protecting the fruits from injures and preventing the fruits from fallen down. The picker cutting mechanism was consisted of two circular saws rotated vice versa towards inside direction and faced a counter sharp blade along the two centers of the cutting discs. The machine was tested on three cultivars of mango trees Keitt, Kent, and Tommy Atkins from low-stemmed trees cultivars and distinguished of big fruit volume. Also the fruit stem cross section was measured. The maximum dimensions of the fruits were taken to design the machine. Four types of circular saws at five cutting speeds of (2.78, 4.17, 5.56, 6.97 and8.34 m/s) were tested and studying the stem cutting efficiency (%) at each treatment. The results indicated that the optimum cutting circular saws were the 100 teeth saw discs with sharp edge when working at linear speed of 8.34 m/s that gave correct cutting stem percentage of 95% and only 5% undercut stems. Also, the results indicated that the optimum counter blade position was underneath the discs with over lapping 5 mm that gave the same cutting efficiency. The calculated power required to cut a fruit stem with a cross section of 87.5 mm 2 with two circular saws was 3.56watts, meanwhile, the results indicated the measured power was 4.8 watts, while the available power was 5.2 watts. Comparing the effect between manual picking by hook type stick and using the picker the on the fruits injures. In manual picking, the results indicated that the average percentages of (fallen fruits, injured fruits, and latex fruit) were (15.07%, 6.85%and 30.82%) respectively meanwhile, the innovated picker indicated injured percentage (2.28%, 2.43% and 4.86%) respectively. The total fabrication cost of the picker was 1500 LE with 2017 price level. The total operating costs was 21.37 LE/h. The rental value of mechanical was 22.82 LE/h. The picker indicated (NPV) of 844.3 LE at 14 % interest rate. The picker payback period (PBP) was about 1.3 year.
A continuous feeding mechanism for precision vacuum trays seeder was developed and fabricated from locally materials for seeding single seed in the trays. The developed seeder was evaluated under two trays types of 84 and 209 cells, four different suction pressure levels (0.5, 1, 1.5 and 2 kPa) & (0.3, 0.6, 0.9 and 1.2 kPa) and four different hole size diameters of seed plate (1.2, 1.4, 1.6, 1.8 mm) & (0.4, 0.6, 0.8, 1.0 mm) for cucumber and cabbage seeds respectively. The seeding unit comprises of different parts whose functions are coordinated to place one seed into the center of tray cells in certain position. Trays were placed one by one without any gap in between for continuous seeding. Seeded trays were collected from the other end of the machine. The performance of the seeder was evaluated using the singulation efficiency, seed utilization efficiency, seeding efficiency, the seeder productivity, the specific energy requirement and the seeding operation costs. It was found that the trays seeder productivity was 240 trays h-1 (20160 and 50160 cells h-1 for cucumber and cabbage seeds respectively). The proper seeder results for seeding singles seed in trays (90.5 and 70.4%) were obtained with the dual interaction effect between the suction pressure at 1.5 and 0.9 kPa and hole diameter at 1.6 and 0.8 mm for cucumber and cabbage seeds respectively, when the consumed specific energy of 4.16×10-3 kWh tray-1. The precision trays seeder reduced the estimated cost by 5 to 12 times than the seeding trays manually for cucumber and cabbage respectively.
Leafy crops harvester prototype was modifying depending on the leafy crops characteristic like crop height leaves surface area crop stems. The prototype included frame, conveyor, collection box, and transmission system. Results provided the suitability of the modifying prototype to transportation and collecting leafy crops, the suitability of the modifying prototype was judged through the removal percentage, undamaged percentage and losses percentage.
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