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An experimental storage based on the principle of evaporative cooling was designed to evaluate the performance of three natural absorbent fiber materials to be used as cooling pads. The absorbent materials were jute, hessian and cotton waste. The performance criteria included cooling efficiency, material performance and total amount of heat load removed from the evaporative cooler. The results showed that under the no-load condition, the average cooling efficiency was highest for jute at 86.2%, compared to 76.3% for cotton waste and 61.7% for hessian fiber. Materials performance tests results showed that the highest resistance to mold formation was exhibited by hessian followed by cotton waste, while the jute fiber had very poor performance. The heat load determination also showed that products stored in the cooler with jute as water absorbent produced the least heat of respiration, followed by cotton waste and hessian in that order. The total results indicated that jute had the overall advantage over the other materials. However, if the cotton waste surface could be modified to offer larger surface required for evaporation, it would be the best alternative because the jute surface is prone to mold formation.

Juice was extracted from dark red cultivar of Roselle calyx (Hibiscus sabdariffa) using water at a temperature of 100°C for 20 min in an automatic steam-jacket kettle. The juice was treated with 250 ppm. of sodium metabisulphite and sucrose was added to raise the sugar content of the juice. Pure wine yeast strain (Saccharomyces cervisiae) was inoculated into the juice to initiate fermentation. The resultant wine (9.06% v/v alcohol) was left to age for four months to allow for the development of the characteristic flavor and bouquet associated with wine. During fermentation, physico-chemical analysis of the wines indicated decrease in specific gravity, soluble solids, pH and colour intensity. Sensory evaluation of the aged roselle wine in terms of colour, flavor, taste and overall acceptability showed no significant difference compared to commercial wine samples. From the present study, it was observed that acceptable red table wine of good quality can be produced from Roselle calyx and its industrial potential should be exploited.

Cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz) is a tuberous root crop of importance to Africa, Asia, and South America due to its high carbohydrate value which is vital to both food security and industrial needs.The world estimate of cassava production in 2017 indicated that Africa was the largest producer of cassava (178 million metric tons) followed by Asia (86 million metric tons), Americas (28 million metric tons) and Oceania (245 thousand metric tons) (FAOSTAT, 2019).Additionally, it is a cheap and abundant source of starch which is an important additive in food, pharmaceutical, and biopolymer industries (Chisenga et al., 2019).Cassava starch (CS) is derived from a multi-stage purification of wet-milled cassava roots (Charoenkul et al., 2011). It possesses unique physicochemical, rheological and functional characteristics which makes it more sought after in food, pharmaceutical, and bioprocess applications than cereal starches (Zhu, 2015) However, in the native, cassava starch same as other starches exhibit inadequate characteristics when utilized in food systems such as poor thermal resistance, shear stability, viscoelasticity, etc. Furthermore, native cassava starch confers undesirable structural effects in leavened baked foods when utilized, which is due to the poor gas-holding and thermal stability of its paste during baking conditions. Thus, modification of cassava starch at granular level will be beneficial in

An antioxidant is a substance that inhibits the oxidation of other molecules caused by free radicals. The inbuilt antioxidant systems possessed by living organisms are generally not enough to prevent them from oxidative damages and the uses of synthetic antioxidants also have some harmful effects. This study was aimed at evaluating the antioxidant activities of exopolysaccharides produced by lactic acid bacteria isolated from yoghurt. Lactic acid bacteria (LAB) were isolated from six different brands of commercially available yoghurt using deMan Rogosa Sharpe (MRS) agar. The LAB isolates were identified based on morphological and biochemical analyses and were screened for exopolysaccharide (EPS) production. The LAB isolates screened positive were used for EPS production in a liquid medium and the EPS produced were purified and quantified using standard methods. Antioxidant activities of the EPS were evaluated by determining the 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) free radical scavenging activity, ferric ion reducing power, and total phenolic contents. Data obtained were analysed using Analysis of Variance. Total lactic acid bacterial count obtained from the yoghurt samples ranged from 0-3.9 × 10 4 CFU/mL with sample A (Fan Yoghurt) having the highest LAB count (3.9 × 10 4 CFU/mL). The isolated LAB and their incidence rate were Lactobacillus plantarum (25.49%), L. delbrueckii (19.61%), L. fermentum (15.69%), L. acidophilus (13.73%), Leuconostoc mesenteroides (11.76%), Lactococcus lactis (7.84%), and Lactobacillus casei (5.88%). Fifty-one out of the 64 LAB isolates were screened positive for EPS production and only six were able to produce substantial quantity of EPS ranging from 127.4-208.5 mg/L. The exopolysaccharides produced by L. fermentum had the highest DPPH radical scavenging activity (62.90%) while that of L. plantarum had the lowest (23.10%) at a concentration of 1000 µg/mL. Also, the EPS produced by L. fermentum recorded the highest ferric ion reducing power (12.89 mg AAE/mL) at 1000 µg/mL while that of L. plantarum had the lowest (5.62 mg AAE/mL). At 1000 How to cite this paper: Adelekan, A.O., Olurin, T.O. and Ezeani, A.O. (2020) Antioxidant Activities of Exopolysaccharides Produced by Lactic Acid Bacteria Isolated from Commercial Yoghurt Samples. Advances in Microbiology,

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Development of food product is a global initiative focused on crops utilization for economic empowerment and service provider. Extruded breakfast cereal developed from unconventional grain, ofada rice blended with cowpea and date palm fruit as natural sweetener was designed and evaluated. Composite flour formulation was in ratio 55:45, 60:40, 65:35, 70:30 while date palm fruit was kept constant. Proximate, functional, pasting, shelf-life and sensory analyses were carried out. Protein and ash content in experimented samples, B1KK, B2KL, B3KM and B4KN increased significantly with increased proportion of cowpea. At 5% level of significance, there was significant difference in water absorption index in all experimented sample while bulk density and swelling power showed no significant difference in most samples. Final viscosity of the samples increased as the proportion of ofada rice decreased while setback viscosity increased as the proportion of cowpea increased. Moisture content, free fatty acid and peroxide value of the samples increased slightly as approaches six weeks storage, however, the result was within internationally acceptable quality limits. Sensory attributes of the designed products are significantly related to the control sample, apparently, consumer perception of the breakfast cereal based products indicated that B2KL was most preferred and thus recommended for commercialization. How to Cite: Musa Omotayo Jimoh, Taiwo Olufemi Olurin, Oyesiku Seun Odunayo, 2023. "Development and Quality Evaluation of Extruded Breakfast Cereal from Blends of Ofada Rice and Cowpea (Vigna unguiculata) with Date Palm Fruit." Journal of Agriculture and Crops, vol. 9, pp. 293-301.

The optimisation of bread-making process can have a positive impact in ramping up the quality characteristics of cassava-wheat bread to  that of whole wheat bread. In this study, a threevariable Box-Behnken design response surface methodology was employed to investigate and optimise independent variables namely cassava flour composition, water content and proofing time in relation to response variables namely dough yield, loaf specific volume and loaf protein of cassava-wheat-composite bread. The data from the experimental design were fitted into second-order regression models and their validity and reliability were confirmed by analysis of variance. Optimal cassava flour composition, water content and proofing time were derived as; 100 g/kg, 589 g/kg and 90 min, respectively. It was revealed that cassava flour composition had the most effect on the quality characteristics of cassava-wheat-composite bread. At constant cassava flour  composition, increase in water content and proofing time had a positive effect on all the studied quality characteristics of cassava-wheat composite bread. Increase cassava flour composition regardless of proofing time and water content had a negative effect on loaf specific volume and protein. This study has provided bread-making conditions which can be utilised in enhancing the consumer acceptability of cassava-wheat composite bread.