VOLUME 34, NO5, OCT 2012

Aflatoxin Contamination of Spices Sold in Differen

The present study was carried out to investigate the contamination level of total aflatoxin in locally available spices collected from three different locations of Peshawar. Eighteen samples of six different types of spices such as coriander, cumin seed, powdered red pepper, omum seed, black pepper and turmeric powder were analyzed for aflatoxin B1, B2, G1 and G2 by using thin layer chromatography. Out of 18, analyzed samples 12 samples were found contaminated with aflatoxin B1 and. In the samples of hashtnagri coriander (5.59 μg / kg total aflatoxin) was found contaminated above the maximum level (4 μg / kg) prescribed by European Commission, while the other samples were either not contaminated or contaminated below the maximum level. Omum and turmeric were the samples contaminated (6.54 μg / kg) above the maximum level collected from firdos market. Similarly the samples collected from haji camp have coriander (6.54 μg / kg) and omum seed (7.46 μg / kg) contaminated above the maximum level. The overall results revealed that coriander and omum seed were found contaminated very much in all the samples analyzed for total aflatoxin.read more

---

ARSHAD HUSSAIN, MUHAMMAD SOHAIL AND SHAFQATULLAH

Dye Removal Probing by Electrocoagulation Process:

The present study performed to investigate dye removal efficiency (DR%) of solutions containing direct blue 71 (DB71) using electrocoagulation (EC) process. applied voltage (VEC), Initial pH of the solution (PH0), time of electrolysis (tEC) and initial dye concentration (C0) considered as more effective operational parameters. The experimental data obtained in a laboratory batch reactor. The achieved DR% of 4.4-99.3 gained under experimental conditions. The multiple linear regression (MLR) and non linear artificial neural network (ANN) models utilized to EC modeling and DR% predicting. By applying best MLR and ANN models to predict the test set, Q2ext and RMSE determined 0.79 and 13.7 for MLR and 0.93 and 8.01 for ANN. Further tests and data treatments were done for more validation and introduce model applications and also to clarify other aspects of EC, such as Leave-n-Out (n=1, 43-44, 74) cross-validation, energy consumption calculation, graphical prediction of the optimum experimental conditions and diversity test. The experimental results proved that EC is an effective way to treat dye solutions containing DB71. VEC, pH0, tEC and C0 parameters influenced DR% and the ANN and MLR have been successfully used to modeling EC.read more

---

AFSHIN MALEKI, HIUA DARAEI, LOGHMAN ALAEI, LEILA ABASI AND ANISE IZADI

Phase Equilibrium of Binary System Carbon Dioxide

Interest in supercritical fluids extraction (SFE) is increasing throughout many scientific and industrial fields. The common solvent for use in SFE is carbon dioxide. However, pure carbon dioxide frequently fails to efficiently extract the essential oil from a sample matrix, and modifier fluids such as methanol should be used to enhance extraction yield. A more efficient use of SFE requires quantitative prediction of phase equilibrium of this binary system, carbon dioxide – methanol. The purpose of the current research is modeling carbon dioxide – methanol system using artificial neural network (ANN). Results of ANN modeling has been compared with experimental data as well as thermodynamic equations of state. The comparison shows that the ANN modeling has a higher accuracy than thermodynamic models.read more

---

FARIBORZ NASRI, HIUA DARAEI, TAHMASB HATAMI AND AFSHIN MALEKI

Changes in Vegetable Oil Used for Commercial Fryin

The objective of present study was to evaluate the vegetable oils used for commercial frying of chicken and samosa, an indigenous fried product of Pakistan. Physiochemical analysis of the excessively used vegetable oils showed that refractive index and specific gravity was affected non significantly as a result of frying operation. However, acid value, saponification value, peroxide value, free fatty acids and total polar compounds were significantly lower (p<0.05) in the oil used before frying as compared to the values recorded after frying operation. The oils, before and after frying of samosa and chicken exhibited the iodine values in the range of 87.9±0.07- 120.5±11 and 86.5±1.03-118.4±10.45, respectively. Stearic acid, palmitic acid and oleic acid content were found to be lower in oils before frying than after frying in both the products, however, linoleic acid and linolenic acid indicated higher values in oil before frying than after frying. Total polar compounds (TPC) were shown to be significantly lower in oil before frying than after frying of samosa and chicken. TPC increased from 2.3±0.25 to 32.2.9±0.83 and 2.30±0.30 to 29.18±0.96, respectively in oils used for samosa and chicken. The higher values of TPC might be due to excessive number of frying and use of low quality oil. The study concluded that the changes in the chemical profile of excessively used oil were severe enough to cause several health hazards and rendered oils unfit for human consumption.read more

---

ANWAAR AHMED, NISAR AHMED MALIK, MUHAMMAD ATIF RANDHAWA, SAEED AKHTAR, ASIF AHMAD, HAJRA AHMED AND SYED SHAHZAD SHAH

Effect of Temperature on Equilibrium and Thermodyn

Batch adsorption of Cd (II) onto turmeric powder was conducted as a function of temperature. Nonlinear Langmuir, Freundlich, Dubinin-Radushkevish (D-R) and Temkin equilibrium models were employed. In addition to R2, five different error functions were used to determine best fit equilibrium isotherm model. It was found that Freundlich isotherm model provided better fit for adsorption data at 298 and 303 K and Langmuir model was suitable for the experimental data obtained at 310 and 313 K. It was found that increase in temperature decreased maximum adsorption capacities, showing that the adsorption of Cd (II) onto turmeric powder is exothermic. Enthalpy values also confirmed the same trend. Entropy values were negative which means that randomness decreased on increasing temperature. Gibbs free energies were non spontaneous at all the temperatures studied. E values were in the range of 2.73-3.23 kJ mol-1 which indicated that adsorption mechanism is essentially physical.read more

---

AMTUL QAYOOM AND SYED ARIF KAZMI

Heavy Metals in Chinese Therapeutic Foods and Herb

In the present study 15 samples of Chinese therapeutic foods and herbs that are frequently consumed by people in both the East and West are analyzed, for the content of cadmium, mercury, lead, arsenic, cuprum and zinc, by atomic absorption spectrophotometer. The results showed that the highest mean value for Cd(0.49 mg•kg-1), Hg(0.34 mg•kg-1), Pb(9.01 mg•kg-1), As(3.26 mg•kg-1), Cu(33.56 mg•kg-1) and Zn(38.32 mg•kg-1) were found in Radix Salviae Miltitorrhizae, Radix Puerariae, Radix Salviae Miltitorrhizae , Radix Sophorae Flavescentis , Fructus Crataegi , Herba andrographis , respectively. The Cd levels of two samples and Cu levels of one sample were found to be higher than the recommended values of Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and World Health Organization (WHO), and may constitute a health hazard for consumers. Mercury, lead, and arsenic levels of one sample were higher than the recommended limit of China Pharmacopoeia, but it were below the WHO and FDA. All other heavy metals in other medicinal plants were found below the recommended tolerable limits.read more

---

SHU-MEI LI, YANG FANG, HONG-MEI NING AND YING XIA WU

Analysis of Rare Earth Elements in Sophora japonic

A method for the determination of 15 Rare earth elements (REEs) in Sophora japonica L by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) was developed. The polyatomic interferences were investigated. Appropriate selection of the detection isotopes made it possible to avoid some interferences. Due to the low availability of most REEs in biological samples, most of the interferences were negligible and only interferences of 135Ba16O+ with 151Eu+, 141Pr16O+ with 157Gd and 143Nd16O+ with 159Tb+ were corrected. Interferences correction was validated by comparing Eu, Gd and Tb contents in GBW 07605 tea standard reference material with and without interference subtraction. The method was applied to the analysis of REEs in flower buds, flowers, leaves, branches and ripe fruits of Sophora japonica L and the distribution of REEs in Sophora japonica L was explored. The results showed large differences in the amounts of different REEs in the same sample. It was found that the concentration of Ce was the highest and that of Lu was the lowest. The REEs contents of Sophora japonica L was found to generally vary in the order ripe fruits< branches< flower buds< flower< leaves, providing valuable data for understanding the effects of REEs on the efficacy of Sophora japonica L related herbal medicine as well as the toxicological and environmental effects for REEs application.read more

---

QIANG SHI

Functional Properties of Sesame Seed Protein Prepa

The functional properties of sesame seed protein was investigated using reverse micelles system compared to the traditional procedure (alkali-solution and isoelectric precipitation). The solubility, emulsifying capacity and emulsion stability, foaming capacity and foam stability of sesame seed protein prepared by the two above methods were analyzed. The results indicated that the functional properties including solubility, emulsifying capacity and emulsion stability of sesame seeds protein extracted by reverse micelles were superior to those by the traditional method, which was helpful to maximize the use of sesame seed protein resources.read more

---

JUNTING ZHAO, DALIANG LIU, FUSHENG CHEN AND GUOJI LIU

Role of Heavy Metals Composition in Cardiac Vascul

This study was focused to quantify and compare the concentration of different heavy metals in normal and cardiac patients of some zones of Sargodha region. Trace elements, which show a significant role in healthy as well as in diseased subjects, diverted the attention of scientists to explore the role of these trace elements in the cardiovascular diseases. In this study we compared the levels of zinc, cadmium, copper, nickel, manganese, chromium, and cobalt in hair, nail and plasma samples of different cardiac patients and control subjects. The study was undertaken on equal number of cardiac patients and healthy subjects. In each category 50% was male with age more than or less than 40 years. Analysis was done by using Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer. The mean values of some metals like Zn, Cu and Cr are low in patients rather than normal subjects, while amount of Cd, Mn, Co and Ni were seen higher in patients than in control subjects. Male patients have (p<0.05) high values of metals than females; the same is with smoker cardiac patients against non-smokers. On the other hand the patients (male and female) whose age is < 45 have greater values of metals as compare to the cardiac patients of age greater than 45 years. From the results of this study it can be concluded that increase or decrease in heavy metal composition play an adverse effect on the normal function of heart.read more

---

IFTIKHAR HUSSAIN BUKHARI, MUHAMMAD JAWAD SARWAR, SYED ALI RAZA NAQVI, MUHAMMAD ASHRAF SHAHEEN, MUHAMMAD ZUBAIR, NASIR RASOOL, SAMIA HAFEEZ AND ZAFAR LATIF

Determination of Lead using 2, 5-Dimercapto-1, 3,

A new spectrophotometric method which is fairly selective, non extractive, is described here for the determination of lead based upon its colour reaction with 2,5- dimercapto-1, 3,4- thiodiazole (DMTD). According to this lead (II) can be determined within the range from 1.0 to 50 µg per mL in a slightly acidic media (0.005 M HCl), to give a greenish yellow chelate complex, which has an absorption at 375 nm. The reaction proceeds fastly and color remains stable. While no special conditions are followed. The method is recommended for its routine use and is quite accurate, precise, and sensitive. Effect of Foreign ions is also studied at 40 µg/mL of lead.read more

---

NAZ IMTIAZ, MUHAMMAD TAHIR BUTT, RAUF AHMAD KHAN AND JAVED IQBAL