Search

Edible bird nest (EBN) is a powerful and nutritious food usually consumed by the Chinese Community and it is considered among the most expensive animal products which are made up by salivation of swiftlets (Aerodramus fuciphagus). The other 5% to 10% are made up of foreign matters such as feathers, faecal matter and dirt. The EBN is graded based on its aesthetics as well as its cleaning processes. The aim of this study were to determine and compare EBN of different grades (A, B, C, D) in terms of proximate composition and amino acid profile, and next to enzymatically hydrolyse and determine the degree of hydrolysis (DH) and the recovery percentage of EBN hydrolysates. The enzymatic hydrolysis were performed as an alternative cleaning process of the various grades of EBN, where the glycoproteins were hydrolysed to glycopeptides, making them soluble and leaving behind other insoluble impurities. The results in this study showed that EBN contained high crude protein content: 60.59% (EBNA), 59.50% (EBNB), 54.29% (EBNC) and 56.57% (EBND). Lower grade EBNs (EBNC and EBND) has much higher ash content, i.e. impurities, compared to higher grade EBNs (EBNA and EBNB). In terms of amino acid profile, EBND showed the highest total amino acids compared to EBNA, EBNB and EBNC, with serine and aspartic acid being the main amino acids. Treating the EBN with alcalase for 1.0 – 4.0 hours produced hydrolysates with different degree of hydrolysis (DH), ranging from 10.83 %DH (EBNA) to 13.79 %DH (EBNC). The recovery of EBN after enzymatic hydrolysis range from 89 % (EBNB) to 99% (EBNA). Overall, results showed nutritional composition and amino acid profile of EBN of various grades were significantly different in its nutritional quality, while the enzymatic hydrolysis has successfully separated the impurities from the lower grades EBN.

The aim of this study is to determine and compare the proximate composition, the degree of hydrolysis (DH) and the antihypertensive activity of edible bird’s nest (EBN) hydrolysates of two different drying methods. Four types of enzymes (alcalase, bromelain, pancreatin and papain) were used in this study and with different hydrolysis time (30, 60, 90, 120, 180 and 240 min). The highest DH for alcalase (79.48 – 84.09%), pancreatine (77.10 – 80.45%) and papain (82.33%) for EBN hydrolysates was produced with alcalase treatment at 60 – 90 min, pancreatine treatment at 30 – 90 min and papain treatment at 90 min. Bromelain generated hydrolysates showed low DH. EBN hydrolysed using alcalase, pancreatin and papain have significantly higher protein content compared to raw EBN and the moisture content of all hydrolysates treatments was significantly lower compared to raw EBN. For antihypertensive assay, freeze dried EBN hydrolysates have higher antihypertensive activity compared to spray dried hydrolysates. The highest antihypertensive activity for freeze dried samples was produced by alcalase, bromelain and pancreatin and in the range of 80.22 – 86.97%. Meanwhile, papain proved to be less effective in producing hydrolysate with antihypertensive ability. In conclusion, EBN hydrolysate prepared by alcalase, bromelain and pancreatin could be classified as a functional food as it showed significant antihypertensive activity.

This research paper presents the preliminary investigation on the use of an interactive multimedia courseware named MAFPro, to facilitate C Programming lessons for novice learners. The courseware utilizes the elements of multimedia that focus on enhancing learners’ programming comprehension. Among the aspects that were examined were the students’ programming comprehension and their perceived motivation of MAFPro. This study was carried out in a survey design method with the participation of 30 undergraduates who are novice learners. The data analysis indicates that the multimedia courseware, MAFPro that has been used in the C programming classroom has a significant difference on the undergraduates’ programming comprehension. The students also perceived MAFPro as motivating and engaging.

This paper explains about a comparison between assistive video for hearing-impaired learners (AV4HI) and assistive courseware for hearing-impaired learners (AC4HI). The rationale is that previous statement was made after learners experience normal courseware, not the courseware specifically designed for them. Hence, perhaps if the courseware is designed special for them, the hearing-impaired learners would experience differently, and behave more positive upon the AC4HI. Hence, this paper aims at describing the execution of the comparison. It involves a 3-stage process: designing the AC4HI, developing the AC4HI, and user experience. In the end, it was found that users are happy with both, but in terms of content acquisition, they prefer to have notes in the learning material.

Edible bird’s nest protein hydrolysates (EBN) were prepared via enzymatic hydrolysis to investigate its antioxidant activity. Two types of enzyme (alcalase and papain) were used in this study and EBN had been hydrolysed with different hydrolysis time (30, 60, 90 and 120 min). Antioxidant activities in EBN protein hydrolysate were measured using DPPH, ABTS+ and Reducing Power Assay. From this study, increased hydrolysis time from 30 min to 120 min contributed to higher DH, as shown by alcalase (40.59%) and papain (24.94%). For antioxidant assay, EBN hydrolysed with papain showed higher scavenging activity and reducing power ability compared to alcalase. The highest antioxidant activity for papain was at 120 min hydrolysis time with ABTS (54.245%), DPPH (49.78%) and Reducing Power (0.0680). Meanwhile for alcalase, the highest antioxidant activity was at 30 min hydrolysis time. Even though scavenging activity for EBN protein hydrolysates were high, the reducing power ability was quite low as compared to BHT and ascorbic Acid. This study showed that EBN protein hydrolysate with alcalase and papain treatments potentially exhibit high antioxidant activity which have not been reported before.

Edible bird nest (EBN) is a dried glutinous secretion from the salivary glands of several different swiftlet species. It is widely consumed as a health food due to its high beneficial effects to human health and has been considered to be one of the most precious food items by the Chinese for thousands of years. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of enzymatic hydrolysis on protein solubility (μg/g), the degree of hydrolysis (DH%), and peptide content (μg/g) of edible bird’s nest hydrolysate. Initial protein solubility of boiled EBN was 25.5mg/g EBN. Treating the solubilized EBN with pancreatin 4NF for 1.0 – 1.5hours increased EBN protein solubility to 163.9mg/g and produced hydrolysate with DH% of 86.5% and 109.5mg/g peptide. EBN hydrolyzed with alcalase for 1.5 hours produced hydrolysate with protein solubility of 86.7mg/g, 82.7 DH% and had 104.1mg/g peptide content.

Fish protein hydrolysate (FPH) was prepared from freshwater catfish (Clarias batrachus) by using Alcalase® 2.4L and Papain. The effect of hydrolysis time (30, 60, 120, 180 min) with enzyme concentration of 1% (v/w substrate); pH = 8.0, 7.0 was studied to determine the degree of hydrolysis (DH), peptide content, proximate composition and amino acid profile. Results showed that the highest DH of Alcalase and Papain FPH were 58.79% and 53.48% after 180 min at 55°C incubation respectively. The peptide content of both FPH increased as hydrolysis time increases. FPH showed higher crude protein content and lower fat, moisture and ash content compared to raw catfish. The major amino acids of both hydrolysates were Glu, Lys and Asp. Content of essential amino acids of Alcalase and Papain hydrolysates were 44.05% and 43.31% respectively.

The effects of red palm oils known as Naturally Vitamin Rich Oil (NVRO) on the lipid stability of chicken nuggets were determined. Lipid oxidation was analyzed during frozen storage (−18 °C) for up to 4 months. Thiobarbituric acid (TBA) values and peroxide value (PV) for all samples chicken nuggets increased throughout 3 months of frozen storage and then start to decrease thereafter. Chicken nuggets formulated with NVRO, NVRO-100 and NVRO-50 showed lower TBA values and PV compared to the samples prepared with chicken fat. However, among NVRO, there were not significantly different for most of the months. It was concluded that the utilization of red palm oils in chicken nuggets significantly reduced the oxidation of lipid, which was indicated by the PV throughout 4 months of frozen storage.

Edible bird nest (EBN) produced by certain swiftlet species mainly, Aerodromus fuciphagus. The objectives of this study were to determine and compare the proximate and amino acid composition of EBN obtained from two regions in Peninsular Malaysia (Pahang-A & Terengganu-B). The solubility of edible bird nest with varying pH, temperature and time was also investigated in this study. The results showed that, the EBN contained crude protein accounted to 58.55% (A) and 55.48% (B), carbohydrate at22.28% (A) & 25.79% (B), moisture content 15.90% (A) & 15.87% (B), fat, 0.67% (A) & and 0.29% (B) and ash contents 2.60% (A) & 2.57% (B) respectively. The major amino acids found in edible bird nest EBN were Glutamic acid (9.61%), Aspartic acid (6.34%), Lysine (5.44 %) and also Leucine (5.30%). The total solubility of EBN was also found to be increased when the temperature was increased increase with distilled water yielding the highest total solubility of EBN compared to others buffer (different pH) solutions.

This study was conducted to detect the presence of porcine DNA in meat products in the market using conventional polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and commercial PCR-southern hybridization analysis. Porcine DNA detection in meat products was tested due to some issues associated with the adulteration of food products in Malaysia. This is an important issue especially for Halal authentication which is required for some religious practices such as in Islam and Hinduisms. Many techniques have been developed for determining the Halal status of food products. In this paper, mt-DNA D-loop primer and cytochrome (cyt) b were used to detect the presence of porcine DNA in meat products. Positive and negative controls were always present for each batch of extraction. DNA of raw pork meat was used as a positive control while nucleus free water is used as negative control. A pair of oligonucleotide primer was used namely Pork1 and Pork2 which produced amplicon of 531 base pair (bp) in size. While, PCR-southern hybridization was conducted using primers readily supplied by commercial PCR-Southern hybridization and produced amplicon with 276 bp in size. In the present study, demonstrated that none of the samples were contaminated with porcine residuals but selected samples with pork meat were positive. The species-specific PCR amplification yielded excellent results for identification of pork derivatives in food products and it is a potentially reliable and suitable technique in routine food analysis for Halal certification.

Poultry by-products have a great economic potential that need to be exploited. Poultry skin could be utilized to produce elastin, which is often incorporated in the production of functional food or medicine due to its antioxidative properties. This study was conducted to determine the physicochemical and microstructural characteristics of elastins isolated from broiler and spent hen skin. Analyses including proximate and amino acid composition along with transmission electron microscopy (TEM) were carried out. In this study, elastin was successfully extracted from broiler and spent hen skin using three successive solvents extract of NaCl, acetone and NaOH respectively. It was apparent that the fat content of extracted elastin from broiler skin was higher (P < 0.05) than spent hen’s, with both samples recording less than 1% fat. Moreover, broiler skin elastin also had a higher protein content (68.3%) than spent hen’s (67.8%). Both skin sources contained glycine as the major amino acid (19–20%), followed by glutamic acid, proline, alanine and arginine. The results of TEM indicated that the use of collagenase enzyme or further purification efforts should be incorporated along with the extraction methods used because of the presence of collagen and other debris in the resultant elastin.

The hydrolysis process was performed on fish meat from Red Tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) by enzymes thermolysin and alcalase under optimum conditions. The hydrolysis was performed from 0 – 4 hours at 37°C. Hydrolysates after 2 hours incubation with thermolysin and alcalase had degree of hydrolysis of 76.29 % and 63.49 %, respectively. The freeze dried protein hydrolysate was tested for peptide content and characterized with respect to amino acid composition. The result of increased peptide content in Red Tilapia (O. Niloticus) hydrolysates obtained was directly proportional to the increase activities of different proteolytic enzymes. The result of amino acid composition showed that the sample used contained abundant Gly, Ala, Asp, Glu, Lys and Leu in residues or peptide sequences. Both enzymatic hydrolysates were tested for anti-oxidant activity with DPPH and ABTS assay. Alcalase yielded higher anti-oxidative activity than Thermolysin hydrolysates after 1 hour incubation, but both enzymes hydrolysates showed a significant decrease of anti-oxidant activity after 2 hours of incubation. Hydrolysates from Red Tilapia may contribute as a health promoting ingredient in functional foods to reduce oxidation stress caused by accumulated free radicals.

Cell Imagery has been widely used in a variety of applications over the past few years. In order to recognise this cell image, it has to be transformed into particular platform. Typically, cell images have to be segmented into certain parts or areas so that it can be analyse for further classification and recognition. Segmentation of images is the most critical part and yet complicated process in quantitative cytophotometry.