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Grain amaranth is a promising crop because of its wide adaptation, nutritional importance and multiple uses. Forty eight grain amaranth accessions were evaluated in augmented block design along with 4 checks for 10 quantitative traits in two growing seasons and the grain samples of 52 along with three additional checks were analyzed for nutritional parameters. Analysis of variance for morphological traits resulted in significant differences among treatments for both the years. Adjusted mean values of quantitative traits for each year and mean values of nutritional traits were used for correlation and multivariate analysis. There were 24 and 16 positive significant associations in the years 2013 and 2014, respectively among various grain yield components. Grain yield per plant was significantly positively associated with plant height (0.459, 0.574), leaf length (0.615, 0.321), and petiole length (0.726, 0.381) during both the years. HCA of morphological data showed that national check variety Durga occupied a separate cluster as a singleton in 2014andin 2013, where IC 42346-6 was also in the same cluster. The protein, TPP, DPPH and TEAC content of amaranth accessions varied from 8.99±0.31 to 15.26±0.30%, 2.44±0.08to 4.86±0.13 mg GAE/gDW, 4.72 to 8.47 uMTE/gDWand 15.21 to 33.63 mg GAE/gDW, respectively. Wide range of variation was also observed for iron (66.67–83.19 ppm) and zinc content (28.47–42.98 ppm). Correlation among nutritional traits revealed highly significant positive association of TPP with DPPH and TAA. PCA analysis of nutritional traits revealed that PC1 distinguished those accessions that had high values for TPP, DPPH and TAA, whereas PC2 distinguished accessions with high protein and zinc content. Scatter plot of PCA1 and PCA2 showed overlapping of Indian Himalayan accessions with Russian origin accessions. Results of cluster analysis were similar to that of PCA for nutritional traits. It was observed that high yielding check varieties of amaranth were low in protein, TPP, DPPH, TEAC, iron and zinc content in comparison to the accessions with high values for both the traits. The accessions identified for nutritional traits could be used in breeding programme for the improvement of nutritional traits in adapted varieties.

Eight pulses comprising of five common pulses viz., rajma (kidney beans), cowpea (white), cowpea (black), lentil, chickpea and three lesser-known pulses viz., rice bean, horse gram, soybean (black) from Northwestern Himalaya were analyzed for nutritional factors viz. protein, lipid, sugars, tryptophan, starch, antinutritional factors viz., phytic acid, tannins, trypsin inhibitors), antioxidant metabolites and activities viz., Gallic acid, DPPH, ABTS, TAA, FRAP and fatty acid composition. Results showed that horse gram and lentil had higher free radical scavenging and antioxidant activities. Studied pulse oil contained higher concentration of unsaturated fatty acids. PCA revealed that oleic acid, DPPH, ABTS, O/L ratio, antioxidant activities, gallic acid and tannins have positive correlation. Results of the present study showed that, studied lesser-known pulses were at par in nutritional quality with commonly grown pulses and these pulses may acts as a potential source of edible as well as good source of nutrition for livestock and human.

The changes in chemical composition, antioxidant activity and fatty acid composition of lentil flour after dehulling, germination and cooking of seeds were investigated. Dehulling showed no significant effect on protein content, however, protein content decreased in most of the varieties after germination and cooking. Total soluble sugars (TSS) content increased significantly after dehulling (2.0-41.64 %) and cooking (2.08-31.07 %) whereas, germination had no significant effect on TSS content. Total lipids increased significantly after dehulling (21.56-42.86 %) whereas, it decreased significantly after germination (2.97-26.52 %) and cooking (23.05-58.63 %). Cooking was more effective than other methods in reducing trypsin inhibitors (80.51-85.41 %). Dehulling was most effective in reducing tannins (89.46-92.99 %) and phytic acid (52.63-60.00 %) content over raw seed. Myristic, palmitic, stearic, oleic and linoleic acid content decreased while linolenic acid content increased after dehulling. Dehulling, germination and cooking decreased the content of antioxidant metabolite (gallic acid, catechin and quercetin) and also antioxidant activities. Raw samples followed by germinated samples showed the highest concentrations of phytochemicals responsible for antioxidant activity and also the antioxidant capacities. Present study showed germination and cooking would be useful in formulation and development of lentil based functional foods for human health benefits.

Malnutrition, heart, respiratory and pulmonary diseases are becoming most critical in Mid Himalaya. Vegetables rich in micronutrients, antioxidants and bioactive compounds can help to solve the issue. Sweet pepper is one of the best choices but as it is a warm and humid loving crop and bioactive compounds are highly varied with attitude and temperature condition, the study was conducted to identify promising antioxidant rich sweet pepper lines adapted to hill condition. Thirty eight advanced breeding lines (ABLs) of sweet pepper were evaluated for variations in total polyphenol, total carotenoids, ascorbic acid and antioxidant activity in mid Himalayan region. Antioxidant activity was measured using two in vitro assays viz. 2, 2-diphenyl-1-icrylhydrazyl (DPPH) 2, 2′-Azino-bis(3-Ethylbenzothiazoline-6-Sulfonic Acid) (ABTS). Additionally colour parameter capsanthin, pungency compound capsaicin and fruit firmness were evaluated. Among ABLs, significant differences (p ≤ 0.05) were obtained with respect to antioxidant composition and antioxidant activity. Ascorbic acid and total phenol varied from 39.42–85.12 mg/100 g and 13.01–71.24 mg GAE/100g fresh weight (fw) respectively, while ABTS % Inhibition and DPPH % Inhibition varies from 10.95–80.05 and 11.19–49.18 respectively. Chemometric tools like principal component analysis (PCA) and agglomerative hierarchical clustering (AHC) were applied to understand possible classification sweet pepper ABLs based on bioactive antioxidant compounds, antioxidant potentiality and fruit firmness. PCA revealed that the first two components represented 67.78% of the total variability in the total variation. AHC classified cultivars into four main groups on the basis of the measured parameters. Results suggested that VLCP-16-1, VLSM-3 and Mukteshwar for Vitamin C; VLCP-16-57, VLCP-16-54, Mukteshwar and VLCP-16-52 for polyphenols, VLCP-16-54, VLCP-16-57, VLCP-2016-52 and showed highest antioxidant activity. The result will help in advance breeding of sweet pepper for development of nutritionally rich varieties.

The changes in chemical composition, antioxidant activity and minerals content of horse gram seed after dehulling and germination of 12 advance lines were investigated. Dehulled samples had a higher protein content compared with the raw and germinated. Total soluble sugars (TSS) content increased significantly (p ≤ 0.05) after dehulling (29.31 %) and germination (98.73 %) whereas, the total lipids increased (10.98 %) significantly (p ≤ 0.05) after dehulling and decreased (36.41 %) significantly (p ≤ 0.05) after germination. Dehulling and germination significantly decreased the amount of phytic acid (PA), tannin (TN) and oxalic acid (OA). Trypsin inhibitor units decreased (26.79 %) significantly (p ≤ 0.05) after germination. The minerals (Ca, Fe and Cu) composition of the germinated horsegram flour samples was significantly higher than the raw and dehulled flour. The functional properties of flours were studied and found that the bulk density (11.85 %) and oil absorption capacity (18.92 %) significantly increased after germination. Raw samples followed by germinated samples showed the highest concentrations of phytochemicals responsible for the antioxidant activity and also the antioxidant capacities. principal component analysis revealed that in case of dehulled samples; TN, polyphenols, DPPH and ABTS radical inhibition, TSS, total antioxidant, OA, protein, FRAP value, Ca and Zn had positive correlation among themselves while in case of germinated samples, protein, oil absorption capacity, FRAP value, OA, total flavonoids, DPPH radical inhibition, Ca and Cu had positive correlation among themselves. Present study suggest that germination combined with dehulling process improved quality of horsegram by enhancing the nutritive value and reducing the antinutrients.

The present study was carried out to find the effect of fruit harvesting stage (October, November and December) on the physicochemical and antioxidant properties in five kiwi cultivars (Abbot, Bruno, Allison, Hayward, Monty). Results showed that soluble solid content (SSC) and pH increased while ascorbic acid (Vit C), titrated acidity (TAD) and SSC/TAD decreased in all the cultivars with delay in harvesting. Total polyphenols (TP) were decreased while total flavonoids (TF) increased in all tested cultivars with delay in harvesting. The highest concentration of TP (2.02 mg gallic acid equivalent/g fresh weight) and TF (51.12 mg catechin equivalent/100g FW) were found in cultivar 'Allison' in the month of October and December, respectively. Antioxidant activities (AA) were genotype depended and no trend was observed with month of harvesting. Principal component analysis (PCA) showed strong correlation between Vit C, TP and antioxidant activities. Two major clusters were computed using agglomerative hierarchical clustering (AHC). All the studied important traits may be used in the breeding programmes to increase the variability for different physiochemical and antioxidative characteristics and to make suitable selections that could be acceptable to consumers.

In this study, we evaluated total phenolics, condensed tannins, ascorbic acid, lycopene, β-carotene, total antioxidant activity, reducing power, ferric-reducing antioxidant power, and radical scavenging activity (RSA) on ABTS and DPPH as well as metal chelating activity of methanolic and aqueous extract from caps and stipes of Calocybe indica and Pleurotus sajor-caju mushrooms. Per gram of extract, the different mushroom extracts contained 18.09-27.47 mg gallic acid equivalent of phenolics, 5.06-8.89 mg catechins of tannins, and 0.15-0.21 mg ascorbic acid. Principal component analysis (PCA) revealed that methanolic extract from caps of C. indica and P. sajor-caju contained higher ascorbic acid, total antioxidant activity, β-carotene and radical scavenging activity (RSA) on 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) than did the stipes. The aqueous extract from cap and stipe of P. sajor-caju had higher total phenolics and RSA on 2,2'-azino-bis(3-ethylbenzthiazoline-6-sulphonic acid) (ABTS) as well as higher metal-chelating activity and ferric-reducing antioxidant power. The antioxidant potential is higher in the caps of P. sajor-caju and C. indica than in the stipes; the cap contributes most to antioxidant activity.

Total phenolics, radical scavenging activity (RSA) on DPPH, ascorbic acid content and chelating activity on Fe(2+) of Pleurotus citrinopileatus, Pleurotus djamor, Pleurotus eryngii, Pleurotus flabellatus, Pleurotus florida, Pleurotus ostreatus, Pleurotus sajor-caju and Hypsizygus ulmarius have been evaluated. The assayed mushrooms contained 3.94-21.67 mg TAE of phenolics, 13.63-69.67% DPPH scavenging activity, 3.76-6.76 mg ascorbic acid and 60.25-82.7% chelating activity. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) revealed that significantly higher total phenolics, RSA on DPPH and growth/day was present in P. eryngii whereas P. citrinopileatus showed higher ascorbic acid and chelating activity. Agglomerative hierarchical clustering analysis revealed that studied mushroom species fall into two clusters; Cluster I included P. djamor, P. eryngii and P. flabellatus, while Cluster II included H. ulmarius, P. sajor-caju, P. citrinopileatus, P. ostreatus and P. florida. Enhanced yield of P. eryngii was achieved on spent compost casing material. Use of casing materials enhanced yield by 21-107% over non-cased substrate.

\beta-lactam fused enediynes have been successfully synthesized by intramolecular Kinugasa reaction in moderate yields.DSC studies indicated significant influence of the \beta-lactam ring upon the reactivity of enediynes. None of the \beta-lactamfused enediynes (under ring opening conditions) as well as the 11-membered monocyclic enediyne as the tosylate saltshowed any cleavage of plasmid DNA. Interestingly, the 10-membered enediyne as the tosylate salt cleaved both singleand double strands of plasmid DNA at micromolar concentration.

Total phenolics, condensed tannins, ascorbic acid, total antioxidant activity, reducing power, ferric reducing antioxidant power, radical scavenging activity (RSA) on DPPH & ABTS and metal chelating activity of methanolic and aqueous extract from cap and stipe of Lentinula edodes have been evaluated. Different extracts contained 2.40-5.60 mg gallic acid equivalent of phenolics, 1.23-3.26 mg catechins equivalent of condensed tannins, and 2.31–11.96 mg ascorbic acid per gram of extract. Aqueous extract from cap contained higher phenolics, condensed tannins, ascorbic acid, RSA on DPPH and ABTS, reducing power, and metal chelating activity. We found that this mushroom species present antioxidant potential especially higher for cap indicating that the cap is the material that most contributes to the antioxidant activity.

Lyophilized and stored in a deep-freeze, the mycelial material was found to retain cis-aconitic decarboxylase activity unimpaired at the end of 2 months. Mycelia could be stored also in the frozen condition but after squeezing hard to remove as much of adherent water as possible. Extracts with maximum cis-aconitic decarboxylase activity were obtained when the frozen or better the lyophilized mycelia of Aspergillus terreus were ground in a mortar with phosphate buffer using pyrex glass powder as abrasive. Cis-aconitic decarboxylase was purified 25-fold by fractionation with ammonium sulfate, starting from extracts of the mycelia in phosphate buffer. The purified enzyme was considerably more stable than the crude extracts to storage and dialysis. The optimum pH was 5.8 using 0.2 m phosphate buffer; Km value was 5×10-3m at pH 5.8 and 37°C. EDTA and 8-hydroxyquinoline activated the enzyme; all metals tested inhibited the enzyme, Zn++ and Cu++ leading to complete inactivation. Fluoride, arsenite and azide also inhibited the enzyme activity.