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Background: One of the most common bacterial infections in primary care is urinary tract infections, which are second only to respiratory infections. Women are at higher risk of developing IBD. Cranberry has long been known for its beneficial effects on urinary tract health. Clinical trials have shown that regular consumption of cranberry juice can prevent UTI. Aim: To determine the efficacy of cranberry juice in prevention of recurrence of urinary tract infection in females with recurrent UTIs presenting in a tertiary care hospital. Study design& duration: Descriptive Case Series from 01-04-2016 TO 30-09-2016. Setting: Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Jinnah Hospital, Lahore. Methods: A total of 160 females were prescribed 300mg concentrated cranberry extract twice daily for 12 weeks. Females were followed up in OPD at 6 weeks and 12 weeks for evaluation of symptoms and sign determined on clinical examination and a urine culture for recurrence of UTI, if symptoms of UTI and a +ve culture noticed during follow-up period then recurrence was labeled. Results: Patients ranged between 18-40 year. Mean age of the patients was 30.78±6.55 years. Total no of caseswas 160, 49 patients (30.6%) were primigravida and 111 patients (69.4%) were multigravida. Efficacy of cranberry extract was observed in 130 cases (81.3%). Stratification with regard to age, and parity was carried out Conclusion: In conclusion, the results of the present study support that cranberry extract associated with protective effect against recurrent urinary tract infections in our population. Keywords: Recurrent urinary tract infection, Cranberry extract, Prevention

A study was conducted to optimize the mild extrusion cooking conditions for development of rice and chickpea based extrudates. The independent variables i.e. extrusion parameters (Screw speed, barrel temperature), feed moisture and proportions of rice flour and chickpea flour were varied using central composite rotatable design (CCRD), and their effects on system parameter- Specific mechanical energy (SME) and product characteristics i.e., water absorption index (WAI), water solubility index (WSI), bulk density (BD), expansion ratio (ER), breaking strength (BS), colour values (L*, a* and b*) and overall acceptability (OA) were studied. All the system and product responses were significantly affected by independent variables. Response surface and regression models were established to determine the responses as function of process variables. Models obtained were highly significant with high coefficient of determination (R(2) ≥ 0.889). The optimum mild extrusion conditions obtained by numerical optimization for development of snacks were 102 °C barrel temperature, 281 rpm screw speed, 18.3% feed moisture and rice to chickpea flour ratio as 90:10. Storage studies confirmed that the developed snacks can be stored better in laminated pouches than in high density polyethylene (HDPE) bags for a period of 6 months under ambient conditions.

Wild edible mushrooms serve as a garnish that can be taken as routine health food or as functional food. They are enriched with myriad nutrients and bioactive compounds that can be developed into food supplements, hence conferring anti-diabetic, cardiovascular and immune-modulating properties. In the present investigation, four wild edible mushroom species viz., Apioperdon pyriforme, Helvella elastica, Morchella conica and Rhizopogon luteolus collected from different locations of Jammu and Kashmir were examined for their nutritional composition. Among these, Morchella conica revealed maximum protein (24.5 g/100 g) and crude fibre (4.8%). While the dried sporocarps of Rhizopogon luteolus possessed maximum total phenolic content (12.30 mg/g), Other components including total ascorbic acid content (1.71 mg/g) and total flavonoid content (0.78 mg/g) were present in maximum proportion in fruit bodies of Rhizopogon luteolus and Helvella elastica, respectively. Furthermore, considering the fact that wild mushrooms have good bioaccumulation potential, these wild edible mushrooms were also assessed for their mineral contents such as Cu, Fe, Zn and Mg. Amongst these, Fe was found present in higher concentration ranging from 165.5–547 ppm followed by Zn (22.2–84 ppm) and Mg (22.4–55.5 ppm). Concentration of copper was found to be lowest in the investigated wild edible mushrooms (23.1–44.5 ppm). However, no copper was detected in Rhizopogon luteolus. The present study demonstrates that the investigated mushrooms are rich in nutrients and essential minerals specifying that they may be further used as functional elements in the composition of innovative food products.

Severe extrusion cooking (SEC) has been extensively explored for product development and has been compared with mild extrusion cooking (MEC). Different blends of chickpea-rice flour for extrusion can be used to achieve a balance between nutritive value and valued product characteristics. This study was therefore designed to optimize the severe and mild extrusion conditions for rice-chickpea flour blends to cater for increasing consumer demand for snacks with the aim of comparing the effects of severe and mild extrusion cooking (MEC) on nutritional quality.The results revealed a significantly (P 0.05) higher percentage reduction in sucrose during severe extrusion (46.85%) compared to mild extrusion (7.88%). Likewise, the percentage increase in maltose, glucose, and fructose was significantly (P 0.05) higher during SEC than during mild extrusion. Total phenolic content increased by 13.96% during mild extrusion, whereas, during severe extrusion it decreased by 15%. Total flavonoid content and total antioxidant activity decreased by 11.11% and 15.63%, respectively, during severe extrusion whereas, total flavonoid content and total antioxidant activity increased by 13.17% and 24.29%, respectively, during MEC. The loss in condensed tannin content was significantly (P 0.05) higher (33.82%) during SEC than with MEC (12.05%). With regard to amino acids, the maximum loss was observed in methionine (53.38%) followed by lysine (40.63%) during SEC. However, the mineral content was found to increase during SEC.This study revealed that MEC is superior to SEC in terms of minimizing deleterious effects on overall nutritional value of ready-to-eat snacks. © 2022 Society of Chemical Industry.

Objective: To determine the association between obesity and miscarriage among females of reproductive age. Methodology: This cohort study was carried out in Department of Obstetrics & Gynaecology, Jinnah Hospital, Lahore for 6 months (15-08-2013 to 15-12-2014). The females were divided in two group on the basis of their BMI i.e. obese (>30kg/m2) or normal (18-24.9kg/m2). Then females were followed-up in OPD till 12 weeks of gestation. Females counseled and advice to present in hospital, if they develop indications for miscarriage. If any female had spontaneous abortion, miscarriage was labeled. Relative risk was calculated to measure the association between obesity and miscarriage. RR>1 was considered as significant. Results :The mean age of patients was 30.48±5.64 years and the mean gestational age was 7±0.81 weeks. The miscarriage was occurred in 63(31.50%) patients in which 47 cases were obese and 16 cases were normal. Statically there is 4.65 times greater risk of miscarriage was observed in obese patients than to normal i.e. RR=4.65 [2.39-9.038]. Conclusion: It has been proved in our study that Obesity is associated with increased risk of first trimester and recurrent miscarriage among females of reproductive age. Keywords: First Trimester, Miscarriage, Reproductive, Fetus, Obesity

The aim of the present investigation was to study the various physical properties of the spray dried tomato powder. The spray drying process was operated at maltodextrin concentration (3%), air inlet temperature (152 0C), feed flow rate (37 ml/min) and blower speed (1300rpm). Moisture content, bulk density, tapped density, flowability and water solubility index of the spray dried tomato powder were analyzed. Powder samples showed moisture activity of 4.40% and water activity of 0.47, which is good for powder stability. Powder samples showed excellent flowing properties with Hausner ratio of 1.18 and Carr index of 12.82%. The reconstitution property (water solubility index) was found to be 92.50%.

Radiofrequency (RF) heating was explored to induce accelerated ageing in rice to reduce the time of ageing. RF exposure time and moisture content of rice were set at five levels between 10 and 115 min and 9.5–18.5% respectively using central composite rotatable design. The values of different quality attributes of rice viz., volume expansion ratio (VER), water uptake (WU), gel consistency (GC), adhesiveness (ADH), cohesiveness (COH), amylose content (AC), reducing sugars (RS), free fatty acids (FFA), peak viscosity (PV), final viscosity (FV), and overall acceptability varied between 3.79 and 3.88, 269-281 g/100 g, 80–82 mm, (−) 0.35 - (−)1.12 N, 98.45–119.13, 19.22–19.95%, 0.17–0.21%, 1.9–3.4%, 290.35–349.59 RVU, 260.51–290.45 RVU, and 3–4.8 respectively. Models obtained for all the above quality parameters were highly significant (p ≤ 0.0006). RF treated rice differed significantly in various physico-chemical, cooking, textural and pasting properties as compared to fresh rice. WU, GC, FFA, COH, PV and FV increased significantly (p