Faryal Shaukat

In the recent era, bioactive compounds from plants have received great attention because of their vital health-related activities, such as antimicrobial activity, antioxidant activity, anticoagulant activity, anti-diabetic activity, UV protection, antiviral activity, hypoglycemia, etc. Previous studies have already shown that polysaccharides found in plants are not likely to be toxic. Based on these inspirational comments, most research focused on the isolation, identification, and bioactivities of polysaccharides. A large number of biologically active polysaccharides have been isolated with varying structural and biological activities. In this review, a comprehensive summary is provided of the recent developments in the physical and chemical properties as well as biological activities of polysaccharides from a number of important natural sources, such as wheat bran, orange peel, barely, fungi, algae, lichen, etc. This review also focused on biomedical applications of polysaccharides. The contents presented in this review will be useful as a reference for future research as well as for the extraction and application of these bioactive polysaccharides as a therapeutic agent.

Abstract Bio‐active food coating having natural antioxidants has attained great attention these days. Polysaccharides extracted from bacteria, fungi, and plants are considered rich in antioxidant biomolecules. Chickpea hull which is a food waste material contains a substantial quantity of antioxidants and bioactive compounds. In this study, chitosan (CS)‐based chickpea hull polysaccharides (CHPS) edible coating of cherry tomatoes was successfully fabricated. Cherry tomatoes were characterized in terms of physico‐chemical characteristics and shelf life. In comparison to the control, it was discovered that the CS‐incorporated CHPS coatings were successful at lowering the respiratory activity, total soluble solids, total polyphenols, firmness, weight loss, lycopene content, and vitamin C as well as improving the fruit's overall acceptability. The dose dependence of each of these effects was noticed. Conclusively, using CS‐incorporated CHPS coatings could preserve the shelf life of cherry tomatoes. A useful and different approach to enhance the postharvest quality of cherry tomatoes is to utilize CS‐CHPS composite coatings.

Arachis hypogaea roots are used as traditional Chinese medicine to treat different ailments, and the present study involves the exploration and comparison of phenolic profile and antioxidant activities (ABTS + and DPPH assay) of A. hypogaea root extract in different solvents. 70% aqueous acetone and 70% aqueous ethanol were proved to be the best solvents to recover total phenolic compounds, with a yield of 42.59 ± 1.96 and 41.34 ± 0.92 mg/g dry weight of extract, respectively. ABTS + radical scavenging activity was the highest in 70% aqueous ethanol, while the absolute methanol extract showed the highest DPPH radical scavenging activity (29.50 ± 2.19 μ g/mL). Furthermore, phytochemical profiling of 70% acetone extract of A. hypogaea roots was performed by LC-ESI-TOF-MS analysis which in turn indicated the presence of diverse compounds in the A. hypogaea root extract, namely, quinones, stilbenoids, and flavones and flavonoid glucosides.

Abstract BACKGROUND A first‐of‐its‐kind method for quantitatively determining volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in peanut seed samples was developed and implemented utilizing a colorimetric sensor array (CSA), as well as near‐infrared (NIR) and mid‐infrared (MIR) spectroscopy, both independently and in conjunction, in addition to chemometrics, to address the unreliability of single technologies for detection of VOCs in peanut seed samples. The developed method was tested to see whether it could quantitatively analyze VOCs in peanut seed samples. RESULTS The compounds were isolated utilizing gas chromatography–mass spectrometry following extraction through solid phase microextraction. To quantitatively analyze the abundant VOCs in peanut seed samples, six calibration models were developed. CSA with NIR showed the best predictive models for 2‐furanmethanol ( R p = 0.9096), hexanoic acid ( R p = 0.9111), benzaldehyde ( R p = 0.9268), 2,3‐dimethylpyrazine ( R p = 0.9697), 2‐pentylfuran ( R p = 0.9563) and 2‐pyrrolidinone ( R p = 0.8641). The results achieved with NIR spectroscopy combined with CSA are superior to those obtained with MIR spectroscopy. CONCLUSION The results obtained in the present study showed that the developed multi‐technology fusion system can quickly and quantitatively predict VOCs in peanut seed samples of different varieties, and the NIR combined with the CSA system has the best prediction effect. © 2025 Society of Chemical Industry.