Sarsaparilla flavored soft drinks

Sarsaparilla is a woody vine of the lily family (Liliaceae), has a mild anise flavor and provides root beer’s foamy head. Sarsaparilla is a soft drink, originally made from the Smilax regelii plant.

The name of sarsaparilla comes from the Spanish, zarza, bramble, parra, vine and the diminutive illa -in other words, a small bramble-like climber.

The leaves are commonly oval to heart-shaped prominently veined and often patented. Sarsaparilla has long been used for skin complaints such as psoriasis.

It is also believed to be a good diuretic and diaphoretic so it has been used as a blood purifier and for kidney complaints. Sarsaparilla was consumed as a tea and has been used in soft drinks and root beers.

It was introduced into Europe following the Spanish colonization of South America. Sarsaparilla contains 1.8% to 2.4% steroid saponins, including the following:
*Sarsaponin
*Smilasaponin
*Sarsaparilloside and its aglycones, sarsapogenin, smilagenin and polinastanol
Sarsaparilla flavored soft drinks

Read more...

Peanut plant

The peanut is the most popular nut in the United States. The peanut is a legume and closely related to beans and peas but differs widely from then because of its habit of developing the pods underground. The peanuts plant itself (Arachis bypogaea) grows a flower that sends a shoot down into the ground, where it enlarges into tissue that becomes the peanut.

Peanuts are grown in tropical and subtropical climates. They need much sunshine, warm temperature, moderate rainfall, and a frost-free growing period of 4 to 5 months. They thrive best in light, well drained, sandy soil.

There are two types of peanut plants: runner, which spread out like vines, and bunch peanut plants, which grow upright like small bushes.

Peanuts may be roasted in their shells before they’re eaten. Or they may be shelled and prepared as salted peanuts. Roasted peanuts are used in candy and baked goods, for peanut butter and in many other foods. Peanuts are often grown just for their oil.
Peanut plant

Read more...

Phytoalexins: plants stress-inducible metabolites

Phytoalexins: plants stress-inducible metabolites The plant stress-inducible metabolites are mainly indued by plants in order to face pathogen attacks as a part of a number of defense mechanise (lytic and oxidative enzymes, cell wall lignifications, etc) conceived to overcome unfavourable conditions. 

Exposure to cold, ultraviolet light, physical damage, and certain chemical compounds such as metal salts, polyamines, and certain pesticides can elicit the production of phytoalexins. This hypersensitive response may all be triggered by a rye of abiotic inducers or by carbohydrate glucan elicitors derived from the cell walls of yeasts or fungi.

The French botanist Noel Bernard in 19911 observed orchid tubers and defined phytoalexins as ‘chemical compounds produced as a result of invasion of living cells by a parasite'. Phytoalexins are usually elicited locally at the site of attack. Some evidence exists for accumulation of phytoalexins in edible tissue, particularly in potatoes and sweet potatoes.

The classic example of phytoalexin production occurs in potatoes inoculated with the blight fungus, Phytophthora infestans. When inoculated onto the potato, certain strains of this fungus will initially grow rapidly, followed by gradual slowing of growth.

Isoflavonoids phytoalexins are also known as normal products in other plant species. It this follows that screening of leguminous plants for antimicrobial activity will inevitably lead to the isolation of active isoflavonoids, and will probably yields other stress not represented in the phytoalexins. Some phytoalexins have been demonstrated to be toxic to humans.

Generally stress metabolises possess some degree of toxicity to living matter and given that this toxicity can be extended t humans, one must consider there importance in the context of human and livestock safety.

Phytoalexins are often detected initially by their antifungal activity. The most widely technique is the thin layer chromatography bioassay.
Phytoalexins: plants stress-inducible metabolites

Read more...

How Food Safety Relate to Animal and Plant Health?

How Food Safety Relate to Animal and Plant Health?
Food safety differs from animal and plant health in its focus on foodborne hazards to human health.

Usually animal and plant health improvement is tied to enhanced agricultural productivity.

However, there are strong linkages among the three issues.

First, some animal diseases can also be transmitted to humans, so improving animal health is sometimes linked to food safety.

Similarly, some plant diseases or control measures involving pesticides have implications for human health through residues on food.

Second, similar regulatory approach may be used to reduce risks in all three areas so designing public systems to address all three has some economics of scope.

Third, improvements in all three areas may be a prerequisite for entering international trade and thus may need to occur simultaneously.

Fourth, all three fall under the agreement and thus are addressed in the same way in international trade disputes.

These linkages mean that some Bank experience in animal and plant health may provide lessons for investments in food safety.
How Food Safety Relate to Animal and Plant Health?

Read more...

Nomenclature of Tea

By the time the nomenclaturist Linnaeus published his Species Plantarum (1753), tea had already grown and consumed for centuries and he was aware of the availability of green and black teas.

Accordingly, he identifies two separate species of plants that yield tea: Thea virids (green) and Thea bohen (black).

Those inaccurate classification held until the early 19th century, when it was determined that these two plants were, in fact, one and the same.

The species of the tea plant is Camellia sinensis.

It is in the the family Theaceae of order Theales.

Interestingly enough, over 2000 varieties of tea are derived from this one plant species.

The differences are one function of the way o which the tea leaves are processed.
Nomenclature of Tea

Read more...