Inadvertent exposure to peanut in foods poses health risks for peanut-allergic individuals that can be reduced by improving detection systems for allergen contaminants in food products and manufacturing processes. Detection of peanut in chocolate has been especially difficult. We report the optimization of conditions for measuring a major peanut allergen, Ara h 1, in chocolate with the use of a...

It is in the nature of the training and work of pathologists to be practical, observant and down-toearth. We appreciate that food is central to the experience of all societies, hence, in communicating many of our descriptions of pathological changes, we use terms related to food. For example, we use terms such as “bread-and -butter” pericarditis, “caseous” necrosis, “anchovy sauce” abscesses, “...

This study was conducted to evaluate the cytoprotection of various extracts and bioactive compounds found in Pistacia vera againts cytotoxicity, ROS formation, lipid peroxidation, protein carbonylation, mitochondrial and lysosomal membrane damages in cell toxicity models of diabetes related carbonyl (glyoxal) and oxidative stress (hydroperoxide). Methanol, water and ethyl acetate were used to p...

The mealybug Ferrisia gilli Gullan is a serious new pest of pistachios in California. It was first found near the town of Tulare in the late 1990s and has since spread to orchards in most pistachio-producing regions of the state. The seasonal phenology of F. gilli was evaluated in a commercial pistachio orchard in Tulare County during 2005 and 2006. During both seasons E gilli overwintered as s...

In 1984 studies were initiated to identify the bird species causing damage to pistachio nuts, quantify the losses, and explore possible methods for alleviating bird losses. The first year's field observations were made to identify and determine the level of activity of the various depredating bird species in the orchard. Field samples of nuts were collected to assess the levels of damage occurr...

Adsorption of violet B azo dye from aqueous solutions was studied by different cellulose agricultural waste materials (almond shell (AS), pistachio shell (PS), walnut shell (WS), Tea waste (TW) and orange peel (OP)). Cellulose agriculturalwaste sorbents characterized by FTIR and SEM methods. The effects of different parameters such as contact time, pH, adsorbent dosage and initial dye concentra...

This work introduces a biochar as novel catalyst prepared from the pistachio hull, and demonstrates its catalytic potential for degrading the reactive red 198 (RR198) dye in catalytic ozonation processes (COPs). The prepared pistachio hull biochar (PHB) was a macroporous, basic material with low specific surface area. PHB had the greatest catalytic potential at an optimal alkaline pH of 10. Sig...

Classiication of real-time X-ray images of randomly oriented touching pistachio nuts is discussed. The ultimate objective is the development of a system for automated non-invasive detection of defective product items on a conveyor belt. We discuss the extraction of new features that allow better discrimination between damaged and clean items (pistachio nuts). This feature extraction and classii...

Nuts are part of a healthy diet such as Mediterranean diet. Benefits of nuts in reducing the risk of heart disease has been reasonably attributed to their composition of vitamins, minerals, unsaturated fatty acids, fiber and phytochemicals such as polyphenols, tocopherols, squalene and phytosterols. More than 75% of total fatty acids of nuts are unsaturated. αtocopherol is the main tocopherol i...

In ancient Mayan texts cocoa is considered a gift of the gods: Pre-Columbian populations used chocolate as medicine, too. After the discovery of America, chocolate was introduced in Europe, but Christian Europe looked to this new exhilarating drink with extreme suspiciousness and criticism. From this reaction, the necessity derived to appeal to the reasons of health, with which doctors and scie...