The contamination of pasteurised fruit juice products by thermophilic acidophilic bacteria (TAB) has become a concern for producers. The aim of this study was to identify the bacteria present in South African fruit juices before and after pasteurisation, using polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-based denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE). Alicyclobacillus acidote"estris was found to be pr...

The aim of this work is to develop a method for ascorbic acid determination in some fruit juices, by using an ascorbate oxidase-based amperometric enzyme electrode. The enzyme was immobilized on a nylon (Biodyne A) membrane by glutaraldehyde linking. The enzyme-membrane was consecutively attached to the polyethylene membrane of a Clark oxygen electrode, which functioned as transducer. The analy...

OBJECTIVE Excess fructose consumption is hypothesized to be associated with risk for metabolic disease. Actual fructose consumption levels are difficult to estimate because of the unlabeled quantity of fructose in beverages. The aims of this study were threefold: 1) re-examine the fructose content in previously tested beverages using two additional assay methods capable of detecting other sugar...

Lipid transfer proteins can be an important cause of allergy given their stability and high degree of protein sequence homology. We describe the case of a child who developed two separate episodes of anaphylaxis after consuming apple seed and grape, with evidence that nonspecific lipid transfer proteins may have been responsible for these reactions. Lipid transfer protein allergy should be cons...

Major elements such as calcium, magnesium, sodium and potassium are essential nutrients in food and the routine monitoring of the levels of these elements in fruit juices is a common quality control process. Flame Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy (FAAS) is well suited to this application as it delivers the performance required for the analysis at a reasonable price. However, with the introduction...

A sensitive method was developed to speciate and quantify As(III) and As(V) in fruit juices. At pH 3.0, As(III) and ammonium pyrrolidine dithiocarbamate (APDC) formed a complex, which was extracted into CCl4 by dispersive liquid-liquid microextraction (DLLME) and subsequently quantified by hydride generation-atomic fluorescence spectrometry (HG-AFS). After As(V) was reduced by thiosulphate at p...

Diosmin, hesperidin and naringin are flavonoid glycosides that occur naturally in citrus fruits. They exert a variety of pharmacological properties such as anti-inflammatory, antioxidant and free radical scavenging and antiulcer effects and also inhibit selected cytochrome P-450 enzymes resulting in drug interactions. A reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatographic method has been deve...

Human intestinal absorption and drug metabolism vary to a large extent among individuals. For example, CYP3A4 activity has large individual variation that cannot be attributed to only genetic differences. Various flavonoids in vegetables, such as kaempferol and quercetin, possess inhibitory effects, and some vegetable and fruit juices have also been found to inhibit CYP3A4 activity. Therefore, ...

The evidence for a role of sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) in the development of obesity and associated comorbid ities, although not fully resolved, is becoming increasingly convincing, with supporting data from both prospective cohort studies and randomised trials. The obesogenic eff ect of SSBs seems to be simply a consequence of the excess calories provided by their consumption, rather than...

opiine braconid parasitoids of tephritid pests have augmentative biological control potential, but there are no synthetic attractants to monitor their survival and dispersal following release. adults feed on fruit juices and these could be sources of attractive compounds. While orange juice (Citrus sinensis l.) is nutritious, guava juice (Psidium guajava l.) is toxic. the behavioral responses t...