Background and Objectives: In recent years, increasing attention to the health and quality of food products has led to the importance of food processing using new methods. One of the significant challenges in this field is the turbidity of fruit juices, particularly red berry juice. An effective way to reduce turbidity is by using natural absorbents. In this regard, banana peel is introduced as a natural absorbent that can significantly contribute to the reduction of turbidity in red mulberry juice. Known for its rich compounds, including pectin and plant fibers, banana peel is recognized as a potential source for absorbing suspended particles and reducing turbidity.Materials and Methods: The primary materials studied in this research are red berry juice and banana peel. The berry juice prepared for this research had a Brix value of approximately 78, which was reduced using distilled water through a series of 15 dilutions. The banana peel was dried at a mild temperature of 45 oC in a laboratory oven and then ground to a uniform size of 1 mm using industrial sieves. The study compared neural network and factorial methods for reducing the turbidity of red mulberry juice with the natural absorbent of banana peel. The independent variables considered included temperature, time, and stirrer speed, each investigated at four different levels, with the experimental design employing a factorial approach. The responses measured were the percentage reduction in turbidity and the percentage reduction in absorbent efficiency.Results: The results showed that the maximum reduction in turbidity (47.22%) with the lowest reduction in the efficiency of the natural absorbent (57.65%) was achieved at a temperature of 30 oC, with surface absorption duration of 3 hours and a stirring speed of 300 rpm. Additionally, a neural network was utilized to predict the two dependent variables as functions of the independent variables. The neural network modeling demonstrated high accuracy in predicting the target variables, with mean relative error (MRE) values of 2.06% and 0.90% for the turbidity reduction percentage and the absorbent efficiency reduction percentage, respectively. In contrast, the factorial method yielded MRE values of 4.58% and 6.04%, thus significantly enhancing the prediction accuracy for the two dependent variables. Conclusion: Banana peel, as a natural absorbent, was effective in reducing the turbidity of red mulberry juice. Furthermore, the factorial method proved to be effective as one of the experimental design approaches for identifying optimal operating conditions in the turbidity reduction process. The use of a neural network for predicting the results of laboratory research demonstrated a high degree of confidence in modeling outputs. In this study, the neural network provided improved predictions for the two dependent responses, leading to enhanced outcomes in both turbidity reduction and absorbent efficiency reduction.

Background and Objectives: Red beet juice, a potential source of valuable nutrients, is widely used as a colorant in food industries. In recent years, to avoid reduction of nutritional values of the red beet during concentration by thermal processing, an osmotic distillation (OD) technique has been suggested. Therefore, the major aim of the present study was to investigate effects of the flow rate, volume of feed and brine solutions and membrane active area on efficiency of the membrane concentration process of red beet juice. Materials and Methods: In this study, osmotic distillation process was used in a laboratory scale unit equipped with a hydrophobic polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) membrane with a pore size of 0. 22 μ m at 25 ˚ C after centrifuging red beet juice at 4, 000 rpm for 17 min. Furthermore, to investigate effects of feed and brine solution volumes on efficacy of the concentration process, two channel heights (2 cm and 2 mm in both feed and brine sections) were tested. Results: Based on the results, the high feed volume was more effective than the high brine volume for the increasing soluble solid content (SSC) of juice in a constant time. Moreover, it was found that if the process time included more than three hours, the membrane with a higher active area (131. 75 cm2) significantly improved total soluble solid content of juice, compared to the membrane with a lower active area (87. 83 and 43. 91 cm2). Results showed that a higher volume and flow rate of both feed and brine included had the most desirable effects on concentration efficiency. Based on the findings, flux of the total soluble solid content rise can be considered as a practical parameter to study efficiency of the osmotic distillation. Conclusion: Efficiency of the concentration process of red beet juice using osmotic distillation can increase by the modification of module configuration and process setup.

Background: Along with increased age, learning and memory being two of the survival necessities decrease and may even deteriorate. This has motivated researches in the field of geriatric medicine to find new medicines effective on learning and memory amplification. Studies have shown that through advanced age, increased oxidative stressors lead to damaged brain processes including cognitive functions. Since types of red grape juice contain antioxidants, this study aimed to examine the effect of this material on passive avoidance memory in 1-year old rats. Methods: Twenty rats, each weighing about 270-330 g, were divided into two test and control groups. Both groups with no limitation had access to water vessel. In the control group, the water container contained pure water and in the test group it contained 80% pure water along with 20% grape juice. To prevent modification of ingredients, vessels contents were regularly refreshed. The passive avoidance memory and learning test was done in the learning device following intending treatments for all groups and in similar conditions. In this test, increased time delay for the first time of entry to the dark chamber and sum of the remaining time in the lighted chamber as well as decreased remaining time in the dark chamber indicate improved passive avoidance memory. To data analysis, the Mann-Whitney test was employed.Findings: Compared with the control group, learning and passive avoidance memory indices had significantly increased in the test group.Conclusion: Our results show that drinking grape juice causes increased learning and passive avoidance indices in rats; probably the reason was existence of antioxidant substances in the grape juice.

Background: Alzheimer's disease is a neurodegenerative disease caused by free radicals and oxidative stress. On the other hand, antioxidant agents can affect the consolidation of memory and thus control of Alzheimer's disease. It was indicated that red grape juice contains antioxidant agents. In this study, the effects of red grape juice on speed of learning and consolidation of memory in rats with Alzheimer's were studied.Methods: Alzheimer's was induced by bilateral infusion of streptozotocin (STZ) into the lateral ventricles of brains of male rats. The rats drank 10% red grape juice during 21 days. A passive avoidance learning test was used for measuring memory and learning in rats. Delay in entering the dark room is the most important parameter in avoidance learning test for measurement of memory and learning.Findings: Our results showed that memory and learning in STZ-group decreased significantly compared to the sham group. In contrast, red grape juice intake increased the speed of learning and improvement of memory in rats with Alzheimer' s.Conclusion: Similar to other studies, our results indicated that red grape juice can reverse memory deficits caused by STZ.

Fruits, vegetable and juices are always interested due to their nutritional contents such as vitamins, minerals and antioxidants. They also seemed to be a suitable media culture for lactic acid bacteria growth and lactic fermentation. In this research, production of a functional beverage red beet juice and fermenting in 37oC by lactic acid bacteria was carried out. Bacterial growth kinetics, sugar consumption, Acid production and changes in antioxidant activity have been investigated. Lactobacillus reuterii were found to grow faster and produced higher amount of viable cells during fermentation followed by L. delbruckii, L. acidophilus, L. casei, L. paracasei, L. rhamnosus, L. plantarum and L. helveticus. Reducing sugars including sucrose, fructose and glucose were consumed by L. casei and L. delbruckii were more intended to use lactose. Lactic acid was the predominant produced lactic acid which was manufactured by L. reuterii. Antioxidant activity and total polyphenolic compounds increased significantly fermentation and maximum reduction in EC50 has been observed in fermentation by L. rhamnosus and, L. acidophilus in anti-oxidant activity and L. casei, L. rhamnosus and L. helveticus in total polyphenolic compounds. Finally, L. casei was found to growing well in this beverage, resulted in producing functional fermented beverage.

Background: The use of proper contrast agents is very effective in improving the quality of medical imaging. In this study, we dealt with the effect of high PH blackberry juice accompanied with omeprozole in reducing the upper fluid artifact in MRCP images.Methods: This single blinded before-after clinical trial was done with the enrollment of 34 patients. After receiving official agreement from the patients and applying the enrollment criteria, they were ordered to take two 20mg omeprozole capsules the night before the exam. The next day, while they had been held NPO, they were exposed to the first MRCP. After this, they drank 300cc blackberry juice and were re-examined after 15 minutes. The related checklists were printed and three radiologists independently inspected the reduction of artifact checklists and the resolution of images. Eventually, the quality of images and the mean of artifact reductions in the images before and after black berry Juice consumption were compared.Results: Reduction of artifact scores due to gastrological secretions did not show any significant differences before and after black berry juice consumption (2.97±0.37 and 2.89±0/87, respectively). Additionally, no significant changes were observed in the visibility of gall bladder, water ampoula, common hepatic duct, intrahepatic ducts and head of pancreatic duct images. There was a decrease in the common bile duct visibility (p=0.01). In the case of pancreatic duct tail and body visibility, images showed improvements (p=0.04 and 0.03, respectively).Conclusion: Blackberry juice, as a contrast agent, does not seem to have enough paramagnetic metals and does not improve the quality of MRCP.