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Corn Extract for Waxing Paper
Zein is a corn protein making up about half of the protein found in the corn
kernel. Unlike other corn proteins, which are water soluble, zein repels water,
making it an ideal coating material. It was discovered when researchers, at
work on reducing the cost of distilling ethanol from corn, isolated it as a
zein-lipid mixture. They found it had good grease resistance and water barrier
properties.
Extracting such mixtures from ground corn should cost about $1 to $2 per pound.
The zein coating would be suitable for most packaging material requiring
waterproofing, such as boxes for perishable fruits, vegetables, or fish.
Nicholas Parris, USDA-ARS
Engineering Science Research Unit,
Wyndmoor, Pennsylvania; phone (215) 233-6453.
What Do You Get When You Cross a Plum With an Apricot?
Why, a plumcot, of course. And this one, named "Spring Satin," is the
first such fruit well adapted to the medium-high chill areas of the Southeast.
It produces beautiful white blooms in mid-March that mature into large,
high-quality, reddish-black fruit in late May. The yellow flesh takes on a
reddish hue as it ripens and develops very good flavor when soft.
This unique cross is tolerant of major plum diseases—like bacterial spot,
bacterial canker, and plum leaf scald—that limit an orchard's life-span in
the Southeast.
Though the Spring Satin plumcot is now available to commercial growers,
consumers won't be seeing the fruit in grocery stores for about 3 years. It
will take that long for the trees to mature for large-scale harvest.
William R. Okie, USDA-ARS
Southeastern
Fruit and Tree Nut Research Laboratory, Byron, Georgia; phone (478)
956-6405.
Speedier Fat Analysis in Foods
Certain kinds of fats, called triglycerides, play a key role in the flavor and
texture of food formulations. Seed oils—canola, corn, soybean, and
sunflower—are a complex mixture of triglycerides, and predicting how they
will change during food processing and storage is a complicated and
time-consuming task.
Now the chore has been simplified by a new analytical technique that can show
how triglycerides change under different circumstances. The technique is called
reverse-phase high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC)/atmospheric
pressure chemical ionization (APCI) with mass spectrometry (MS)—or
HPLC/APCI-MS.
The researchers can see intact trigylcerides before they break down to form
negative byproducts during storage or high-temperature frying. They've been
able to identify from 35 to over 100 trigylcerides in just 2 hours and to
correlate their composition with the physical properties of food, such as
melting range, mouth feel, and reaction to refrigeration. Eventually, the new
technique could lead to margarines, shortenings, and cooking oils with good
taste and longer shelf life.
Gary R. List, USDA-ARS
Food Quality and
Safety Research Unit, Peoria, Illinois; phone (301) 681-6388.
Multiplying Macrophages the Easy Way—in Cell Culture
In humans and livestock, such as pigs, these amoebalike white blood cells help
eliminate dead cells, used proteins, and other refuse. They also attack
bacteria, viruses, fungi, or other disease-causing, or pathogenic, organisms at
infection sites. And by "wearing" a dead pathogen's proteins,
macrophages also mobilize the immune system's T-cells and antibody-producing
B-cells.
The standard way of obtaining macrophages has been to flush them from fluids
pumped into an animal's lungs or peritoneal cavity. The new method begins with
culturing precursor cells called monocytes from just 10 drops of blood on a
special layer of "feeder cells."
After several weeks, a bumper crop of hundreds of millions of mature
macrophages is ready for storage or immediate research use. It doesn't harm
animal donors and yields cells similar to those found in the animals' bodies.
Researchers are using cultured macrophages to study the virus that causes
porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome, which leads to late-term
abortions, stillbirths, and other costly problems in pigs.
Neil Talbot, USDA-ARS
Gene Evaluation and Mapping
Laboratory, Beltsville, Maryland; phone (301) 504-8216.
Shedding New Light on Deadly Bacteria
A prototype of a newly patented device tested at a large midwestern beef
packing plant can successfully detect small amounts of fecal matter on meat
animal carcasses. Invented cooperatively by ARS and Iowa State University (ISU)
researchers, the instrument uses specific wavelengths of light to illuminate
each carcass and then electronically analyzes the light that is reflected.
Work to commercialize the technology is being done under a cooperative research
and development agreement with ISU and eMerge Interactive, Inc., of Sebastian,
Florida. Optical and electronic engineers are working with scientists to
develop both large-cut and whole-carcass detection systems.
Mark A. Rasmussen, and
Thomas A. Casey, USDA-ARS
National Animal Disease Center,
Ames, Iowa; phone (515) 663-7350. |
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