Why we should be a Vegan?

Our Indian Society is very sensitive to what west does. If western research said Broccoli is good for you, then broccoli it is?

 If they said Yoga is good for health then it’s the panacea to all their health problems. I mean we behave so idiotically that in our country modernity is linked with what you wear not with your degrees or with your thinking unless you are leftist. If I am wearing short skirts and cut sleeve dress, Voila! I am modern.

West for long due to various reasons followed the Non-Vegan Diet. One reason could be availability, economical, taste, nutritional factor and so on. So if west countries and Americans are eating, we must have it.

Even if it’s against our very nature and vegan diet is cheap, economical and nutritional.

When some activist tried to create awareness about its disadvantages, they were mocked as Right wing or Cow brigade or with such names.

But as soon as a west research came out that being vegan has many benefits over non vegan. Our people started thinking over what some of us were crying over the years but better late then never.

Let’s come to benefits:

1. Celebrity factor: Although it should not be no. 1 factor but as our youth almost worship our Bollywood or sportsman so I thought it would be easy to persuade people.

      There are many celebrties who are vegan like Our PM Narendra Modi, Amitabh Bacchan, Shahid Kapoor, Arvind Kejriwal, Lisa Heydan, Virender Sehwag, V. Anand  (Chess Champ), Dhanush (south superstar). See how healthy, sexy and athletic they are.

Many Hollywood heartthrobs like Joaquin Phoenix, Natalie Portman, Ariana Grande, Al Gore, FloRida, Tobey Maguire, Shania Twain, k, Kristen Bell, Alyssa Milano, Common, Anne Hathaway etc also follow vegan diet.

 So if will follow vegan diet so will also fall under this special category.

2. It keeps you slim, Energized, helps in loosing weight. On an average vegans are 20 pounds lighter than non-vegans.

3. How could you allow killings of those cute chickens, cows, pigs or any animal. They are like us , have feelings, deserves to live.. When we have other options which are economical, environmental friendly and with more or less same nutritional quantity, why not go for that diet. One Non-Vegan could save almost100 animal per year.

3. Health factor: Vegans are less likely to develop heart disease, cancer, diabetes, or high blood pressure than Non-Vegans. Vegans get all the nutrients that they need to be healthy, such as plant protein, fiber, and minerals, without all the hazardous things in meat such as cholesterol and saturated animal fat.

 

4. Meat is the cause of disease like AIDS, Bird flu, food poisoning and many other nasty diseases. Meat is often contaminated with feces, blood, and other bodily fluids—all of which make animal products the top source of food poisoning.   

5.  It takes up to 13 pounds of grain to produce just 1 pound of meat. All this food could be efficiently utilized by feeding the people.

6. Go green: Meat consumption is not environmental friendly. It causes climate changes. It takes millions of gallons of water to produce meat.

For the last few years i did not update this blog due to my busy schedule as well as i was not much interested. But now i find, i have some time so i will be updating this blog with some articles of my choice ;).

thin layer chromatography to identify compounds

Suppose you had a mixture of amino acids and wanted to find out which particular amino acids the mixture contained. For simplicity we'll assume that you know the mixture can only possibly contain five of the common amino acids.

A small drop of the mixture is placed on the base line of the thin layer plate, and similar small spots of the known amino acids are placed alongside it. The plate is then stood in a suitable solvent and left to develop as before. In the diagram, the mixture is M, and the known amino acids are labelled 1 to 5.

The left-hand diagram shows the plate after the solvent front has almost reached the top. The spots are still invisible. The second diagram shows what it might look like after spraying with ninhydrin.
 The stationary phase - silica gel

Silica gel is a form of silicon dioxide (silica). The silicon atoms are joined via oxygen atoms in a giant covalent structure. However, at the surface of the silica gel, the silicon atoms are attached to -OH groups.
So, at the surface of the silica gel you have Si-O-H bonds instead of Si-O-Si bonds. The diagram shows a small part of the silica surface.
The surface of the silica gel is very polar and, because of the -OH groups, can form hydrogen bonds with suitable compounds around it as well as van der Waals dispersion forces and dipole-dipole attractions.
The other commonly used stationary phase is alumina - aluminium oxide. The aluminium atoms on the surface of this also have -OH groups attached. Anything we say about silica gel therefore applies equally to alumina.

Characterstics of different membranes

Characteristics	MF	UF	NF	RO
Membrane pore size (microns)	10-1 to 10	10-2 to 10-1	10-3 to 10-2	10-3 to10-3
Operating pressure (psi.)	1 to 25	10 to 200	300	1500
Porosity (%)	~70	~60	~50	~50
Structure	Several types	Asymmetric	Asymmetric thin film composite	Asymmetric thin film composite
Permeate	Water + dissolved solutes	Water + small molecules	Water + monovalent and some divalent ions	Water
Retentate	Large suspended particles, some emulsion, most bacteria	Most organics over 1000 molecular weight including pyrogenes, viruses, bacteria and colloids	Salts, organic molecules over 500	Ions and most organics over 200 molecular weight

The primary role of a membrane is to act as a selective barrier. It should permit passage of certain components and retain certain other components of a mixture. Membrane is a phase that acts as a barrier to prevent mass movement but allowing restricted and/or regulated passage of one or more species through it (Lakshminarayanaiah, 1984). In the dairy industry, membrane processes used are microfiltration, ultrafiltration, nanofiltration and reverse osmosis. The use of reverse osmosis and ultrafiltration was first started in 1960 for desalination and water treatment. The process gained entrance in food industry, particularly the dairy, in the seventies and its application increased dramatically in the 1980s. The first pilot studies on microfiltraion of whole milk were reported in 1987 while the nanofiltration has been in use in dairy industry only very recently. What distinguishes the membrane processes is the application of hydraulic pressure to speed up the transport processes. The nature of the membrane controls which component permeated and which component is retained. Reverse osmosis is a dewatering technique while ultrafiltration is a method for purifying, concentrating and fractionating macromolecules or fine colloidal suspensions. Microfiltration is a loose ultrafiltration and allows separation of suspended particles, i.e. fat globules, microorganisms’ etc. from dissolved substances in a feed stream. The principle application of nanofiltration is in partial demineralization of whey. The membranes are made up of different types of materials-naturally available materials such as cellulose, or synthetic polymers such as polycarbonate, polyethylene, polysulfone, or modifications of existing polymers, such as sulfonated polysulfones or entirely new polymers developed specifically for membrane application. Most membranes are manufactured in the “flat sheet” form and in some cases they may be cast directly on to the module itself e.g. in tubular modules or may be extruded or spun into hollow fibers directly. In India, the use of membranes presents several limitations such as high initial capital cost of the equipment installation, lack of indigenous backup support for replenishment of membranes, inadequate technological expertise of the plant operators, fouling of the membranes, etc.

Membrane Technology- Applications in Dairy Industry

The primary role of a membrane is to act as a selective barrier. It should permit passage of certain components and retain certain other components of a mixture. Membrane is a phase that acts as a barrier to prevent mass movement but allowing restricted and/or regulated passage of one or more species through it . In the dairy industry, membrane processes used are microfiltration, ultrafiltration, nanofiltration and reverse osmosis. The use of reverse osmosis and ultrafiltration was first started in 1960 for desalination and water treatment. The process gained entrance in food industry, particularly the dairy, in the seventies and its application increased dramatically in the 1980s. The first pilot studies on microfiltraion of whole milk were reported in 1987 while the nanofiltration has been in use in dairy industry only very recently. What distinguishes the membrane processes is the application of hydraulic pressure to speed up the transport processes. The nature of the membrane controls which component permeated and which component is retained. Reverse osmosis is a dewatering technique while ultrafiltration is a method for purifying, concentrating and fractionating macromolecules or fine colloidal suspensions. Microfiltration is a loose ultrafiltration and allows separation of suspended particles, i.e. fat globules, microorganisms’ etc. from dissolved substances in a feed stream. The principle application of nanofiltration is in partial demineralization of whey. The membranes are made up of different types of materials-naturally available materials such as cellulose, or synthetic polymers such as polycarbonate, polyethylene, polysulfone, or modifications of existing polymers, such as sulfonated polysulfones or entirely new polymers developed specifically for membrane application. Most membranes are manufactured in the “flat sheet” form and in some cases they may be cast directly on to the module itself e.g. in tubular modules or may be extruded or spun into hollow fibers directly. In India, the use of membranes presents several limitations such as high initial capital cost of the equipment installation, lack of indigenous backup support for replenishment of membranes, inadequate technological expertise of the plant operators, fouling of the membranes, etc.

pH test for milk testing

     

A.     USING pH PAPER

Certain indicators show change in colour with the change in pH. The pH paper or strips are impregnated with these indicators such as bromothymol blue (pH 6.0 to 7.6) and bromocresol purple (pH 5.2 to 6.8). pH papers in narrow range and wide range are available.

Objective

·         To study the freshness of milk.

Reagents

·         pH paper strips ranges 4-10

Procedure

·         Take a small quantity of milk in the test tube.

·         Dip the pH strip in the milk.

·         Compare the colour changes with standard chart and note the pH.

Precaution

·         The results with pH paper are not precise and for more precision pH meter is used.

·         The pH strips should be stored in a glass bottle properly stoppered in dry conditions.

·         The electrode of the pH meter when dipped in the sample, detect the active hydrogen ions and the    potential difference is measured in terms of pH.

B.      USING pH METER

Objectives:

·         To study the freshness of milk.

·         To detect mastitis milk or neutralised milk.

Apparatus

·         pH meter(Pocket).

·         Beakers - 100 ml capacity.

·         Tissue paper/filter paper.

·         Wash bottle containing distilled water.

Reagents

·         Buffer solution of pH 4.0, 7.0 and 9.2.

Procedure

•          Switch on the pocket pH meter as per instruction of manufacturer.

•          Wash the electrodes with distilled water.

•          Dry the electrodes with the help of tissue paper/filter paper.

•          Take buffer solution in a beaker and dip the electrodes in it.

•          Adjust the pH meter to the pH of buffer solution.

•          Mix the milk sample thoroughly and take in a beaker.

•          Dip the washed and dry electrode in it and observe the reading on the scale.

•          Normal milk pH is between 6.6-6.8. pH above 6.9 is indication of mastitic milk/late lactation milk and pH lower than 6.5 means developed acidity.