Z.H. Dughaish
Comparative study of some physical properties of available types of bee honey in Saudi Arabia and Arabian Gulf States markets with that of sugar syrup has been done in the temperature range from T =23- 90 °C. It shows that all these types of bee honey have similar refractive indices when measured by sodium D-lines (lambda = 5893 A), with little variation within 0.7% at room temperature (T = 23 °C) and 0.6% at T = 90 °C. The specific density of the samples is nearly the same within 2.6% at T = 23°C. The small difference in density and refractive index is due to the difference in water content in the specimens. The electrical resistivity of bee honey is about 60% less than that of sugar syrup at T = 23 °C. The behavior of the electrical resistivity variation with temperature of all samples is similar at T ~ 40 °C and at 50 °C the difference in electrical resistivity between sugar syrup and other samples was maximum then all show equal values at T = 80 °C. It is concluded that all types of bee honey have similar physical properties and differ from that of sugar syrup mainly in electrical resistivity when measured at T = 23 °C, which makes such a measurement an effective tool to differentiate bee honey from sugar syrup. This difference probably is due to the presence of some minerals, etc. in bee honey not available in sugar syrup.
H. A. AI·Mana and M. S. Alamri
White flour from soft and durum wheat cultivars produced in Saudi Arabia (Edwal and Yovaros respectively) were used to replace white flour from bread wheat cultivar (Yecorarojo) in bread at 0%, 25% and 50% replacement levels. Breads were evaluated by volume measurement and sensory evaluation scores of external appearance, crust color, grain, texture, and color of the crumb. Before adding commercial bread improver, flour from soft and durum wheat cultivars were found to cause deterioration in bread volume, external appearance, grain, texture and color of the crumb, which increased with increasing concentration of both soft and durum wheat flour, but to a larger extent with durum wheat flour. Results of chemical composition and rheological tests indicated that flour from soft and durum wheat cultivars contained weak or medium strong gluten respectively. In addition, both physical and chemical characteristics of flour from those two cultivars were undesirable in bread. However, after adding a commercial bread improver (containing ascorbic acid , lactic acid esters of mono and diglycerides of fatty acids and an amylase enzyme) at 0.3% of flour weight, breads containing 25% soft or durum wheat flour were similar to the 100% bread wheat flour control in all aspects except for being relatively smaller in volume. Effect of Flour from Soft and Durum Wheat.
Ahmed R. AI-Himaidi
In this study a comparison was carried out between two mouse strains (Balb/c and CS7) on the in vitro fertilization of ova obtained from females by three different methods: regular mating, pseudopregnancy and superovulation. The ova were cultured in four types of media: two commercially obtained media (M2 and M16 from Sigma Company, U.S.A.) and two laboratory prepared modified culture media, (MCM) and KSOM. Balb/c females gave more ova than CS7 ones. Superovulation resulted in significantly (P < 0.05) more ova than any of the other two methods. CS7 females gave more abnormal ova than did Balb/c ones, but their ova were more resistant to unfavourable conditions when cultured in vitro than those of Balb/c females. Balb/c ova obtained by regular mating developed better in MCM (73%) and in M2 media (55%) than in MI6 (6%) and KSOM (5%) media. Similarly, (CS7) ova obtained by the same method have developed better in MCM (55%) and M2 (50%) than in MJ6 (11%) and KSOM (27%) media