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The purpose of this paper was to determine and compare nutritional composition of different parts of citrus fruits, namely, Citrus aurantium (peel: albedo, flavedo and pulp: juice, pomace) . This study was conducted through three stages of fruit maturity (green, yellow and orange). Total polyphenols, flavonoids, β-carotene, total chlorophyll, ascorbic acid, acidity, total soluble solid and the minerals (Ca, Mg, Zn, Na, K, Fe, Mn Cu) were evaluated. Moreover, the relationship between the total polyphenol, flavonoids and the antioxidant activity was determined.

Total polyphenols were determined by the Folin-Ciocalteu method. Flavonoids were assessed by the aluminum chloride colorimetric method. Ca, Mg, Zn, Fe, Mn and Cu were measured using an atomic absorption spectrophotometer. K and Na contents were determined by using a flame photometer. Other nutritional composition was determined by volumetric method.

The result showed that the concentrations of antioxidants, total polyphenols, flavonoids, vitamin C, total chlorophyll, total acidity and antioxidant activity (DPPH%) decreased during the maturity of fruit while the value of pH and β-carotene increases. In addition, the concentrations of the most minerals decreased through the maturation of fruit except Na. Anova statistical analysis of all the studied chemical variables was shown significant differences between all the samples. The pH, total soluble solids, β-caroteniod: orange juice had the highest average while green juice had the lowest. Ascorbic acid, total acidity, total chlorophyll: green juice had the highest average while orange juice has the lowest. Total phenol, K, Mg, Fe, Cu, Mn: green flavedo had the highest average while orange juice had the lowest. Flavonoid, antioxidant activity (DPPH%), Ca, Zn: green albedo had the highest average while orange juice had the lowest. Na: orange flavedo had the highest average while green juice had the lowest. The correlations between total polyphenol, flavonoid and antioxidant capacity were significantly higher (R = 0.935 and 0.960, respectively).

The stage of maturity affects nutritional composition in Citrus aurantium fruits (C. aurantium) peel and pulp, where some minerals of composition increased and others decreased, according to the results. This is the first study on comparing the nutritional composition of pulp: juice, pomace and peel: albedo, flavedo of Citrus aurantium L. during maturity in Syria, and it was also not found in previous works.

The President of the Board of Agriculture has introduced in the House of Commons his long‐promised Bill for preventing the sale of butter containing large amounts of water, and the proposed measure appears to have been received with general approval on both sides of the House.

This study aims to evaluate the safety and quality of organic food product versus conventional ones in the Lebanese market.

Selected organic and conventional Lemon and cucumber were assessed for the presence of pesticides residues using LC-MS/MS and GC/MS/MS, also compared at the level of total polyphenols content, flavonoids, tannins and tested for their antiradical and antibacterial activities.

The findings indicate that organic lemons were contaminated by four types of pesticide residues (33.33%), while one pesticide residue (22.22%) was detected in conventional one, which were all below the European Union Maximum Residue Limits. For cucumber, six pesticide residues (66.66%) were detected in organic samples, while in conventional, eight pesticide residues (55.55%) were detected. However, absolutely four samples (44.44%) in each of conventional and organic cucumber samples surpass the maximum residue levels. Both lemon and cucumber, regardless of the farming systems, possess potent antioxidant activity with no significant difference, except for lemon, where total polyphenol was highly significant in conventional. Additionally, this study showed that lemon of conventional origin was slightly more effective in inhibiting the growth of gram-positive and gram-negative bacterial strains compared to organic samples, while both cucumber types did not exert any antibacterial effect.

This is the first paper to assess the polyphenols, pesticide residue and biological activities of organic lemon and cucumber in Lebanese market as well as comparing conventional to organic.

This study aims to demonstrate that orange-derived and lemon-derived systems can be used in continuous processes as efficient adsorbents to the entrapment of some anionic and cationic dyes in the textile dyeing wastewater effluents.

Physically and chemically modified orange and lemon mesocarps are used as natural adsorbents for the cationic dyes Basic Blue 3, Basic Yellow 21, Basic Red 18 and Basic Green 4 and the anionic dyes Acid Blue 264, Acid Yellow 49 and Acid Red 337, all commonly used in the textile dyeing industry. Adsorption capacities of the orange-derived and lemon-derived adsorbents on the dyes are studied simulating a batch and continuous industrial processes.

Results demonstrate that treated orange mesocarp (orange-derived adsorbent) can adsorb up to 97% of cationic Basic Green 4 in 30 min, whereas the lemon mesocarp (lemon-derived adsorbent) can retain up to 88% within the same time. In the case of anionic, 91% Acid Blue 264 is adsorbed by the orange mesocarp in 15 min, whereas 92% is adsorbed by the lemon homologue within the same time.

As far as the authors know, physically and chemically modified orange and lemon mesocarps have not been used on the removal of cationic (Basic Blue 3, Basic Yellow 21, Basic Red 18 and Basic Green 4) and anioinic (Acid Blue 264, Acid Yellow 49 and Acid Red 337) dyes of textile dyeing wastewater industry. It is a costless and efficient treatment that supposes, on the one hand, an eco-friendly and feasible process for discolouration of wastewater and, on the other, a valorisation (upcycling) of orange and lemon peels, which are not currently used.

Mr. H H. Bagnall, B.Sc., F.I.C., Public Analyst for the City of Birmingham, comments in his annual report on the work done at the City laboratory and on the still apparent need for standards and definitions of food, and of legislation to enforce their application in manufacture or in shops. Of the 5,472 samples taken in the city under the Sale of Food and Drugs Acts 4 per cent. were found to be adulterated, but he observes that misdescription of articles of food is much more common than actual adulteration. The number of samples taken during the year was larger, and the variety greater, than in any previous year. About 140 different varieties of foods and drugs were examined, and few, if any, foods were not sampled. It was reassuring to learn that the Minister of Health was considering the introduction of legislation on the lines of the recommendations submitted in 1934 by the Departmental Committee which enquired into the working of the law as to the composition and description of articles of food other than milk. Ice‐cream was a case in point. In fifty‐one samples taken, the fat content varied between less than 2 per cent. and 19 per cent. Roughly, the samples were of two classes. Those containing less than 4 per cent. were bought mainly from carts in the streets of parks, and were probably the products of smaller makers; those with more than 8 per cent. were manufactured on a large scale by a few well‐known firms. “It is obvious something is wrong here,” Mr. Bagnall reports. “Apart from any question of price, ice cream is, or should be, a valuable article of food, and the purchaser should have some means of knowing what to expect when he asks for it. At the moment he may get a substance which approximates to frozen custard (not made with eggs !) or he may get a really first‐class product containing a considerable amount of cream. The position is similar with respect to a number of other products, particularly compounded articles; and the beneficial effect of legislation in such matters is clearly shown in the case of condensed and dried milks. This kind of governmental interference with manufacture used to be thought of as grandmotherly legislation; but, when one remembers the sort of statement, bearing no relation to the contents, that used to appear on tins of condensed milk, one cannot but feel that there may be some virtue in these departures from laisser‐faire methods. At any rate, no one would wish to return to the old haphazard days when condensed milk was simply what the manufacturers chose to make it. It is curious that the law is far more careful that the composition of feeding stuffs sold for the use of cattle should be made known to the purchaser than that articles sold for human consumption should be sold under a guarantee of quality. If I buy, say, cotton cake for feeding cows, the vendor is bound to give me an invoice stating the amounts of oil, protein and fibre contained in it, and severe penalties are entailed if false statements are made. If I buy an infant's food, however, there is no compulsion on the part of the maker to give particulars regarding its composition. In fact, the label may contain statements entirely at variance with the analysis, but which, nevertheless, are of too vague a character to become the subjects of police court proceedings. It is surely as important that the mother of a child should know something of the composition of the food she uses as that a farmer should know the food value of his cattle cakes, and it is to be hoped that legislation on such matters may not be unduly delayed. The misdescription of articles of food is a much more common thing than adulteration. Under modern conditions of inspection and sampling, it simply does not pay manufacturers and retailers to risk the cruder forms of adulteration and substitution, but the wide use of advertising as an aid to sales, often leads to the use of exaggerated statements regarding the quality and food value of articles of diet. We are all familiar with the extraordinary claims put forward on behalf of particular foods of well‐known composition which seek to show that they possess unique properties not shared by other similar foods. It is often impossible for the food analyst to check such statements, and the public is deceived into thinking that a superior article is being obtained. Often it is only in the advertisements relating to the article in question that one finds these exaggerated statements, and when a tin or packet is bought it is found that the label gives a much milder description of the contents. Under the present law only statements appearing on the label can be made the subject of legal proceedings. It is desirable that false claims appearing in advertisements should also be brought within the scope of food and drug legislation.” During the year a number of samples of pasteurised milk were examined by the “phosphatase test.” Of 112 samples, fifty‐eight were efficiently pasteurised; in thirty‐six cases some technical error had occurred during the process, such as imperfect temperature or time control, or a small admission of raw milk; and in the remaining eighteen cases there was evidence of gross negligence. The samples were taken at selected times and places thought likely to yield abnormal figures, so that too much weight should not be given to the fact that about 48 per cent. of the samples did not pass the test.”

This paper aims to study the effect of green lemon zest combined with sardine proteins in diabetic hypertensive rats (DHRs).

Male Wistar rats (n = 30) weighing 250 ± 10 g were divided into five groups. The first group consumed a diet containing 20 per cent casein (C). The other four groups are rendered diabetic by intraperitoneal injection of streptozotocin (40 mg/kg body weight), then hypertensive by subcutaneous implantation controlled time-release pellet containing ouabain (0.25 mg/pellet). One untreated group (DHR) consumed 20 per cent casein and the three other groups consumed the same diet supplemented with 2 per cent green lemon zest (DHR-lz), or with 20 per cent of sardine protein (group DHR-sp) or with the combination of both sardine proteins and green lemon zest (group DHR-sp + lz).

DHRs feeding on the combination of both sardine protein (sp) and lemon zest (lz) induced a significant decrease of diastolic blood pressure and heart rates values compared with DHR (p < 0.05). The HDLC values were increased by +55 per cent in DHR-sp + lz compared with DHR group. Moreover, plasma non-HDLC concentrations were decreased significantly compared to DHR, DHR-lz, DHR-sp and C groups. In DHR-sp + lzvs DHR group, TBARS values were decreased by −25 per cent in the liver. Moreover, kidney TBARS were significantly reduced by −66, −51, −65 and −67 per cent compared with C, DHR, DHR-lz and DHR-sp, respectively.

These results suggest that consumption of green lemon zest combined with sardine proteins can reduce blood pressure and tissue oxidative damage and, therefore, help to prevent cardiovascular complications in hypertensive diabetic patients.

The following definitions and standards for food products have been adopted as a guide for the officials of this Department in enforcing the Food and Drugs Act. These are standards of identity and are not to be confused with standards of quality or grade; they are so framed as to exclude substances not mentioned in the definition and in each instance imply that the product is clean and sound. These definitions and standards include those published in S. R. A., F. D. 2, revision 4, and those adopted October 28, 1936.

Our attention has been called to a question raised in a contemporary as to the disposal of the flesh of bovines which have been compulsorily slaughtered as the result of having obviously contracted tuberculosis. We say “compulsory” as the slaughter is carried out by order of the Ministry of Agriculture and “obvious” as tuberculous infection is in many cases not readily detectable. It should be pointed out that the flesh of an infected bovine may be used for food according to the degree and nature of the infection, but the use of the flesh for such a purpose is only permissible at the discretion of the official veterinary expert acting on behalf of the Ministry in the interests of public health. Admittedly the regulations as at present laid down and under which the Ministry of Agriculture act are by no means ideal, and we have no doubt that the officials of the Ministry would be the last persons to say that they were. Like all such regulations, they are of the nature of a compromise, by which statement we do not mean that the monetary interests of the trades in milk and beef are placed before those of public health. Far from it. The ideal condition aimed at is of course to have all milk and all beef free from the slightest taint and risk of tubercular infection. It is, however, no use to disguise the fact that the attainment of such an ideal is and of necessity must be a long way from accomplishment. It is only within this century that bovine tuberculosis has received serious attention in this country, and bovine tuberculosis is an evil legacy from a long past. It is no doubt in part at least attributable to long continued bad housing and feeding that went on unchecked from year to year. It is well known that in the neighbourhood of large towns where open pasture was not readily attainable cows were sometimes kept in what were little better than cellars, from which they seldom emerged. A cow was looked upon as a sort of machine for yielding milk, and no regard was paid to the way in which the machine was run so long as it delivered the goods, no matter of what quality the goods might be. The conditions for the development of tuberculosis were thus almost as good as if they had been deliberately devised for that very purpose, with results that we have now every reason to deplore. It is only twenty years since Prof. MacFadyean stated that 20 per cent. of the adult cattle in the country were tuberculous, and on the authority of the veterinary surgeon to the King at the same time 36 out of a herd of 40 cows that had belonged to Queen Victoria were tuberculous. If these were the conditions but twenty years ago throughout the country, and if nine out of every ten animals which were kept under the best conditions and received every care were tuberculous, the difficulty and extraordinary complexity of the problem confronting the Ministries concerned at the present day in their attempts to check the evil may be perhaps imagined. Checked it may be but eradication is not in sight. For if the drastic expedient were resorted to of slaughtering every tuberculous bovine in the country the result would be a milk famine. Prices would rise so that for the poor milk would be unobtainable. Many in the trade would be ruined, and perhaps the supply of milk would have to be obtained by importations of milk from abroad produced under conditions over which we could exercise no control. This hypothetical aspect of affairs, however, need not be further discussed.—The administration of the Tuberculosis Order, 1925 (Diseases of Animals Acts, 1894 to 1925), by the Ministry of Agriculture is therefore one of great difficulty. The “waste of years” cannot be “refunded in a day.” The matter calls for constant expert veterinary supervision.—Under Section 3 (1) of the Order the disease is notifiable to the Local Authority. Veterinary inspection follows, and if the animal is found to be suffering from tuberculosis of the udder, tuberculous emaciation, or a chronic cough or yielding tuberculous milk the Local Authority shall order the animal to be slaughtered, though if the owner objects to this the special authority of the Minister has to be obtained. It does not follow that the flesh of a tuberculous animal is unfit to be used as human food. Under 5A.1 of the Order if it is intended to use the flesh for this purpose the Local Authority must notify the Sanitary Authority of the time and place of slaughter. After this neither the carcase nor any part of it may be removed from the slaughter house unless by leave of the Medical Officer of Health or by other competent officer of the Authority.—Removal before such leave is an offence under the Act.—It may be observed here that no animal whose value is stated to be over fifty pounds may be slaughtered under the Order except by Ministerial sanction.—Compensation is payable to the owner of an animal, which has been slaughtered under the Order, by the Local Authority. All this is clear and fair, but as illustrating one of the difficulties of administering the Order, it may be pointed out that these perfectly fair and reasonable regulations made in the interests of public health were found to be indirectly in conflict with public ignorance and prejudice. In this way. In certain industrial districts in the country lean meat was demanded by some of the working class families. The reason being that more nourishment could be got out of lean than out of fat. There is something to be said for this. But where did the lean meat come from? An emaciated beast without a bit of fat on it might well be suffering from tuberculosis. It would pay an unscrupulous owner of such a beast very much better to sell it direct to a dealer in such meat—no information being given and no questions being asked—rather than go to the trouble of observing the Act and receiving a possibly smaller amount of money which would have been paid him under the Order. Thus quite a flourishing trade in such diseased meat was in fair way to grow up, and until the evil was traced to its source and the original owner prosecuted for non‐notification it could not be stopped. Again, the owner of an animal that has been slaughtered under the Order is entitled to recover its full market value and twenty shillings over if it is found that no tubercle exists; if tuberculosis, but not of an advanced state is found, then three‐fourths of the market value or forty‐five shillings, whichever sum is the greater less one‐half the costs of valuation; if advanced tuberculosis is present then one‐fourth the market value or the sum of forty‐five shillings as before under Section 9 i., ii., and iii. of the Order. The result of this was that certain people established a somewhat paying business in buying obviously tuberculous cows from a cowkeeper for a mere song, the cowkeeper being quite willing to get rid of them in this way and thus save himself trouble and the small amount of publicity he would have incurred had he observed the terms of the Order. The buyer would then notify the authority that he had a tuberculous cow and obtain compensation which yielded him a profit. The report for 1928 shows that nearly 17,000 animals were slaughtered under the Order during the year, and nearly 200 were in such a condition that they died before they could be slaughtered! It may also be observed that the powers conferred by Act of Parliament on the responsible Ministries were not readily obtained. Trade interests were alleged, and effective legislation had to be built up in the face of this. Tuberculosis is unhappily somewhat firmly established in our herds of cattle and it will still require long and patient work, expert knowledge and, as it will have been seen, the methods of police detectives before the menace is removed, if it ever can be.

5a. Oil of cinnamon, oil of cassia, oil of cassia cinnamon, is the lead‐free volatile oil obtained from the leaves or bark of Cinnamomum cassia (L.) Blume, and contains not less than 80 per cent. by volume of cinnamic aldehyde.

The analyses of trends in prosecutions under the Food and Drugs Act, 1955 and the various regulations, which we have prepared every two years or so, covering a three‐month period, have been so much appreciated by readers, both in the administration and the industry itself, that we have prepared a more extended survey, covering the whole of 1966. The survey, as before, takes the form of a month‐by‐month analysis of reports of legal proceedings received by us from all parts of the country, and as formerly records the prosecutions under similar groupings; cases under Section 2, subdivided into those relating to compositional offences, the presence of foreign bodies and those relating to mouldy food: false description cases under Section 6 of the Merchandise Marks Acts; Section 8, the unfit food provision, also subdivided with special categories for foreign bodies and mouldy food; Section 32, milk cases; cases under the Food Hygiene Regulations, 1960, with smoking offences separated; the Milk and Dairies Regulations, consisting almost entirely of prosecutions under Reg. 27, Meat Regulations, Preservative Regulations, Colouring Matter in Food Regulations, etc.