The present investigation aimed to study the physicochemical properties, nutritional indices, antioxidant properties, and hypoglycemic effects of dried pink oyster mushroom (Pleurotus djamor) powder. The yield of dried mushroom powder was 8.54%, the oil absorption capacity was 3.34 mL/g, and the swelling index was 0.33 mL/g. A qualitative analysis of mycoconstituents revealed that tannins, flavonoids, terpenoids, cardiac glycosides, and saponins were present in P. djamor. Free radical scavenging activity on 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl was 6.22%. Hypoglycemic testing revealed that the highest (P < 0.05) glucose consumption by poultry hepatocytes was at 2 mL of mushroom extract at 100 mg% glucose exposures, followed by 200 and 150 mg% exposures. These results indicated that P. djamor powder can be used to lower the risk of lifestyle diseases, including diabetes, and to alleviate malnutrition.

Lentil (Lens culinaris Medik.) is one of the vital grain legume crops that originated from L. culinaris Medik.ssp. orientalisin the Near East. It is an essential food source that is capable of contributing energy, proteins and iron to human diet. Major concern of lentil producing countries is to have a stable high seed yield in addition to resistance against abiotic and biotic stresses. The activities of domestication and selection in the course of crop evolution have led to reduction in genetic variation in the current cultivars and species, which is a major drawback for lentil breeding. The improvement of many monogenic traits has been carried out by conventional breeding techniques like selection and recombination. However, these improvements still lack in addressing economic traits like yield as they are governed by polygenes and G x E interaction. Various species in the genus Lens can aid to enhancement of genetic variation for target lentil traits to develop new varieties. Induced mutagenesis is another vital breeding method which can ease the availability of lentil genomic resources. Commendable success stories in applications of molecular markers and biotechnological techniques will further speed-up the development of improved varieties. This review article majourly dealt on present status on genetic improvement in lentil and a compendium of important aspects of lentil diversity, genetics and breeding with the way forward.

Background: The consumption of finger millet and quinoa can be increased by partially substituting refined wheat flour (RWF) with these grains in popular snack food item doughnuts. The present study was conducted to formulate eggless doughnuts using composite flour of RWF, finger millet flour and quinoa flour. Method: Response Surface Methodology was used for optimization of process parameters for which seventeen different combinations of finger millet flour: quinoa flour (X1), butter (X2) and curd (X3) were taken as independent variables. The effect of independent variables on the responses (crude protein, crude fat, in vitro protein digestibility, springiness, flavor, appearance) was investigated. Result: Optimized doughnuts (X1=3:1, X2=16.712% of composite flour and X3=25% of composite flour) were formulated, analyzed and compared with control RWF doughnuts prepared under similar conditions for nutritional quality, hardness and sensory quality. Significantly higher values were observed for total ash, crude protein, crude fibre, hardness and springiness of optimized doughnuts in comparison to control RWF doughnuts whereas sensory evaluation showed non-significant difference except for color of the doughnuts. This study showed that the formulated eggless doughnuts were nutritious and could be a good substitute for the market based doughnuts especially for vegetarian people and who are allergic to egg protein.