Pistachio and Health Journal
Volume:4 Issue: 4, Autumn 2021

Roasting is a thermal process that increases the overall acceptance of edible nuts by physicochemical reactions during heating and reducing the moisture content. Optimizing and controlling the pistachio roasting process requires understanding the process scientifically. This study optimized the roasting process of pistachio nuts with hot air using the response surface methodology.

The response surface methodology was used to examine the effects of the roasting temperature, time, and hot airflow velocity on the roasted pistachios' physical (moisture content, and color parameteres), chemical (peroxide value, acidic value, and p-anisidine value), and sensory properties (overall acceptance, texture desirability, and crispiness). Twenty treatments with six replications were performed at the central point Based on the central composite design. the best quadratic model with the highest fit was determined using Design Expert 12 software.

The temperature was the variable of the highest effect on physicochemical and sensory properties. Airflow velocity has a significant impact only on the parameters of moisture content, lightness (L-value), yellowness (bvalue), and the peroxide value. The highest overall acceptance, texture desirability, and the lowest peroxide and p-anisidine value (p.AV) were considered optimal conditions for preparing the desired sample in the roasting process. The optimal sample production conditions included temperature 133.6 oC, airflow velocity of 0.6 m/s, and roasting time of 23.6 minutes.

Comparison of predicted response values with laboratory ones showed that the model would be suitable for predicting response values in the pistachio roasting process and determining the optimal conditions.

The genus Pistacia is from the family Anacardiaceae, which contains about 70 genera and over 600 species. Various genera of Pistacia are widely spread from the Mediterranean region to the Central Asia, some of which including Pistacia lentiscus L., P. atlantica Desf., P. terebinthus L., P. vera L., and P. khinjuk.

The present study aims to collect the latest information from databases regarding beneficial effects of pistachio plant parts and nuts.

Different plant parts of pistachios are beneficial for various diseases. The P. vera fruit extracts exerted favorable effects on HDL and LDL levels in a rabbit model of atherosclerosis. The oleogum resin, being obtained from Pistacia lentiscus, is widely used as an effective therapeutic remedy for curing inflammatory bowel disease in traditional Iranian medicine. Serum glucose levels significantly decreased in diabetic patients who received P. lentiscus var. chia gum.

Against this backdrop, in this review article, we aim to investigate beneficial effects of pistachio fruit and its plant parts on different clinical states, such as gastrointestinal disorders, liver diseases, diabetes, and blood pressure.

Common pistachio psyllid (Agonoscena pistaciae) is the most important pest of pistachio orchards in Iran.

In order to reduce chemical toxins in pistachio orchards, several experiments were conducted, including pre-tests to determine the concentration. In field experiments in the form of completely randomized block design, it has been attempted to investigate the effect of several plant extracts of Lavender, Stinking assa, and Tobacco with respectively 5.981± 1.48, 10. 397±5.58, and 18.127±2.83 LC50 and Dinotefuran (Starkle) 0.7 per thousand with 3 replicates on the percentage reduction of nymph population. Pre-test was conducted to determine the required concentration based on the logarithmic mortality percentage of 25 to 75%. After applying the treatments randomly, as many as 30 leaflets were selected from each treatment and transferred to the laboratory to count the nymphs.

The results of analysis of variance and comparison of means indicated a significant effect of plant extracts on the percentage of pistachio nymph psyllid mortality at the level of one or five percent compared to that of the control. Using the plant extracts decreased the percentage of nymph population, and this decrease was different based on the type of plant species and concentration. The maximum time of nymph mortality was observed on day 14 and the lowest mortality was observed on day 3. The highest efficiency for reducing the population of nymphs was observed in Starkle pesticide, and the maximum percentage of nymph mortality was observed in Lavender, Stinking assa, and Tobacco, respectively.

The compounds tested in this study can be used to control this pest.

Aflatoxins are carcinogenic secondary metabolites that are mainly produced by several different species of Aspergillus in a variety of foods. The problem of pistachio contamination with A. flavus and aflatoxin is a serious health threat that affects the export and trade of pistachios in the world. This study assessed the susceptibility of 12 commercial pistachio cultivars (Pistacia vera) and 2 wild pistachio species (Pistacia atlantica) to the colonization of A. flavus in vitro.

In the present study, 40 pistachio kernels samples were prepared from each cultivar and inoculated in four replications with spore suspension of A. flavus IPRC30 isolate. After one week, the percentage of fungal colonization on the surface of pistachio kernels and its penetration into pistachio kernel tissue were measured. The experiments were performed with four replications in a completely randomized experimental design. The data were analyzed by SAS software and the means were compared using Duncan's new multiple range test at the significance level of 0.05.

The results indicated that the fungal colonization on most cultivars was equally 60-80%. The lowest rate of colonization was related to wild Pistacia atlantica species with less than 15%. The percentage of colonization of internal tissue of pistachio kernel was variable. The highest percentage of fungal penetration was found in Ohadi cultivar (70%) and no penetration was observed in Sarakhs cultivar.

The results of this study can have some implications for selecting resistant cultivars in seed breeding programs.

Pistachio is one of Iran's most important agricultural products, whose export has a special economic and commercial value. Biennial and alternate bearing are among the problems that cause severe fluctuations in this product production and export. Indeed, in the high-yield year of pistachios, the reproductive (flower) buds fall off, leading to alternate bearing and crop decreasing in the next year (off). This year (2021) was a low crop year for pistachios in Rafsanjan; however, reports indicate a reduction in flower bud for next year, contrary to the flowering regulation.

In the present study, four commercial cultivars of pistachio (Fandoghi, Kaleghoochi, Ahmad Aghaei, and Akbari) in different areas of Rafsanjan were sampled. Then, the percentage of vegetative and reproductive buds was determined by their cutting, staining, and microscopic examination.

The results showed that reproductive buds decreased this year and reached about 33% of the total buds, especially for Kaleghoochi and Ahmad Aghaei cultivars.

Considering that only about 10% of flower buds in a cluster turn into fruit each year, it is recommended that pistachio orchards be managed properly with careful planning to prevent a reduction in crop production as much as possible next year.

Among the environmental pollutants which have involved many parts of the world, one can observe the pollution caused by heavy metals such as hexavalent chromium (Cr6+) , the presence of which in water causes many problems such as dysfunction of the skin, kidneys and liver as well as cancer. Thus, its removal from aqueous environments seems necessary. The present study has been conducted to investigate the efficiency of hard pistachio shell as a natural and inexpensive adsorbent for the removal of Cr6+ from aqueous solutions.

The study was performed experimentally and on a laboratory scale, and it was attempted to investigate the effect of effective parameters such as reaction time, solution pH, adsorbent amount (hard pistachio shell) and Cr6+ concentration on removal efficiency. Kinetic studies and adsorption isotherms were also investigated.

The results showed that the maximum removal of Cr6+ was 98.2% under optimal conditions including reaction time of 60 minutes, pH of 9, adsorbent amount of 2 g/L and Cr6+ concentration of 10 mg/L. Kinetic studies showed greater agreement with second order kinetics (R2= 0.9929). Also, the Cr6+ adsorption process followed Langmuir adsorption isotherm (R2= 0.9965).

According to the obtained results, it can be concluded that hard pistachio shell can be used as a cheap and suitable and also environmentally friendly adsorbent to remove Cr6+ from aquatic solutions.

Characterization of the gravimetric and geometric properties of whole pistachios plays an essential role in the processes of transportation and handling, drying, processing, and storage of this valuable product.

This study measured some physical properties (i.e. axial dimensions, geometric and arithmetic mean diameter, aspect ratio, surface, and sphericity) and gravimetrical properties (i.e. bulk density, true density, and porosity) of two common Iranian pistachio cultivars (Ahmad Aghaei and Badami Sefid) with moisture content ranging from 37.11 to 4.28 and 4.33 to 41.35, respectively.

The ANOVA results showed that moisture content had a significant effect (p<0.05) on the geometrical properties of whole pistachios. Moreover, mean comparisons by Duncan's multiple range test showed that the gravimetrical and geometrical properties of Ahmad Aghaei pistachio cultivar have higher scores than those of the Badami Sefid cultivar. In addition, a comparison of the various models (Mohsenin, Jain & Bal and Maccabe) used to evaluate the sphericity coefficients showed that the models proposed by McCabe and Jain & Bal had the highest efficiency in predicting the sphericity coefficients of Ahmad Aghaei (R2=0.9838) and Badami Sefid cultivars (R2=0.878).

The findings of the present study can have some implications for design processing machines for pistachios as a valuable product.