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A faunistic survey was conducted in Ardabil province (North-western Iran), during spring 2013 to study the ichneumonids (Hymenoptera: Ichneumonidae) associated with grasslands in this area. Samplings were carried out by the sweeping net in natural grasslands, neighboring fields and orchards. A total of twelve ichneumonid species belonging to nine genera and five subfamilies were collected and identified. The species were identified as follow: Collyria coxator (Villers, 1789), Diadromus collaris (Gravenhorst, 1829), Diplazon laetatorius (Fabricius, 1781), Diplazon pectoratorius (Gravenhorst, 1829), Homotropus crassicornis (Thomson, 1890), Homotropus elegans (Gravenhorst, 1829), Homotropus signatus (Gravenhorst, 1829), Lysibia nana (Gravenhorst, 1829), Orthocentrus castellanus (Ceballos, 1963), Picrostigeus setiger (Brischke, 1871), Promethes sulcator (Gravenhorst, 1829) and Syrphophilus bizonarius (Gravenhorst, 1829). Homotropus crassicornis is newly recorded for the fauna of Iran. An identification key to the known species of the genus Homotropus Foerster, 1869 from Iran is presented.

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The high levels of tomato production as well as its perishability, make the development of research on processing and improving the quality of existing products more evident. The aim of this study was to assess the effect of whole tomato heating treatment by steam on the physicochemical and structural properties of produced tomamto paste with different degree of Brix (°Br). The fresh tomatoes was washed with water followed by exposing to steam and the tomamto paste with different °Br (18-26) produced through hot breaking approach. The results showed that the color indexes, precentage of precipitation weight ratio, acidity, viscosity, consistency and microstructure of final products were significantly influenced by steam preheating. The color indexes of ^*a and b^* and precentage of precipitation weight ratio were negatively affected by steam preheating. The reason behind these observation is increasing the efficiency of heating process in hot breaking stage reulted in lycopene destruction. On the other hand, the viscosity and consistency of tomato paste were meaningfully increased. The images of scanning electron microscopy revealed that the steam preheating brought about solube pectin to migrate from cell wall, forming an amorph structure. Considering the acceptble range of color indexes as well as profound improvment in rheological characteristics of produced tomamto paste, in can be concluded that applying preheating treatment by steam would be of efficeint procedure in tomato paste production.
 

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Paste, as one of the main tomato products, has always been of great importance in the food. About 5% (w/w) of the entering the factories, despite their high nutritional and technological value, is discarded as waste. This study aimed to investigate the effect of adding different levels of tomato peel and calcium chloride and replacing the homogenization process with the colloidal mill on the properties of tomato paste through response surface methodology (RSM). The results of this study showed that the use of tomato peel caused a significant increase in the amount of total solids, water-insoluble solids, fiber, consistency and precipitate weight ratio (p <0.05). Applying a three-step homogenization process with a colloidal mill improved the viscosity of the product due to its effect on the properties of suspended particles of the paste matrix, including a significant size reduction, change in particle size distribution and increase surface area. Calcium chloride significantly increased the consistency of the product by reacting with the pectin in the paste and forming a gel network. Microscopic analysis of the samples showed that by increasing the number of homogenization steps from one to three and adding the tomato peel, the matrix uniformity increased and a dense structure was obtained. Creating new peaks and changing the peaks’ intensity at the ATR-FTIR spectrum confirmed the binding of calcium chloride and the fiber distribution in the paste network. The results of this study showed that tomato peel can be used as a consistency-enhancing compound in tomato paste and not only prevent the discarding of a large part of this valuable compound, but also create good added value for the food industry.