Varietal Comparison of Proximate Composition and Mineral Profiling of Pakistan Native Barberry Powder Proximate Composition and Mineral Profiling of Barberry Powder

Berberis Vulgaris fruit (barberry)also commonly known as “zereshk” is one of the world’s renowned medicinal plant with highly nutritious and therapeutic values, world widely. It is an elongated, 8-10mm long, bright red colored, fruit. Berberidaceae family; B. Vulgaris fruit is very useful tonic for liver, heart, pancreas, gallbladder and kidneys. It prevents chronic bleeding disorders, purifies blood, lowersblood cholesterol level, blood pressure and most importantly it help to treat diabetes. In addition it is effective in treatment of parasitic liver, kidney stones, gout, colon cancer, prostate inflammation, fever, asthma and malaria. Objective: This study is aimed to check the mineral and chemical profiling of Pakistan native barberry fruit. Methods: Proximate analysis of three different varieties (BVF01, BVF02, and BVF03) of B. Vulgaris fruitfrom different three regions Azad Kashmir, Chitral and Gilgit Baltistandemonstrated a nutritional composition in range of 77.43, 70.08, 73.12%for moisture, 0.98, 0.76, 0.89% for crude ash, 0.42, 0.33, 0.39% for crude fat, 1.53, 1.32, 1.44% for crude protein, 2.76, 2.64, 2.75% for crude fiber, 16.88, 24.87, 21.41% for Nitrogen free extract (NFE). The different varieties of barberry contained the ranges of minerals such ascalcium2724.70,2584.13, 2693.59ppm, magnesium 998.46,944.06, 986.32ppm, potassium12189.75, 11,114.21, 12021.19ppm, sodium 1402.16, 872.38, 1269.44ppm, iron 449.67, 334.58, 396.90ppm, zinc8.42, 13.78, 29.5ppm, copper 15.11, 5.45, 11.63ppm, manganese 32.5, 25.86, 28.91ppm(mg/L), respectively. Conclusions: The type of barberry cultivated in Azad Kashmir is the best having good proximate composition and highest minerals amount as compared to Chitral and Gilgit Baltistan cultivated barberry

Dynamic Portfolio Returns: Impact of Macroeconomic Variables

Very few researches have constructed both na?ve and diversified portfolio but none of the studies to the best of researcher?s knowledge have explored the impact of macroeconomic variables on both types of portfolio in a particular country. This study excogitates the relationship between naive and diversified portfolio expected returns and macroeconomic variables. The commodities and variables ? KSE 100 index, gold rates, National Savings Certificate (NSC) profit rates, treasury bills (T-Bills) yield, deposit rates and exchange rates - Euro, Great Britain Pound and US Dollar have been considered for construction of equal weighted portfolio. The macroeconomic or explanatory variables ? Producer Price Index (PPI) or Wholesale Price Index (WPI), balance of trade prices, discount rates, crude oil prices, natural gas prices and Consumer Price Index (CPI) are considered for exploring their impact on equal weighted portfolio. The commodities and variables ? KSE 100 index, gold rates, National Savings Certificate (NSC) profit rates, treasury bills (T-Bills) yield, deposit rates and exchange rates - Euro, Great Britain Pound and US Dollar were considered initially from which exchange rate commodities were selected and considered for construction of diversified portfolio based on cut off rate determined from Sharpe ratio. The yields of 12 months treasury bills considered as a risk free security were used for calculating excess returns of these commodities. The macroeconomic or explanatory variables ? Producer Price Index (PPI) or Wholesale Price Index (WPI), Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), balance of trade prices, discount rates and crude oil prices were considered for exploring their impact on optimal or diversified portfolio. Monthly data of all these variables was examined from January 2000 to October 2015. The assumptions of Classical Linear Regression Model (CLRM) were met before running the Ordinary Least Square (OLS) model. It was found that expected returns of both portfolios are significantly and positively affected by discount rates and wholesale price index and negatively and insignificantly affected by balance of trade (BOT).