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

An Analysis of Institutional Investors, Information Asymmetry and Stock Market Liquidity A Sector Wise Analysis in Pakistan Stock Exchange

The study was conducted by checking the effect of institutional investors (Ins.Invs) on information asymmetry (Inf.Asym) and stock market liquidity (ML) in Pakistan stock exchange (PSX). The aim of the study was to analyze the Ins.Invs, Inf.Asym, and ML on the basis of most populated non-financial sectors among the other sectors listed at PSX. The purposive sampling is base for the study and has selected four sectors, that is, textile, food, chemical and pharmaceutical and mineral plus cement sector as the sample of the study. The sample comprises of 280 sample firms which constitute 70 percent of the total population. The information of the sample firms has been gathered through reliable sources like annual reports of the sample firms, business recorder, yahoo finance and the official web sites of State Bank of Pakistan and PSX. The panel firm information regression was recommended for the firm information analysis. According to the results of this model; in textile sector, institutional shareholdings (IS) and growth shows insignificant effect on market liquidity while firm size and leverage have significantly affect the ML. Further, IS, growth and leverage have insignificant while size of the firm has significantly affect the information asymmetry. In food sector, institutional shareholdings and growth shows insignificant effect on market liquidity while firm size and leverage shows noteworthy effect on market liquidity. IS, growth and leverage have insignificant effect while firm size has significant effect on information asymmetry. In chemical sector, institutional shareholdings, leverage and growth shows insignificant effect on market liquidity while firm size shows noteworthy effect on ML. Furthermore, IS and growth have unimportant effect while firm size and growth has major effect on information asymmetry. In cement sector, institutional shareholdings, firm size and growth have notably affected the ML as well as the leverage has also considerably affected the ML that shows the significance of the variables of this study. Similarly, IS, growth and leverage have momentous effect while firm size has unimportant effect on information asymmetry.