CATTLE BLOOD SHELF LIFE ENHANCEMENT BY APPLYING MID-INFRARED RAYS

Umakanthan T.*, Madhu Mathi and Umadevi U.

ABSTRACT

Stored human blood has short shelf life (4-6 weeks) which leads to voluntary wastage of 1.3 million units per year. To combat the wastage, increasing the shelf life of blood is necessary but it has several challenges. As a premier research to enhance the stored blood shelf life, we one-time irradiated the packaged cattle blood with 2-6μm mid-infrared. The irradiated bags containing cattle blood were stored in domestic refrigerator. It was found that the MIRGA irradiated blood samples were viable and found fit for transfusion upto 15-20 week. This paper presents the 2-6μm mid-IR induced changes in molecular level of blood that are studied using various instrumentations.

Keywords: MIRGA – 2-6?m mid-IR – cattle – blood –enhanced shelf life.