Modified atmosphere packaging of capsicum for extending shelf life under coolbot condition

Capsicum is one of the high value vegetable crops in Nepal. Its demand in kitchen is increasing due to urbanization and increased awareness on its health benefit. Its commercial cultivation has been started in protected as well as open field conditions. It fetches higher price in market but has very short storage life under ordinary storage condition. An experiment was carried out to evaluate the modified atmosphere packaging (MAP) on extension of shelf-life of capsicum fruit. Fruit were harvested at full mature stage with smooth and shiny appearance from farmer's field grown under protected condition at Chitwan, Nepal. The fruits were brought to postharvest laboratory of National Horticulture Research Centre, pre-cooled for 3-4 hours, cleaned with muslin cloth and packed in 25 micron Low Density Polyethylene (LDPE) packaging with different number of pinhole sized perforations viz. without pinholes, eight pinholes, sixteen pinholes, twenty four pinholes and control (without MAP). The study was conducted in completely randomized block design with five treatments and four replications. Fruits were kept at coolbot storage (9.8+2 ºC, 86+5% RH) till 30 days and analyzed for various postharvest physical, chemical and physiological parameters at every 10, 20 and 30 days of storage. The result showed that LDPE packaging influenced on reduction of physiological loss in weight (PLW), spoilage loss, ascorbic acid content, TA, freshness, firmness and shelf life. The modified atmosphere packaging (MAP) without pinholes showed the minimum PWL (1.71%) and the optimum fruit freshness (4.76) but the spoilage loss was the maximum (14%). Among the packaging, MAP with 8 pinholes maintained majority of postharvest quality retention with reduced physiological loss in weight (4.15 %), freshness (4.5) and spoilage loss (2%)

Characterization of Gladiolus Genotypes Under Khumaltar Condition of Nepal

Seven promising genotypes of Gladiolus were experimented during the two consecutive years of 2014/15 and 2015/16 in the field of Horticulture Research Division, Khumaltar, Lalitpur (1332 masl) to evaluate the performances of their vegetative, floral and corm characteristics. The experiment was laid out in Randomized Complete Block Design with four replications. The treatments consisted of seven genotypes (ARSDG-01, ARSDG-02, ARSDG-03, ARSDG-04, ARSDG-05, ARSDG-06 and ARSDG-07). Fifty-four corms of each genotype were planted in the crop geometry of 25 x 25 cm. A total of sixteen characters were observed. The pooled results of two years data indicated significantly different except plant height, spike length, rachis length, number of cormels per mother corm and individual corm weight due to the effects of seven evaluated genotypes. Genotype ARSDG-04 was proven as the earliest one for days to the first spike emergence (73.00 days), the full spike emergence (76.50 days) and the first unfurling of florets (83 days). In contrast, ARSDG-01 and ARSDG-06 were late genotypes for the same three characters. The number of florets/spikes was considerably high in two genotypes viz., ARSDG-06 (21.00) and ARSDG-03 (20.50). The number of daughter corms/mother corm was significantly high in ARSDG-05 (3.10) and ARSDG-04 (2.92) whereas it was minimally low in ARSDG-02 (1.66) and ARSDG-07 (1.69). Summing up all sixteen characters of evaluated genotypes, ARSDG-04 as the first, ARSDG-05 as the second and ARSDG-03 as the third have respectively emerged as superior ones as opposed by those of the rest of evaluated genotypes of Gladiolus

Modified Atmosphere Packaging of Capsicum for Extending Shelf Life Under Coolbot Condition

Capsicum is one of the high value vegetable crops in Nepal. Its demand in kitchen is increasing due to urbanization and increased awareness on its health benefit. Its commercial cultivation has been started in protected as well as open field conditions. It fetches higher price in market but has very short storage life under ordinary storage condition. An experiment was carried out to evaluate the modified atmosphere packaging (MAP) on extension of shelf-life of capsicum fruit. Fruit were harvested at full mature stage with smooth and shiny appearance from farmer's field grown under protected condition at Chitwan, Nepal. The fruits were brought to postharvest laboratory of National Horticulture Research Centre, pre-cooled for 3-4 hours, cleaned with muslin cloth and packed in 25 micron Low Density Polyethylene (LDPE) packaging with different number of pinhole sized perforations viz. without pinholes, eight pinholes, sixteen pinholes, twenty four pinholes and control (without MAP). The study was conducted in completely randomized block design with five treatments and four replications. Fruits were kept at coolbot storage (9.8+2 ºC, 86+5% RH) till 30 days and analyzed for various postharvest physical, chemical and physiological parameters at every 10, 20 and 30 days of storage. The result showed that LDPE packaging influenced on reduction of physiological loss in weight (PLW), spoilage loss, ascorbic acid content, TA, freshness, firmness and shelf life. The modified atmosphere packaging (MAP) without pinholes showed the minimum PWL (1.71%) and the optimum fruit freshness (4.76) but the spoilage loss was the maximum (14%). Among the packaging, MAP with 8 pinholes maintained majority of postharvest quality retention with reduced physiological loss in weight (4.15 %), freshness (4.5) and spoilage loss (2%)

A dormant microbial component in the development of pre-eclampsia

Preeclampsia (PE) is a complex, multisystem disorder that remains a leading cause of morbidity and mortality in pregnancy. Four main classes of dysregulation accompany PE and are widely considered to contribute to its severity. These are abnormal trophoblast invasion of the placenta, anti-angiogenic responses, oxidative stress, and inflammation. What is lacking, however, is an explanation of how these themselves are caused. We here develop the unifying idea, and the considerable evidence for it, that the originating cause of PE (and of the four classes of dysregulation) is, in fact, microbial infection, that most such microbes are dormant and hence resist detection by conventional (replication-dependent) microbiology, and that by occasional resuscitation and growth it is they that are responsible for all the observable sequelae, including the continuing, chronic inflammation. In particular, bacterial products such as lipopolysaccharide (LPS), also known as endotoxin, are well known as highly inflammagenic and stimulate an innate (and possibly trained) immune response that exacerbates the inflammation further. The known need of microbes for free iron can explain the iron dysregulation that accompanies PE. We describe the main routes of infection (gut, oral, and urinary tract infection) and the regularly observed presence of microbes in placental and other tissues in PE. Every known proteomic biomarker of “preeclampsia” that we assessed has, in fact, also been shown to be raised in response to infection. An infectious component to PE fulfills the Bradford Hill criteria for ascribing a disease to an environmental cause and suggests a number of treatments, some of which have, in fact, been shown to be successful. PE was classically referred to as endotoxemia or toxemia of pregnancy, and it is ironic that it seems that LPS and other microbial endotoxins really are involved. Overall, the recognition of an infectious component in the etiology of PE mirrors that for ulcers and other diseases that were previously considered to lack one