Effectiveness of Ipomoea aquatica and Pelthoporum pterocarpum for controlling the golden apple snail, Pomacea canaliculata

Pomacea canaliculata Lamark (golden apple snail, GAS) which known as siput gondang emas among Malay farmers is dangerous pest to the paddy field feeds on stem and young leaves of paddy plant. Frequently, usage of synthetic pesticides may cause pollution to the environment which became harmful to human and other living things. Hence, to control GAS, the usage of biopesticides is become the most popular control method. Biopesticides formed from animals, plants, bacteria and minerals. About 247 families from 2500 plants have the role of secondary metabolites to protect themselves from the pests. Some of the plants have their own mechanism to protect themselves from enemies like pests, diseases due to its chemical compound, which acts as toxicity to the pest, repellency, antifeedant and insect growth regulatory activities. The aim of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of Ipomoea aquatica and Pelthoporum pterocarpum extracts for controlling GAS by using different solvents. From the study, methanol extraction showed the highest mortality rather than using ethanol for both plants. It showed that methanol is the most effective solvent due to mortality of the GAS by 50% concentration (24 hours) and 100% concentration (48 hours) is 53.33%. Based on probit analysis, Pelthoporum pterocarpum extracts by using methanol as solvent showed the strongest toxicity test result (LC50 = 4.683%). In the future, Pelthoporum pterocarpum extracts using methanol can be used to replace the usage of synthetic pesticides for controlling GAS

The antifeedant activity of essential oil from Cymbopogon citratus and Piper bitle for controlling golden apple snail, Pomacea canaliculata

Golden apple snail, Pomaceacanaliculata (GAS) inflicted damage in major paddy granaryareas in Malaysia with estimated infected area more than 17,000 ha. Farmers use synthetic pesticide to control GAS infestation because its rapid effect. However, excessive applicationhad led to environmental pollution and hazard to applicators. There were many research on biopesticide had been done in order to reduce the dependency on synthetic pesticide. This research conducted to identify the active compounds of essential oil from lemongrass(Cymbopogoncitratus)and betel(Piper bitle) by GCMS. The bioassay and antifeedant activity test conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of this essential oil in controlling GAS population. The result from antifeedant activity test foressential oil of lemongrass showed high antifeedent activity, compared with essential oil of betel for controlling GAS.Keywords: golden apple snail; piper bitle; Cymbopogoncitratus; essential oil; antifeedan

Genetic variation of selected Camellia sinensis (Cultivated Tea) varieties in Malaysia based on random amplified microsatellite (RAMs) markers

Studies on the genetic variation among Camellia sinensis L. varieties (cultivated tea) in Malaysia were conducted by using RAMs markers. Six varieties were selected from Sungai Palas Boh Estate, Cameron Highlands and nine varieties were selected from Bukit Cheeding Boh Estate, Banting. These tea varieties were classified as resistant, intermediate, or susceptible varieties based on the level of infestation by the mosquito bug, Helopeltis theivora. DNA was extracted from the leaves of 225 individuals belonging to different varieties from the two populations. Four RAMs primers were used to evaluate the genetic variation in 15 varieties of tea. Distances were calculated based on Nei and Li’s (1979) similarity coefficients using the data from the RAMs markers. A cluster analysis employing UPGMA was done and the dendrogram grouped the tea varieties into two clusters with intermediate variety grouping and the resistant (the first cluster) or susceptible (the second cluster) varieties. The first cluster consisted of all the varieties from Cameron Highlands, except for BC223 (resistant) and 63/14 (resistant) from the Banting population, while the other clusters consisted of all the varieties from the Banting population, except for BC196 (resistant) from the Cameron Highlands population. The dendrogram showed that the genetic differences were based on the populations’ geographical distributions and partially based on their resistance towards attack by H. theivora

Impact of chicken nugget presence on the degradation of canola oil during frying

Abstract The aim of the present study was to evaluate the effect of chicken nuggets addition on the degradation of canola oil during frying compared to the changes occurring when the same frying medium was simply heated at frying temperature as control. Heating or frying test was carried out at 185±5 o C using electric fryer for 8 h/day for 3 consecutive days and the oil sample was collected every 4 h. The changes in fatty acids composition and physicochemical properties of the oil samples during frying and controlled heating experiments were monitored. In this study, refractive index, free fatty acid content, peroxide value, p-anisidine value, polar compounds and viscosity of the oils all increased, whereas iodine value and C 18:2 /C 16:0 ratio decreased as heating or frying progressed. The percentage of linoleic acid tended to decrease, whereas the percentages of palmitic acid increased. Gas chromatography analysis revealed that adding chicken nuggets to heated canola oil led to higher decrease in the ratio of C 18.2 / C 16:0 compared to what was measured when the fat alone was heated at frying temperature. The presence of chicken nuggets accelerates the formation of polymerization products and polar compounds in canola oil during frying

Investigation on the thermal stability of refined palm oil produced from membrane-based refining technique

The main objective of this work is to study the heat stability of refined palm oil produced from membrane-based refining process. Two novel routes of refining process have been proposed in which the first one was to integrate conventional refining process with ultrafiltration (UF) membrane technology while the second route was based on the integration between conventional refining process and UF membrane-solvent extraction process. The results revealed that the two novel refining routes showed improvement on free fatty acid (FFA) stability compared with the conventional technique throughout 5-day studied period. With respect to peroxide value (PV), it is found that only the first proposed route showed very similar increasing trend with the conventional refining process. In addition to this, it is also found that the two refining routes which were operated at 260oC showed slightly better colour stability in comparison to conventionally-produced oil

The RNA-binding protein LARP1 is a post-transcriptional regulator of survival and tumorigenesis in ovarian cancer

RNA-binding proteins (RBPs) are increasingly identified as post-transcriptional drivers of cancer progression. The RBP LARP1 is an mRNA stability regulator, and elevated expression of the protein in hepatocellular and lung cancers is correlated with adverse prognosis. LARP1 associates with an mRNA interactome that is enriched for oncogenic transcripts. Here we explore the role of LARP1 in epithelial ovarian cancer, a disease characterized by the rapid acquisition of resistance to chemotherapy through the induction of pro-survival signalling. We show, using ovarian cell lines and xenografts, that LARP1 is required for cancer cell survival and chemotherapy resistance. LARP1 promotes tumour formation in vivo and maintains cancer stem cell-like populations. Using transcriptomic analysis following LARP1 knockdown, cross-referenced against the LARP1 interactome, we identify BCL2 and BIK as LARP1 mRNA targets. We demonstrate that, through an interaction with the 3′ untranslated regions (3′ UTRs) of BCL2 and BIK, LARP1 stabilizes BCL2 but destabilizes BIK with the net effect of resisting apoptosis. Together, our data indicate that by differentially regulating the stability of a selection of mRNAs, LARP1 promotes ovarian cancer progression and chemotherapy resistance. </p