Estimation of inorganic constituents in the seeds of blue and white flowering capitulum of Silybum marianum

Silybum Marianum commonly known as milk thistle contains flavonolignans, collectively known as silymarin. The main components of silymarin are silybine, isosilybine, silychristin and silydinine. This study was aimed to estimate inorganic constituents in blue and white capitulum’s seeds from different areas of KPK. Concentration of Na was found to be high (6 mg/kg) in white capitulum seeds from Karak area, while K concentration was high (6 mg/kg) in the blue capitulum seeds from Khyber agency. High concentration of Ca (20 mg/kg) was seen in both white and blue capitulum’s seeds of Khyber agency. Less concentration of NO3 (0.09 mg/kg) was detected in white capitulum seeds from Kohat district and high concentration of SO4 (22.14 mg/kg) was recorded in blue capitulum seeds collected from Peshawar.Key words: Silybum marianum, capitulum’s seeds, inorganic profile

Phytic acid: How far have we come?

Phytic acid is a major storage form of phosphorous. Obvious reasons are there to favor its reduced concentration in organisms. However, certain justifications can also be settled, in order to support its increased natural concentration. In both cases, there are questions to be answered to favor one side while alleviating the harm of neglecting the other. This article reviews our current state of understanding of phytic acid - focusing on the topics of current and future interests in the field

Regional Variations in Agricultural Productivity- A Study of Uzbekistan

Agriculture plays an important role in Uzbekistan’s economy. It provides employment to about 60 percent rural population. The agricultural sector accounts for 12.2 percent of production assets, 44.4 percent of employment, 70 percent trade, 30.1 percent of G.D.P and 60 percent of exports. The aim of this work is to analyse the temporal and spatial variation in agricultural productivity. This was achieved by employing spearman’s rank correlation to the agricultural productivity of the thirteen states of Uzbekistan. The study has revealed that the agricultural productivity has shown marked regional variations. The study area has been divided into five regions on the basis of agricultural productivity. The highest productivity region consists of the states of Fargana and Sirdarya while the lowest productivity region consists of the states of Karakalpakstan and Bukhara. The disparity can be solved through increased output, both in surplus, marginal and negative areas of crop production

Response of sunflower hybrids to management practices under irrigated arid-environment

Two field experiments were established at Research Farm, Bahauddin Zakariya University, (BZU) Multan, Pakistan, during the spring season of 2009 to study the interactive effect of sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.) hybrids in terms of growth, fraction of intercepted radiation (Fi), intercepted photo-synthetically active radiation (PAR), yield components and oil contents to planting geometries and nitrogen rates. Experiment 1 comprised nine treatments having combinations of three hybrids (H1 = 19012; H2 = Hysun-33; H3 = DK-4040) and three planting geometries (PG1 = flat sowing; PG2 = ridge sowing; PG3 = bed sowing) while, experiment 2 comprised 16 treatments having combinations of four hybrids (H1 = 00989; H2 = 01087; H3 = 00997; H4 = 010226) and four nitrogen rates (N0 = control; N1 = 75; N2 = 150 and N3 = 225 kg ha-1). The results revealed that, the ontogeny maximum plant height ranged from 32 to 216 cm and from 36 to 299 cm in experiments 1 and 2, respectively. The ontogeny maximum number of leaves plant-1 were 21, 32, 28, 21 and 14 in experiment 1 and 20, 33, 29, 20 and 9 in experiment 2, respectively on respective harvest dates. The ontogeny maximum head diameter was 17, 22 and 25 cm and 20, 21 and 29 cm on respective dates for experiments 1 and 2, respectively. The ontogeny Fi values for experiments 1 and 2, ranged from 0.11 to 0.99 and from 0.09 to 0.99, respectively. The cumulative intercepted PAR ranged from 492 to 812 MJ m-2 and from 627 to 897 MJ m-2 in experiments 1 and 2, respectively. The achene weight ranged from 69.7 to 127.5g and from 65.4 to 93.4g in experiments 1 and 2, respectively. The number of achenes head-1 ranged from 919 to 1868 and 925 to 1678 for experiments 1 and 2, respectively. The achene oil contents ranged from 38.1 to 43.1% and 34.5 to 47.6% for experiments 1 and 2, respectively. However, average oil contents value was 41% for both experiments. From the results, the use of higher nitrogen rates and ridge or bed sowing techniques are recommended for the management practices for the newly developed sunflower hybrids farmers.Keywords: Sunflower hybrids, planting geometries, nitrogen rates, intercepted PA

Effect of encapsulated calcium carbide application at different growth stages on potato (Solanum Tuberosum L.) growth, yield and tuber quality

Plant growth substances play a vital role in growth and development of plants and have been implicated intensively and extensively in the vegetable production. In recent years, calcium carbide (CaC2) has proved to be a good source of acetylene (nitrification inhibitor) and ethylene (plant hormone). The experiment was conducted to evaluate the effects of encapsulated calcium carbide (ECC) on the growth, yield and tuber quality of potato. ECC was applied @ 60 kg/ha for each treatment except control at different growth stages of potato (sprout development, vegetative growth, tuber initiation, tuber bulking) and their combinations. The results of this work revealed significant effects of ECC application on number of days to sprouting, number of leaves and stems, plant height, tuber size, yield, weight loss %, shrivillage % and reducing sugars of potato while sprouting percentage, disease incidence %, specific gravity, TSS, total starch, non-reducing sugars and total sugars could not demonstrate significant effects of ECC application. Moreover, it was concluded that different growth stages responded differently against ECC, however, vegetative growth stage showed remarkable effects on potato growth, yield and tuber quality compared to all other stages and their combinations. The enhanced growth, yield and quality of potato indicated the possible role of acetylene and ethylene at active growth stages

PCR-RFLP-based identification of polymorphisms in BMPR1B, GDF9 and BMP15 genes associated with litter size in Beetal and Teddy goats

The genes BMPR1B, GDF9 and BMP15 are oocyte-derived members of the transforming growth factor-β superfamily, which is essential for follicular growth and ovulation. The aim of the current study was to determine the incidence of reported mutations in exon 3 of BMPR1B gene, exon 1 of GDF9 gene, and exon 2 of BMP15 gene and their association with litter size in three parities of Beetal and Teddy goats. Based on the known mutations in these genes, PCR primers were designed to find out the polymorphism through the PCR-RFLP technique in 120 randomly selected animals of the two breeds, which vary in their prolificacy. The current results show that there were significant differences in litter size [1.708 ± 0.060 in Beetal (B) and 2.167 ± 0.056 in Teddy (T) goats] in both breeds. The results of breed x parity interaction showed significant differences in litter size in first [1.158 ± 0.061 (B); 1.861 ± 0.057 (T)], third [2.062 ± 0.078 (B); 2.583 ± 0.073 (T)] and average parity [708 ± 0.060 (B); 2.167 ± 0.056 (T)] in both breeds. All three loci in both breeds were found to be polymorphic and the results of breed x parity x genotype analysis showed that genotypes of all the three genes were significantly associated with litter size in all parities in both breeds. For the BMPR1B gene, heterozygous (CT) animals of Beetal and Teddy goats had the largest litter size in all three parities and the average (parity) litter size, showing the overdominance of the heterozygotes. Similarly, for GDF9 gene, heterozygous animals (AG) had the largest litter size in both breeds. For BMP15 gene homozygous carrier animals (CC) of both breeds had the highest number of kids, followed by the heterozygous (AC) genotypes. The current results show the importance of BMPR1B, GDF9 and BMP15 as the major genes that influence prolificacy in both Beetal and Teddy goats. It is suggested that these polymorphisms can be used as molecular markers to select the prolific animals in these breeds.Keywords: Beetal goats, Teddy goats, molecular markers, prolificacy, polymorphis

Effectiveness of a “Whole of Chain” Approach in Linking Farmers to Market: A Case of Pakistan Mango Market

AbstractMango is the second major fruit crop in Pakistan. The domestic retail market for mango in Pakistan is dominated by small retail shops, street hawkers, and road side stalls. The fruit sold in these retail outlets is prescribed by the traditional quality standards of size, appearance and price. However the growth of superior outlets/supermarkets chain especially in the major cities are setting additional quality standards such as blemish free, improved packaging, prestige, convenience to deliver premium quality mangoes. Similarly the export market is mainly targeted to the expatriate Pakistani consumers rather than quality conscious foreign consumers. This is because of inadequate market information and understanding all along the chain. A whole of chain approach is undertaken to improve the market understanding in an ACIAR project. Since the approach is new, a conceptual framework is developed in order to asses the effectiveness of the approach. The results indicate that the participants all along the chain would change their practices if they find the compelling reason to change in their existing businesses

Detection & Distinction of Colors using Color Sorting Robotic Arm in a Pick & Place Mechanism

Color sorting Robot is one of the useful, costless and fastest systems in Industrial applications to reduce manual working time and provides less human mistake when manual system is undertaken. The objective of this project is to design an efficient, microcontroller based system that pick up right color of objects and put it down at right place to optimize the productivity, minimizing the cost of the products and decreasing human mistakes. The controller used is a PIC Microcontroller (18F452) having high speed performance, low cost and 32 K bytes program memory. It communicates with color sensor TCS 3200 and various motor modules in real time to detect the right color object and to control the arm movement. Designed system can pick objects of 1kG weight and arm can rotate up to 3600 . Also, the use of easily available components reduces the manufacturing and maintenance costs. The design is quite flexible as the software can be changed according to specific requirements of the user. This makes the proposed system to be an economical, portable and a low maintenance solution for industrial applications

Lectin status, protein contents and ammonium assimilating enzymatic activity of two indigenous cultivars of mulberry species, Morus alba and Morus nigra

The studies were carried out with plantlets of two indigenous cultivars of mulberry species Morus alba and Morus nigra grown in soil less cultures, where extracts from roots, shoots, leaves, and reproductive organs were determined for protein content, agglutination of human erythrocytes and theactivity of the ammonium assimilatory enzyme glutamine synthetase. M. nigra and M. alba extracts contained potent phytoagglutinins in various tissues with highest contents in M. nigra. The leaves and roots of both species of mulberry were used to determine the glutamine synthetase activity and high level of activity was found in both tissues. The glutamine synthetase enzymatic activity was higher in roots (1.37 ìmol.gfw-1.min-1). The extract from all tissues of both species were used to determine the total protein contents and proteins found higher in the leaves (2.129 ìg/gfw in M. nigra and 0.973 ìg/gfw in M. alba)

PREPARATION OF CONJUGATE FOR USE IN AN ELISA FOR HUMORAL IMMUNE RESPONSE AGAINST EGG DROP SYNDROME VIRUS IN LAYER CHICKS

An indirect enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was performed for the detection of antibodies against Egg Drop Syndrome (EDS) virus. Virus identification was done through haemaggluti- nation inhibition (HI) test using known antisera. Antichicken immunoglobulins were raised in goats and purified by ammonium sulphate precipitation technique. These goat-antichicken immunoglobulins were conjugated with horseradish peroxidase. Twenty-seven serum samples were collected from a layers flock vaccinated against EDS and specific antibodies were determined by using a horseradish conjugate