Morphological abnormality among regenerated shoots of banana and plantain (Musa spp.) after in vitro multiplication with TDZ and BAP from excised shoottips

Five cultivars of Musa spp (banana and plantain); ‘Berangan Intan’, ‘Berangan’ (AAA), ‘Rastali’, ‘Nangka’ (AAB) and ‘Baka Baling’ (ABB) were chosen to compare the effect of benzylaminopurine (BAP) and thidiazuron (TDZ) on multiplication efficiency in relation with frequency of abnormal shoot regeneration. Shoot tips of Musa spp. were cultured on MS medium supplemented with various concentrations (0.0, 11.1, 22.2, 33.3 and 44.4 ìM) of BAP and (0.0, 0.5, 2, 5 and 7.5 ìM) of TDZ. Increasing BAP above 22.2 ìM and 33.3 ìM increased the number of shoots in ‘Berangan Intan’,‘Berangan’, ‘Rastali’, ‘Nangka’ and ‘Baka Baling’ respectively, but above 33.3 ìM significantly caused higher gross of abnormal shoot regeneration. TDZ in the media up to 2 ìM for ‘Baka Baling’, ‘Nangka’ and ‘Rastali’ and 5 ìM for ‘Berangan Intan’ and ‘Berangan’ increased the number of shoots per explant,however TDZ at 5 ìM resulted in high number of abnormal shoots. In conclusion BAP at 22.2 ìM and TDZ at 2 ìM were assumed to be the most suitable for commercial micropropagation system with low frequency of abnormal shoot production for both banana and plantain

Micropropagation of some Malaysian banana and plantain (Musa sp.) cultivars using male flowers

Male inflorescences have potential to be used as explants for rapid micropropagation of Musa sp. The male flowers of four banana cultivars, namely ‘Berangan’, ‘Rastali’, ‘Nangka’ and ‘Abu’ belonging to three genome types in Musa (AAA, AAB, and ABB), were cultured onto Murashige and Skoog (MS) medium which was supplemented with 1 mg/L of TDZ, BAP, Kin, 2-ip and Zea. The number of shoots was found to significantly increase in both TDZ and BAP treatments, as compared to other cytokinins.TDZ at 0.4, 0.6 and 0.8 mg/L, in particular, appeared to be optimum for shoot induction in ‘Berangan- AAA’, ‘Rastali-AAB’ and ‘Nangka-AAB’ and ‘Abu-ABB’, respectively. However, all the cultivars showed their highest response to regeneration at 8 mg/L of BAP. After the initiation of the explants onto the MS media for all the cultivars, the highest number of cauliflower-like bodies’ (CLBs) clusters was observed at two months of culture. The number of induced ‘CLBs’ cluster is dependent on the size of male buds. Male inflorescences with the size of 20 mm were found to induce more ‘CLBs’ clusters. Meanwhile, the number of shoots produced is dependent on both the cytokinins and cultivars used

Preliminary Development of Health Education in Curbing Obesity Among Preschool Children

AbstractAn obese preschool child may grow up to be an obese adult. The factors of obesity among preschool children have been documented as one of the factors that will lead to the risks of hypertension, psychosocial disturbances and heart complications that increase adult morbidity and mortality. Preliminary data were collected to identify the components needed in the construction of preschool health education in preventing obesity. Four main components were obtained: i) dietary, ii) physical development, iii) psychosocial development, and iv) physical activities. Therefore, a health education based on the above components will be developed as a guideline in order to assist with the problem of obesity among the preschool children

Total Anti-Oxidant Capacity, Flavonoid, Phenolic Acid And Polyphenol Content In Ten Selected Species Of Zingiberaceae Rhizomes

Background: Natural products such as herbs, fruits, spices, beverages, vegetables are becoming more popular among scientific community and consumers because of their potential to arrest the effect of free radicals in human system. This study determined the total antioxidant capacity of ten selected species of Zingiberaceae (Ginger) used as spices and for medicinal purposes in Southeast Asia.Materials and Methods: Methanol was used as the extraction solvent, 2,2 – diphenyl -1- picrylhydrazil (DPPH) for free radical scavenging activity and ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP) assays. Phenolic compounds were measured using Total flavonoid, Phenolic acid and Polyphenols content assay to evaluate the quality of the antioxidant capacity of the rhizomes and vitamin C as positive control.Results: The results obtained revealed that Curcuma longa and Zingiber officinale had the highest free radical scavenging capacity of 270.07mg/TE/g DW and 266.95mg/TE/g DW and FRAP assay, Curcuma longa and Zingiber officinale also gave the highest ferric reducing power of 231.73mg/TE/g DW and 176.26mg/TE/g DW respectively. For Phenolic compounds, Curcuma longa and Curcuma xanthorrhiza gave the highest values of flavonoid (741.36mg/NGN/g DW and 220.53mg/NGN/g DW), phenolic acid (42.71mg/GAE/g DW and 22.03mg/GAE/g DW) and polyphenols(39.38mg/GAE/g DW and 38.01mg/GAE/g DW) respectively. Significant and positive linear correlations were found between Total antioxidant capacity and Phenolic compounds (R = 0.65 – 0.96). Conclusion: This study provides evidence that extracts of Zingiberaceae (Ginger) rhizomes are a potential source of natural antioxidants and could serve as basis for future drugs and food supplementsKey words: Zingibearaceae, Antioxidant, Free Radical, Oxidative stress, DPPH, Flavonoid, Phenolic acid, Polypheno

Effects of plant growth regulators on callus induction from Cananga odorata flower petal explant

The Cananga odorata callus was initiated from petals of the C. odorata flowers on MS medium and B5 vitamins containing 30 g/L sugar and 3 g/L agar. The medium was also supplemented with different concentrations of 1-naphtalene acetic acid (NAA), and combinations of NAA with 6-benzylaminpurine (BAP) as the plant growth regulators. It was observed that the C. odorata callus could be induced on media containing the combination of 3 mg/L NAA and 0.5 mg/L BAP. High concentration of NAA gave rise to pale, whitish and friable callus after 1 - 2 weeks of culture. The optimum pH for the cell culture was about 5.7 and incubation at 25 ± 2°C, in totally dark condition

Effects of electromagnetic field of 33 and 275 kV influences on physiological, biochemical and antioxidant system changes of leaf mustard (Brassica chinensis)

The effects of electromagnetic fields (EMF) from 33 and 275 kV high voltage transmission line on biochemical and antioxidant system changes in mustard leaf (Brassica chinensis) were investigated under field condition. Mustard leaves were exposed to EMF from power lines at distances of 0, 3, 6, 9, 10, 12, 15, 18, 20, 21, 30, 40, 50 and 60 m away from the 33 kV power line and at 0, 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60 and 70 m away from the 275 kV transmission lines. The effects of EMF from 33 kV power lines on leaf mustard planted at different distances from the line showed that leaf mustard planted within 20 m from the line had significantly (p< 0.05) higher protein, soluble protein, soluble nitrogen and chlorophyll contents due to the higher EMF strength which decreased with increasing distance from the line. Higher EMF strength nearer to the 275 kV power line resulted in higher peroxidase enzymatic activity, and chlorophyll content. Protein electrophoretic profile obtained from sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS PAGE) analysis revealed no drastic alterations in the leaf mustard protein profiles. This suggests that electromagnetic field could be used as a tool to promote mustard growth via photosynthesis once the right EMF strength and duration of exposure has been established through future studies.Keywords: Mustard, electromagnetic field, biochemical marker

Effect of precursors on flavonoid production by Hydrocotyle bonariensis callus tissues

Callus tissue of Hydrocotyle bonariensis was initiated from the leaf of H. bonariensis treated with 2 mg/l of 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D) and 1 mg/l kinetin. The culture was kept at 25°C, under light (cool white fluorescent tubes, 1200 lux). To optimize the precursors to increase the production of flavonoid, different precursors were used. The data showed that 4 mg/l proline produced the highest flavonoid yield (10.77 ± 0.25 mg/g DW). The increase in proline concentration did not significantly increase the production of flavonoid. The highest flavonoid yield (10.59 ± 0.18 mg/g DW) was produced in 1 mg/l of glutamine. No significant increase was attained in the flavonoid yield in callus treated with 2, 3 mg/l compared with the control. Phenylalanine at the concentration of 3 mg/l, successfully triggered the production of flavonoid (11.43 ± 0.12 mg/g DW), which was 23% higher than the control. The highest flavonoid production was attained in calluses treated with 4 mg/l of naringenin; and it was 19.72% higher compared with the control.Key words: Flavonoids, cell culture, amino acid, precursor

Determination of genetic relatedness among selected rice (Oryza sativa, L.) cultivars using microsatellite markers

For plant improvement programs, genetic variation information among different cultivars is very important. Genetic variation among 26 rice (Oryza sativa, L.) accessions, consisting of 13 Iranian and 13 Malaysian cultivars was investigated using microsatellite markers distributed across the rice genome. All the 21 selected microsatellite primers were successfully amplified by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) of which 20 (95.2%) were found to be polymorphic. A total of 75 alleles were detected at 21 microsatellite loci. The allele frequencies per locus ranged from 1 in RM338 to 5 alleles in RM307, RM161, RM334 and RM271. The mean number of alleles per locus was 3.57. Amongst these microsatellite loci, the largest polymorphism information content (PIC) value was 0.74 in RM 161, while the lowest PIC value was 0.0 in RM 338. Dendrogram was constructed based on dissimilarity values, unweighted pair group with arithmetic average (UPGMA) and it separated all the cultivars into six clusters. All these polymorphisms could be further evaluated for rice marker assisted selection and developed PCR methodology would expedite screening for large numbers of rice required for association studies.Key words: Genetic variation, genetic dissimilarity, polymorphism information content (PIC), polymerase chain reaction (PCR)

Synergistic and antagonistic effects of Zinc Bioaccumulation with lead and antioxidant activities in centella asiatica

This study was carried out by using Centella asiatica grown using a hydroponic system under laboratory conditions to study synergistic and antagonistic effects of Zn bioaccumulation with added Pb and the changes in antioxidant activities in leaves and roots of C. asiatica. The antioxidant activities included superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT), ascorbate peroxidase (APX) and guaiacol peroxidase (GPX). The treatments Zn (2 ppm) + Pb (0.4 ppm) and Zn (4 ppm) + Pb (0.6 ppm) increased the accumulation of Zn in leaves by 14.06 and 16.84%, respectively, but decreased by 7.36% uptake in roots (Zn 4 ppm + Pb 0.6 ppm). This showed that Pb and Zn acted synergistically to Zn accumulation in leaves but antagonistically in roots. CAT and SOD activities in leaves were increased when Zn was added together with Pb. In roots, CAT, APX and SOD activities were increased but GPX was decreased. Owing to their sensitivities to Zn with Pb, SOD and CAT could be used as biomarkers to monitor the toxicity of Pb and Zn exposure in the leaves and roots of C. asiatica