Potential use of the Bushmint, Hyptis suaveolens, for the Control of Infestation by the Pink Stalk Borer, Sesamia calamistis on Maize in Southern Benin, West Africa

Maize production in Benin, especially in resource-poor farmers' fields, is constrained by stemborers among other factors. One of the major stemborers in southern Benin is Sesamia calamistis Hampson (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae). African farmers cannot afford to use commercial insecticides for controlling stemborers - they are expensive and unsuitable for durable pest management systems due to eco-toxicity. There is therefore a need for cheaper and environmentally friendly methods and botanicals offer an attractive alternative. The bushmint, Hyptis suaveolens (L.) Poit. (Lamiales: Lamiaceae), was compared with the commercial insecticide Furadan (carbofuran) for the control of S. calamistis on maize Zea mays L. (Poales: Poaceae). Trials were conducted in the screenhouse and in the field during the minor cropping season in 2004 at the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA)-Benin station. The variables measured included numbers of egg masses per plant, eggs per egg mass (in the screenhouse study), population density of S. calamistis, percentage of infested plants and/or ears, and deadhearts in the field. Irrespective of the variable considered, the aqueous extract of H. suaveolens compared favorably with Furadan while maize surrounded by live H. suaveolens plants had lower S. calamistis densities

Recent advancement in modern genomic tools for adaptation of Lablab purpureus L to biotic and abiotic stresses: present mechanisms and future adaptations

Not AvailableHyacinth bean is an important traditional plant with substantial medicinal value. Being imperative, it is still less explored crop on genomic and transcriptomic scale that has indexed it as an “orphan” crop for its genome revolution. Among different crop legumes such as pigeon pea, chickpea, cowpea, soybean and common bean, hyacinth bean also serves as a significant source of nutrition for both tropical and temperate regions and execute an imperative function in fixing biological nitrogen in agriculture. Nonetheless, the productivity of hyacinth bean is restrained due to environmental and biotic cues. Thus, understanding of the genomic functions and identification of probable genes/proteins for major agronomic traits through transcriptomic approaches has become imperative to improve stress tolerance in hyacinth bean. For understanding the plant stress tolerance mechanisms, the deployment of functional genomics approaches viz., proteomics and metabolomics have become imperious in breeding programs in developing countries. These approaches have been successfully used in other legume crops to create protein reference maps and their exploitation through comparative approaches can greatly enhance the research and understanding of hyacinth bean biological processes to changing environmental conditions. In this review, emerging epigenomics, proteomics, metabolomics and phenomics approaches and their achievements both in model/crop legumes are discussed. Additionally, the review also provides an overview of the applications of advanced proteomics, metabolomics and next-generation sequencing technologies in the discovery of candidate biomarkers for the development of agronomically refined hyacinth bean which may further ensure food and nutritional security under adverse climacteric conditions in developing countries.Not Availabl