Biocontrol Agents against Post Harvest Decay in Fruits and Vegetables: A Review

Post harvest losses are the major threats in the supply chain between harvest and consumption which contribute 44% of the total loss of fruits and vegetables. Among the various causes, post harvest diseases are major decay of fruits and vegetables accounting for 20-25% losses. The causative fungus belonging to both biotrophic and necrotrophic nature belongs to the genera of Aspergillus, Penicillium, Botrytis, etc. Management of post harvest diseases by conventional chemicals is not preferred due to residual effects and toxicity. Considering the global demand and consumer awareness about the health effects of pesticides, biocontrol agents are getting attention in recent times for post harvest disease management. BCAs like Trichoderma, Bacillus and Pseudomonas have been explored for successful management of post harvest diseases of citrus, strawberry, tomato, etc. The possible mode actions of the BCAs are competition for nutrients and space, production of antimicrobial compounds, hydrolytic enzymes, and induced resistance. The added advantage of BCAs is that they can be integrated with other physical, natural compounds and additives for coatings due to their synergistic and mutualistic effect. The product development for biocontrol origin must be encouraged to utilize the benefits they provide. Several constraints in process of product development may arise which can be overcome by more research, education, training at the farm level, and multi-omics studies to unravel the potentials of the BCAs

Refractive errors among patients attending the ophthalmology department of a medical college in North-East India

Purpose: To determine the magnitude and pattern of refractive errors among patients attending the ophthalmology department of a new medical college in North-East India. Materials and Methods: A prospective study of the new patients (age ≥5 years), who were phakic and whose unaided visual acuities were worse than 20/20 but improved with pinhole, was done. Complete ophthalmic examination and refraction with appropriate cycloplegia for age were done for the 4582 eligible patients. Spherical equivalents (SE) of refractive errors of the right eyes were used for analysis. Results: Of the 4582 eligible patients, 2546 patients had refractive errors (55.56%). The proportion of emmetropia (SE − 0.50–+0.50 diopter sphere [DS]), myopia (SE −0.50 DS), high myopia (SE >−5.0 DS), and hypermetropia (+0.50 DS for adults and >+2.0 DS for children) were 53.1%, 27.4%, 2.6%, and 16.9%, respectively. The proportion of hyperopia increased till 59 years and then decreased with age (P = 0.000). The proportion of myopia and high myopia decreased significantly with age after 39 years (P = 0.000 and P = 0.004, respectively). Of the 1510 patients with astigmatism, 17% had with-the-rule (WTR), 23.4% had against-the-rule (ATR), and 19% had oblique astigmatisms. The proportion of WTR and ATR astigmatisms significantly decreased (P = 0.000) and increased (P = 0.000) with age, respectively. Conclusions: This study has provided the magnitude and pattern of refractive errors in the study population. It will serve as the initial step for conducting community-based studies on the prevalence of refractive errors in this part of the country since such data are lacking from this region. Moreover, this study will help the primary care physicians to have an overview of the magnitude and pattern of refractive errors presenting to a health-care center as refractive error is an established and significant public health problem worldwide

Comparative Evaluation of In-vitro Bioefficacy of Microbial Bioagents and Novel Chemical Compounds against Fusarium oxysporum f.sp. Cubense

The Assam and North-eastern regions of India recognized as diverse repositories of wild and cultivated banana cultivars, confront a significant threat to banana varieties, Malbhog due to Fusarium wilt disease caused by Fusarium oxysporum f.sp. cubense (Foc). This study investigates the in-vitro bioefficacy of indigenous bioagents and new-generation chemical compounds against Foc to develop an integrated module subsequently, in line with the worldwide pursuit of environmentally conscientious and high-performance agricultural practices.In this study, four bioagents viz., Bacillus vallismortis, Bacillus amyloliquefaciens, Trichoderma harzianum, and Talaromyces pinophilus were screened in-vitro against Foc revealed the highest efficacy of B. vallismortis with 68.22 % mycelial growth inhibition of Foc followed by B. amyloliquifaciens with (60.05%) and the least inhibition was exhibited by T.pinophilus with (50.05%).To identify new generation chemical compounds, namely Propiconazole, Azoxystrobin, Tebuconazole + Trifloxystrobin were tested with a standard check Carbendazim wherein all the chemicals significantly inhibited the mycelial growth of the pathogen over control with Tebuconazole + Trifloxystrobin combination fungicide showing highest percent inhibition of 94% at 0.1% concentration followed by Carbendazim at 0.1%. Our study has identified potential microbial strains and chemical fungicides which can be further explored for the development and exploration of bio-fungicide and chemical fungicide-based biointensive integrated management of Fusarium wilt menace in malbhog banana in the region