Search results

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the ability of four microorganisms to reduce disease infection of root lesion nematode (Pratylenchus spp.) and Fusarium spp. the causal agent of wilt/root-rot disease complex in chickpea.

A pot experiment was conducted for three consecutive winter seasons. A completely randomized design with five replicates was adopted. Two Bacillus isolates and Trichoderma harzianum and T. viride and their combinations were applied in infected soil. The effect on plant growth parameters, disease incidence and severity, root necrosis, weight of shoot and root, nematode population density and reproductive index were assessed.

The applications significantly (p=0.05) reduced the wilt/root-rot diseases complex. The reduction was attributed to the decline of the population density of nematodes in soil and root, and the suppression of the disease complex compared to controls, represented by reproductive index and the disease intensity index. Combinations were better than individual inoculation. The use of Bacillus isolate B3 and T. harzianum increased the number of flowers by 88.34 per cent. Reduction in the severity of root necrosis was in the range of 2.22-5.55 within a scale of 1-10. These findings indicate the significance of utilizing local bioagents for control of wilt/root-rot disease complex in chickpea plants.

The microorganisms used in this study are indigenous.

Some useful bacteria could be used regularly in mycotoxins biodegradation. It is a very good and ecological method, which was tested in experiments when lactobacilli were used. The paper aims to describe this.

Five strains of lactobacilli in experiments were shown, by direct enzyme‐linked immunosorbent assay (CD‐ELISA) test after their growth in MRS broth, to have decreased in the amount of deoxynivalenol (DON) measured by spectrophotometer. Free DON in the samples and control is allowed to compete with enzyme‐labeled DON (conjugate) for the antibody binding sites. The test was read in a microwell reader to yield optical densities.

It was found that Lactobacillus plantarum, Lactobacillus rhamnosus and Lactobacillus fermentum were more active than human strain Lactobacillus casei Shirota.

The paper suggests that other lactobacilli should be tested in this research field and could be used for detoxification of some feed kinds contaminated minimally by DON.

This paper aims to prevent cotton textiles from fungi damage using eco-friendly aloe vera leaf extract, which was applied at a minimum amount, and cost-effective material.

Batch extraction method using methanol solvent; phytochemical analysis was investigated and three-level factorial design of experiment and analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used for the optimization of 27 test runs. The finish was applied by pad-dry-cue at distinct concentrations, and the chemical property after treatment was studied. Colorfastness and coordinates are analyzed. Cotton fabrics were cultured with Fusarium oxysporum fungi and the anti-fungal property was examined and reported according to AATCC 30–2004 standard.

The maximum yield of extract was at an optimum volume of 200 ml, 65 °C for 120 min. The effective antifungal fabric was achieved with minimum concentrations. There was significant strength loss in warp and weft direction. The treatment results in yellow-colored cotton fabric with fastness grade 3. The antifungal effect is durable until fifteen washes as the tensile strength losses were less than 1%.

The findings of this work were based on samples considered in the laboratory. However, it can be reproducible at the factory production scale the treatment has the potential of yielding yellow dyed cotton fabric with multifunctional finishing.

The treated fabric is against Fusarium oxysporum Fungi which is one of the vital antimicrobial properties of textile apparel products for various areas of application.

The natural extract material applied to a textile material is eco-friendly effective against microbes of cotton seeds during cultivation and apparel end-uses.

The work application of fungi resistance on cotton fabric using aloe vera active component was original; this work provides extraction of the active agent from aloe vera leaf, which is optimized statically and successfully applied for anti-fungal activity on cotton fabric.

This paper aims to review the current status of wheat production, farming systems, production constraints and wheat demand-supply chain analysis; the role of international and national breeding programs and their approaches in wheat genetic improvement including targeting mega environments, shuttle breeding, doubled haploids, marker-assisted selection and key location phenotyping; and future prospects and opportunities of wheat production in Sub Saharan Africa (SSA).

Relevant literature works have been used and cited accordingly.

Though traditionally wheat was not the leading staple crop in SSA, it is becoming an important food crop because of rapid population growth associated with increased urbanization and change in food preference for easy and fast food such as bread, biscuits, pasta, noodles and porridge. In 2013, total wheat consumption in SSA reached 25 million tons with import accounting for 17.5 million tons at a price of USD6 billion, while during the same period the region produces only 7.3 million tons on a total area of 2.9 million hectares. The low productivity (2t/ha) in the region is principally because of abiotic (drought and heat) and biotic (yellow rust, stem rust, septoria and fusarium) stresses which are increasing in intensity and frequency associated with climate change. Furthermore, increased cost of production, growing populations, increased rural-urban migration, low public and private investments, weak extension systems and policies, and low adoption rates of new technologies remain to be major challenges for wheat production in SSA. Wheat breeding in SSA is dominantly carried out by National Agricultural Research Systems, in partnership with the international research centers [International center for improvement of maize and wheat (CIMMYT) and International center for agricultural research in the dry areas (ICARDA)], to develop high yielding and widely adapted wheat genotypes with increased water-use efficiency, heat tolerance and resistance to major diseases and pests. Most of the cultivars grown in SSA are originated from the international research centers, CIMMYT and ICARDA.

This paper will help to promote available wheat technologies in SSA by creating awareness to wheat scientists, extension agents and policymakers.

This manuscript is an original review paper which has not been published in this form elsewhere.

A Crown Court hearing of a charge of applying a false A description under S.2, Trade Descriptions Act, 1968, is given in some detail under Legal Proceedings in this issue of BFJ. It concerns using the word “ham”, ie., the natural leg of a single pig, to various pieces from several pigs, deboned, defatted, “tumbled, massaged and cooked” in a mould shaped to a leg of ham, from which the average purchaser would find it impossible to distinguish. As the defence rightly claimed, this process has been used for at least a couple of decades, and the product forms a sizeable section of the bacon trade. Evidence by prosecution witnesses, experienced shop managers, believed the product to be the genuine “ham”. There is nothing detrimental about the meat, save that it tends to contain an excess of added water, but this applies to many meat products today; or that the manufacturers are setting out to cheat the consumer. What offends is the description given to the product. Manufacture was described in detail—a county trading standards officer inspected the process at the defendant company's Wiltshire factory, witness to the extent of their co‐operation—and was questioned at great length by defending counsel. Specimens of the product were exhibited and the jury were treated to a tasting test—presumably designed to refute prosecution's claim that the meat was of “poor value”. The trial judge said the jury had no doubt been enlightened as to the methods of manufacturing ham. The marketing of the product was also a subject of examination.

This paper aims to update with information about edible coating on minimally processed and fresh fruits, focussing on the composition, active ingredients, antimicrobial concentration and their effect on ripening rate, phytonutrients retention and shelf-life of fruits. In future, the data will be helpful for the processors to select the best coating material and its effective concentration for different fresh and minimally processed fruits.

Major scientific information was collected from Scopus, Web of Science, Mendeley and Google Scholar. Several key words such as postharvest, edible coating, phytonutrients, shelf-life enhancement, bioactive compounds, minimally processed fruits and antimicrobial compounds were used to find the data. Relevant information was collected by using 90 recent research and review articles.

The main findings of this comprehensive review are to improve the quality of fruits, to meet the next-generation food security needs. However, in the process of achieving the goal of improving quality of food produce, embrace of synthetic, non-biodegradable packaging materials have increased, creating serious pollution problem. Amidst several alternatives for replacement of synthetic packaging, the option of biodegradable films and coatings showed promising results.

The paper represents recent information about the edible coating used for the enhancement of shelf-life of fresh and minimally processed fruits.

The purpose of this paper is to review the nature and extent of foodborne diseases in India due to chemical and microbial agents.

The scientific investigations/reports on outbreak of foodborne diseases in India for the past 29 (1980‐2009) years due to adulteration, chemical, and microbiological contamination have been reviewed. Reported scientific information on foodborne pathogens detected and quantified in Indian foods has also been reviewed.

A total of 37 outbreaks involving 3,485 persons who have been affected due to food poisoning have been reported in India. Although the common forms of foodborne diseases are those due to bacterial contamination of foods, however, higher numbers of deaths have been observed due to chemical contaminants in foods.

A national foodborne disease surveillance system needs to be developed in India in order to enable effective detection, control and prevention of foodborne disease outbreaks.

The widespread introduction of genetically modified (GM) crops may change the effect of agriculture on the environment. The magnitude and direction of expected effects are still being hotly debated, and the interests served in this discussion arena are often far from those of science and social welfare maximization. This chapter proposes that GM crops have net positive environmental effects, while regulatory responses focus mainly on environmental concerns, giving an unbalanced picture of the regulatory context. This unbalance supports the hypothesis that environmental concerns about GM crops have been politically instrumentalized and that more attention should be paid to regulatory responses considering the environmental benefits of this technology. It is also argued that a number of environmental effects have not yet been quantified and more research is needed in this direction.

The paper reports a coverage study in the field of vegetable insecticides. The coverage of AGRICOLA, BIOSIS and CHEMCON databases is compared with an in‐house manual system of a specialised information unit. The three databases produced a total of 1477 references on the subject, of which 1342 references were considered to be relevant. The total overlap figure between the databases was 393 references. The manual system produced a total of 1307 relevant references. There was an overlap between the manual system and the on‐line databases of 355 references. The computer searches produced 987 references which were not retrieved manually. The manual searches yielded 952 references. The on‐line searching has performed a useful retrieval function. This type of searching can be particularly useful where comprehensive coverage is required.

This research examines the association of physical development density, prevalence and types of microbes in colonized façade finishes of buildings in Enugu metropolis, Nigeria.

Survey and experimental research designs were adopted. A total of 383 buildings were investigated with samples collected from those with colonized façade finishes. The microbes were identified using the standard procedure for genomic sequencing with descriptive statistics, and the chi-square test used to analyse the data.

The results revealed a 64% prevalence of microbial colonization and a significant association between this and physical development density with 71.0% of the colonized buildings located in high-density neighbourhoods of the metropolis. The sequencing also showed 24 different microbes with Trichophyton tonsurans, Trichophyton mentagrophytes and Trichoderma harzianum species being the most common in the colonized façade finishes.

The research informs building professionals and owners of the specific microbes involved in the colonization of façade finishes of buildings in high-density urban areas. It also provides a clue about the nature of damages and defects associated with microbial colonization of building façades and the type of biocide additives required for the production of microbial-resistant façade finishes in the hot-humid tropical environment of Nigeria and beyond.

The study has shown that there is a significant relationship between the intensity of urban land use and microbial colonization of façade finishes of buildings. It also identified some new or less known microbes responsible for the biodeterioration of façade finishes and the effects this has on the buildings and public health in the hot-humid tropics of Enugu, Southeast Nigeria.