Applied Botany

The purpose of this study was to characterize plantain banana cropping systems on peasant farms near Kisangani, DR Congo. In order to achieve the expected results, a survey based on a semi-structured questionnaire was done among 60 farmers and banana fields. In addition to the interview with the farmers, a direct observation was also made in the fields of plantain banana in order to complete the information obtained from the farmers. The results obtained indicate that agriculture is the main survival activity and plantain banana rest the priority crop that takes place mainly in primary or secondary forests. For majority of plantain banana farmers, the fields are burned and occupy from 2 to 3 ha. In terms of types of cropping, polyculture is largely used by the majority of plantain banana producers and the plantain-maize, plantain-cassava and plantain-rice are the most frequent intercropping in the area. Compared to the field duration of plantain banana, the maximum time is 5 years and the techniques adopted by the farmers to maintain the plantain are regular maintenance of the field and destruction of diseased or attacked plants, maintenance of certain standing trees and accumulation of plant debris around the tuft.

The palm sap of Palmyrah tree (Borassus flabellifer) can be used as a source to produce bioethanol. The Palmyrah trees are distributed naturally in tropical and subtropical regions. These trees can be grown on very arid areas. The most important product of the Palmyrah tree is the palm sap. This sap is collected by the processes of tapping. The palm sap is a cheap renewable agricultural resource, which can be used for ethanol production. The potential of using the Palmyrah tree grown in India for producing bioethanol was evaluated. Tube method of extraction was introduced to extract palm sap and the yield was compared with the traditional method of extraction. The tube method of extraction gives 30% greater yield. Production of Bioethanol at the laboratory scale from palm sap was studied. The fresh palm sap fermented by air born microorganism yielded 3.5% (v/v) ethanol. The yield of ethanol has enhanced when the palm sap was fermented with the yeast strain MTCC171 with the maximum yield of 7% (v/v). Further the dilution of palm sap yielded a maximum of 12% (v/v) ethanol. The ethanol extracted from palm sap can be used as biofuel.

Biochemical studies of the individual plant parts is a necessary prerequisite in order to evaluate their importance in the over all metabolism of the plant .The use of traditional medicines and medicinal plants in most developing countries, is basis for the maintenance of good health. Laboratory evaluations were made to assess the phytochemical screening and quantification of primary metabolites in Withania somnifera and Sida cordifolia. It contains higher soluble sugars in leaves, starch in stem, lipid in stem, phenol in leaves as compared to other parts of the plant. Cellular damage or oxidative injury arising from free radicals or reactive oxygen species (ROS) now appears to be the fundamental mechanism underlying a number of human neurodegenerative disorders.

Cucumis melo L. is monoecious climber, commonly growing weed, belonging to family cucurbitaceae. Whole plant of C. melo is medicinally important. Plant pacifies vitiated dysentery, diarrhoeic diseases, flatulene, skin diseases, antivenin and general debility. Dispending medicinally uses, our study have been found that this weeds has mosquito repellent activities. To determine repellant activities petroleum ether fruit extract of C. melo was used against the larvae of Culex quinquefasciatus. The Larval mortality was observed after 24h exposure and highest larval mortality was found in petroleum ether fruit extract of C. melo.

Seed dressing with latex of Calotropis procera with oil seed cakes of neem/margosa (Azadirachta indica), castor (Ricinum communis), mustard (Brassica compestris), rocket salad/duan (Eruca sativa) were found to be highly effective in reducing the multiplication of nematodes and eventually increased growth and bulk density of woody stem of pigeonpea. The multiplication rate of nematodes was less in presence latex seed dressing. Damage caused by the nematodes was further reduced when seed dressing was along with oil-cakes.

The aim of the study was to investigate and compare antibacterial and antifungal activity of leaves extract taken from four different plants Quisqualis indica Linn., Calotropis procera Ait., Achyranthes aspera Linn., and Ocimum sanctum Linn. against ten microorganisms comprising of five bacteria (Bacillus subtilis, Enterobacter aerogenes, Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Pseudomonas aeruginosa) and five fungi (Alternaria porri, Aspergillus flavus, Aspergillus niger, Aspergillus oryzae, Penicillium chrysogenum) using well diffusion method. The in vitro study revealed that methanol extract was more effective than aqueous extract. Leaf extracts of Quisqualis indica Linn. and Achyranthes aspera Linn. was reported to be more effective on fungal species and on contrary leaf extracts of Calotropis procera Ait. and Ocimum sanctum Linn. was found more effective on bacterial species.

Water scarcity and drought are the main constraints of crop production. Many technologies have been developed to cope with this environmental problem. So improve crop production under limited amount of available water is a measure issue to maximize the return by unit of water (water productivity). To achieve the aforementioned objectives, two field experiments were carried out in the Experimental Farm of National Research Centre Shalkan Kalubia during the winter seasons of 2006/ 2007 and 2007/2008 to study the effect of seed inoculation with (phosphorine and cerealine) on the yield and yield components of some barley cultivars (Giza 126, Giza 130 and Giza 2000) subjected to water stress at different stages of growth (at tillering or milk- ripe stage), Data indicate that, water stress at any stage of growth (tillering or milk- ripe stage) depress most of the studied yield and yield attributes .Such effect was pronounced when barley plants were subjected to water deficit at milk- ripe stage. Dual application of biofertilizer (phosphorine and cerealine) improved yield and yield attributes of barley plants as compared with un-inoculated plants. The data also show that biofertilizers inoculation alleviate the adverse effect of water stress on barley yield. The results indicated that Giza 126 produced the highest grain yield and seed index

Cola is a tropical tree crop that belongs to the family Sterculiaceae. Phostocin is a preservative chemical used by farmers to store Cola nitida nuts which is considered unsafe to human health when consumed. Fresh C. nitida nuts of different weights (1-10g, 11-20g and above 21g) and colours (pink, red and white) were obtained from Cocoa Research Institute of Nigeria, Ibadan Oyo State. The Nuts were cured for 12weeks with botanicals. These Nuts were oven dried at 700C for 2 days, ground into powder for phytochemical and enzymatic analysis. Data were subjected to Analysis of variance. The leaf of T. grandis had highest values in alkaloid (4.76 g/100g), flavonoid (0.41 g/100g) and theobromine (0.004g/100g) while M. paradisiaca recorded the lowest values for phytochemical analyzed. Cola nitida nuts recorded the highest values in tannin (3.49g/100g), saponin (3.45g/100g), flavonoid (2.46g/100g), anthraquinone (5.19g/100g), caffeine (4.29g/100g) and polyphenol (1.65g/100g) when preserved with T. grandis and the least was obtained for phostocin in red C. nitida nut above 21g. Also, red C. nitida nut above 21g preserved with T. grandis recorded the highest values in catalase (0.154 mg/NaBO3.4H2O/min/g protein), cellulase (0.125 mg/glucose/min/g protein), total amylase (0.141 mg/glucose/min/g protein) and proteinase (0.121 mg/tyrosine/min/g protein) and lowest values obtained in phostocin. Decreased in enzymes activities and phytochemical content were observed in different colours as the number of weeks increases. In conclusion, the use of botanicals as a preservative material to cure kola nuts is better and safe for consumption than phostocin which the farmers are currently using.

In this study, we used ten medicinal plants (Azima tetracantha Lam. (Salvadoraceae ), Corchorus aestuans Linn.(Tiliaceae), Garcinia mangostana Linn. (Guttiferae), Guazama ulmifolia Lam. (Sterculiaceae), Cardiospermum halicacabumLinn. (Sapindaceae), Pimenta dioica Lindl.(Myrtaceae), Phyla nodifera (L) E.Greene (Verbenaceae), Scoparia dulcis Linn. (Scrophulariaceae), Croton bonplandianus Baillon (Euphorbiaceae), and Clerodendrum inerme Linn. (Verbenaceae) were screened for its potential antibacterial activity against clinically important microbial pathogens like Staphylococcus aureus, Streptococcus pyogenes, E. coli, Proteus mirabilis, Salmonella typhi, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Klebsiella pneumoniae. The antimicrobial activity was determined in organic (Petroleum ether, Benzene and Chloroform), alcoholic (methanol) and aqueous extracts of these ten medicinal plants. The aqueous extracts showed minimum antimicrobial activity when compared to other extracts. The methanolic extracts of P.dioica showed the maximum activity against Staphylococcus aureus. The present study suggested that these medicinal plants represent may be used to find bioactive compounds from natural products that might lead to the development of new drugs against bacterial diseases.

One of the most important wheat breeding strategies under Mediterranean climate is to achieve genotypes that are potentially capable of producing desirable yield while encountering water limitation during their flowering stage. With the aim to investigate such an important issue, we planted 12 bread wheat genotypes in research farm of Islamic Azad University, Ardabil Branch, as randomized complete blocks design (RCBD), during 2008-09 cropping year. This section of the study addresses traits such as plant height, day’s number to heading, days number to anthesis, fertile tiller number, spike length, spike weight, grain number per spike, grain weight per spike, 1000 grain weight and grain yield. Estimating the phenotypic and genotypic coefficient for various traits revealed that the studied genotypes were genetically more variable in terms of traits such as plant height, spike length, grain number per spike and grain weight per spike, 1000 grain weight and days to heading than in terms of other traits. Cluster analysis divided the studied genotypes into two categories. Mean of square between the categories was significant for all traits except for grain yield, spike length and date of heading. The inheritability of yield components was higher than that of grain yield.