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Evaluation of the wound healing activity of twelve herbal and non-herbal remedies used in Sana'a-Yemen for the treatment of wounds and burns
Get PDFWound healing is a complex process of integrated and overlapping phases resulting in the restoration of structural and functional integrity of injured tissues. Wounds and burn wounds represent a significant burden on the patients and health care professionals worldwide. There is still an obvious lack of suitable wound healing drugs since most of the available products can have some side effects and limitations. Traditional medicine has been practiced by the indigenous people of Yemen from antiquity until today. However, many of herbal and non-herbal products, used for wounds treatment, have not been the subject of any scientific investigation. Hence, the aim of this study was to document and scientifically evaluate the claimed wound healing efficiency of twelve herbal and non-herbal remedies (nine plants, one mineral (potassium alum), one marine product (cuttlefish bone) and one animal product (honey) used in Sana’a by indigenous people to treat wounds and burns. Searching electronic databases has indicated various experimental studies demonstrating four distinct pharmacological activities (anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, antimicrobial activities and promoting various phases of wound healing) displayed by the raw materials, extracts, chemical groups and some isolated compounds of the studied herbal and non-herbal remedies. Moreover, it has been found that the studied remedies do not produce serious side effects and can be considered generally safe upon appropriate topical usage. This study provides scientific data that support the wound healing efficiency of the studied remedies and thus lend some scientific justification for their traditional use in Sana’a for the treatment of wounds and burns. These herbal and non-herbal remedies can be considered as leads for future materials for wound healing and therefore further experimental and clinical studies are required to validate their effectiveness and safety
Phytochemical screening, antioxidant activity and toxicity of the orchids Prosthechea cochleata and Prosthechea livida-A preliminary study
Get PDFPhytochemical composition, antioxidant, and toxic effects of two orchid (Prosthechea cochleata and Prosthechea livida) were examined in their different hexane and dichloromethane/methanol extracts of leaves, pseudobulbs, rhizome and roots. Phytochemical screening reveals the presence of alkaloids, coumarins, flavonoids, saponins, steroids and terpenes except for anthracene derivatives in P. livida and tannins in both species. Results showed exhibited significant toxicity against brine shrimp with an LC50 values ranged from 3 to 54 µg/ml in 24 h. Finally, the results of the antioxidant test in yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) showed that CH2Cl2:MeOH extract of P. cochleata root extract presented the most efficient protective antioxidant percentage (%PA), with 20 µg/mL, displaying a cell viability of 68.58%. In P. livida case, rhizome extract presented the most efficient %PA, with 1000 µg/mL, with a cell viability of 65.82%. The results evidenced the toxicity of Prosthechea cochleata and Prosthechea livida and reveals potential antioxidative of extracts
Varietal Evaluation of date palm (Phoenix dactylifera L.) in Kachchh, India
Get PDFDate palm (Phoenix dactylifera L.) is one of the important fruit crops of semi-arid regions of the western border of India with Kachchh district of Gujarat comprising of the highest area and production. The majority of the plantations in this area are seed propagated, resulting in high variability and irregular orchards. For systematic planting, a variety of desired quality is required for which this experiment was laid out in 2007 to evaluate five promising varieties viz., Barhee, Halawy, Khunezi, Khalas and Selection-3 in an RBD design, replicated four times. Evaluation of all these varieties was done during 2016-18 when all the plants came into regular bearing. Observations with respect to vegetative characters, yield attributing characters, duration of fruit harvesting and fruit characters were recorded and finally varieties were compared with a scorecard to identify the best variety for commercial cultivation. After the evaluation, it was found that Barhee performed best among the cultivars compared and is suitable for commercial cultivation in the Gujarat state of India
Validation of organic management in cassava intercropped in coconut plantation in the humid coastal tropics of Kerala, India
Get PDFCrop diversification and alternatives like organic farming assume importance for sustainable food production, especially during climate change. Besides, organic farming enables environmentally benign and clean food production. Cassava, an important food-cum-nutritional security crop with diversified uses in feed and industrial sectors, is a common intercrop in coconut plantations. On-station field experiments at ICAR-Central Tuber Crops Research Institute (ICAR-CTCRI), Thiruvananthapuram conclusively proved that organic management promoted productivity, tuber quality and soil properties in cassava. Cost-effective technologies were also developed, which required large scale field validation. Hence, a field experiment was conducted under Network Project on Organic Horticulture during 2015-2017 at the Research Farm, ICAR-Central Plantation Crops Research Institute, Kasaragod, to validate the ICAR-CTCRI developed organic farming technologies in cassava under intercropping in an organically raised mature coconut garden. Three varieties of cassava (Sree Vijaya, Vellayani Hraswa and H-165) were tested under four production systems viz., traditional, conventional, integrated and organic, and replicated thrice in split-plot design in a 48-year-old coconut (var. Kera Keralam) garden. Organic and conventional practices were equally efficient in crop growth, yield, tuber quality and soil chemical properties. Averaging over the years, yield under organic management was 76 per cent of conventional farming. The domestic and industrial varieties of cassava performed similarly under the different production systems, with almost the same yield reduction (24%) under organic over conventional management. The organic technology package comprising farmyard manure, green manure cowpea, cassava crop residue and biofertilizers, resulted in significantly higher available N in soil and improvement in P, K, Mg, Mn and Zn contents in cassava tubers. However, cassava var. Vellayani Hraswa under an integrated production system resulted in the highest net income (` 1,97,830 ha-1) and B:C ratio (1.99) when intercropped in coconut
Population dynamics of exotic rugose spiralling whitefly, Aleurodicus rugioperculatus Martin (Hemiptera: Aleyrodidae) on coconut as influenced by weather factors and natural enemies
Get PDFThe rugose spiralling whitefly, Aleurodicus rugioperculatus Martin is a new exotic pest occurring in several crops including coconut since 2016 in India. Due to variation in the agro-climatic conditions of different regions, arthropods show varying trends in their incidence also in nature and extent of damage to the crop. Besides, abiotic factors also play a key role in determining the incidence and dominance of a particular pest and their natural enemies in a crop ecosystem. The population dynamics of new exotic whitefly species, A. rugioperculatus and their associated natural enemies was assessed on five-year-old Chowghat Orange Dwarf coconut trees at Coconut Farm of Tamil Nadu Agricultural University. The study indicated that RSW was found throughout the year on coconut and the observation recorded on weekly interval basis shows that A. rugioperculatus population escalated from the first week of July 2018 (130.8 nymphs/leaf/frond) reaching the maximum during the first week of October (161.0 nymphs/leaf/frond) which subsequently dwindled to a minimum during April. The parasitisation by E. guadeloupae on RSW ranged from 31.60 percent in Aug. 2018 to 57.60 percent in December 2018. The association of biotic and abiotic factors with A. rugioperculatus population showed a negative correlation with E. guadeloupae and C. montrouzieri. There was a significant positive correlation between maximum temperature and minimum temperature as well as relative humidity. However, rainfall showed a negative correlation with A. rugioperculatus population
Host status and disease threshold of Rhizoctonia solani and Fusarium solani on Salvia hispanica L. and its suitability as a rotational crop to Nicotiana tabacum L.
Get PDFThe study was done following the continued outbreaks of problematic diseases in the production of tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum L.) in Zimbabwe which amongst the problematic ones are Rhizoctonia solani and Fusarium solani. The experiment was conducted at Marondera University of Agriculture Science and Technology in Zimbabwe, aiming to evaluate the suitability of Chia as a rotational crop to tobacco. Chia is a seed oil producing legume crop which is regarded the most suitable in rotation with tobacco at the moment because of its monetary benefit to the farmer hence will encourage crop rotation. An experiment was set up with two trials in three growing seasons arranged in a complete block design. Fusarium solani five treatments were used one control and four other different rates of inoculum 2.5g,3.5g, 5.5g and 7.5g/10ml of Distilled water and Rhizoctonia solani five treatments were used with a control and four other different inoculations rates inoculated at 0.1g, 0.2g, 0.4g and 0.6g/10ml Distilled water. Data collection was based on the disease severity scale and index of Chia, and also histochemical parameters which were hydrogen peroxide content and malonaldehyde content. There was significant (p < 0.05) differences between the different inoculation rates of all the measured parameters under the distinct diseases. Hence Chia cannot be rotated with tobacco even under low levels of disease threshold within the soil, unless proper and intensive management practices are put in place
Comparison of Near-infrared Spectroscopy with other options for total carotenoids content phenotyping in fresh cassava roots
No full textThis study compared the relationship of different phenotyping methods including iCheckTM CAROTENE (iCheck), Chromameter, colour chart and visible/near-infrared spectroscopy (Vis/NIRS) used in quantifying total carotenoids content (TCC) in fresh cassava roots. Using a total of 194 cassava clones harvested from the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), Ibadan, we compared the repeatability precision, accuracy of measurement and correlations of these phenotyping methods. From the results, Vis/NIRS-analyzed TCC had high and positive correlations with Chromameter and Color chart (r = 0.91 and 0.71, respectively). On the other hand, the result revealed somewhat moderate correlation (r = 0.67) between Vis/NIRS and iCheck measurements. Vis/NIRS, iCheck and chromameter methods gave high and nearly equal heritability estimates (0.95, 0.98 and 0.98, respectively) illustrating high repeatability precision of these methods; an indication that they can be used for germplasm selection in the early stages of breeding. Conversely, with Bland-Altman plot at 95% confidence level, the accuracy of iCheck was not comparable with that of Vis/ NIRS. The information derived from this analysis directly contributes towards the genetic improvement of root quality traits in cassava and facilitates the sharing of data across cassava breeding consortium
An anatomical screening of white jute accessions for fibre content
Get PDFThe present study was conducted to evaluate the performance of 24 advanced lines of white jute and four check varieties ( CVL-1, CC-45, BJRI Deshi Pat-7 & BJRI Deshi Pat-8) for screening out high yielding and better quality fibre through an anatomical approach at JAES, Manikganj. The experiment was conducted in randomly complete block design (RCBD) with three replications. The cultivars revealed significant differences among them for all the characters with range of variability. The highest bark thickness (2.32 mm) was noticed by the accession C-5036 which performed significantly better than the two checks and lowest was recorded by C-5126 (1.07 mm). The variety BJRI Deshi Pat-8 observed significantly the highest number of pyramid (54.13) whereas the lowest was recorded by the varieties BJRI Deshi Pat-7 (28.23). The accession C-5117 showed significantly the highest number of layer (10.29) whereas the variety, BJRI Deshi Pat-7 showed significantly lowest number of layer (6.32). The accession C-2305(92.37) and C-12221 (91.19) significantly showed top two number of fibre bundle, however, the lowest number of fibre bundle was recorded by BJC-5105(42.79). The largest area of pyramid was observed by the accession C-5036 (46.85 sq. mm) whereas the lowest was showed by BJC-5105 (14.50 sq. mm). The differences between Phenotypic Coefficient of Variation (PCV) and Genotypic Coefficient of Variation (GCV) were little for all the characters indicating these characters were less influenced by the environment. Heritability and genetic advance (GA) were high for number of pyramid, number of fibre, bundle and Area of pyramid (sq.mm). Three accessions(C-12221, C-2305, C-5036) are showed the best performance than other accession on our screening program. These accessions are included in cluster V among the five clusters which exhibit the highest performance in all parameter except number of pyramid and may be used in further hybridization of jute
Essential oil and thymol of ajwain as effective antioxidant agents
No full textAjwain is an essential herbal plant with many health and medicinal values. Quantitative phytochemical analysis of ajwain was carried out to determine total phenolic compounds, flavonoids, saponins and tannin content. The phytochemical contents were in the order saponins > tannins > flavonoids > phenolics. Essential oil was extracted and chromatographed for the major constituent thymol which was further characterized with spectral techniques. Further, role of essential oil of ajwain seeds and its major compound thymol for antioxidant activity in respect of total antioxidant capacity and free radical scavenging potential were worked out. Out of thymol and ajwain oil, former was found to be more effective antioxidant at all tested concentrations. Inhibition concentrations (IC50) of oil, thymol and ascorbic acid were found to be 1.87, 1.46 and 0.01 mg mL-1, respectively. Results suggest that ajwain and thymol can be used as natural substitutes to synthetic antioxidants in preservation of various food products
Morpho-Anatomical Characterisation of the Rhizomes of Ten Species of Curcuma L. (Zingiberaceae) from south India
Get PDFThe morphological and anatomical characterisation of ten medicinally and economically important species of Curcuma L. from South India namely, C. aeruginosa (neela-kua), C. amada (manga-inchi), C. aromatica (kasturi-manjal), C. aurantiaca, C. caesia (kari-manjal), C. haritha (karpura-kua), C. longa (manjal), C. montana, C. zanthorrhiza (manja-kua) and C. zedoaria (chenthandan-kua) were studied and compared. Eventhough, all the species show similarity in their characters, striking differences were noticed with respect to morphological characters such as shape and size of mother rhizome and lateral branches, colour of the cut surface, aroma and taste of rhizomes etc. Differences were also observed in some anatomical characters such as nature of endodermoid layer, size and shape of starch grains, oil cells and curcumin cells, etc. Based on the distinct morpho-anatomical features, an artificial dichotomous key was proposed for taxonomic delimitation of the species with their rhizome