Journal of Applied and Natural Science
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Development of unique buttermilk by incorporation of Moringa
Get PDFThe present investigation was aimed at formulating a fermented beverage with incorporation of Moringa Pod Powder (MPP) to develop therapeutic buttermilk. Dahi (prepared from standardized milk) mesophilic/ thermophilic dahi culture. Optimisation of the product formulation was done by using Response Surface Methodolo-gy (RSM) with central composite rotatable design (CCRD) with varying levels of MPP, total milk solids (TMS) in but-termilk and acidity of dahi. It was found that 5.60 % TMS, 0.90 % acidity of dahi and 1.92 % MPP gave the most acceptable product with a desirability of 0.917 which is very high. From amongst various stabilizers, it was found that a blend of 0.04 % pectin and 0.015 % carrageenan most suitable and addition of salt, sugar and spices blend @ 0.5 %, 4.0 %, 0.5% respectively were most acceptable. The proximate chemical composition of Moringa Pod Buttermilk (MPBM) was 11.77 % total solids, 1.51 % protein, 1.84 % fat and 0.89 % ash. One serving size (300 g) of MPBM could be an "excellent source of calcium" having 21 % Daily Value (DV). The product could be labelled as "a good source of Vitamin A, calcium and iron" providing 10, 18 and 11 % DV respectively. MPBM was found to have consid-erable amount of Potassium and Vitamin C and fiber (9.0, 9.0 and 6.5 % DV respectively). The shelf-life of the prod-uct was 20 days under refrigeration (7±2?C). The developed product is rich in fiber and iron, that is conventionally deficient in milk and hence makes the developed product complete food
Storage effects on flour quality of commonly consumed cereals
Get PDFThe present investigation was conducted to study the effect of storage period on flour quality of wheat, maize and pearl millet. Their flour were stored at 15 °C and 82 % relative humidity RH for one month and changes in fat acidity (FA), activities of peroxidase (POX), lipoxygenase (LOX) and polyphenol oxidase (PPO) in control and stored flour along with change in pH of water extract of flour were monitored. Increase in FA (mg KOH/100 g d.m.) and decrease in pH of flour was maximal in pearl millet (287.5 mg KOH/100 g d.m. and 0.4) followed by maize (151 mg KOH/100 g d.m. and 0.23) and wheat (61 mg KOH/100 g d.m. and 0.1) respectively. A decline in activity of POX, LOX and PPO was observed during storage. Pearl millet flour possessed almost double activity of POX (413 Units/g d.m.) in comparison to wheat (198 Units/g d.m.) and 1.3 fold higher than that of maize (153 Units/g d.m.) and even after decrease activity of POX was higher in flour of pearl millet compared to the other two. However, activity of LOX and PPO was found to be comparable in fresh flour of pearl millet, maize and wheat. Since pearl millet has poor shelf life and increase in FA, decrease in pH and activity of POX was found to be very high in pearl millet (poor shelf life) as compared to wheat and maize, therefore, these selected parameters might be used as biochemical markers to determine shelf life of flour
Growth of mango (Mangifera indica L.) rootstocks as influenced by pre-sowing treatments
Get PDFAn experiment was carried out at Navsari Agricultural University, Navsari during 2014 to evaluate the effect of pre-sowing treatments on survival percentage and growth of mango rootstocks. Mango stones were soaked in aqueous solutions of GA3 (100 and 200 ppm), Beejamruth (2 % and 3 %) and Thiourea (1 % and 2 %) for 12 and 24 hours. The trial was evaluated in Completely Randomized Design based on factorial concept and the treatments were replicated thrice. Imposition of treatments led to significant differences at 5 % level of significance for all parameters chosen in this study. Mango stones when treated with Thiourea at 1 % had the maximum shoot length (49.93 cm), root length (34.38 cm), shoot dry weight (21.08 g) and total dry weight (26.36 g). The highest number of lateral roots (10.90) and survival percentage (64.17) was observed in mango stones dipped in 100 ppm GA3. Between the two soaking duration, soaking mango stones for 24 hours recorded higher values for shoot length (45.03 cm), root length (32.79 cm), number of lateral roots (9.83), survival percentage (62.72), shoot root fresh weight ratio (4.30), shoot dry weight (21.33 g), total dry weight (26.28 g) and shoot root dry weight ratio (4.32). Thus, survival percentage and growth of mango rootstocks can be substantially improved by soaking mango stones in aqueous solutions of 100 ppm GA3 or Thiourea at 1 % for 24 hours before sowing
Influence of growth, yield and quality of guava (Psidium guajava L.) by drip irrigation and fertigation
Get PDFA study was conducted during 2010-2015 at Central Institute of Agricultural Engineering, Bhopal, to find out effect of irrigation and fertigation scheduling on growth, yield and quality of guava (Psidium guajava ). The ex-periments were laid out in factorial randomized block design with six treatment combinations which include three irrigation level (100, 80 and 60 %) along with two fertigation level (100 and 75 % water soluble fertilizers) and repli-cated thrice. The nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium fertilizers were applied through fertigation as well as soil ap-plication to test various attributes of five six old guava cv. L-49. The investigation indicated that the maximum plant height, Periphery of rootstock, yield per plant (kg/plant) and yield (t/ha) were higher under D1F1 (100 % irrigation with 100 % fertigation) followed by D2F1 (80 % irrigation with 100 % fertigation) and minimum under D3F2 (60 % irrigation with 75 % fertigation). Interaction effect was non-significant at 0.05 % level due to plant height (3.90 m) and Periphery of rootstock (26.26 cm) but significantly influenced by yield per plant (27.65 kg/plant) and yield (7.65 t/ha). Physico-chemical properties like fruit diameter (6.76 cm), fruit weight (182.10 g) and pulp weight (134.38 g) were significantly at 0.05 % due to different irrigation and fertigation level as well as interaction effects but fruit length (7.45 cm), TSS (13.22 %) and ascorbic acid (54.32 mg/100 g pulp) were non-significant due to different level of irri-gation and fertigation as well as interaction effect
A stochastic frontier and corrected Ordinary Least Square models of determining technical efficiency of canal irrigated paddy farms in Tamil Nadu
Get PDFA comparative study between Stochastic frontier production function and corrected Ordinary Least Square (OLS) were estimated to determine technical efficiency in paddy production. Further, the study has assessed the effect of farm specific socio economic factors affecting the technical efficiency. This study was conducted in Cauvery delta zone of seven taluks about canal irrigation. The number of farmers in canal irrigated region about 109 from seven taluks is considered. The data were obtained from the cost of cultivation scheme of Tamil Nadu centre. The results of Cobb Douglas stochastic production function indicated that fertilizer, seed, pesticide and machine hours significantly influenced yield of paddy. The results also indicated that it will be highly profitable to increase the use of seed, and need to rationalize the labour use and pesticide usage. The effect of qualitative variable namely age and education of the farmer would indicate that the older farmers technical efficiency become less compared to the younger farmer, and also implying that investments on human capital take away their participation from agriculture. As a comparative study in general, COLS produced the lowest mean technical efficiency with 85 percent while the Stochastic frontier analysis produced the highest mean technical efficiency with 90 per cent
Evaluation of micronutrient status of sandy clay loam as influenced by sulphur fertilization on blackgram
Get PDFSecondary nutrient deficiency especially sulphur (S) in blackgram has imparted poor grain setting percentage and yield as well. Interest on S availability in soils has increased due to acute shortage production of quality blackgram. Therefore, an attempt was made to assess the three SO4-2- S sources (Gypsum, Ammonium sulphate and Potassium sulphate) and two S levels (10 and 20 kg S ha-1) under irrigated condition. This experimental trial was replicated three times along with randomized block design at farmer field of Thenamallur village, T. Kallikudi block, Madurai district. S treatments were also evaluated by two methods of fertilizer amendment such as, soil application (as basal dose) and foliar spray (0.5 % K2SO4) on 30th and 45th days after sowing and its combinations. Soil analysis is good method to assess the S nutritional status of soil under tropical areas. The results revealed that the S and micronutrient content was low in single soil application or foliar spray and irrespective of source and level. Foliar spray treatment plants recovered limited S concentration. We could found that the better higher S concentration among the combination treatments. Soil application of K2SO4 @ 20 kg ha-1 + foliar spray was increased the soil available S and DTPA - extractable Micronutrient (Zn, Fe, Mn and Cu) status. Our study explains that the treatment combinations had synergistic effect and it may be concluded that the combinations (soil + foliar spray) are increased soil available S and micronutrient status. Further, future studies are required to confirm the results of S fertilizers in alkaline soil
Evaluation of economical and rapid method of plant DNA extraction for PCR analysis of different crops
Get PDFIn the recent genomic era, polymerase chain reaction (PCR) has become a basic tool in molecular studies and the success of PCR depends upon the template DNA. PCR technique is quite robust and often unnecessary to extract high quality of DNA and hence crude DNA can be used as template for amplification. Therefore, we have evaluated NaOH-Tris DNA extraction method for PCR analysis because this is very simple, time saving and safe without the need to use expensive or rare materials and laboratory apparatus. This method only requires a small amount of leaf tissue, NaOH, Tris, micro tube and plastic pestle. The amplified PCR products showed clear, sharp and uniform bands gave similar results as compared with the modified CTAB method. The DNA obtained is crude contains impurities like protein, RNA but these impurities did not affect PCR amplification. This DNA extraction method is evaluated for brinjal (Solanummelongena L.), chilli (Capsicum annuum L.), rice (Oryza sativa L.) and tomato (Solanumlycopersicum L.) crop. Many other crop plants could also be amplified using the same DNA extraction method for molecular analysis of large samples. Thus, the use of NaOH-Tris method will allow researchers to obtain DNA from plant quickly for use in molecular studies
Evaluation of thermotolerant rhizobacteria for multiple plant growth promoting traits from pigeonpea rhizosphere
Get PDFPGPR strains exhibiting optimum functional traits at high temperature and are compatible with Rhizobium can be used in pigeonpea as biofertilizer. A total of 45 rhizobacterial isolates were isolated from 13 different locations of pigeonpearhizospheric soil of Punjab. Out of the 45 isolates, 5 isolates selected on the basis of maximum growth at 30°C and 40°C were morphologically and biochemically characterized, belonging to genera Pseudomonas (P-6, P-9) and Bacillus (P-30, P-31, P-32). Selected isolates were further evaluated for the production of IAA, GA, SA and flavonoids. IAA production was estimated in the range from 0.45-25.13 ?g/ml and 4.62-34.34 ?g/ml in the presence of tryptophan at 30 and 40°C respectively. Maximum gibberellic acid production was recorded with P-30 (108.99 ?g/ml and 112.12 ?g/ml) at 30 and 40°C respectively. Similarly maximum salicylic acid was also estimated with P-30 (157.2 ?g/ml) followed by P-31 (141.0 ?g/ml) at 40°C. All the isolates were also found to produce flavonoids ranged from 2.98 - 4.40 ?g/ml at 40 °C. Isolates P-30, P-31 showed superior production of growth hormones and flavonoid-like compounds can further be tested under the field conditions to enhance growth and yield of pigeonpea
Piperine content variation in different Piper longum germplasms of North East India determined through RP-HPLC method
Get PDFThe present experiment was conducted at Assam Agricultural University, Jorhat with ten accessions including check variety of Piper Longum germplasm collected from different states of North Eastern region during 2013-14 and 2014-15.The piperine, a major alkaloid used in different therapeutic treatment, per cent content was determined from dried plant materials. Deionised water was used throughout the experiment and the chromatographic separation was carried out in an isocratic elution mode on RP-18 column with 5?m particle size, 4.6mm internal diameter and 250mm length. The mobile phase was a mixture of methanol and water (80: 20). The solvent flow rate was 1.0 ml/minwith injection volume 20 µL. The photo diode array detector wavelength was set at 342 nm for the identification of piperine in all extracts. The per cent piperine content in extract was found to be 42.36 per cent in germplasm PLJ-30.The highest per cent piperine content in fruit was recorded in PLJ-11(7.85%) followed by germplasm PLJ-9 (7.64) and significantly superior over check variety“Viswam”(5.15%). The descending order of piperine content in fruits among germplasm was PLJ-11?PLJ-09?PLJ-30?PLJ-17? PLJ-03? PLJ-19? check variety?PLJ-01? PLJ-20 and PLJ-16. It can be revealed from the present experiment that piper germplasm with high piperine content has a great scope for commercial cultivation as alkaloid piperine has high demand in pharmaceutical use
Economic analysis of application of phosphorus, single and dual inoculation of Rhizobium and plant growth promoting rhizobacteria in lentil (Lens culinaris Medikus)
Get PDFThis study investigates the economic returns of lentil (Lens culinaris Medikus) by the use of phosphorus and biofertilizers [Rhizobium and plant growth promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR)] in Indian Punjab. The field experiments were conducted during Rabi 2013-14 and 2014-15 with combinations of four levels of phosphorus (0, 20, 30 and 40 kg P2O5 ha-1) and two/four biofertilizer treatments [uninoculated control and Rhizobium (LLR 12) + PGPR (RB 2)] in 2013-14, and uninoculated control, Rhizobium, PGPR and Rhizobium + PGPR in 2014-15) by replicating thrice. The use of 40 kg P2O5 ha-1 provided the highest gross returns whereas net returns and B:C were highest at 30 kg P2O5 ha-1. The combination of Rhizobium + PGPR + 40 kg P2O5 ha-1 provided the highest gross returns (Rs. 45902) whereas Rhizobium + PGPR+ 20 kg P2O5 ha-1 provided the highest net returns (Rs 20620). Furthermore, the integrated use of Rhizobium + PGPR + 20 kg P2O5 ha-1 provided higher net returns (Rs 20620) and B:C (1.88) as compared to sole application of 40 kg P2O5 ha-1 (Rs 18792 and 1.72). Thus, there was a net saving of 20 kg P2O5 ha-1 with the use of Rhizobium + PGPR inoculation without sacrificing the economics returns