INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF LIFE SCIENCES

248-263

Authors: BHAJBHUJE, MN

Seed is a symbol and foundation of life as it is a container of embryos of a new generation and vehicle for the spread of new life. The high level seed moisture content, relative humidity and suitable temperature support the fungal microbes to contaminate essential seed components causing multi fold losses. A total of twenty seed samples of five cultivars of Lycopersicon esculentum Mill. obtained from various locations of Central India (Vidarbha), were mycologicaly analyzed by standard seed health testing technique revealed the prevalence of 49 diverse fungal species belonging to 29 genera from mixed seed samples, with higher count of species and percent incidence for Fusarium and Aspergillus followed by Curvularia (55%), Alternaria (42%) Rhizoctonia (33%) while others had moderate to low incidence. Deuteromycota contributed highest, 46.9% fungal count followed Ascomycota (38.9%); Zygomycota and Oomycota (6.1%). A least count was recorded with Basidiomycota. Aspergillus nidulans, A. sulphureus, A. ochracious, A. amstelodomi, Fusarium moniliformae, F. semitectum, Geotrichum candidus, Paecilomyces varioti, Penicillium oxalicum and Sporotrichum pulverulentum have been recorded on tomato seeds for the first time in India. Deuteromycota contributed more than half, 52.1% incidence followed by Ascomycota (35.1%); Zygomycota (5.9%) and Oomycota (5.2%) while Basidiomycota contributed little incidence. A total of 28 to 36 isolates belongs to 19 to 23 genera were confined to individual cultivar seeds. Alternaria porri, A. solani, Aspergillus flavus, A. fumigatus, A. niger, Botrytis cinera, Cladosporium tenuissium, Colletotrichum dematium, Curvularia lunata, Didymella lycopersici, Fusarium moniliformae, F. lycopersici and Phytophthora infestans were appeared to be common on seeds of all cultivars as external and internal seed borne pathogens. Drachslera rostrata, Fusarium culmorum, F. equiseti, Rhizopus stolonifer, Rhizoctonia solani were confined to blotter paper while Chaetomium globosum, Curvularia ovoides, Fusarium solani, Geotrichum candidum were restricted to agar plating. Greatest count of fungal isolates and percent incidence was recorded by blotter test against agar plating. The standard blotter technique proved superior over agar plating.

270-272

Authors: Ulhe SK, Narkhede SD

Anisomeles indica plant was collected from Dr. Panjabrao Deshmukh Krushi Vidyapeeth Agriculture Farm, Nagpur district (Maharashtra state). This plant belongs to family -Lamiaceae and is commonly known as “Gopoli” which is an evergreen aromatic, perennial, erect herb and measuring about 1.5cm in height. The stem is quadrangular, the leaves are covered by hairs and inflorescence is of verticillasters type. In the present study anatomical characters and phytochemical analysis of the leaves are reported. Anatomical characters reveal the study of leaf anatomy. Phytochemical analysis confirmed the presence of alkaloids, tannin, glycosides, carotenoids and saponin in leaves. Alkaloids showed high scores while tannins showed moderate scores but saponins indicated low scores. Aromatic oil is found in 6% in 3gm of dry weight of powder of leaves of Anisomeles indica. The present investigations concluded that the leaves of Anisomeles indica contains alkaloids>tannins> saponins >Glycosides>Carotenoids>Polyuronoids in this order, and contains double percent amount of aromatic oil. These chemicals are widely used in Ayurvedic traditional medicinal system

278-283

Authors: Neelima Bagde, Shampa Jain

This paper documents zootherapeutic practices in adjoining area of Pench National Park of Chhindwara district. The ethnozoological study was mainly conducted in the villages surrounding the Park area. It is primarily based on field survey carried out in villages, where dwellers provided information on animal species used as medicine, body parts used to prepare the remedies, and the illnesses to which the remedies were prescribed. The document tribes and rural involved in using animal parts as medicines. The animal parts namely- blood, excreta, urine, feather, fat, hair, spins, skin, flesh, bones, secretions, shell etc. were used in raw or cooked forms for the treatment of burn, fracture, sunstroke, pneumonia, rheumatism, asthma, drug addiction, antidote, fever, acidity, fit, cough and cold, tuberculosis, ear pain, allergy, diabetes, jaundice, impotency, diarrhea and dysentery, cataract, paralysis, leprosy, goiter, wound, whooping cough, stomachache, back pain. A total of 30 animal species were recorded and they are used for 41 kinds of different ethno medical purposes. Fauna is the cheapest way for cure of various health disorders

288-290

Authors: Jogdand SB, Ingole AC

Fortnightly intramural dust sample study, for two consecutive years from June 2011 to May 2013, at Pune, encountered 700 specimens of house dust mites included young ones, adult males & females and few larvae & nymphs. In all 10 genera and 12 species have been identified using authentic literature. Most of them have been found to be proved allergens causing allergy (health hazards) among sensitive persons. These investigations explored interesting findings. Some HDM like Dermatophagoides, Blomia, Acarus, Cheyletus etc. have been found to be delicate and exhibited tremendous impact of environmental parameters like temperature, relative humidity and rainfall. Moderate temperature around 25 0 C and relative humidity (RH) around 80%, indirectly aided by frequent rains played significant role in hatching of eggs, larvae and nymphs growing into adults, subsequently leading to breeding and increase in mite load of intramural environment at Pune. Colonization and in crease of mites had been found to be continued as long as optimum conditions prevailed during rainy season. These HDM have been found to be thermo sensitive and their population decreased at low (10-15 0 C) or high temperature (35 0 C& above) and low relative humidity below 25% found during winter and Summer, with little or no rain fall exhibiting adverse effects on HDM proving their thermo sensitivity and seasonal fluctuations of population dynamics following the concept of seasonal variations. While rat mites like Echinolaelapse chidninus (Berlese1887) and common rodent mite like Haemolaesaps glasgowi (Ewing,1925) (Fa:-Laelaptidae) have been recorded round the year in abundance, with minimum fluctuation in the mites population dynamics irrespective of seasons and fluctuations in environmental factors, thus disobeyed the concept of thermosensitivity. Dermatophagoides (Hughes) was dominant followed by Haemolaesaps glasgowi (Ewing, 1925), Cheyletus (Schrank), Acarus, Blomia (Bronswijk, Oshima), Caloglyphus (Zachvakin) etc. Tyrophagus was reported as fungal culture contaminant, Proctolaelaps in Drosophila culture and Dermanyssus gallinaeas poultry mite

294-296

Authors: Diwan RK

Ailanthus excelsa commonly known as ‘Mahaneem’ belongs to family ‘Simaroubaceae’ found all over India; is also a medicinal plant used as insecticides. 3% concentration of extracts of Ailanthus excelsa is found lethal toCallosobruchus maculatus Insecticidal activity, Ailanthus excelsa, Callosobruchus maculatus, chromatography

303-307

Authors: Gadekar GP

The study was conducted to determine the changes in the gonadosomatic index (GSI) of an Indian major carp, Labeo rohita. The fish has only one spawning season of short duration, running from July to August as indicated by the peaks of GSI and the diameter of oocytes and testicular lobules. Both males and females mature simultaneously. The minimum GSI for female was 0.74±0.12 in resting phase and maximum was observed in the spawning phase (16.49±1.70). The GSI for males was minimum in resting phase (0.087±0.004) and maximum in spawning phase (2.02±0.181).

313-316

Authors: Vasanth Kumar B, Roopa SV, Gangadhar BK

The present work was mainly focused on this typical biotope for the period of thirteen months from January 2008 to January 2009. An attempt has been made to describe the faunal composition, distribution and abundance at different study sites of mangrove ecosystem of kali estuary during the study period. In the present study, fourteen taxa have been identified and are grouped as follows. Foraminifera, Coelenterata, Polychaeta, Gastropoda, Bivalvia, Harpacticoida, Cumacea, Tanaidacea, Isopoda, Amphipoda, Mysidacea, Shrimps, Decapoda and Pisces. In macrobenthos, the polychaete (13–99/m2) and bivlavia (25 – 60 /m2)group contributed much to the total density of macrobenthic community at all study stations. Seasonally, this faunal community has shown greater density during the post and premonsoon seasons (953.9 & 1137.1/m2) but it was very less during the southwest monsoon season (850.9/m2).

321-327

Authors: Lihitkar Ramdas S, Lihitkar Shalini R, Waghmare Pranali

The Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) listed open access scientific and scholarly journals, that meet high quality standards by exercising peer-review or editorial quality control and are free to all from the time of publication based on the Budapest Open Access Initiative. Total 105 free online journals on Zoology were accessed through DOAJ and analyzed based on Country, Languages, Subject Headings, keywords, their accessibility and availability of Archives of online journals in Zoology. 9183 journals 4685 journals searchable at article level 119 Countries 1083902 articles 2013-05-12 DOAJ celebrates 10 years at the heart of Open Access 2013-05-02 DOAJ sponsors Accelerating Science Award Program 2013-03-12 DOAJ hits the 1 MILLION mark!

331-342

Authors: Jatinderpal Singh

The cuticle of Haemonchus contortus has on its outer surface a highly resistant epicuticle-exocortex complex possessing a substantial amount of acid mucopolysaccharides in the epicuticle and lipid in the outer cortical layer forming a permeability barrier. The longitudinal ridges found in both the sexes, pertaining to the anterior region of the body, are supported by tough resistant struts. The median layer of the cuticle from where these struts arise is well developed, whereas the basal layer is less developed and its striated nature is also not evident. Histochemically, the carbohydrates and lipids are found in high quantities in the cuticle in general. The protein is restricted to the outer cortical and median layers only. The hypodermal areas are positive for lipids and carbohydrates. Large amount of glycogen is present in the non-contractile part the muscle cells except the perinuclear spaces whereas the contractile portion contains large concentration of proteins. However, both these areas of muscle cells are negative for nucleic acid activity.