International Journal of Applied Sciences and Biotechnology

139-149

Authors: Nawaraj Gautam, Rewati Raman Bhattarai, Bal Kumari Sharma Khanal, Prakash Oli

Large cardamom (Amomum subulatum Roxb.) is an aromatic and medicinal spice native to Eastern Himalayas belonging to the family Zingiberaceae. It is used as flavoring and preservative to different types of coffee, liquors, confections, beverages and tobacco. Volatile oil (2-4%) is the principal aroma-giving compound in large cardamom and 1,8- cineole is the major active compound in an extent 60 to 80% of the total volatile oil. Alcohol and aqueous extract of large cardamom have been reported to contain allopathic, analgesic, anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial, antioxidant, antiulcer, cardio-adaptogenic and hypolipidaemic activities. Large cardamom and its powder, oleoresin and essential oils have many culinary and therapeutic uses. Objective of this review is to give short overview on the processing technology, chemistry, bioactivity and uses of large cardamom and its components.

155-160

Authors: Lila Bahadur Magar, Nisha Shrestha, Saraswoti Khadka, Jay Raj Joshi, Jibaraj Acharya, Gaurav Chandra Gyanwali, Bishnu Prasad Marasini, Sabari Rajbahak, Niranjan Parajuli

Paulownia tomentosa Steud is a fast growing multipurpose tree. In vitro propagation using nodal explants of Paulownia tomentosa was performed by manipulating amount of cytokinin and auxin in culture media. Shoot bud proliferation from explants were assessed in Murashige and Skoog (MS) medium supplemented with various amounts of hormones such as a) 0.5-2.5 mg/l benzylaminopurine (BAP) and 0.1 mg/l naphthalene acetic acid (NAA), b) 0.5-2.5 mg/l BAP and 0.5-2.5 mg/l kinetin (KN) and c) 0.5- 2.5 mg/l BAP and 0.1 mg/l indole-3-acetic acid (IAA). In the present study, we found that hormone combination of BAP and NAA gave optimum growth results. MS medium enriched with 2.0 mg/l BAP and 0.1 mg/l IAA resulted a similar outcome but took 3-4 weeks with respect to the same medium enriched with 1.0 mg/ml BAP and 0.1 mg/ml NAA, which showed response within 2-3 weeks. Shoot length of 2.5-3.5 cm with 3-4 nodes and 8-12 leaves were obtained on MS medium supplemented with 1.0 mg/l BAP and 0.1 mg/l NAA. The acclimatization of explants was done in a polyhouse at 20±5oC for 2-6 weeks. Rooting has been induced in nonsterile sand. Rooted plants were transferred to plastic bags containing mixture of soil, sand and compost in the ratio of 1:1:1. Besides aforementioned issues, there are several other challenges associated with in vitro propagation of P. tomentosa. The plants were established (90%) on MS medium enriched with BAP and NAA and adapted ex vitro with surviving up to 80%. People received an opportunity with this plant because it grows fast and can generate income in 10 years in comparison with others, but at the same time people also have been facing the challenges for plantation of P. tomentosa as government of Nepal does not formulate necessary national policies, legislations and regulatory frameworks in its favor. Thus, system should be developed to set royalty rate of P. tomentosa recognizing its lifetime value.

166-171

Authors: Binoy S Vettical

The objective of the study was to examine the fertilizability of bovine follicular oocytes from abattoir ovaries using fresh, frozen and epididymal spermatozoa from crossbred bulls in the tropics. Oocytes were cultured in maturation media TCM-199 containing 25mM HEPES, 1mM glutamine L, 2.2mg/mL sodium bicarbonate, antibiotics, 22 µg/mL pyruvate, 1µg/mL estradiol-17β, 0.5µg/mL FSH and 0.06 IU hCG and supplemented with 20% heat inactivated estrus cow serum (serum collected in early estrum) at 39oC temperature, 5% CO2 tension with maximum humidity for 24 hours. Oocytes with maximum cumulus expansion were used for in vitro fertilization. Fresh, frozen and epididymal semen from crossbred bulls was used for in vitro fertilization as treatment 1(n =1690), treatment 2(n = 1620) and treatment 3(n = 1710) respectively. Control group of oocytes (1680) were treated in the same protocol along with each treatment group of oocytes in separate in vitro fertilization drop without sperm injection. The in vitro fertilization medium consisted of Fert-TALP medium supplemented with 1µM epinephrine, 10µM hypotaurine, 20µM pencillamine and 0.56µg/ml heparin. Culture conditions set for IVF were 39oC temperature, 5% CO2 tension with maximum humidity. Oocytes showing sperm penetration evidence like presence of enlarged sperm head, male pronuclei with its accompanying sperm tail in the cytoplasm, oocytes with two pronuclei and a clear second polar body but without a sperm tail were considered as fertilized. None of the oocytes in control group showed cleavage due to parthenogenetic activation. Significantly higher results of fertilization rate (p<0.05) were observed when oocytes inseminated with epididymal spermatozoa than fresh ejaculated semen followed by frozen semen.

178-182

Authors: Achyut Gaire, Samjhana Koirala, Ram Kumar Shrestha, Lal Prasad Amgain

Rice is an important world leading cereal crop grown extensively in tropical and sub-tropical regions of the world. However, its productivity is constrained by a number of problems. Currently, cereal yields are only 40 to 65% of their potential, mostly because nutrient management does not consider crop’s dynamic response to the environment and site specific nutrition management. Therefore, a field experiment was conducted on farmer’s field at Lamjung, Sundarbazar and Bhoteodar using Nutrient Expert® rice model from July 2015 to November 2015. Four replications of 5 treatments were arranged in randomized complete block design. Five treatments were Nutrient Expert recommendation (NE hybrid), Government recommendation (GR hybrid), NE improved, GR improved and Farmers field practice (FFP). The result revealed significant difference in terms of plant height, panicle weight, filled grain/panicle, straw yield, grain yield at 15.5% moisture, biological yield and sterility %.The highest yield (7.362tonha-1) was obtained from NE hybrid field which was followed by GR hybrid (6.12tonha-1), NE improved (5.20tonha-1), FFP (4.76tonha-1) and GR improved (4.70tonha-1). While comparing Nutrient Expert® (NE) estimation for attainable rice yield with actual rice yield from the farmer field trial; NE-based fertilizer recommendations proved to be successful in reaching the yield targets estimated by the software. The actual rice yields recorded in farmer fields were higher than the NE estimated attainable yields, so NE recommendation was found better over GR and FFP.

191-197

Authors: Gamal M. Abdel-Fattah, Wafaa M. Shukry, Mahmoud M.B. Shokr, Mai A. Ahmed

This study aimed to investigate the effects of arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi with different levels of NPK fertilizers on yield production of common bean plants which common bean plants were subjected to five levels of NPK fertilizers (0, 25, 50, 75, 100 %). Application of AMF significantly increased the growth and yield components of common beans with minimized the levels of NPK comparing to equivalents non-mycorrhizal ones. The results obtained revealed that inoculation with AMF and the concentrations 50% and 75% of NPK with AMF are the greater than other concentrations and non-mycorrhizal plants. Mycorrhizal Common bean plants had significantly higher number of pods, length of one pod, pods weight, 100 seeds weight, weight of seed/plant and intensity of mycorrhizal colonization(M%) . Concentrations of nutrients (N, P, K, Ca and Mg) and total carbohydrates, crude protein and mycorrhizal dependency of some yield parameters were significantly increased in mycorrhizal plants at different NPK levels when comparing to those of non-mycorrhizal plants paticularly at (50% and 75%) concentration of NPK, but lower Na concentration in mycorrhizal common bean seeds than those of non-mycorrhizal.

203-206

Authors: R. Chongbang, P. Dongol, A. Chakrawarti, H. Khanal

Background and Objective: Children of squatter community are more prone to many infections and epidemiological studies provide to develop suitable preventive plans. Thus, the main objective of the present study was to determine the prevalence of parasitic infections among children of Squatter Community of Dharan Municipality. Methodology: Altogether 184 stool samples were collected from June 2014 to January 2015. The samples were examined using direct microscopy by saline wet mount technique in the microbiology laboratory of Sunsari Technical College, Dharan. Results: The overall prevalence of intestinal parasites was found to be 41.4% with male children more infected (45.8%) than female children (37.5%). Children between 4-8 years of age were most infected (48.1%). Among 4 species of parasites detected Ascaris lumbricoides (18.1%) was the commonest helminths and Giardia lamblia (74.02%) was the commonest protozoa. Positive rate was higher in Dalits (59.7%, 43/72) and the least in Tibeto-Burman (27.1%, 22/81) (p<0.05) ethnic groups.52.5% of children not using water and 33.6% of children using bucket water at toilet after defecation were infected. Children using soap for hand washing after defecation were less infected (32.02%) than other children (55.1%). Children taking the anti-parasitic drug in last six months had significantly low positive rate (9.3%) than others (51.7%) (p<0.05). Conclusion: High prevalence of parasitic infection was observed among children in Squatter community of Dharan Municipality. Thus, health education along with infection management actions and the awareness programs for sanitation improvements are required to reduce the parasitosis.

213-216

Authors: Yogendra Kumar Karki, Punya Prasad Regmi

Coffee is important beverages of Nepalese farming society having export potentiality for its unique characteristics as majority of coffee are grown in different microclimates with organic in nature. Production of coffee and its plantation area is in increasing trend every year. In the same situation individuals taste is changing towards coffee than other beverages and are forced to buy from different countries to meet the demand of coffee neglecting quality of Nepalese coffee. There is important role of different actors in coffee value chain and consumers play important role as they decide on the value of coffee serving after various step of processing. This study was done in Kathmandu and Lalitpur districts of Nepal to know the preferences and satisfaction level of coffee consumers. Majority of the consumers were satisfied with foreign coffee and they prefer foreign coffee mostly due to high price of Nepalese coffee and also due to lack of awareness on Nepalese coffee. Foreign peoples were found to prefer foreign coffee in comparison to Nepalese coffee (χ²= 23.02***) and generally drink three cup per day (χ²= 13.67***) while Nepalese consumer drink two cup of coffee per day on an average. The survey showed that high market price for Nepalese coffee is major reason for less consumption of Nepalese coffee.

223-227

Authors: S. Ranabhat, L.P. Amgain

A field experiment was conducted on farmer’s field at two sites of Lamjung district of Nepal viz. Bhotewodar and Sundarbazaar to evaluate the performance of two commonly grown rice varieties viz US-382(hybrid) and Ramdhan (improved) under two nutrient management practices [Nutrient Expert®(NE) rice model recommendation, and government recommendation(GR)].Four replicates of four treatments were arranged in randomized completely block design. Rice varieties responded differently under the different nutrient management practices in terms of plant height, grains per panicle, sterility%, panicle weight, grain yield at 15% moisture, straw yield and harvesting index. The highest grain yield was obtained from NE field of US-382 variety which was followed by GR for US-382, NE for Ramdhan and GR for Ramdhan variety. NE based practices for US-382 variety produced higher biological yield as compared to GR. NE estimated attainable rice yield provided by the software compared with actual rice yield from the trials in farmer’s field and NE-based fertilizer recommendations proved the validity in reaching the yield targets estimated by the software. The observed rice yields recorded in the trials were higher than the NE estimated attainable yields, so NE recommendation for US-382 variety was found better over GR.

233-235

Authors: Umema Mohsin, Madan Lowry, Ranu Sharma, Mamta Moond

The study basically focuses on hydrocarbon contamination that is caused because of bacteria present in the soil. Transport Nagar Area in Jaipur is mostly covered with garages and hence surrounded by crude oil, petrol, diesel and other fractions of crude oil. Soil and ground water are polluted with diesel fuel from leaking underground storage tanks which happens as a result of accidental spills and leakage from pipelines which causes harm to the both flora and fauna. In the study conducted the treatment samples were observed with significant difference with the control. The microbial count was maintained in the range of 3.86*104- THBP per gram soil and 1.87*103- PDBP per gram soil. The highest bacterial growth was showed after 60 days with 40% NPK because of the presence of an inorganic nutrition, bacterial activity and as a result petroleum degradation was maximum.

240-246

Authors: R.M.L.K. Ratnayaka, G.A.U. Jayasekera, G.H.C.M. Hettiarachchi

Arabidopsis BBX21 protein was identified as a transcription activator which can activate the light dependent transcription and positively regulate light mediated development of plants. The productivity of crop plants can be enhanced by over-expressing central regulators of light signaling pathway. The present study was conducted to enhance the productivity of Bg 250 Sri Lankan rice variety by overexpressing Arabidopsis BBX21 gene. The BBX21 gene was cloned into pPZP 200 binary vector and the cloned vector gene construct was transformed into Agrobarcteium tumefaciens GV3101 strain by freeze thaw method. The selected recombinant colonies of A. tumefaciens strain GV3101 harboring BBX 21 gene were transformed into three weeks old Bg 250 rice callus. Selection of the transformed callus was conducted on N6B5 selection medium containing 50 mg/L gentamycin and 500mg/L cefotaxime. A total of putative 83 plants which showed resistant to gentamycin were subjected to PCR analysis and the results showed 69 of the regenerated plants are transgenic. The T1 seeds collected from putative transgenic plants were characterize to check its integration and inheritance. The transgenic plants which showed 3:1 ratio was selected and further grown to obtain its homozygous lines. The expression of BBX21 gene was demonstrated by northern blot analysis and the results showed 4 fold higher expression of BBX21 gene in the transgenic plants compared with its non-transgenic wild type plants. The phenotypic analysis of homozygous BBX21 transgenic plants showed improved plant height, leaf length, leaf area, number of panicles and bushy appearance compared with its non-transgenic plants. Taken together, these results demonstrate an involvement of BBX21 gene in rice modifying architecture and productivity of Bg 250 transgenic plants.