It is well documented that caffeine is the world's most widely consumed drug with its main source found in coffee. In the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), diabetes and obesity are major health problems. Caffeine is attested as a potential drug for treating obesity, hepatic fibrosis, and preventing or delaying diabetes. The aim of this work is to evaluate the caffeine content of the Arabian coffee in comparison to Turkish coffee and instant coffee, in order to better adjust daily caffeine consumption. All types of coffee were prepared based on traditional ways in KSA. The average consumed coffee per normal person is assumed to be, 6 Arabian, 2 Nescafe or 1 Turkish cups per day. High performance liquid chromatography technique was used for caffeine measurement using paracetamol as an internal standard. Generally, coffee is prepared with other additives, liquid-liquid extraction was used for the extraction caffeine and paracetamol as an internal standard. HPLC method validated was over the range of 1 to 100 μg with good linearity (r²=0.991). Validation data proved that the method is accurate with average of 102%. Caffeine contents of Arabian coffee, Nescafe®, and Turkish coffee were found to be 4.1, 43.4 and 82.8 mg/cup, respectively. One cup of Turkish coffee contains caffeine as much as 2 Nescafe® and 20 Arabian cups. Gold Nescafe® contains about 20% less caffeine than classic. The caffeine content of each type of marketed coffee was accurately measured. An individual Arabian coffee consumer, who is drinking an average of 6 cups/day, can safely increase the number of cups or cup size in order to obtain more caffeine. The other choice for increasing caffeine ingestion is to think of Turkish coffee and/or Nescafe® as a substitute, in order to maintain caffeine at a therapeutic range for better health.
A wheat genotype V-85205 grown for three years under different cultural practices differing in soil moisture status under slightly different climatic conditions. A prefixed moisture deficit irrigation schedule was maintained with application of two fertilizer levels. Multiple regression analysis was done for grain yield and the contribution of each irrigation towards total linear variation in wheat grain yield was worked out through backward elimination method. The average contribution of each irrigation to total variation in grain yield were 50-54, 10, 1-0, 4-5% at the two fertilizer levels at tillering, booting, flowering and grain filling stages respectively. At low fertilizer inputs there was more irrigation contribution to grain yield. The contribution of irrigations at earlier stages was 94 and 90% of the total irrigation contribution-saving 50% irrigation water losing only 6-11% grain yield at the two fertilizer levels respectively. The irrigation productivity factor (YicF) was generally more under low fertilizer inputs and irrigation application at earlier crop stages.
Citrus is the major fruit of Pakistan grown on 197,000 hectares which is 30.48% of total fruit area. The production is 1862,000 tonnes which is 29.35% of the total fruit production of which 95.0% Citrus is produced only in Punjab with the leading cultivar Kinnow mandarin grafted on rough lemon rootstock. However, the other scion varieties of mandarins, sweet oranges, sweet lime, lemon, sour/Kaghzi lime, grape fruit, pummelo, hybrid Citrus cultivars and various rootstocks are also grown in province Punjab. In 1999-2000, Pakistan exported kinnow worth 750 million rupees. Kinnow is juicy and has excellent flavour with the dominant drawback of more seeds which may be 34 as maximum including fully developed seeds and aborted ovules. Kinnow mandarin cultivar is no more a clone, but highly variable because of lack of quality control over proper scion bud wood selection and root stock uniformity by its various nursery producers. In an extensive survey of market fruits and Citrus orchards in Faisalabad, it was observed that Kinnow with a ring on fruit apex has reduced number of seeds (Fig. 1). The marker for seedlessness is selection of available natural mutation as a ridged structural ring at the apex of fruit. The ring is complete or as broken ring or appear as scars of a ring. The trees bearing fruits with apical ring are not frequent in orchards and the fruits have 5-20% probability of carrying less than 4 seeds. However on the same branches, the fruits without ring were also having 5% probability of less than 4 seeds per fruit. The probability of less number of seeds varies from tree to tree and from branch to branch. Also there is variation in number and size of aborted ovules. The selected bud wood carrying fruits with less than 4 seeds were grafted on rough lemon trees in Ayub Agricultural Research Institute Faisalabad. Nucellar embryony of these fruits is being exploited at Nuclear Institute for Agriculture and Biology, Faisalabad. The micrografts of shoot apex of germinating embryos are grafted on decapitated rough lemon seedlings for obtaining somatic plants of individual cell lines having a desirable character of less than 4 seeds per fruit in a broad genetic base of Kinnow mandarin. The selection of fruit apical ring as a marker for reduced number of seeds from natural variability in Kinnow population is a break through in Kinnow mandarin breeding for seedless character. It is being reported for the first time in Pakistan.
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