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-Introduction. Fruit quality characteristics are governed by preharvest factors, mainly climate, nutrition and plant bio-regulators, of which the latter two can easily be manipulated in the grower's interest. Likewise, the postharvest treatments with the best performance can maintain quality during storage and distribution. Therefore, it is important to embrace a holistic approach to combine the pre-and postharvest practices in view of attaining maximum quality and satisfaction at the consumer level. Materials and methods. Various combinations of mineral nutrients (calcium and boron) and bio-regulators (salicylic acid and gibberellic acid) were applied at the pre-and postharvest stages of apple fruits to study their influence on postharvest behavior of these fruits during 60 days of storage under ambient conditions. Results and discussions. Among the different treatments tried, fruits treated with either salicylic acid or calcium showed significant improvement with regards to improved physico-chemical characteristics and reduced fruit infection percentage. Integration of pre-and postharvest application of chemicals was verified as the most effective choice for the improvement of shelf life of apple fruits amongst the treatment combinations applied either at the pre-or postharvest stage. The application of salicylic acid in combination with calcium or boron renders an alternative to the use of fungicides to control decay during apple fruit storage. Résumé -Introduction. Les caractéristiques de qualité des fruits sont régies par certains facteurs intervenant avant leur récolte, principalement le climat, la nutrition et les bio-régulateurs des plantes ; ces deux derniers éléments peuvent facilement être manipulés pour aider le producteur. De même, certaines combinaisons de traitements après récolte sont aptes à maintenir la qualité des fruits pendant le stockage et la distribution. Il en résulte qu'il serait important d'adopter une approche globale permettant de combiner les pratiques avant ou après récolte en vue d'obtenir une qualité maximale et la satisfaction du consommateur. Matériel et méthodes. Diverses combinaisons d'éléments minéraux (calcium et bore) et de bio-régulateurs (acide salicylique et acide gibbérellique) ont été appliquées à des lots de pommes avant et après récolte pour étudier leur influence sur le comportement après récolte de ces fruits au cours d'un stockage de 60 jours dans des conditions ambiantes. Résultats et discussion. Parmi les diffé-rents traitements essayés, les fruits traités soit avec de l'acide salicylique soit avec du calcium ont montré une amélioration significative de leurs caractéristiques physico-chimiques et leur taux d'infection a été réduit. Parmi tous les traitements testés, les combinaisons de produits chimiques appliquées avant et après récolte se sont avérées être les plus appropriées à une amélioration de la durée de conservation des pommes. L'application de l'acide salicylique en combinaison avec du calcium ou du bore permettrait de pallier l'utilisation d...

The purpose of investigation was to assess the phytochemical and nutraceutical of walnut in leaf extracts through diverse quantitative and qualitative phytochemical tests followed by array of assays. The screening of 50 elite walnut genotypes which exhibited wide range of discrepancy in terms of phytochemicals as well as their anti-oxidant potential was done. Walnut genotypes displayed maximum divergence in quercetin content (2.86-5.78 mg/100 g) as represented by cluster analysis. The phenolic rich genotypes exhibiting total phenols (37.61-46.47 mg/g GAE) having higher DPPH potential (IP of 32.82-73.50) where as genotypes that accumulate flavonoids/flavanols (5.52-28.48 mg/g QE and 4.11-21.76 mg/g QE showed immense FRAP activity (418.92-1067.94 µM Fe/g FW). There was positive correlation between the phenolics content and anti-oxidant potential. The results showed oil content of 50.1-85.08% and kernel percentage 25.21-81.92% of all walnut genotypes. To evaluate the anti-proliferative potential of walnut genotypes, Trypan blue exclusion test, MTT assay and Griess assay was used. Each assay was repeated with different positive controls against a panel of human cancer cell lines viz THP-1, U2OS, IMR-32 and HBL-100 and then compared with the walnut extracts for their efficiency in anti-proliferative activity. The SPS 1 walnut extract at concentration of 500 µg/ml exhibited 10% cell viability and with 1000 µg/ml walnut extract there was consequent decline towards (6.25%) viability. The results indicated that walnut leaf constitutes an excellent source of effective natural antioxidants and chemo-preventive agents that can act as anti cancer agents.

Chilli (Capsicum annuum L.) is one of the most significant vegetable and spice crop. Wilt caused by Fusarium Sp. has emerged as a serious problem in chilli production. Internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region is widely used as a DNA barcoding marker to characterize the diversity and composition of Fusarium communities. ITS regions are heavily used in both molecular methods and ecological studies of fungi, because of its high degree of interspecific variability, conserved primer sites and multiple copy nature in the genome. In the present study we focused on morphological and molecular characterization of pathogen causing chilli wilt. Chilli plants were collected from four districts of Kashmir valley of Himalayan region. Pathogens were isolated from infected root and stem of the plants. Isolated pathogens were subjected to DNA extraction and PCR amplification. The amplified product was sequenced and three different wilt causing fungal isolates were obtained which are reported in the current investigation. In addition to Fusarium oxysporum and Fusarium solani, a new fungal species was found in association with the chilli wilt in Kashmir valley viz., Fusarium equiseti that has never been reported before from this region. The studies were confirmed by pathogenicity test and re-confirmation by DNA barcoding.

Microbial communities are important for the functioning of the ecosystem, both in relation to direct interactions with the plants and with regard to nutrient and organic matter recycling. A study in field condition was undertaken in Kashmir valley to reveal the effect of various temperate fruit crops viz. apricot, peach, plum and cherry along with a control (no-plantation) on microbial biomass carbon (MBC), nitrogen (MBN), phosphorus (MBP) and dehydrogenase, phosphomonoesterase (acid and alkaline) and urease activities in soil at two different depths (0-20 and 21-40 cm). All the fruit crops showed a sharp decline in microbial biomass and enzyme activities with the increase in soil depth. Each of the four fruit crops showed significant (p<0.05) impact on MBC over the control and the maximum MBC was recorded in plum (1000 mg kg -1 ) and the lowest value was observed in control (457 mg kg -1 ), at the surface layer. Since there is a relationship between MBC and MBN, the similar trend was also observed in MBN as in case of MBC. For MBP, fruit crops showed any significant effect neither on surface soil, nor on subsurface soil layer over control. At the surface layer, unlike microbial biomass the highest dehydrogenase activity was observed in peach (318 µg TPF g soil -1 h -1 ) and the lowest value (166 µg TPF g soil -1 h -1 ) was attained at control plot. Maximum alkaline phosphomonoesterase activity was observed in peach (381 µg PNP g soil -1 h -1 ), although for acid phosphomonoesterase the highest value recorded in apricot (306 µg PNP g soil -1 hr -1 ), at surface soil. A significant positive correlation (p <0.01) was observed amongst MBC, MBN and MBP. Both the phosphomonoesterase activities were significantly (p <0.05) correlated with MBP in soil. It can be concluded that the influence of the studied fruit crops on the soil was not uniform, in terms of the measured parameters.