Seeds of the tooth pick plant (Ammi visnaga L.) were extracted by organic sol-vents of different polarities, and tested for their toxic effect on Sitophilus oryzae in-festing wheat grains. Toxicity of chloroform extract, was the most potent, at both Lc50 and Lc95 levels (i.e. 3240 and 8730 ppm). Reproductive potential of treated weevil were strongly affected as no progeny were obtained when treated with either Lc50 or Lc95 with A. visnaga. Extracts treatment at Lc95 level organic extract gave protection up to 12 weeks for petroleum ether and chloroform, and 9 weeks when acetone was used for extraction. All tested extracts reduced grain germination at the end of 14 weeks storage period. Also, treated wheat grains with tooth pick extracts reduced the weight loss of grains.

Six population’s seeds of four yellow maize crosses were formed during 2001 and 2002 growing seasons. Their plants were evaluated during 2003 growing season under two planting dates (14th May and 29th June) for six agronomic traits at the Agric. Res. Stat. of Fac. of Agric., Ain Shams Univ., Shalakan, Kalubia Gover-norate, Egypt. The present work aimed to determine the genetic parameters and their interactions with planting dates for grain yield per plant, 100-kernel weight, number of kernels per row, ear length, ear diameter, and days to silking in the six popula-tions (P1, P2, F1, F2, BC1 and BC2). Mean values of the six populations for all studied traits in all crosses were higher under normal planting date than those under late one. Therefore, normal planting date seemed to be non-stress environment. The potence ratio for all traits in the four crosses exceeded (+1) except days to silking where it was less (-1). The highest heterosis percentage relative to mid and better parent reached 192.06% and 152.01% in cross 1 for grain yield per plant under late plant-ing date. Inbreeding depression values were not-significant in all studied traits ex-cept ear diameter and 100-kernel weight in crosses 1 and 3 as well as grain yield per plant in all crosses also, it was positive for most studied characters in the four cross-es except days to silking trait. Dominance occupied the first rank, additive or domi-nance type of epistasis occupied the second or the third contributor to the genetic ef-fects in order of importance according to cross with exception of days to silking, where additive and additive occupied the first and the second ranks. Narrow sense heritability was relatively high for yield attributes whereas it was low for grain yield per plant. Meantime, expected genetic advance was relatively moderate or low for all traits. Therefore, it could be suggested that selection for most studied traits in the subsequent generations will be relatively more effective than in the early genera-tions.

The present study was carried out in an olive orchard at 6th of October city, Giza Governorate, Egypt during 2002 and 2003 growing seasons on “Aggezi” and “Koroneiki” olive cultivars for table and oil purposes, respectively. The objective of this study was to investigate the effect of organic farmyard manure (FYM), compost (COM) manure and biofertilizers (Bio) as the combination between phosphorene and nitrobeine, calcium citrate (Cac) and potasseine (K). Besides, the fertilization program adopted in the farm [N (750g/tree), P2O5 (600g/tree) & K2O (500g/tree)] was used as control. The results revealed that, the application of different aforemen-tioned treatments increased significantly shoot growth (length and diameter, number of leaves shoot and area/leaf) compared to the control in both cultivars (Aggezi and Koroneiki) during the two growing seasons. In this concern, the application of FYM+Cac influenced significantly shoot length & diameter, number of leaves/shoot and area/leaf of Koroneiki cv. and shoot diameter of Aggezi cv. Meantime the area /leaf of both cvs.increased when fertilized by FYM+COM+Cac. Whereas, the com-bination of FYM, COM, Cac, Bio, and K improved significantly blooming charac-teristics (number of flowers/inflorescence, inflorescence length and perfect flowers %) of Aggezi and Koroneiki olive cvs. However, number of fruits/shoot and yield of both cultivars increased significantly when treated by the combination of organic and biofertilizers, especially FYM+COM+Bio. Moreover, pulp/seed ratio was in-creased when treated with FYM+Bio (especially in 1st season). In addition, Koro-neiki cv. when provided with FYM+COM+Bio treatment produced the richest fruits in their oil content. Aggezi cv. trees when fertilized with the combination of organic manure & calcium, gave higher contents of chlorophyll (A), (B) & total chlorophyll, however, in Koroneiki cv. chlorophyll B didn't affect. Eventually, nutrient elements (NPK) contents didn't take a definite trend except for N which was affected signifi-cantly with the different combinations, while P & K in Aggezi leaves were influ-enced by FYM only. On the other hand, Koroneiki trees treated with COM+Bio had the highest leaf N content. Leaf P content was positively affected by FYM+Cac in 2002 and FYM+COM+Bio in 2003. Meantime, FYM+K followed by COM+Bio in-duced the highest stimulative effect on leaf K content.

The present work aimed to establish a protocol to minimize the potential effect of in-vitro preservation for 8 months of the two olive cultivars i.e Koronaiki and Kalamata. Three culture conditions (treatments) were chosen to investigate the most suitable one for minimizing somaclonal variations after the process of in vitro preservation. The conditions include MS medium plus mannitol, MS medium plus low temperature and MS medium plus naphthaline acetic acid. RAPD-based finger-printing was employed to determine the effects of the different chemical constituents and other culture conditions on the extent of somaclonal variations after 8 months of in vitro preservation at the DNA level. Four arbitrary primers (OPA-04, -07, -14 and -16) were successfully utilized to achieve such goal. The obtained results showed that Mannitol has more pronounced effect than the other investigated preservation culture and conditions for decreasing DNA alterations.

F1 and F2 seeds of four crosses were formed during 2001 and 2002 growing sea-sons. The F2 population’s plants were evaluated during 2003 growing season under the two planting dates (14th May and 29th June) to estimate the phenotypic correla-tion coefficients among eight plants characters and their contributions in the varia-tion of grain yield/ plant at the Agric. Res. Stat. of Fac. of Agric., Ain Shams Univ., Shalakan, Kalubia Governorate, Egypt. Results showed that grain yield/ plant under normal planting date correlated positively and significantly - in most cases - with each of ear diameter, ear length, number of kernels/ row, 100-kernel weight, number of rows/ ear, ear height, plant height and days to silking, while under late planting date, it correlated with each of number of kernels/ row, ear diameter, 100-kernel weight, ear length, number of rows/ ear, ear height and days to silking. Path coeffi-cient analysis estimates indicated that ear diameter; ear length and number of ker-nels/ row can be considered as the most important sources of plant grain yield varia-tion under normal planting date while, under late planting date they were number of kernels/ row, ear diameter, 100-kernel weight and ear length. It was concluded that each of ear diameter, ear length and ear length through its indirect effects via ear di-ameter are considered as the most important sources of plant grain yield variation.

Quality of fried beef steaks coated with sodium alginate, carrageenan and car-boxy methyl cellulose (CMC) at concentrations 0.3, 0.6 and 0.9% as well as oils used for frying were evaluated after several frying times (1, 3, 5 and 7 times). Weight loss, shrinkage, moisture loss and final lipid content of control sample were sharply increased after the first time of frying compared to other treatments. The lower reduction in weight loss was achieved in fried beef steaks coated with CMC at concentration of 0.9%. Samples coated with 0.9% carrageenan caused a considerable decrease especially in shrinkage and moisture loss followed by samples coated with CMC and then those coated by sodium alginate at different concentrations. The same treatment (0.9% CMC) showed the lower value of final lipid content. There were significant (p<0.01) decremental patterns in all of sensory attributes (appear-ance, flavor, color, juiciness, mouth feel, texture and overall acceptability) of fried beef steaks during subsequent frying times for all treatments. Less rates of these de-terioration were appeared in CMC samples with different concentrations followed by samples coated with 0.3% and 0.6% of sodium alginate. Progressive rise in acid value of frying oils was especially found in control sample during different frying times, on the other hand the low rate of increase was appeared in sample coated with 0.3% and 0.6% sodium alginate. The higher values of K232 appeared in control sam-ple followed by 0.9% CMC but lower value recorded by oil used for frying beef steaks coated with 0.3% and 0.6% of sodium alginate after 5 times of frying. The same behavior was appeared in K270 determination except there was decrement pat-tern in this criteria by increasing frying times especially from 5 to 7 times of frying in control and coated samples with 0.3% and 0.6% of carrageenan. The highest val-ue of refractive index of fried oil was in control sample followed by coated sample with 0.9% sodium alginate after 7 times of frying. However, the lower value was in coated sample with 0.6% carrageenan under the same conditions. It is cleared to know that, the viscosity of oil which used for frying control sample was lower than that of other treatments during various frying times. Data revealed that the color in-dex (oil deterioration) increase as the concentration of different edible coatings of beef steaks and number of frying increased.

This study was carried out at the Strawberry Improvement Center Experimental Farm, Nobaria, Beheira Governorate and the Horticulture Research Station, Bar-rage, Kalubia Governorate during 2001/2002 and 2002/2003 seasons. The study aimed to investigate the effect of calcium nutrition (0, 13and 26 kg/fed. Ca) and modified atmosphere storage (10,20, 30 and 40% CO2) on the post harvest decay of cold stored strawberry transplants and their subsequent fruit production. The results indicated that increasing the rate of calcium application during the transplant growth period and carbon dioxide concentration around transplants during the cold storage resulted in significant decrements in transplant decay, infection percentage, disease severity of roots and crowns. There was a positive relationship between cal-cium nutrition and early yield. Moreover, the highest calcium rate gave the highest total yield while no significant difference was noticed between control and 13 kg/fed treatments. This study concluded that adding Ca++ at 26 Kg /fed as fertiga-tion of calcium nitrate (13% Ca) to the growing strawberry transplants followed by modified atmosphere storage (40% CO2) during the prolonged cold storage allowed maintenance of transplant quality and increased their yield while minimizing decay development.

Solid-phase extraction (SPE), gas chromatography electron capture detector (GC-ECD) and gas chromatography nitrogen-phosphorous detector (GC-NPD) and gas chromatography–mass spectroscopy (GC-MS) were applied for trace-level de-termination of 20 pesticides in river nile water. Samples were collected from March to October 2003 from different sites located in Greater Cairo, Egypt. First, extrac-tion by on-site solid-phase extraction of 1 liter from field and laboratory spiked and unspiked (raw river water) samples using poly-divinyl benzene-N-vinyl pyrolidine cartridge based sorbent. Next, water extracts were subject of analysis by GC-ECD and GC-NPD. Next, selected samples that were positive to GC-ECD or GC-NPD were analyzed by GC-MS in order to improve the determination of detected pesti-cides. Recoveries from laboratoy spiked samples were > 85% for 16 of the 20 com-pounds with % relative standard deviation (% RSD) in the 5 to 10 % range. The lowest recoveries were for aldrin, 52 % and prothiofos, 48 %. A similar trend was observed with p,p-DDE and p,p-DDT values. Field spike results also indicated high % recovery for most of the target compounds. Values were > 85% for 12 of the 20 analytes, as was the case in laboratory spikes, Aldrin, 54 % and prothiofos, 55 % yielded the lowest values. Overall field spike recovery reproducibility was lower since % RSDs were higher, 15-40 %. Overall results indicated a relatively high de-gree of accuracy and precision could be achieved for most of the target compounds by methods applied in present study.

The toxic effective of wheat grains treated with Egyptian sesban, Sesbania ae-gyptica seed extracts offered to rice weevil, Sitophilus oryzae was determined. Chlo-roform extract was found to be the most effective. Reproductive potential of treated weevil were strongly affected as number of laid eggs was reduced and no progeny were obtained when adults were fed on wheat grains treated with either Lc50 or Lc95 . Extracts treatment with Lc95 of extracts gave protection up to 10 weeks for petrole-um ether, and 9 weeks for both chloroform and acetone extracts. All tested extracts reduced grain germination at the end of 14 weeks storage period. Treated wheat grains with Egyptian Sesban seed extracts reduced the weight loss of grains infested with the rice weevil. Biochemical studies show that some enzymes were affected in treated insects. S. aegyptica acetone extract was more effective than the other ex-tracts, in this affect, as it caused a significant reduction in amylase, trehalse and acid phosphatase activity. However, this extract caused an increase in invertase, alkaline phosphatase and cholinestrase activity.