Pawpaw (Carica papaya Linn) seeds, peels and leaves are well known for their medicinal and potent pharmacological values. The plant belongs to the family Caricaceae and its fruit is commonly known for its food and nutritional values. Though the roots, bark, peel, pulp and the seeds had been shown to have medicinal properties, little is known about their nutritional properties. During the last few years, there had been series of research to explore further pharmacological and medicinal properties as well as it nutritional qualities of these plants parts, thus giving rise to it nutraceutical abilities. Scientific attempts have also been made over the decades to authenticate its nutraceutical properties. While nutritional constituents such as oil, proteins, and minerals haven been characterised from its seeds, little is known about other parts of the plant. Though the nutraceutical properties of papaya as drug or quasi-food product are not well understood or value, still it is an important gift of nature that is readily available in our eco-world and worth exploring. This review focuses on previous studies by various researchers on the medicinal, nutraceutical properties as well as the antioxidant potential of these plant parts and suggestions for further studies as regarding the optimisation of the potential of this plant.

In Sub-Saharan Africa, especially, in Côte d’Ivoire, the wild edible mushroom Termitomyces heimii Natarajan is the most prized and widely consumed for different reasons such as taste, flavour, attractiveness, uses as substitutes for meat or fish and medicinal values. The present study was aimed at evaluating the proximate composition and functional properties of T. heimii flour for further food products formulation. Fresh mushroom T. heimii were obtained from the market of Aboisso (5° 28′ 06″ N and3° 12′ 25″ W) in Côte d’Ivoire. The fresh mushrooms were dried and ground to obtain the crude flour. Chemical composition and functional properties were investigated using standard methods. The chemical composition revealed that it contains crude protein about 23.75%, crude fat 3.58%, moisture 11.59 %, ash 7.40%, total carbohydrate 54.70% and energy value of 345.90 kcal/ 100 g. These results suggest that T. heimii can be used in human diet to prevent undernourishment due to protein. Furthermore, the low fat content suggest that it would be an ideal food for obese persons and useful in preventing hypertension and hypercholesterolemia. The functional properties showed that it has high bulk density and water absorption capacity with values of 0.737 g/mL and 315.15 ± 45.74% respectively. This flour exhibited also good foaming properties. All these characteristics make it suitable as good thickeners in food products, useful in foods such as bakery products which require hydration and attractive for products like cakes or whipping topping where foaming is important. The mushroom T. heimii could be utilized for making some low-fat foodstuffs and snacks with considerable protein content. The mushroom flour shows good functional characteristics for use in many food industries.

Bu çalışmanın amacı, Türkiye’nin tarımsal mekanizasyon düzeyini, coğrafik bölgeler açısından belirlemektir. Bu amaçla, Türkiye’nin coğrafik bölgelerinin tarımsal mekanizasyon düzeyi verileri için; 2013 yılına ait Türkiye İstatistik Kurumu verileri kullanılmıştır. Çalışma sonucunda, Türkiye’de işlenen alana düşen traktör sayısı, traktör gücü ile traktöre düşen işlenen alan ortalamaları 2013 yılı için sırasıyla 77,73 traktör/1000 ha, 3,34 kW/ha ve 12,87 ha/traktör olarak bulunmuştur. Türkiye’de tarımsal mekanizasyon düzeyinin en yüksek ve en düşük olduğu bölgeler sırasıyla Ege Bölgesi ve Güneydoğu Anadolu Bölgesi olup, mekanizasyon düzeyine yönelik ortalama değerler sırasıyla 147,86-27,23 traktör/1000 ha, 6,36-1,17 kW/ha ve 6,76-36,72 ha/traktör olarak bulunmuştur. 1000 ha işlenen alana düşen biçerdöver sayısı sırasıyla Marmara ve Doğu Anadolu Bölgesi’nde 2,16 ve 0,07 değerleriyle bulunurken, en yüksek ve en düşük traktör başına düşen tarım alet ve makinaları sayısı ise sırasıyla İç Anadolu ve Güneydoğu Anadolu’dan elde edilirken, birim traktör başına tarım makinaları ve aletleri ağırlığı en yüksek ve en düşük sırasıyla İç Anadolu ve Güneydoğu Anadolu’da tespit edilmiştir. Türkiye’de tarımsal mekanizasyon kriterleri, coğrafik bölgelere göre farklılık göstermekte ve istenen düzeyde değildir.

Plants have developed a number of monitoring systems to sense changes occurring in the environment and to coordinate their growth and development accordingly. Some plant groups have cold exposure requirement for a certain period to induce flowering. That process known as vernalization is case in point for mentioned systems. In many plants group, vernalization results in repression of floral repressor genes inhibiting floral transition. In this review, last epigenetic developments about vernalization mediated floral transition in Arabidopsis regarded as model organism for plants and other flowering plants will be discussed. Furthermore, similarity and differences in regulatory cycles in Arabidopsis and other flowering plants, changes in histone modifications at floral repressor loci and other epigenetic systems effective in vernalization will be discussed. To sum up, profound investigation of epigenetic mechanism behind the vernalization process plays an important role to decrease flowering-dependent yield losses.

Recent study was carried out on 6 sampling stations chosen from Dipsiz-Çine Stream between March-October 2010 to determine the morphometric features of 176 specimens collected. In the extent of current study, data related with weight, width, length and height, and distribution of individual numbers of Unio crassus, which is inhabiting Dipsiz-Çine Stream, according to months and sampling stations were presented. 176 individuals of Unio crassus were caught by hand and measured by use of caliper and precision scale, and weight, width, length, height parameters were compared according to months and sampling points, and a monthly image of this distribution was presented. Maximum number of mussel individuals determined as 115 from IV. sampling point. Lowest numbers of individuals were found from II. sampling point as 1. It is aimed to contribute to data pool of Unio crassus by this study which includes data concerning the time before the construction of Çine Adnan Menderes Dam.

A two-year field study (2013−2014) was performed to evaluate phytochemical content and antioxidant activity of two high-lycopene tomato breeding lines (HLT-F71 and HLT-F72) grown under open field conditions as compared to the traditional cultivar (cv) Rio Grande. Two open-field trials were conducted in 2013 and 2014. Three tomato cvs were used: two high-lycopene tomato advanced breeding lines (HLT-F71 and ‘HLT-F72’) (F7 generation), and the open-pollinated cv Rio Grande commonly grown in Tunisia. Regardless the growing years and cvs, lycopene content ranged from 98.8 to 280.0 mg/kg fw, total phenolics from 176.1 to 831.8 mg GAE/kg fw flavonoids from 169.7 to 552.1 mg RE/kg fw and total vitamin C from 183.4 to 370.0 mg/kg fw. Significant year-to-year variability was only detected in total phenolics and flavonoid content. No significant year-to-year variability in antioxidant activity was detected in high-lycopene lines. Disregarding the cv, tomato berries harvested on July 2014 had 143% - 224% higher total phenolics and 8% to 47% higher flavonoid contents compared to tomato berries harvested on July 2013. However, disregarding the cv, tomato berries harvested on July 2013 had 6% -17% higher lycopene and 8% -21% higher LAA compared to berries harvested on 2014. During the second growing year, the higher temperature, particularly prior to harvest, determined a decrease in lycopene content and a significant increase in total phenolics regardless the cv. Although the huge variability in total phenolics and the decrease in lycopene content during the second harvest, the antioxidant activity was not affected by year-to-year variability. This reveals consistent functional quality of these cvs and minimal genotype*environmental conditions interaction.

Binary logit regression model of econometrics was used to identify the factors affecting adoption of recommended agricultural technology by the commercial farmers of Nepal. A survey was carried out in 2012 in 120 households from Kavre district, Nepal. The objective was to appraise factors affecting adoption of recommended technology of cauliflower, finding out the level of adoption, identifying the constraints of cauliflower cultivation, assessing the perceived level of satisfaction and studying the relationship of certain selected variables on the adoption. Education, Occupation, contact with Personal Localite sources of information, Group membership and Experience were the most influencing factors for adoption of recommended technology. Though, other factors were not strong enough to contribute significantly but indirectly influence the adoption decision of farmers as combined effects. Occupation was found as negatively associated. Landholding size was strongly and positively influencing among the non significant factors. The level of satisfaction and the constraints of cauliflower production were also identified. Transfer of technology will be effective if and only if the client adopts the technology. For an effective transfer of technology, it is better to go for activities for the welfare of the socioeconomic factors of the farmers.

Some wild edible mushrooms of genus Russula are consumed in the center region of Côte d’Ivoire. In this study, the proximate composition, mineral element and amino acid profile of three selected wild edible Russula species from Center of Côte d’Ivoire including Russula delica, Russula lepida and Russula mustelina were investigated. The mushrooms were harvested fresh, dried in an oven at 45°C for 48 hours, ground and analyzed according to standard procedures. Proximate analysis showed high level of proteins (38.08±0.29–38.52±0.23 %), crude fibre (9.59±0.21–19.78±0.7 %), carbohydrate (39.29±1.71-41.64±1.41 %), ash (12.7±0.16– 13.80±0.10 %) and fat (4.06±0.11-5.70±0.05 %) in all species. Mineral analysis of all species indicated that the mushrooms were specifically rich in potassium, phosphorus, calcium and magnesium. R. delica contained the highest level of calcium and phosphorus. The mushrooms contained 18 amino acids among with the most predominant ones in all species were glutamic acid and valine. In addition, the ratios of essential amino acids to total amino acids were between 0.40 and 0.45. The high scores of essential amino acids present in these mushrooms implied that they have a high biological protein value. These mushrooms could be considered as a potential health food and may be of use to the food industry as a source of ingredients with high nutritional value.

In this study was carried out to determine the effects of humic acid in heavy metal stress of lettuce changes in some of the morphological and physiological characteristics. In studies conducted in controlled greenhouse conditions, lettuce plants subjected to four different 4 different humic acid levels humic acid doses (0, 2, 4, 8 L/da) and 4 different heavy metal irrigation levels (Control: 0 ppm; I. mixture: 0.2 ppm Cu + 0.01 ppm Cd + 5 ppm Pb + 2 ppm Zn; II. mixture: : 0.4 ppm Cu + 0.02 ppm Cd + 10 ppm Pb + 4 ppm Zn; III. mixture: 0.8 ppm Cu + 0.04 ppm Cd + 20 ppm Pb + 8 ppm Zn). Four weeks after at heavy metal and humic acid treatment young plants were harvested and the shoot fresh and dry weight, root fresh and dry weight, shoot and root length, and leaf areas, MDA, superoxyde dismutase (SOD) and glutathione reductase (GR) were determined. The most highly toxic effects were determinate III. mixture level (0.8 ppm Cu + 0.04 ppm Cd + 20 ppm Pb + 8 ppm Zn). MDA and antioxidative enzyme activities increased in plants irrigated with water containing a mixture of heavy metal. Humic acid applications had a positive effect on reducing of the limiting effect of heavy metal stress on growth and development.

In the present study effects of different levels of hydrolyzed oak tannin on Japanese quail, live body weight and live body weight gain, food intake, food conversion efficiency and mortality rate were investigated. Therefore, a total of 240 quails were weighed and divided into 4 treatment groups each with 3 replicates containing 20 birds and reared in flat for 42 days as experimental period. While one of the groups was fed control diet with no additives (0% tannin A), other groups were fed with the different percentages of tannin on their diets, which are 0.5% (B), 1.0% (C), 1.5% (D) respectively. It has been observed that Japanese quails that fed the oak tannin containing diet had slower growth rate and poorer feed conversion efficiency and high mortality rate than birds fed with a tannin-free diet.