Activity of commercially and purified essential oils of aloes, anise, black cumin, caraway, carna-tion, cumin, fennel, garlic, jojoba, lavender, onion, rue and thyme were tested against growth of Pseudomonas syringae pv. lachrymans, caused bacterial angular leaf spot disease of cucumber, in vitro and in vivo. Three essential oils had an inhib-itory effect, based on the determination of the min-imum inhibitory concentrations (MICs 0.25-2.0%). Carnation, fennel and thyme were inhibito-ry at MIC 0.5%. The three mentioned oils showed considerable variation in the inhibitory effect by the disk diffusion method, though the recognized similarity in fumigation treatments. The greatest activity was recorded with thyme (18mm) followed by carnation (15 mm) while fennel showed the low-est effect (9mm). Soaking cucumber seeds of differ-ent cultivars in 2% emulsified oils for a period rang-ing from 0.25 to 4 hours significantly decreased the percentage of germination. Shorter duration of seed soaking, 0.25 to 0.5 hours, showed lower deleterious effect on germination and fennel oil showed greater harmful effect. In greenhouse experiments, the three oils significantly controlled the disease incidence compared to the check treatment, being more pro-nounced for thyme oil followed by fennel and carna-tion oils. Analysis of the essential oils in concern showed eugenol, dieugenol, linolenic acid, methyl chavicol (estragol), anisole and thymol, as an active ingredients.

Day by day increase the importance of using the natural food additives. Hence in this study, the phenolic extracted from basil leaves, spearmint leaves and fennel seeds, as natural antioxidants, were added at concentrations 200, 400 and 600 ppm from fat weight using in biscuit production. Biscuit was stored at room temperature for 8 months. Induction period was measured by Rancimat apparatus. Total phenolic and phenolic acids were determined. Peroxide value, acid value, thiobarbituric acid and refractive index were measured during storage. Antimicrobial activity of phenolic extraction were examined after 8 months. Sensory evaluation was measured directly after baking. The results showed that total phenolic content in basil leaves, spearmint leaves and fen-nel seeds were 3.97, 1.91 and 1.53 mg/g as caffeic acid equivalents respectively. Five phenolic acids were found in both basil leaves and spearmint leaves, while four phenolic acids were found in fennel seeds as determined by using HPLC. Rancimat results showed that induction period for phenolic herbs could be ranked as follow: basil leaves > spearmint leaves > fennel seeds. The re-sults elucidated that the best concentration from natural additives as antioxidants activity were 400 and 600 ppm compared with BHT. The results revealed that with increasing the concentration of natural antioxidants increased, the more peroxide value, acid value, thiobarbituric acid and refractive index were decreased. Total bacterial count and (yeast & mold) count were decreased with increas-ing the concentration phenolic additives. Sensory evaluation indicated that addition of different anti-oxidants showed no significant differences be-tween control and biscuit samples

A recombinant strain of Escherichia coli harboring a plasmid containing the Bacillus thuringiensis δ-endotoxin synthesis gene, was tested for its efficacy to synthesize δ-endotoxin, in a complex medium containing sucrose and yeast extract. Also, the recombinant E. coli strain was tested for its efficacy against the 2nd instars of Spodoptera littoralis. The recombinant strain of E. coli showed a good activity against the 2nd instars of S. littoralis, the mortality was 70 % after 7 days at room temperature. A high cell biomass (8.8gL-1) and δ-endotoxin concentration (6.8 mg L-1), were obtained by the shake flask culture (100 ml medium/250 ml flask, at 200 rpm), of the recombinant E. coli in modified MR medium containing sucrose (20g/L), as carbon source and yeast extract as nitrogen source, in the presence of CaCO3, K2HPO4, MgSO4, FeSO4 and ZnSO4 as mineral salts. The best pH values for cell biomass production and endotoxin production were 7.0 and 7.5, respectively. The corresponding figures for the best temperature were 37oC and 30oC, respectively. The use of some byproducts such as black-strap molasses, corn-steep liquor and cheese whey, as an alternative for carbon and nitrogen sources of medium, were found to enhance the cell growth but showed no effect on endotoxin production.

Ageratum houstonianum Mill and Tagetes erecta L. (Asteraceae) were subjected to hydrodis-tillation as well as the stepwise extraction with organic solvents. Crude extracts and the hydrodis-tilled essential oils (E.O) were bioevaluated against two phytopathogenic fungi Rhizoctonia solani and Phytophthora megasperma in vitro. The volatile fraction from both plants showed a good antifungal activity towards the tested fungi, EC50s were 91 and 1369 ppm for R. solani and 84 and 1571 ppm for P. megasperma with Ageratum essential oil (E.O) and Tagetes E.O, respectively. But generally; Ageratum E.O was found to be more effective in reducing mycelium growth of R. solani and P. megasperma (EC50 = 91 and 84 ppm respectively) than Tagetes E.O. Chemical compo-sition of Tagetes E.O and Ageratum E.O; fractions F1 (solid) and F2 (liquid) fractions were investi-gated by GC-MS analysis. Interestingly, heterocy-clic benzopyrane compound (Precocene II) was only component which has been detected in Ager-atum E.O fraction F1. Precocene II seems to be the fungitoxic active components in Ageratum E.O and its fractions. However, monoterpenic hydro-carbons were correlated with the fungitoxic effect of Tagetes E.O. In the green house experiments, Tagetes E.O and Ageratum E.O fraction F1 showed a clear selectivity towards tested patho-gens; Rhizoctonia solanii and Phytophthora megasperma. Ageratum E.O; fractions F1 was found to be much more fungitoxic activity than Tagetes E.O. Tagetes E.O and Ageratum E.O frac-tions F1 were controlled the 90.91% of Root-Rot disease in bean caused by Phytophthora megasperma, while the percentage of disease con-trol was only 36.36% for Rhizoctonia solani.

In this study, the essential oils of rosemary and sage were used to improve cake by two methods either addition or spraying at different concentra-tion on cup cake after 30 min. from baking. The components of essential oils were identified using Gas Chromatography (GC). These oils were eval-uated for inhibitory effect against some pathogenic bacteria especially that may contaminate cake dur-ing handling and storage periods. The effect of these oils at different levels and methods on the sensory characteristics of the produced cake was studied. The results showed that the addition of essential oil of rosemary or sage to cake formula at 1% level increased the acceptability of cakes. While when the rosemary or sage oil sprayed on the cup cake crust after 30 min. of baking at 0.06% or 0.18% level, resulted in a higher over all acceptability scores compared with the other lev-els and cake control. During the storage periods of cakes, using 1.5 % level of rosemary or 0.5% of sage oil added to the formula level resulted in a good acceptability after four and two weeks re-spectively, of storage periods. By using 0.06% concentrations of sage oil sprayed on cup cake crust after 30 min. of baking, the cake had accept-ed during the four weeks of storage periods. Mold growth appeared after 19 and 28 days due to addi-tion of 1% either rosemary or sage oils to the cake formula Meanwhile, the essential oils sprayed at level of 0.12 % of both, the mold appeared after 29 and 33 days for rosemary and sage respective-ly. Also by using the essential oils of rosemary or sage as spray on cake layers, most of bacterial strains and mold-yeast were not detected during the storage periods of cake at room temperature (25 – 30oC). The inhibition of growth of Salmonel-la and E-Coli was noted at 30 μl /disk of rosemary oil and 40 μl /disk for inhibition growth of Bacil-lus Cereus. While the inhibition growth of Salmo-nella, Staph aureus and E-Coli were observed at 40μl /disk of sage oil and at 50 μl/ disk for inhibi-tion growth of Bacillus Cereus.

This work conducted on the research farm of Mallawi Agricultural Research Station, El-Minia Province, Egypt, during two successive seasons of 2004 and 2005 to study the role of the late plant-ings on the productivity of soybean. Three out of four genotypes selected to achieve that goal were new released cultivars, Giza-22; Giza-35; and Gi-za-111, and the commercial one, Crawford, the common parent of the three genotypes, as control. Three planting dates started on June 1st, June 15th for the second date of sowing and ended on June 30th for the third sowing date in both seasons. The package of the recommendations of soybean cul-ture carefully applied to get the best results of each sowing date. The results showed that all of the morphological, yield and productivity traits highly significantly affected by genotype and three out of five morphological traits, number of days to both flowering and maturity and plant height, also high-ly significantly affected by late sowing date. The other two traits, number of branches and leaf area at 75 days just significantly affected by late sow-ing date. In terms of yield and its components traits, only seed index highly significantly affected by late sowing date and yield per plot significantly affected by sowing time. All productivity traits were significantly affected by late sowing date specially the content of both oil and protein. Alt-hough yield per plot was significantly affected by late sowing date, the yield per plant was not af-fected by late sowing date indicating that the fac-tor of time of sowing may affect the rate of the germination and control the stand of the plots. Number of active nodules considered as produc-tivity trait because of the residual nitrogen that remain in the soil after harvest for the next crop. This number was significantly affected by sowing time and reached the highest values in the second date of June 15th that may due to the high tempera-ture at this time which lead to increasing the inter-action between soybean roots and the nodule bac-teria.

Combinations of different spices were used at variable concentrations in the preparation of vari-ous curry blends. The sample showed the highest sensory attributes in comparison with control cur-ry sample was compounded with different spices, onion and garlic at variable concentrations in cor-responding seasoning blend. The oleoresin of the seasoning blend that possessed the highest quality scores was prepared and subjected to freeze drying process after dispersion on suitable carrier. The flavour contribution percentages of the character-istic notes; light sweet top, medium aromatic, full boiled spicy and pungent spicy were calculated for each curry and seasoning blends. The hydro dis-tilled (HD) oils of the selected curry and its con-stituents were subjected to GC-MS analysis. The results revealed the high contribution of the com-ponents possess spicy note in the raw curry sam-ple. The components possess pungent notes showed less representation. β-Caryophellene was the major compounds in the HD oil of raw season-ing blends followed by δ-carene and ar-turmenone. The qualitative and quantitative varia-tion in the volatile compounds separated from the HD oil of the freeze dried sample may be attribut-ed to the interaction between such components and the used carrier (10% maltodextrin in water).

The aim of this research is to investigate the influence of balance between organic and mineral fertilizers on morphological and predictive charac-teristics of potato for two seasons, through the application of averages: (25 – 50 – 75 and 100) Ton / Hectare from compost of wheat and peanut which mixed successively with the percentage from mineral typical fertilizers (75 – 50 – 25 – 0 %). The results showed the distinguished effect of mineral fertilizer on morphological and prodictive characteristics of tubers in comparison with mixed or single organic fertilizer. The results showed also the positive effect of increasing the percent-age organic manure or its single use in the soil on the examined variables. However, the specific effect of organic fertilizer varied, so the compost of wheat produced an increase of examined varia-bles. This divergence of results was agreed with certain modifications of soil variables

The predatory phytoseiid mites Euseius scutal-is (El-Badry) and Typhlodrompis swirskii (Athias–Henriot) successfully developed and reproduced on strawberry leaves, infested with mymphs of the two-spotted spider mite Tetramychus urticae kock as prey, of both Yaeel (smooth slight hairy) and Vantana (rough dense hairy) cultivars indicating a different effect of leaf surface on their behaviour at 27o C and 70% RH.Yaeel leaf was the most appropriate surface and Vantana ones was the least. Longevity was the greatest on Yaeel (31.92 and 28.48 days) and the shortest on Vantana (19.40 and 15.50 days) for each predator, respec-tively. The total number of eggs/ female was 39.00 and 41.34 on Yaeel and 21.02 and 19.68 on Vantana, respectively. Population of the two pred-ators multiply 29.21 and 27.41 in a generation time of 15.78 and 13.93 days on Yaeel, whilst they were (Ro= 14.77 and 14.79) and (T= 14.26 and 12.55 days)on Vantana, respectively. Life table parameters also indicated that the smooth Yaeel leaves are better host-plants for predators in terms rm and erm. Trichomes characteristics on midrib and blade of Yaeel and Vantana strawberry leaves were determined

In a trial to isolate and identify ectomycorrhi-zal fungi for the first time in Egypt 13 sporocarpes associated with rang of plants grown on Egyptian soils were collected, to be used for this purpose. Fungal isolates were obtained from collected spo-rocarpes and tested for ectomycorrhiza formation with Bauhinia sp. and Pinus seedlings. The paper sandwich technique was used for simultaneous inoculation of root apices Bauhinia to produce synchronously developing ectomycorrhizas. Typi-cal ectomycorrhizal roots were obtained within 14 days after inoculation with the collected strains. The isolates tested for ectomycorrhiza formation with Pinus sp. to ensure their identity by for-mation of distinct root characteristics on this host. Root colonization levels varied markedly among the tested fungal strains with respect to growth enhancement and NPK uptake of Pinus shoots and roots.