In present set of investigations the chemoprotective effect of green tea and ginger extracts has been evaluated using in vivo chromosomal aberrations assay in albino mice (Mus musculus). The organophosphate agropesticide malathion, 80% technical grade consider as a potent genotoxic agent, was given at a single dose 230 mg/kg b.w. (1/12 LD50) intraperitoneally. Pretreatment with 4 and 3% of freshly prepared green tea (GTI), ginger (GI) extracts, respectively and the mixture of both extracts (GTI+GI) were given through oral incubation for 6 days prior to malathion administration. Animals from all the groups were sacrified at sampling times of 24 and 48 hours and their bone marrow cells were analyzed for chromosomal damages. The animals of the positive control group (Malathion alone) showed a significant increase in chromosomal aberrations both at 24 and 48 h sampling time. The green tea and ginger extracts, alone did not significantly induced aberrations at either sampling time, conforming their non-mutagenicity. However, significant suppressions in the chromosomal aberrations were recorded following pretreatment with green tea and ginger extracts administration. The antigenotoxic effects of both extracts separately and in mixture were also evident, as observed by significant increase in mitotic index, when compared to positive control group. Reduction in malathion induced clastogenicity by both extracts, was evident at 24 h and to a much greater extent at 48 h of cell cycle. Thus results of the present investigations revealed that green tea and ginger extracts have chemoprotective potential against malathion induced chromosomal mutations in albino mice.

A study on mite species in marjoram and chamomile plantations in Fayoum was carried out during 2003 and 2004 seasons. Twenty-six species were found and divided according to their feeding habits into three major groups, phytophagous (7 species), predaceous (8 species) and a group of debatable feeding habits (11 species). Population density evaluation showed that Tetranychus urticae Koch was the main phytophagous mite on both hosts. The predatory mite Amblyseius cydnodactylon Shehata and Zaher was dominant on marjoram followed by Hemicheyletia bakeri (Ehara). From the debatable group, Pronematus ubiquitus Mc Gregor was the dominant followed by Tyrophagus putrescentiae (Schrank) and Paralorryia gizai El-Bagoury. On chamomile, the predatory mite Eupodes niloticus Abou-Awad & El-Bagoury was dominant and from the debatable group, Tydeus kochi Oud. was dominant followed by T. putrescentiae and P. gizai. Population densities were insignificantly affected by temperature and relative humidity.

This study was carried out at Ras Sudr Experimental Station, South Sinai during 2001 and 2002 seasons. Four sudan grass varieties (Giza2, Piper, Hybrid102 and Is3214) were tested under five nitrogen fertilizer (Mineral and biofertilizer) treatments under two levels of irrigation water salinity (3700 and 9200 ppm). Growth characters i.e. plant height, number of tillers/plant, stem diameter, number of leaves/plant, leaf area, leaves/stem ratio, and forage yield (fresh and dry weight of stem+sheaths and fresh and dry weight of forage yield) were recorded. In addition, carbohydrates, protein, fibers and ash percentages (in leaves and stems) and proline in leaves were determined. Results demonstrate that the Piper variety had the highest value of forage yield compared with the other varieties. The recommended dose of mineral nitrogen fertilizer gave the highest values followed by mixture of biofertilizers (Azospirillum plus Azotobacter) under the two salinity levels of irrigation water at both cuts (the first one was harvested after 65 days from sowing date and the second was obtained at the same time interval). Moreover there was a significant decrease in all growth characteristics and the yield of four sudan grass varieties by increasing the level of irrigation water salinity from 3700 to 9200 ppm except proline in leaves which significantly increased by increasing the level of salinity

Twenty nine samples of locally produced honey and twenty two samples of honey pastes were collected from retail outlets in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Their antibacterial activity against some Gram positive and Gram negative foodborne bacterial pathogens using the agar well diffusion method was studied. In addition, the minimal inhibitory concentrations (MIC) were determined for honey pastes samples using the dilution method. All samples of honey had antibacterial activity against Listeria monocytogenes, Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli O157: H7 and Salmonella typhimunium on plates of tryptic soy agar with varying diameters of inhibition zones. Samples of honey pastes showed also antibacterial effect against Listeria monocytogenes, Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli O157: H7 and Salmonella typhimunium adopting the previous technique. MIC varied between honey pastes samples where it was sample dependent.

temperature was studied during two successive seasons of 2002 and 2003 at Kaha experimental station, Agricultural Research Center, Cairo, Egypt (Latitude, longitude, and altitude are 30.8, 31.15, and 16.9 m respectively). Cucumber seedlings (Cucumis sativus L. F1 local hybrid Sinai 1) were grown in clay soil under unheated two plastic houses. One of them was covered with one year old cladding material (PE 200μm) while the other was covered with new cladding. Soil surface was covered with different plastic mulch colors, i.e., black, silver, and transparent, in addition to a new suggested mulch that was craft-paper saturated with paraffin wax. Soil temperatures were measured at 5 cm depth. Global solar radiation and air temperature were measured inside and outside the greenhouses. The vegetative growth , i.e., plant height, leaf number, leaf fresh and dry weight, early and total yield were recorded. The results showed that new cladding cover promoted plant growth and yield. Craft-paper saturated with paraffin wax gave the highest soil temperature during the sunny days in comparison with other mulches and best results concerning vegetative growth and yield were obtained by both black mulch and craft-paper saturated with paraffin

Dill ( Anethum graveolens L.) plants were cultivated during two successive seasons (2002/2003 and 2003/2004). The experimental were conducting at the Experimental Farm, National Research Center (NRC), Egypt, to study the effect of different combination of organic fertilizers such as chicken and sheep manure and its rates on dill ( Anethum graveolens L.) plants. The obtained results indicated that, treated plants with different combination of organic fertilizers and its rates resulted in a significant increase in growth and yield characters , i.e. plant height, branch number, leaf number, umbel number, fresh weight, dry weight and fruit yield / plant in comparison with control plants. Chemical composition analysis of treated plants showed an increase in the essential oil percentage and main components (Carvone (R) and Limonene) of essential oil extracted from dill (Anethum graveolens L.) fruits. Treated plants showed a decreases in the heavy metals content in the plant tissues comparison to untreated plants. Also these results indicated that the application of organic manure reduced the harmful effects of hazardous heavy metals

In Libya the plants Myrtus communis and Plantago albicans are commonly used in folk medicine to treat various diseases. However, there are a large number of plant compounds which can cause many aberrations in genetic material. This study was carried out to investigate any possible cytotoxic and mutagenic effects for M. communis and P. albicans on mitotic criteria of cell cycle and chromosomes. Two infusion concentrations were prepared for each plant, one of them was used as folk medicine (o.25 mg/ml) and other as to 10 times of this value (2.5 mg/mL). Bean (Vicia faba, L.) root-tip cells (RTC) and Balb / C mice (Mus musculus) bone-marrow cells (BMC) were used as test systems. The M. communis infusions at both concentrations and the P. albicans infusion at the lower concentration had no statistically significant depressive effect on mitotic criteria of RTC. Where as significant depressive effect on these criteria of RTC was found for the high concentration of P. albicans as compared with a negative control. No significant effect on the induction of chromosome aberrations and the rate of mitotic index of BMC was found by using infusions of P. albicans and M. communis as compared with control.

The effect of infection of Biomphalaria alexandrina snails with Bacillus thurin-giensis kurstaki on various stages of Schistosoma mansoni life cycle was studied for three successive generations. Thus, two groups of snails were exposed to a sublethal concentration of the bacteria (0.08 gm/L water) containing 32000 IU/mg, for one week and to schistosome miracidia. One group was exposed to the miracidia before bacterial infection, while the other group to the miracidia after the bacterial infec-tion. Cercariae produced from each group of snails were used to infect albino mice. The infection of snails and mice with the parasite was repeated for three generations of the parasite. In the first case, data obtained show that the schistosome infection rate of snails was considerably reduced being 60%, 18%, and 66.6% versus 90 % , 92% and 90% in untreated control snails in the three generations of the parasite, re-spectively. Meanwhile, the mean prepatent period was extended being 29.1  4.3 days, 33  1 days and 38.5  2.5 days versus 27 days in the control group. The num-ber of worms recovered from infected mice showed reduction of 52 %, 78.4% and 58.6%, respectively. In the second case, the infection rate of snails was 40%, 16% and 73.7% for the three successive parasite generations and the prepatent period was 32  1 days, 32  2.3 days and 35  2.8 days, respectively. The reduction percentage of the recovered worms was 34.8, 73.6 and 72.9 in the sccessive generations, respec-tively. The present results prove that infecting B.alexandrina snails with a sublethal concentration of B. thuringiensis kurstaki bacteria exhibits clear negative effect on the transmission of S. mansoni in three successive generations. So, it could be rec-ommended to use B. thuringiensis kurstaki as a potential biocontrol agent against S. mansoni.

A test survey was conducted to determine the nutritional status of apple trees grown at four highly productive orchards in south of Jordan. Leaf and soil samples were taken from each orchard, and analyzed for the concentrations of macro- and micronutrients. Soils of Al-Shoubak tend to have high pH, low organic matter and high CaCO3 contents. The results showed that soil concentrations of N, K, Fe, Mn, Zn and Cu varied widely among the orchards. No deficiency or hunger signs of N, P, K, Mn and Zn nutrients were observed at any of the localities since concentrations of leaf nutrients were generally within the sufficient range, indicating adequate lev-els of fertilization applied to the trees. The leaf analysis has shown that Cu deficien-cy is found in some apple orchards. Soils and leaf nutrient levels were generally not well correlated with one another. The only highly significant correlation was be-tween soil P and leaf N. However, positive relations were observed among leaf P and Mn, Fe and Mn, Fe and Zn, and Mn and Zn contents.

Stem node explants of three almond (Prunus dulcis Mill) cultivars (Om – Elfahm, M-Dalt and Ne Plus Ultra) and the hybrid rootstock “Hansen” cv. were suc-cessfully established and proliferated on Murashige and Skoog medium (MS) sup-plemented with benzyl adenine (BA) at 0.0 - 2.0 mgl -1 and indol butyric acid (IBA) at 0.0 - 0.1 mgl-1 .The highest bud development percentage of stem node explant was obtained with medium contained BA at 2 mgl-1 with or without IBA at 0.1 mgl-1 for M – Dalet and Ne Plus Ultra almond cultivars compared with other treatments. The longest shoot during establishment stage was recorded by “Hansen” rootstock cultured in MS with BA at 2.0 mgl-1 plus IBA at 0.01 mgl-1.Using BA at 1.0 mgl-1 plus IBA at 0.1 mgl-1 and BA at 2.0 mgl -1 plus 0.05 or 0.1 mgl -1gave the highest number of proliferated shoots for Om – Elfahm, M-Dalt and Ne Puls Ultra cvs. and “Hansen”, respectively in the 3rd subculture. The best average proliferated shoot length was achieved with medium supplemented with BA at 1.0 mgl-1 plus IBA at 0.05 mgl-1 or 0.1 mgl-1 for M-Dalt, Ne Puls Ultra and “Hansen” respectively, where-as, using BA at 2.0 mgl -1 plus IBA at 0.1 mgl -1 recorded the longest average prolif-erated shoot for Om- Elfahm cultivar. Microshoots were rooted in modified Bourgin and Nitsch medium supplemented with IBA or NAA at 1.0 mgl-1 only or combination (0.2 IBA mgl-1 + NAA 0.4 mgl-1, IBA 0.4 mgl-1 + NAA 0.8 mgl-1 and IBA 0.5 mgl-1 + NAA 1.0 mgl-1). The large callus (more than 10 mm diameter) was recorded with “Hansen” rootstock and Om – Elfahm treated by IBA at 0.4 mgl -1 plus NAA at 0.8 mgl -1. The greatest rooting percentage (66.67%) was obtained with medium contained IBA at 0.2 or 0.4 mgl-1 plus NAA at 0.4 or 0.8 mgl-1 for “Hansen” rootstock and Ne Plus Ultra shoots.