The use of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) in the fields of agriculture and horticulture has been increasing recently due to contribution to seed germination, plant growth and development, flowering, yield, and physiological improvements. This research aimed to investigate the effects of silver nanoparticles on the growth and flowering characteristics of the 'Santander' lily (Lilium L.) variety and to determine its potential for use in cultivation. Before planting the plant bulbs immersed in AgNPs solutions of 0 (control), 50, 75, 100, 125 and 150 ppm. After harvest; weight, circumference, height, root length, fresh and dry weight, stem root length, fresh and dry weight of stem, plant height, plant stem diameter, fresh plant weight, bud number and vase life were determined. As a result; it has been indicated that AgNPs solutions in different concentrations increased the quality and quantity of cut flowers and bulbs in lily plants. AgNPs increased an average of 26.29% when compared with control in all morphological characteristics except for the vase life. In the light of these findings, AgNPs applications can be preferred as a method that can be used on lily cultivation and reproduction. Nevertheless, considering the deficiency of treatments of AgNPs in lily plants and their poorly known effect on plants, further detailed studies are necessary.

Verticillium wilt disease in cotton is a soil-borne disease that causes significant yield losses, and it is therefore important to identify disease-resistant genotypes. Current study was carried out in the experimental field of the Faculty of Agriculture, Dicle University (Diyarbakir) in the year 2020 to determine the tolerance levels of some cotton genotypes which contain different characteristics to wilt disease (Verticillium dahliae Kleb.). The experiment area has been naturally infected with Verticillium wilt pathogens. A total of 124 cotton genotypes, including four controls (DP-499, Edessa, ST-468, ES-1), were arranged in five blocks according to the Augmented Design. The indices of stem cross-section and the leaf-disease severity were found significant. The leaf-disease severity varied between 0.12-3.09 at 50-60 % at boll opening period, whilst stem cross-section values ranged between 0.36-2.30. Moreover, a positive correlation was found between the indices. In conclusion, G7, G12, G21, G22, G23, G41, G51, G55, and G101 were determined as tolerant genotypes to Verticillium wilt in terms of examining two parameters.

Soil and water are the two most important basic factors for ensuring sustainable agricultural production. On the other hand, supplying quality and sufficient irrigation water from the nature for agricultural production is getting harder day by day. The decrease or pollution of natural resources for irrigated agriculture, especially in arid and semi-arid climatic regions, necessitates making agriculture with the use of low-quality irrigation water. Low-quality irrigation water causes salinization of the soils in the production areas. If the salinized lands are not washed or rehabilitated, it is inevitable that they will be out of production soon. In the agricultural area, salinity can occur naturally as well as irrigation practice. Salinity, which is an important problem for agriculture in the world, causes increasing soil losses every year. Efforts should be made to eliminate the problem of salinity in sustainable agriculture. In addition, salinity-resistant plants can be preferred to be grown as well as encouraging conscious irrigation in the salinized areas.

With the increasing world population, the food need of humanity is increasing proportionally. Agricultural wastes constitute an important potential for the global economy as they contain components that are less preferred to be consumed as food due to their low bioavailability due to their indigestion in the human body or due to their sensory properties, but that may be beneficial to human health such as antioxidant substances and antimicrobial agents. The benefits of using these wastes in terms of economy and reducing environmental pollution are obvious. Tomato, which is one of the most used agricultural products in our country and the world, is processed by removing its skins in the processing of many products. Tomato skins cause serious environmental problems and economic losses unless they are valorized. In this regard, this study aims to optimize the extraction efficiency, the antioxidant capacity, and total phenolic content of the tomato peel extract according to the independent variables of temperature and time, while the alkaline extraction process applied to tomato skins is cheap and industrially applicable. Using response surface methodology, the highest extraction yield (28.77 g/100 g dry extract), total phenolic content (3819.32 mg GAE/100 g dry extract), and total antioxidant capacity (2737.82 µmoL Trolox/100 g dry extract) were obtained under extraction conditions at 100°C for 5.26 h. According to LC-MS/MS results, tomato skins treated with alkali contain various phenolic acids and some flavonoids. The phenolic component found in the highest amount in the tomato peel extract was determined as p-coumaric acid (429.99 ± 38.53 mg/100 g dry extract). Other important phenolic components are ferulic acid (12.44 ± 2.06); 4-hydroxy benzoic acid (7.13 ± 1.01) and vanillin (2.47 ± 0.22) mg/100 g dry extract.

Poor seed germination obstructs the early and uniform seedling emergence at the sub-optimal conditions which can be a major setback to early spring cucumber growers. Different seed priming methods ought to be efficient solutions for the problem. To standardize the best priming method, an experiment was laid out in a Completely randomized design at the Horticulture lab of IAAS, Lamjung Campus. The treatment consisted of demineralized distilled water (hydropriming), hormonal priming (GA3 100ppm and GA3 200 ppm), halopriming (NaCl 0.5% and KNO3 0.5%), and non-primed seeds as control. The seeds were soaked in the respective treatment for 24 hours and then dried to initial moisture content under shade conditions. Observation recorded significantly highest germination percentage in GA3 100ppm (19.25%) and hydro priming (19.25%). The lowest mean germination time was found in GA3 100ppm (4.19days) which was significantly at par with GA3 200ppm (4.33days) and hydro priming (4.48days). The germination energy was found highest in GA3 100ppm (39.58) followed by GA3 200ppm (33.65) and dry weight was recorded highest in hydropriming (0.0252g) followed by GA3 100ppm (0.0250g) whereas the highest root length was observed in KNO3 priming (12.955cm) which is statistically at par with hydropriming (11.42cm), GA3 200 ppm (10.872cm) and NaCl priming (10.42cm). The plumule length was observed highest in KNO3 (13.00cm) followed by NaCl (11.25cm). All primed seeds showed increased seedling vigor compared to the unprimed seeds. The study showed that applied treatment notably increased the germination characteristics and seedling stand.

A myriad of health claims are being made in favor of the consumption of green tea due to its easy availability and greater popularity. On the contrary, certain health risks of excessive green tea consumption have begun to emerge. The aim of the present research was to observe the baleful effects of excessive green tea intake on hematological parameter and histoarchitecture of liver. A total of thirty (n=30) Swiss albino mice were taken and randomly divided into Control C, Treated T1, and Treated T2 groups. Each group consisted of ten (5 male+5 female) mice. The Control C group was fed with normal mice pellet and water (3ml/mice) orally but the treated T1 group was supplied mice pellet with 2ml/mice of green tea+1ml/mice of water orally as well as treated T2 group was given mice pellet and 3ml/mice of green tea orally two times in a day for 60 days. After the experimental tenure, mice of each group were sacrificed ethically and samples (Blood, liver and lungs) were collected for further hematological and histomorphological studies. Treated T2 group of mice were motionless (inactive and stagnant). Anatomopathologically, the liver surface became dark red in color with considerable hepatomegaly and mild hemorrhage also found on lung surface. Histologically, mild central vein congestion and severe venous congestion with dilation were found in the portal vein of the liver of the treated T2 group of mice. Hematologically, hemoglobin level significantly reduced in the treated T2 group of mice than the others. Within this experimental period, female mice of each group gave birth (15-18 pups) that were devoid of any abnormality. Therefore, it can be concluded that excessive green tea intake in a day might have baleful effects on hematological parameter (Hb concentration) and histoarchitechture of liver in Swiss albino mice.

In this study, powder was obtained from yellow and purple-fleshed potatoes by microwave and hot air drying and the effects of drying methods on the total phenolic compounds, total monomeric anthocyanin, color, antioxidant activity, starch ratio and vitamin C on were determined. It was observed that the microwave drying process caused an increase in bioactive components in purple-colored powder samples, and no significant differences were determined in terms of drying methods in bioactive components in yellow-colored powder samples. When the starch ratio of the samples was examined, it was determined that hot air drying caused a significant increase. Principal component analysis (PCA) and hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA) were used as multivariate analysis to reveal the effects of different drying techniques and potato varieties on the physicochemical properties of potato powders. As a result, it was found that the physicochemical properties of potato powders differentiated depending on the methods and varieties.

The study aimed was to determine the best nonlinear function describing the growth stages of the Japanese quail breed. To this aim, growth functions such as exponential, logistic, von Bertalanffy, Brody, and Gompertz were used as nonlinear functions is used in the description of the body weight-age relationship of male and female Japanese quails. The Multivariate Adaptive Regression Splines (MARS) data mining algorithm was applied to the individual growth parameters obtained from the determined as the best fit model, and the relationship between sex and growth parameters with it has been revealed. The study dataset was 1267 body weight-age records collected from the hatching to the 6th week of age of 181 Japanese quails consisting of 90 females and 91 males. Each model was applied separately for both males and females. Model fit criteria such as coefficient of determination (R2), adjusted coefficient of determination (R2adj), Akaike's information criterion (AIC), and Bayes information criterion (BIC) were used to evaluate the performances of the growth functions used individually. All the statistical analyses were made by the R package program. The growth curve models were ranked in the form of Logistic > Gompertz > von Bertalanffy > Brody > Exponential according to the goodness of fit criteria. The most suitable model among the non-linear models in terms of performance was logistic. When the relationship between the growth curve parameters and body weight of the logistic model was explained with the MARS algorithm, the goodness of fit criteria showed that the obtained MARS model showed reliable performance. In addition, Pearson’s correlation coefficient between real and estimated body weight was found quite strong for the MARS algorithm (r=0.935). The results showed that the MARS algorithm can be presented as a good reference for breeders to establish breed standards and selection strategies for Japanese quails in growth parameters for breeding purposes.

Pesticides are commonly applied in market gardening to improve productivity and pest control. Pesticide residues could be persistent in vegetables and generate a potential health hazard for consumers. This study has been carried out in Tunisia to assess the perceived risk of consumers exposed to pesticide residues remaining in vegetables. Two surveys with different questionnaires were conducted among 30 market gardeners and 50 households located in the Djebeniana delegation (Sfax governorate, Tunisia) in order to analyze the phytosanitary practices of farmers on the one hand, and to better understand the attitude related to vegetable consumption and awareness on pesticide residues, on the other hand. The results revealed that various phytosanitary products have been used by market gardeners (43 commercial products containing 39 different active substances (AS)). Among these AS, abamectin and methomyl are considered as highly hazardous according the WHO classification. According to the behavior of pesticides in plants, more than half of the AS. (54%) are systemic and can be absorbed by the plant and moved around in its tissues. Furthermore, the majority of the surveyed farmers had never undergone agricultural training, which is a real handicap with respect to good phytosanitary practices. After applying pesticides, the pre-harvest interval was regularly not respected by almost half of the interviewed market gardeners. In addition, the study showed that all consumers washed their vegetables before consumption, but more than half of the respondents (54%) wash their vegetables for less than a minute (simply passing them under running water). In the light of these results, it appears that consumers may be exposed to pesticide residues from vegetables on the Tunisian market, with potential effects on their health.

This study aimed to investigate the presence of Aflatoxin M1 (AFM1) in raw buffalo milk and buffalo milk products such as cheese, yogurt, cream, and ice cream by ELISA technique. In the study, 175 samples were investigated, and it was determined that 146 (83.43%) of the samples had AFM1 concentrations below the LOD (limit of detection) value. In 29 samples (16.57%), the AFM1 concentration exceeded the LOD value, and in 7 (4%) of these, the AFM1 concentration was above the legal limits (50 ng/L). While AFM1 was not detected in raw buffalo milk samples, the presence of AFM1 in cheese, yogurt, cream, and ice cream samples was found to be 2.85%, 2.85%, 62.85%, and 14.3%, respectively. 2.85% of cheese samples and 17.1% of cream samples were found contaminated with AFM1 above the allowed legal limits (50 ng/L). As a result, it was determined that the potential for exposure to AFM1 by consuming buffalo cream was higher than the consumption of buffalo milk and other buffalo milk products. However, the detection of AFM1 above legal limits in buffalo milk products poses a serious risk to public health. Therefore, it is extremely necessary for public health to develop effective monitoring programs to control aflatoxin contamination in milk and new strategies to maintain inspections.