The aim of this work was to evaluate the phenolic profiles and anti-inflammatory, antioxidant and gastro-protective activities of Cnicus benedictus L., a type of milk thistle cultivated in Turkey. The total phenolic content (TPC), total flavonoid content (TFC), ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP) and the 2,2-diphenyl-1-picryhydrazyl (DPPH) free radical scavenging activity was measured to determine antioxidant capacity. The anti-urease and anti-xanthine oxidase activities were used to determine the gastro-protective and anti-inflammatory potential of the plant extracts, respectively. The TPC was 337.40 and 635.10 mg of gallic acid equivalents (GAE)/100 g and TFC was 41.05 -119.12 mg of quercetin equivalents (QE)/100 g in the root and leaf extracts, respectively. The root and leaf extracts of Cnicus benedictus L., were exhibited different inhibition values against both of the enzymes. The inhibition effect of the both enzymes were calculated as IC50 (mg/mL) in terms of 50% inhibition of the enzymes. The xanthine oxidase activity of the leaf and root was 18.53 and 19.75 mg/mL and the urease activity were 2.29 mg/mL and 11.53 mg/mL, respectively. Fifteen phenolic compounds were determined by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC-UV). Vanillic, silibinin B, ferulic acid and rutin were found major amount of the plant. In conclusion, the plant have high potential beneficial nutraceuticals and consumption of the together with its roots and leafs will be beneficial in terms of nutrition.

Chloropropanols are known as undesired food contaminants liberated during the processing of various food products. When the adverse effects of chloropropanols, especially 3-monochloropropane-1,2-diol (3-MCPD), 2-monochloropropane-1,3-diol (2-MCPD) and glycidols along with their esters were first understood, the studies about the detection and mitigation of these compounds were accelerated. 3-MCPD, which was detected in food products in higher amounts when compared to other chloropropanols, usually occurs during refining process of vegetable oils, especially in deodorisation step. The novel methods in terms of the analysis of 3-MCPD and other chloropropanols are continuously updated. However, there are two basic methods today namely direct and indirect methods. Direct methods enable to detect all of the esters individually, yet, due to the necessity of a huge number of reference standards, indirect methods are currently more preferred. The first essential step of reducing chloropropanols in food products is to determine the proper analysis method. In this review, general information, new developments in analysis methods, mitigation studies and the toxigolocial data about various chloropropanols were summarized.

Prices of agricultural products fluctuate depending upon several factors. In Turkey, potatoes are one of the main products for which price fluctuations are observed. This study was undertaken to determine the effect of the fluctuation in potato prices on producer incomes in Turkey. The Neyman Method was used to determine the sample size. The number of enterprises required to achieve a representative sample size was determined to be 56, with a 5% error margin and a 95% reliability limit. The way in which the potato cultivation area is affected by price was examined. The Koyck model was utilized for this purpose. By using Koyck analysis, average lag time was calculated to be approximately 1 year. This result indicates that the fluctuation in potato prices has quite a rapid effect on production. It was determined that producer income varies greatly depending on annual potato prices. The difference between estimated potato price and the actual price for the year 2012 resulted in an income loss of 11,198.6 $/ha. Some sustainable efforts such as production planning can be recommended to prevent these price fluctuations.

Pomegranate is one of the most important horticultural crops in Iran, and has been cultivated for thousands of years in this country. At this period due to selection of superior cultivars from nature or mutation emerged in these cultivars, and their vegetative propagation, substantial genetic variation has occurred within and among the cultivars. Thus, each cultivar may consist of different clones. According to this issue, diversity within four commercial cultivars of pomegranate was analyzed. Two molecular marker systems including ISSR and SSR were used to evaluate variability between 36 samples of four commercial cultivars. ISSR markers produced 114 amplification products, out of which 97 were polymorphic (83.23%). Mean resolving power was 2.96 for ISSR markers. 19 SSR molecular markers were used, 15 of which amplified polymorphic products, while the remaining ones monomorphic., The number of polymorphic alleles per locus ranged from two to four (average 3.6). The observed and expected heterozygosities ranged from 0.04 to 0.92 and 0.14 to 0.62, respectively. In addition, mean polymorphic information content was 0.45 for SSR loci. Our results showed that commercial Iranian pomegranate have different clones. Therefore, ISSR and SSR markers can be a useful tools for detecting clones of each cultivar.

Bu çalışmada, Sivas kent merkezinde tavukçuluk ürünleri tüketim değerlerini ve bunun üzerine etki eden faktörleri belirlemek amacıyla 461 aile ile yüz yüze anket uygulaması yapılmıştır. Katılımcıların %85,5’i aktif yaş grubu olarak kabul edilen 18-54 yaş aralığında yer almaktadır. Lise ve Yüksekokul mezunlarının toplamı %68,7 olarak bulunmuştur. Aylık gıda gideri bakımından gelir grupları arasında gözlenen farklılık önemli, ortalama aylık gıda gideri 595,44 TL olarak hesaplanmıştır. Aylık gıda giderleri içerisinde tavukçuluk ürünlerin oranı bakımından da gelir grupları arasında önemli farklılıklar belirlenmiş olup, katılımcıların ortalaması %10,49 olarak belirlenmiştir. Aylık hane halkı yumurta tüketim değerleri bakımından gelir gruplarında gözlenen farklılık önemli, hane halkı aylık ortalama yumurta tüketimi 34,47 Adet/Ay, kişi başına yıllık yumurta tüketimi 123,40 Adet/Yıl olarak hesaplanmıştır. Aylık hane halkı tavuk eti tüketim değerleri bakımından gelir grupları arasında gözlenen farklılık önemli bulunmuş, aylık hane halkı tavuk eti tüketimi ortalama 4,13 Kg/Ay olmasına karşılık, kişi başı yıllık tavuk eti tüketim değeri ortalama olarak 14,89 Kg/Yıl olarak belirlenmiştir. Tavuk eti tüketimi üzerine Aile gelir seviyesi, Aile birey sayısı ve meslek grupları etkili olurken, yumurta tüketimi üzerine bu faktörler ile birlikte eğitim düzeyleri de etkili olmuştur.

Bu çalışmada Sinop ilinde perakende balık satış yerlerinde satışa sunulan akuakültür ürünlerinin aylık fiyat değişimlerinin belirlenmesi amaçlanmıştır. İşletmeler tabakalı amaçlı örnekleme yöntemi ile belirlenmiştir. İşletmeler aylık satış cirolarına göre I (en çok), II (orta) ve III (en az) olarak gruplandırılmıştır. Her grubu iki farklı iş yeri temsil etmektedir. Araştırma süresince ayda iki kez günün aynı saatinde türlere ait fiyatlar elde edilmiş, veriler aylık ortalama±sd olarak hesaplanmıştır. İşletme grupları arasındaki fark tek yönlü varyans analizi (ANOVA) ile türler arasındaki fiyat ilişki düzeyleri korrelasyon analizi ile IBM SPSS 21 programında değerlendirilmiştir. İşletmelerde kültür balıkları ürünlerinden çipura (Sparus aurata), levrek (Dicentrarhus labrax), gökkuşağı alabalığı (Oncorhyncus mykiss) (porsiyonluk ve kiloluk) ve somon balığı (Salmo salar) (ithal) türlerinin satışının yapıldığı belirlenmiştir. Av yasaklarının olduğu dönemde (Nisan-Ağustos) satışa sunulduğu, yasağın kalktığı Eylül ayından itibaren çoğunlukla avcılık ürünlerinin en az olduğu günlerde satışa sunulduğu tespit edilmiştir. Tüm türlerde örnekleme istasyonları arasındaki fiyat farkının önemli olmadığı, ortalama fiyatların 2008-2013 yılı ortalama fiyatlarına göre yüksek olduğu tespit edilmiştir. Çalışmada, alabalık ile somon arasında negatif-kuvvetli bir ilişki tespit edilmiştir.

Ethiopian agriculture is a vulnerable sector from effects of climate variability. This study identified how strong is the effect of climate variability on smallholders’ crop income in Central highlands and Arssi grain plough farming systems of the country. The unbalanced panel data (1994-2014) of the study collected for eight rounds analysed through fixed effect regression. The model result shows that successive increment of crop season rainfall keeping the temperature constant has negative and significant effect on households’ crop income in the study area. The crop income responds similarly for temperature increment if the rainfall remains constant. Given this, simultaneous increment of the two climate related inputs has positive and significant effect on crop income. Other variables like flood, frost, storm, and rainfall inconsistency in the onset and cessation time affected households’ crop income negatively and significantly. Similarly, draught power and human labour, which are critical inputs in the crop production of Ethiopian smallholders, have positive and significant effect on crop income as to the model result. Thus, this study recommended that there should be supplementing the rainfall through irrigation, check dam and other activities to have consistent water supply for the crop production that enable smallholders to collect better income. Additionally, negative effect of temperature increment should be curved through adopting long lasting strategies like afforestation.

In this study, the threat categories of locally endangered orchid species were sampled over an area of covering 187 km2 in Mersin, Adana, Hatay and Kahramanmaraş provinces of Turkey. Periodic observations were carried out in 44 sampling plots specified within three bioclimatic belts, namely the Mediterranean-montane, the sub-Mediterranean and the Mediterranean. 34 orchid species were identified under the genera of Cephalanthera (L.), Comperia (Steven.), Dactylorhiza, Epipactis (L.), Himantaglossum (Boiss.), Limodorum (L.) Ophrys, Orchisand Serapias (Burm.fil). The results revealed that six orchid species were growing in the Mediterranean-montane zone, 20 species in the sub-Mediterranean zone and 23 species in the Mediterranean zone. According to the resources of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) the threat categories were reported for only 12 out of 13 species. Local threat categories of this study showed some differences when IUCN data were considered. 34 orchid species identified in this study and 12 species were evaluated under Critically Endangered (CR) threat category. It was found that 11, 7, 2 and 2 species were under EN, VU, NT and LC respectively. Therefore, Orchid species sampled from the Eastern Mediterranean Region of Turkey have been categorized on the basis of the threat categories identified by the IUCN.

In broiler production which is based on fast and high live weight gains, it is important to provide nutrient and energy needs for the birds. Due to some problems in conventional feed materials that used to provide for these needs, alternative feed materials are required. Insects which in the chickens natural diets, are promising for this purpose. Among the most studied species as an alternative protein feed source, soldier fly (Hermetica illucens), housefly (Musca domestica), meadow grasshopper (Gryllus testaceus), silkworm (Bombyx mori), grasshopper (Acrididae) and mealworm (Tenebrio molitor).

Studies were conducted to determine the proximate and anti-nutrient composition of full-fat and defatted seed flour of Telfairia occidentalis (fluted pumpkin) using standard procedures. The defatted seed flour (DSF) indicated higher protein content (46.55%) while the full-fat seed flour (FSF) presented a value of 10.20%. The lipid (35.78%), carbohydrate (42.27%), and caloric values (531.90 Kcal/100 g) obtained for FSF were respectively higher than values of similar determinations for DSF. The anti-nutritional analyses of the FSF showed slightly higher oxalate content (44.00 mg/100 g) while cyanide, phytate and tannin levels were higher in DSF. The vitamin A composition of FSF (9.18 mg/100 g) was higher than that of DSF (0.84 mg/100 g) while DSF indicated higher vitamin C (74.44 mg/100g) content. These results revealed that the seed flour of Telfairia occidentalis contains an appreciable amount of nutrients and vitamins. The levels of toxicants in both FSF and DSF samples were low and below toxic levels. The seed flour of Telfairia occidentalis can be exploited as a cheap and valuable source of vegetable protein in fortified food products formulation.