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.

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.

Two field experiments were conducted during the summer season of 2003 and 2004 to study the effect of organic and bio-organic fertilizers [esterna biofert, compost, biocompost and effective microorganisms (Em)] on vegetative growth, yield and physical and chemical components in tubers of local and fuseau Jerusalem artichoke cultivars. Results indicated that Em, biocompost and biofert significantly increased plant height, number of main and lateral shoots and dry weight as well as the concentrations of Chl (a+b), carotenoids and total carbohydrates in the leaves. Moreover, dry matter, inulin, nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium of tubers showed a significant increases. The highest vegetative growth and tuber yield were obtained when Em, biocompost and biofert were applied. The respective increase in lateral shoots, Chl (a + b), carotenoids, average tuber weight and size were higher in local cultivar. Whereas fuseau cultivar tubers showed greater dry matter than those of local variety. The application of Em, biocompost and biofert fertilizers in both local and fuseau cultivar gave the relatively higher yield with good quality.

A numerical method was suggested for the identification of eight local halotolerant streptomycete isolates. Cultural, morphological, physiological and antagonistic characteristics of those isolates were determined. Arbitrary scoring of these characters for the eight unknown isolates and those of the more related known Streptomyces species in the keyof Pridham and Tresner (1974) was given and resulted 58 characteristic units. The degree of similarity was determined using the Dice coefficient method and clustering was achieved using the unweighted pair group method average (UPGMA) algorithm. Using this numerical method, six out of the eight Streptomyces isolates, i.e., ST08, ST09, ST11, ST13, ST14 and ST15 were identified as S. longisporus, S. janthinus, S. griseochromogenes, S. antibioticus S. baarnensis and S. albolongus with 100, 95.8, 95.0, 92.8, 95.0 and 91.1%, respectively. Isolates ST10 and ST12 were duplicate of S. echinatus with similarities of 93.3 and 94.6%, respectively. Application of the suggested numerical taxonomy on the 14 known Streptomyces species revealed that these species fell into three major clusters based on their color of aerial mycelia.

The current study was carried out at the Agricultural and Veterinary Research Station, Faculty of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine, Qassim University, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia during the two seasons 2003/2004 and 2003/2004. The objectives of this study are to investigate the effect of irrigation scheduling methods with different amounts of applied water on date palme offshoot growth, Determination offshoot consumptive use, crop coefficient, actual water requirements and the suitable soil moisture tension in the root zone before irrigation. The irrigation was scheduling by three methods, evapotranspiration calculation method, soil moisture depletion  method and farmer method (control). The evapotranspiration  calculation method (ETo) included ten treatments as a percentage of evapotranspiration (0.1, 0.2, 0.3, 0.4, 0.5, 0.6, 0.7, 0.8, 0.9, 1.0 ETo). The soil moisture depletion method included five treatments of soil moisture depletion as a percentage of field capacity (50%Fc, 60%Fc, 70% Fc, 80% Fc and 90% Fc). The results showed that scheduling irrigation of the offshoot by evapotranspiration calculation method (ETo) or by soil moisture depletion  method, the amount of applied water decreased and the offshoot growth and the water use efficiency increased; compared with the farmer scheduling method. The daily and seasonal gross irrigation requirements for date palm offshoots were 51.3 l/day and 2191 m3/hec.year, while the farmer applied 19960 m3/h.year. So, the farmer added seven times as much as the actual gross irrigation requirements. The maximum water use efficiency were 2.5 kg/m3 and 1.44 kg/m3 for the treatments 0.1 ETo and 50% Fc, respectively. The suitable soil  moisture tension in the root zone before irrigation were 21.5  to 22 C-bar and 22.5 to 23 C-bar for 60 cm and 90 cm depths, respectively.

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.