A field experiment was carried out during the two successive seasons of 2017/18 and 2018/19. The aims of the experiment were to investigate the effect of different planting arrangement patterns: T1 (3 pea: 1 lettuce), T2 (2 pea: 1 lettuce), T3 (1 pea:1 lettuce), T4 (side pea: side lettuce) in addition to sole lettuce and sole pea (control) treatments regarding the growth, yield, and nutritional quality, along with the financial aspects of applying intercropping systems for lettuce and pea productivity. The obtained results revealed that, intercropping lettuce with pea was more effective than planting pea crop alone, as it increased the lettuce yield by 12.2%-37.7% and 27.7%- 60 % in the first and second seasons respectively according to the intercropping system applied. All intercropping treatments except for T4 (side pea: side lettuce) treatment reduced the pea yield. The highest pea yields were produced by both sole pea andT4 treatments, while the lowest pea yield was form T3, in both seasons. T3 treatment depressed pea pod yield to 60% of its mono-cropped yield. On the other hand, T1 and T2 treatments produced the highest yield for lettuce in both seasons. Intercropping lettuce with pea, led to an improvement in the protein percentage in pea. LER of pea/lettuce intercropping treatments were more than unit. Moreover, the highest values for both LER and MAI obtained fromT1 treatment. Calculated “aggressiveness” suggested that all secondary crop treatments were more dominant than pea in all intercropping treatments. The intercropping system of 3pea:1 lettuce could be a gainful system to obtain the greatest efficiency of land

The study was conducted to investigate the influence of seaweed extract, chelated manganese, and two other chemical substances that are known as Agro promotor1(substance No.48) and Agro promotor2 (substance No.50) on the growth, yield, and quality of cauliflower. Results revealed that yield and its components increased with using each seaweed extract(3ml/l), chelated manganese (12%) at a concentration of 0.25g/l, and Agro promotor1 (substance No.48) at a concentration of 3 ml/l compared with control (untreated) treatment. Using both seaweed and chelated manganese treatments exceeded other foliar spraying treatments and caused a significant increase in fresh weight of the whole plant, leaves fresh weight,leaves dry weight percent, yield, TSS and vitamin C. The increase in total yield ranged from 12.8-48.2% by using the previous treatments as compared with control. Also, foliar sprays of seaweed extracts led to the earliness in cauliflower production as compared with the control. This study recommends using seaweed extract at a concentration of 3ml/l or chelated manganese (12%) at a concentration of (0.25g/l) for cauliflower production. Agro promotor1 (substance No.48) at a concentration of 3 ml/l can be applied in case of unavailability of seaweed extract or chelated manganese (12%).

A field experiment was conducted to evaluate the response of okra sowing date and variety on growth and yield at the Experimental Farm of Faculty of Agriculture, Assiut University, Assiut, Egypt, during 2011 and 2012seasons. Two sowing dates i.e. April 15 and May 15 and five varieties i.e. BaladyAssiut, BaladyQena, Emerald, Golden Coast and PusaSawani were studied. From the results it was noticed that the fruit number and fruit yield significantly affected by sowing date and variety. In case of sowing on 15thApril, the heighest fruits yield was (8.577 and 8.146 ton/feddan) in both seasons. However 15th May sowing date produced the lowest fruits yield (4.227 and 4.005ton/ feddan). PusaSawani cv produced the highest yield of okra in two sowing dates (12.341, 6.632 and 11.904, 6.365 ton/feddan) in both seasons, respectively. Determination of optimum sowing date is considered an important to have optimum yields. Results shown that varities, Golden Coast and PusaSawani produced higher fruits yield on 15th May than BaladyQena cv sown on 15th April. The interaction between varieties and sowing date was significant in both seasons for plant height, number and weight of green pods/plant and total green yield/fed.

In this study, Novozym 435-catalyzed interesterification of ethyl ferulate (EF) with phosphatidylcholine (PC) in a two-phase system consisting of an ionic liquid (IL) and toluene was optimized to prepare feruloylated lysophospholipids (FLPs). Optimum conditions for the interesterification process were found to be [Bmim][Tf2N]/toluene ratio of 1: 1 (v/v), solvent volume of 4 mL, molecular sieves (4 Å) concentration of 80 mg/mL, reaction temperature of 55℃, substrate molar ratio of 5: 1 (PC/EF), Novozym 435 concentration of 50 mg/mL. Under these conditions, two FLPs products (1-FLP and 2-FLP) with total conversion rate of 50.79% were obtained. Because the formation of 1-FLP was significantly higher than 2-FLP, 1-FLP was purified and characterized by LC-MS and NMR. In addition, 1-FLP showed DPPH scavenging activity comparable with those of EF and BHT. Therefore, this study provides a good method for transformation of ferulic acid to improve its solubility and promote its application as functional ingredient in the food and pharmaceutical industries.

The climate changes, soil fertility decline, water scarcity, and desertification are expected to generate a great threat to crop production and food security worldwide. Additionally, more food is needed to meet the demand of the world’s growing population. Therefore, scientists are searching for innovative strategies to reduce food loss and enhance food security. Utilization of food processing by-products as food or food ingredients is one of the proposed strategies that can contribute to food security. Rice is a major food crop worldwide and there is a great amount of rice bran is produced as a byproduct of rice milling. Bran constitutes about 10% of the rough rice grain and it is rich in nutrients and bioactive compounds. Rice bran protein (RBP) has shown good nutritional and biological values. Therefore, many studies have been carried out to investigate the suitability of RBP for the application in preparing nutritional and healthy foods. Also, hydrolysates and peptides with various biological activities were isolated from RBP and identified. Therefore, this article aimed to review the research advances in extraction, potential health benefits, and food applications of RBP and its derived hydrolysates. Challenges facing the application of RBP in the food industry are also discussed.

To evaluate the impact of male-female cohabitation period on the fertility, hatchability, injuries response, and some hormonal estimates in Japanese quails. A total of 288 mature Japanese quails were equally divided into 3 groups (3 groups × 8 replicates × 12 birds), with 1 Male: 2 Females sex ratio. In the first group (control), male and female quails were reared continuously together, while the males in the second and third groups were reared together with females once or twice/wk times (24 h/ time), respectively throughout the experiment. The obtained results showed that final body weight (FBW/g), fertility (%), and hatchability (%) in the second and third groups significantly (P ≤ 0.01) increased compared with the control group. Laying quails in the second and third groups significantly (P ≤ 0.01) produced more and heavier eggs, while the feed consumption and feed conversion ratio were significantly (P ≤ 0.01 …

Steel wool (SW) has a broad-spectrum of applicability, particularly as abrasives, cleaning household utensils and surfaces in general. However, when present in the natural environment, they can be ingested by animals, such as birds, and may represent a risk to the survival of individuals. Accordingly, in this study, we attempted the hypothesis that the ingestion of SW microfibers (SWMs) by Gallus gallus domesticus chicks (model system used) alters growth/development, induces redox imbalance and cholinesterasic effect, as well as promotes iron overload in different organs. For this, the animals received SWMs twice (within a 24-h interval) in an amount corresponding to 12% of their total stomach volume. At the end of the experiment, we observed less weight gain and less head growth, increased production of hydrogen peroxide (in the brain, liver, crop, and gizzard), nitrite (liver, crop, proventriculus and gizzard), malondialdehyde (brain, liver, muscle, proventriculus, and gizzard), along with increased superoxide dismutase activity in the liver, muscle and crop of animals exposed to SWMs. Such results were associated with iron overload observed in different organs, especially in liver, crop, and gizzard. Furthermore, we evidenced an anti-cholinesterasic effect in birds that ingested the SWMs, marked by a reduction in the acetylcholinesterase activity (in brain). Thus, our study sheds light on the (eco)toxicological potential of SWMs in avifauna, conceding us to associate their ingestion (despite ephemeral and occasional) with damage to the health of individuals, requiring a greater attention spotted to disposal of these materials in ecosystems.

Soil treatment methods to cope with ever-growing demands of construction industry and environmental aspects are always explored for their suitability in different in-situ conditions. Of late, enzyme induced calcite precipitation (EICP) is gaining importance as a reliable technique to improve soil properties and for contaminant remediation scenarios. In the present work, swelling and permeability characteristics of two native Indian cohesive soils (Black and Red) are explored. Experiments on the sorption and desorption of multiple heavy metals (Cd, Ni and Pb) onto these soils were conducted to understand the sorptive response of the heavy metals. To improve the heavy metal retention capacity and enhance swelling and permeability characteristics, the selected soils were treated with different enzyme solutions. The results revealed that EICP technique could immobilize the heavy metals in selected soils to a significant level and reduce the swelling and permeability. This technique is contaminant selective and performance varies with the nature and type of heavy metal used. Citric acid (C₆H₈O₇) and ethylene diamine tetra-acetic acid (EDTA) were used as extractants in the present study to study the desorption response of heavy metals for different EICP conditions. The results indicate that calcium carbonate (CaCO₃) precipitate deposited in the voids of soil has the innate potential in reducing the permeability of soil up to 47-fold and swelling pressure by 4-fold at the end of 21 days of curing period. Reduction in permeability and swell, following EICP treatment can be maintained with one time rinsing of the treated soil in water to avoid dissolution of precipitated CaCO₃. Outcomes of this study have revealed that EICP technique can be adopted on selected native soils to reduce swelling and permeability characteristics followed by enhanced contaminant remediation enabling their potential as excellent landfill liner materials.