Saline agriculture offers promising opportunities for the production of halophytic forage crops under arid and semi-arid climatic conditions. The Mediterranean saltbush (Atriplex halimus L.), a halophytic forage plant that can withstand a variety of harsh climatic conditions, is affected by seasonal climate changes in terms of growth and productivity. The objective of the current study is to comprehend how climatic changes affect the Mediterranean saltbush’s growth and productivity in semi-arid environments. Plant samples were collected every 3 months from the Mediterranean saltbush cultivated on saline sandy loam soil (15 dS m⁻¹). Biomass yields, nutritional value, and biochemical components were recorded. The studied plant produced 8.55 Mg ha⁻¹ of dried stems and leaves yearly, with the leaves contributing 31% of the plant’s overall dry yield. The dried stems and leaves yield of the Mediterranean saltbush declined by 50 and 45% in the summer season compared to the spring. The summer leaves of the Mediterranean saltbush had higher concentrations of Na, K, and Cl than the winter leaves. In contrast to chlorophyll concentrations, which increased in the spring and decreased throughout the other growing seasons, proline concentrations in the leaf tissues changed throughout the year in the opposite direction. The Mediterranean saltbush reduced the chlorophyll and relative water content in the summer months and increased the leaf Na, K, Cl, and proline. The Mediterranean saltbush plants regulate the proline levels as well as some ions like Na, K, and Cl to achieve an osmotic adjustment in the leaf’s tissues. The Mediterranean saltbush plants can produce fodder that is high in protein, nutrients, and nutritional value under conditions of extremely salty soil and irrigation water. These results provide a good opportunity to exploit water and saline lands in the production of animal feed, which helps in implementing sustainable development plans in semi-arid regions.

Water scarcity imposes significant constraints on fruit production, especially in arid and semi-arid regions. Deficit water, as one of the policies used in enhancing water use efficiency, leads to growth reduction and adversely affects the quality of mango fruit yield. The current study aims to investigate the role of Azolla as a biofertilizer in mitigating the negative effects of water stress on mango (Mangifera indica L. cv. Eiwas). A field experiment consisting of 4 different treatments (2 irrigation regimes and 2 Azolla treatments) was conducted in a randomized complete block design with five replicates. Mango trees (12 years old) were irrigated at 80% of the available soil water (normal irrigation) or at 50% of the available soil water (deficit irrigation). Dried Azolla (0 or 5 t ha⁻¹) was added to the soil. Mango tree growth and fruit yield were significantly reduced due to the deficit irrigation. In the first year, deficit irrigation reduced the available soil nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), and potassium (K) by 35, 23, and 20%, respectively, and by 39, 21, and 18% in the second year. The addition of Azolla alleviated water stress and increased nutrient availability and uptake. The addition of Azolla to water-stressed mango plants increased N, P, and K uptake by 25, 25, and 22%, respectively, in the first year and by 33, 22, and 23%, respectively, in the second year. Keeping soil moisture at 50% of the available soil water had a negative impact on mango fruit quality characteristics. Water stress reduced the total soluble solids, total sugar, vitamin C, and pulp by 18, 16, 14, and 8%, respectively (average of 2 years). The addition of Azolla to mango plants under deficit irrigation increased water use efficiency (WUE) by 30 and 27% in the first and second years, respectively, while these increases were 14 and 33% under normal irrigation. The mechanisms employed by Azolla to lessen the detrimental effects of water stress on mango trees in this study include increased leaf area, protection of photosynthesis pigments, and increased secretion of substances that aid in water stress resistance, such as proline. The use of Azolla as a dry manure in arid-degraded soil reduces water stress on mango trees while increasing yield and fruit quality.

Nutritional quality including gross chemical composition (moisture, protein, fat, and ash), mineral content, amino acid composition as well as fatty acid composition were investigated in ostrich meat and edible offal as well as characteristics of fat tissue. Ostrich (Struthio Camelus) meat and edible offal (liver, gizzard, and heart) had a considerable amount of protein (ranged from 16.54 to 20.80 % on wet wight basis), iron and zinc with low caloric value (ranged from 87.86 to 117.20 kcal/100g on wet basis) and sodium content (ranged from 57.85 to 90.01 mg/100g on wet weight basis). Methionine, lysin, and threonine were the predominant essential amino acids in ostrich meat and its giblets. The total essential amino acids were ranged from 37.15 to 47.20 g/ 100g crude protein. Moreover, alanine was the predominant non-essential amino acid followed by arginine in ostrich meat and its edible offal. On other hand, more than half of fatty acids in ostrich meat and most of its giblets are unsaturated fatty acids with discrimination of oleic and linoleic acids. Moreover, the total poly unsaturated fatty acids to saturated fatty acids ratio (P/S ratio) for ostrich meat was 0.53 and it agrees with recommendation of WHO in foods which was 0.4 to 0.5. The total lipids of ostrich meat and its edible offal fractionated to seven fractions while, its phospholipids fractionated to eight fractions. Moreover, ostrich fat tissue characteristics indicated its suitability for nutrition

The present study aimed to investigate the regulation of placentas and uterus remodeling and involvement of estradiol in gestational diabetes mellitus. To achieve this, we established in vitro and in vivo models for gestational diabetes mellitus placentas by culturing human placental choriocarcinoma cells (BeWo) under hyperglycemic concentration and treating pregnant rats with streptozotocin. We evaluated the expression of angiogenesis-related proteins. The expression of the anti-angiogenic factor, excess placental soluble fms-like tyrosine kinase 1 was increased in our in vitro gestational diabetes mellitus model compared with the control. Moreover, the expressions of placental soluble fms-like tyrosine kinase 1 and the von Willebrand factor were also significantly elevated in the placenta of streptozotocin-treated rats. These data indicate the disruption of angiogenesis in the gestational diabetes mellitus …

The present study investigated the anti‑melanogenic activity of 10 essential oils using the B16F10 cell model. Initially, a wide range of concentrations of these essential oils were screened in order to determine their toxicity levels. The assigned non‑toxic concentrations of the tested essential oils were then used to evaluate their effects on melanogenesis. The effects of the essential oils with potent anti‑melanogenic activity on cell proliferation, protection against H 2 O 2‑induced cell death and the expression of certain melanogenesis‑related genes, including MITF, tyrosinase, tyrosinase related protein (TRP)‑1 and TRP‑2 were also evaluated. The results revealed that the essential oils extracted from Citrus unshiu, Juniperus chinensis L., Zanthoxylum piperitum and Artemisia capillaris (A. capillaris) inhibited melanogenesis. However, among these four extracts, only A. capillaris extract enhanced cell proliferation …

Soil suitability assessment is critical for sustainable land use planning. The area east of Edfu in Aswan governorate is important for agriculture production. Therefore, this study aimed to determine, assess, and map the soil suitability for growing selected twenty crops in the study area using the ASLE program. Twenty sampling sites in east Edfu representing an area of 7166.52 ha were chosen for the current study. All sampled site coordinates were recorded using (GPS) and then plotted on a map using ArcGIS. Soil samples were collected from each site at a depth of 0–60 cm. Moreover, the soil physical and chemical characteristics (e.g., soil texture, soil depth, CaCO3, ECe and ESP) that are substantially related to the potential land use and their limitations were determined. Furthermore, the spatial distribution maps of soil suitability of all the selected crops were produced employing ArcGIS software. The results revealed that soils under study are characterized by a coarse texture, as the dominant texture classes were loamy sand and sandy loam. Concerning the soil depth, the soils of the investigated sites have a moderate limitation for agricultural land use. The lime content is less than 10% in most of the studied soil sites. Most of these soils have slight to moderate limitations for salinity. For soil sodicity (ESP), about 90 % of the total study area has an ESP value that is less than 15%. The results are also revealed, sunflower, watermelon, pepper, sorghum, maize, sugarbeet, potato, tomato, are suitable and moderately suitable crops for these soils.  

Estimating soil erodible fraction based on basic soil properties in arid lands is a valuable research topic in the field of soil science and land management. The Proximal Sensing (PS) technique offers a non-destructive and efficient method to assess wind erosion potential in arid regions. By using Partial Least Squares Regression (PLSR) and Support Vector Machine (SVM) models and combining soil texture and chemical properties, determined through Visible-Near Infrared (vis-NIR) spectroscopy in 96 soil samples, this study aims to predict soil erodibility, soil organic matter (SOM), and calcium carbonate equivalent (CaCO₃) in arid lands located in Elkobaneyya Valley, Aswan Governorate, Egypt. Results showed that the soil erodibility fraction (EF-Factor) had the highest values and possessed a strong relationship between slope and SOM of 0.01% in determining soil erodibility. The PLSR model performed better than SVM for estimating SOM, CaCO₃, and EF-Factor. Furthermore, the results showed that the spectral responses of CaCO₃ were observed in separate places in the wavelengths of 570, 649, 802, 1161, 1421, 1854, and 2362 nm, and the wavelengths with SOM parameter were 496, 658, 779, 1089, 1417, 1871, and 2423 nm. The EF-factor shows the highest significant correlation with spectral reflectance values at 526, 688, 744, 1418, 1442, 2292, and 2374 nm. The accuracy and performance of the PLSR model in estimating the EF-Factor using spectral reflectance data and the distribution of data points for both the calibration and validation data-sets indicate a good accuracy of the PLSR model, with RMSE values of 0.0921 and 0.0836 Mg h MJ⁻¹ mm⁻¹, coefficient of determination (R²) values of 0.931 and 0.76, and RPD values of 2.168 and 2.147, respectively.

Soil management is recognized to have an impact on soil quality attributes. Depending on the management approach, this impact can either degrade or improve soil quality. There is a severe shortage of information on the impacts of cultivation on sandy soil properties in arid desert regions. Therefore, the objective of this study was to investigate the short-term cultivation effects (5 years) on the properties’ changes of coarse-textured soil in an arid desert region in western Assiut Governorate, Egypt. The current study was conducted on soils sampled at four depth intervals, namely 0–10, 10–20, 20–30, and 30–40 cm, from both cultivated and uncultivated soils, using a systematic sampling grid (10 × 10 m), to investigate the potential impacts of the cultivation process on six soil attributes. Each land use was represented by an area of 0.5 ha (50 × 100 m). A total of 160 composite soil samples (at all depths) were collected from both soils and analyzed for their physical and chemical properties, employing standard laboratory procedures. The data were statistically and geostatistically analyzed to compare the results and map the spatial distributions of the selected soil properties. The results revealed that cultivation had a considerable positive impact on most of the properties of cultivated soil compared to those of uncultivated soil (virgin land). The findings also showed that the available phosphorus levels in cultivated soil were higher than in virgin soil by 16, 9, 8.5, and 6 folds, with increases in organic matter content of 16.8, 12.4, 11.9, and 7.9 times at depths of 0–10, 10–20, 20–30, and 30–40 cm, respectively. Furthermore, compared to virgin soil, cultivated soil exhibited a salinity reduction of −8.9%, −56.4%, −66.3%, and −71.8%, at depths of 0–10, 10–20, 20–30, and 30–40 cm, respectively. Moreover, some other properties of the cultivated soil improved, particularly in the surface soil layers, such as pH reduction, CaCO₃ decline, and CEC increase, while the soil texture grade did not change. Therefore, continuous monitoring of the effects of diverse soil management strategies in the short term assists in the understanding of the ongoing changes in soil physical and chemical characteristics, which is critical for maintaining satisfactory soil quality and sustainable soil productivity in arid lands.