while legumes are regarded as good sources of protein they may be poorly digested, so it is useful to determine their digestibility which would give a desirable objective in a breeding programme. in this respect two series of experiments were performed as follow: true digestibility of the nitrogen (tnd) of cooked white haricot beans (phaseolus vulgaris) was measured by feeding it to rats at 20,...

Europe's agriculture is highly specialized, dependent on external inputs and responsible for negative environmental impacts. Legume crops are grown on less than 2% of the arable land and more than 70% of the demand for protein feed supplement is imported from overseas. The integration of legumes into cropping systems has the potential to contribute to the transition to a more resource-efficient...

This paper reviews the current use of self-regenerating pasture legumes in the farming systems of southern Europe. Annual legumes are mainly the base for the improvement of low quality native pastures in extensive farming systems. Traditional pasture legumes such as subterranean clovers and annual medics are the base plants of Mediterranean pastures, and are essential for pasture improvement of...

A simple, direct semi-micro method has been developed for serum iron and latent iron-binding capacity. For total serum iron, into a one cm cuvet are pipetted (a ) 1.5 ml of Na acetate buffer (pH 4.5) containing Na ascorbate and (b ) 0.3 ml of serum. The serum blank absorbance is measured at 562 nm, and 0.2 ml of ferrozine color reagent is added. After incubation (42°, 20 min), the absorbance is...

The characteristics of manganese and iron binding to human apotransferrin (apo-tf) have been investigated and compared in this study. Both metal ions were taken up by human apo-tf and formed complexes, with the maximum absorbances observed at 410 and 340 nm for manganese-transferrin (Mn-tf) and 465 nm for iron-transferrin (Fe-tf). Addition of manganese (1.5 µg/ml) to the reaction mixture contai...

Plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) are naturally occurring soil bacteria that aggressively colonize plant roots and benefit plants by providing growth promotion. Inoculation of crop plants with certain strains of PGPR at an early stage of development improves biomass production through direct effects on root and shoots growth. Inoculation of ornamentals, forest trees, vegetables, and a...