Many plants, including some of the commonly consumed herbs and spices in our daily food, can be safely and effectively used to prevent and/or treat some health concerns. For example, caffeine the active ingredient found in coffee beans (Coffea), shows biological activity in the treatment of the central nervous system (CNS) disorders, indole-3-carbinol, and 3,3'-diindolylmethane are both broccol...

Ethyl formate (EF) was studied as a fumigant agent with the objective to replace methyl bromide (MB) for date fruit disinfestations. Date fruits Phoenix dactylifera 'Deglet Nour' with different initial moisture content (16% for dry dates, 20% for semidry dates, and a mixture of the two types) were separately fumigated with EF at different concentrations: 28.6, 57.3, 85.9, and 114.6 g/m3 for 2 h...

Comparative efficacy of three different modified atmospheres: 100% CO2, 75% CO2 + 25% N2, and 22 ppm ozone were examined against larval mortality of the almond moth, Ephestia cautella (Walker) (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae) at temperature regimes of 25°C and 35 ± 2°C and 60 ± 5% relative humidity, and 9:15 dark and light. Wandering young larval instars, which are fast growing, large enough in size an...

The date palm bunch fading disorder/disease is one of the greatest challenges faced by date palm growers. In the present study, the effect of appropriate orchard management on some qualitative and quantitative features of date palm bunch was studied. For this purpose, two orchards of cv ‘Kabkab’ with a history of previous incidence were selected in two districts of Bushehr province; Tangestan a...

ABSTRACT Experimental inoculations of Xanthomonas axonopodis pv. citri in different tissues of Tahiti lime and Pineapple sweet orange were conducted monthly under natural conditions on Réunion Island. The interactions between a set of environmental and epidemic variables associated with disease expression and 184 different factor combinations were investigated to determine the parameters needed...

Consumption of tomato fruits, like those of many other plant species that are part of the human diet, is considered to be associated with several positive effects on health. Indeed, tomato fruits are an important source of bioactive compounds with known beneficial effects including vitamins, antioxidants, and anticancer substances. In particular, antioxidant metabolites are a group of vitamins,...

The physical and chemical properties of the date (Phoenix dactylifera L.) fruit seeds from seven date samples (Soukari, Soulag, Barhi, Khulas, Rozaiz, Soughi and Monaif) were evaluated. Energy values of dried and ground seeds were found between 4340 kcal/kg (Barhi cv) and 4795 kcal/kg (Rozaiz cv). Also, while crude oil content of seeds were established between 4.68% (Khulas cv) and 7.96% (Monai...

The fruits of Ziziphus jujuba, known as jujube or Chinese date, are being consumed all around the world because of their health benefits, as both food and herbal medicine. Traditionally, one of the main functions of jujube, as described in herbal medicine, is to benefit our brain by calming down the mind and improving quality of sleep. Here, the activities of jujubes on nervous system are summa...

Crown rot of banana fruits is caused by a complex of fungal pathogens, the most common of which is Colletotrichum musae, and is one of the main quality defects of exported bananas. Susceptibility of banana fruits to crown rot is influenced by many pre-harvest factors. The aim of this study was to improve on the methodology for the evaluation of fruit susceptibility and to verify whether cultiva...