BACKGROUND The aqueous extract of Cucurbita ficifolia (C. ficifolia) fruit has demonstrated hypoglycemic effect, which may be attributed to some components in the extract. However, the major secondary metabolites in this fruit have not yet been identified and little is known about its extra-pancreatic action, in particular, on liver carbohydrate metabolism. Therefore, in addition to the isolati...

Effects of low temperature (8 degrees C) on the hydraulic conductivity of young roots of a chilling-sensitive (cucumber, Cucumis sativus L.) and a chilling-resistant (figleaf gourd, Cucurbita ficifolia Bouche) crop have been measured at the levels of whole root systems (root hydraulic conductivity, Lp(r)) and of individual cortical cells (cell hydraulic conductivity, Lp). Exposure of roots to l...

Low-pH and aluminum (Al) stresses are the major constraints that limit crop yield in acidic soils. Grafting vegetable elite cultivars onto appropriate rootstocks may represent an effective tool to improve crop tolerance to acidity and Al toxicity. Two greenhouse hydroponic experiments were performed to evaluate growth, yield, biomass production, chlorophyll index, electrolyte leakage, mineral c...

BACKGROUND AND AIMS Chilling results in a significant decrease in Rubisco content and increased generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) in cucumber (Cucumis sativus), a chilling-sensitive species. The role of roots in the regulation of the tolerance is unknown. Here, cucumber plants grafted onto figleaf gourd (Cucurbita ficifolia), a chilling-tolerant species were used to study the role of ...

The red pumpkin beetle, Aulacophora foveicollis (Lucas) is a common, serious and major pest of a wide range of cucurbitaceous vegetables. It is injurious to the crops and cause severe damage to almost all cucurbits. The present study was conducted to find out the host suitability of red pumpkin beetle, Aulacophora foveicollis (Lucas) among different cucurbit hosts in the Laboratory and Field La...

Population abundance of red spider mite, Tetranychus urticae Koch., was studied in cucmber, ribbed gourd, bitter gourd, snake gourd, aroids and teasle gourd and efficacy of four new acaricides were tested against this pest in brinjal at the farmer’s field of Norsingdi during 2009-2010. At the same time, the spatial distribution of this pest in brinjal crop was also studied. Results indicated th...

Bitter gourd (Momordica charantia L.) is a nutritious vegetable crop of Asian origin, used as a medicinal herb in Indian and Chinese traditional medicine. Molecular breeding in bitter gourd is in its infancy, due to limited molecular resources, particularly on functional markers for traits such as gynoecy. We performed de novo transcriptome sequencing of bitter gourd using Illumina next-generat...

Background: Spine gourd (Momordica dioica Roxb. Willd) is one of the important cucurbitaceous crops grown across the world for vegetable and medicinal purposes. Diseases caused by the DNA viruses are becoming the limiting factors for the production of spine gourd reducing its potential yield. For the commercial cultivation of the spine gourd, propagation material used by most o...

The population of M. incognita, the root knot nematode (RKN) was found infesting five different host plants (okra, banana, sunflower, bottle gourd, and brinjal) out of 24 examined from four districts of Punjab, India (Gurdaspur, Ludhiana, Patiala, and Hoshiarpur). Morphological and morphometrical characterization indicated that in the case of mature female, the characters of body length and wid...