Pistachio fruit components, including hulls (mesocarps and epicarps), seed coats (testas), and kernels (seeds), all contribute to variable aflatoxin content in pistachios. Fresh pistachio kernels were individually inoculated with Aspergillus flavus and incubated 7 or 10 days. Hulled, shelled kernels were either left intact or wounded prior to inoculation. Wounded kernels, with or without the se...

The use of reclaimed asphalt pavement (RA) in new asphalt pavements can provide important economical savings, while reducing the negative environmental impact. The European research project PARAMIX aims to improve the techniques for hot mix recycling in plant and cold mix in situ recycling, so as to increase the amount of reclaimed asphalt and develop competitive road pavement rehabilitation te...

Seedling emergence and subsequent survival and growth are vital for natural forest restoration or plantation establishment by means of seeds. Such information is lacking for the African bamboo species. Two experiments were carried out in a greenhouse to evaluate the influence of seed orientation and sowing depth of the lowland bamboo Oxytenanthera abyssinica on seedling emergence, survival and ...

BACKGROUND Plant material from different organs of Pistacia terebinthus L., (Anacardiaceae) were collected in Kosovo with aim to analyze the chemical variability of the essential oils among native populations and to test them for potential antibacterial activity against Staphylococcus aureus. METHODS Essential oils obtained from leaves, pedicels, fruits and galls were analyzed by GC-FID and G...

Chios mastic oil (CMO), the essential oil derived from Pistacia lentiscus (L.) var. chia (Duham), has generated considerable interest because of its antimicrobial, anticancer, antioxidant and other beneficial properties. In the present study, the potential genotoxic activity of CMO as well as its antigenotoxic properties against the mutagenic agent mitomycin-C (MMC) were evaluated by employing ...

The effect of different air temperatures (40, 50, 60 and 70°C), air velocities (1 and 2 m/s) and bed depth (monolayer, 3 and 5 cm) on drying kinetics and lipid quality (peroxide value and free fatty acids) of a variety of Persian Pistachio nuts (Abasali variety) were studied. Additionally, effective diffusivity (D ) was determined eff by using Fick’s second law varied from 7.061×10 to 2.105×10 ...

Ecophysiological characteristics of "Ahmadaghaii" "Ohadi" "Kallehghuchi" cultivars (as scions) on four pistachio rootstocks (Pistacia vera Cv. Badami riz, P. vera Cv. Sarakhs, P. atlantica sub sp. Mutica, P. atlantica sub sp. Atlantica) were evaluated during the spring and summer seasons of 2005 in the Iran's Pistachio Research Institute (IPRI). Ecophysiological characteristics such as photosyn...

The essential oils of the fruits and the leaves of pistachio (Pistacia vera L.) were analyzed by GC and GC/MS. Fresh unripe pistachio fruits were richer in essential oil (0.5%, w/w) than the leaves (0.1%, w/w). Twenty one compounds were identified in the essential oil of the fruits and the major components were (+)-alpha-pinene (54.6%) and terpinolene (31.2%). The enantiomeric ratio of the majo...

Seedling morphology of 210 species (173 trees and 37 lianas) was studied from a community perspective to identify major patterns of seedling functional types in a Mexican rain forest. Five types of seedlings were distinguished: cryptocotylar with reserve storage or absorption cotyledons (epigeal [CER] and hypogeal [CHR]), phanerocotylar epigeal, either with photosynthetic cotyledons (PEF) or wi...

Seedling vigor is an important agricultural trait as direct-seeded rice technology becomes widely applied. In order to investigate the genetic mechanisms underlying seedling vigor in rice, seeds of 132 recombinant inbred lines (RILs) derived from 93-11 and PA64s, harvested from Lingshui and Hangzhou were cultivated in the nutrient solution, and four indices for seedling vigor were measured incl...