Vitamin-A deficiency (VAD) is a major malnutrition problem in South Asia, where indica rice is the staple food. Indica-type rice varieties feed more than 2 billion people. Hence, we introduced a combination of transgenes using the biolistic system of transformation enabling biosynthesis of provitamin A in the endosperm of several indica rice cultivars adapted to diverse ecosystems of different ...

Indica and japonica are two main subspecies of Asian cultivated rice (Oryza sativa L.) that differ clearly in morphological and agronomic traits, in physiological and biochemical characteristics and in their genomic structure. However, the proteins and genes responsible for these differences remain poorly characterized. In this study, proteomic tools, including two-dimensional electrophoresis a...

The origin and domestication of rice has been a subject of considerable debate in the post-genomic era. Rice varieties have been categorized based on isozyme and DNA markers into two broad cultivar groups, Indica and Japonica. Among other well-known cultivar groups Aus varieties are closer to Indica and Aromatic varieties including Basmati are closer to Japonica, while deep-water rice varieties...

The aim of the study was to assess the organoleptic differences of Clarias gariepinus smoked with two different energy sources, Anogeissus leiocarpus and Tamarindus indica with the help of a hedonic scale and to determine possible proximate composition difference between the smoked products. Smoking of the fishes was carried out for 4 hours using traditional smoking kiln, the chemical analysis ...

The standard aqueous stem bark extract is consumed as herbal drink and used in the pharmaceutical formulations to treat patients suffering from various disease conditions in Cuba. This study was carried out to evaluate the modulatory effect of standard aqueous bark extract of M. indica on Group IA sPLA2. M. indica extract, dose dependently inhibited the GIA sPLA2 (NN-XIa-PLA2) activity with an ...

Azadirachta indica , an Indian medicinal plant, has been studied for its role in diabetes and its effect on lipid profile. This study was conducted to elucidate whether treatment of Azadirachta indica leaf extract after streptozotocin (STZ) induced diabetes has anti-hyperglycemic and anti-dyslipidaemic action or not. The experiment involved four groups of rat; one group was control group, secon...

Caries are the localized destruction of the tissue s of the tooth by bacterial action; either enamel or cementum is demineralized by microbial acids. Traditionally the stem bark of Azadirachta indica was used to clean the teeth due to its antibacterial activity which reduced the incidence of dental caries. In modern life style, the use of Azadirachta indica was minimized and the incidence of de...

This work was designed to understand the mechanisms of adsorption of copper (Cu) and cadmium (Cd) on roots of indica and japonica varieties of rice. Six varieties each of indica and japonica rice were grown in hydroponics and the chemical properties of the root surface were analyzed, including surface charges and functional groups (-COO- groups) as measured by the streaming potential and attenu...

The purpose of this study was to characterize the anxiolytic activity of an Aqueous extract prepared from the leaves of Mangifera indica L (AEMI) using an elevated plus maze (EPM) model in rat and staircase model in mice. In elevated plus maze (EPM) model, At dose of Mangifera indica (250mg/kg and 500mg/kg) treated group showed significant increase in the % time spent in open arm and no. of ent...

The antioxidant activity and the chemical composition of methanol extracts from peel and pulp belonging to two species of Tunisian prickly pears Opuntia ficus indica (spiny and thornless forms) and Opuntia stricta has been studied. The antioxidant capacity was measured by DPPH radical scavenging activity. The Total Phenolic Compound (TPC) and the total flavonoid content were determined by the F...