No abstract

Rice blast caused by Pyricularia grisea Sacc. is the important disease of rice and different fungicides against this disease were evaluated in summer 2014 at Karma Research and Development Center, Jyotinagar, Chitwan, Nepal. A susceptible rice cultivar ‘Mansuli’ was planted in randomized complete block design and fungicides viz. Tricyclazole  22% + Hexaconazole 3% SC (0.2%), Streptomycin 5% + Thiophanate Methyl 50% WP (0.15%), Prochloraz 25% EC (0.3%), Kasugamycin 2% WP (0.2%), Hexaconazole 4% + Zineb 68 % WP (0.2%) and Udaan (Hexaconazole 3% SC) (0.2%) were sprayed thrice at weekly interval starting from the booting stage. All these fungicides were found to be effective in controlling leaf and neck blast disease as compare to control one. Among them, Tricyclazole 22% + Hexaconazole 3% SC was found to be the most effective with least leaf blast severity (6.23%), neck blast incidence (8.97%), and highest percentage disease control (87.08% and 79.62% in leaf blast and neck blast respectively) and grain yield (4.23 t/ha) followed by Prochloraz 25% EC (0.3%) and Udaan (Hexaconazole 3% SC) (0.2%). It is therefore concluded that Tricyclazole 22% + Hexaconazole 3% SC fungicide could be used to control rice blast at weekly interval starting from the booting stage for three times. Int J Appl Sci Biotechnol, Vol 3(3): 474-478

An experiment was carried out to investigate the efficacy of plant leaf extracts on elongation of shelf life and maintenance of quality of harvested mangoes. Freshly harvested mature green mangoes cv. 'Calcuttia maldah' of uniform size and weight were dipped in 50% concentration of different plant leaf extracts and stored in ambient condition (32±2ºC and 65±5 % RH). The treatments were leaf extracts from five different plants viz. neem (Azadirachta indica), chinaberry (Melia azadirach), lantana (Lantana camara), ashok (Polyalthea longifolia) and cinnamomum (Cinnamomum zeylanicum) while control was the other treatment. In addition, carbendazim (fungicide) was also kept as a benchmark treatment. Each treatment composed of 5 mangoes and replicated thrice.For each replication destructive sample was also kept. The treatment with neem leaf extract gave the most promising result as there was minimum physiological weight loss, maximum ascorbic acid content, maximum acidity and minimum pH. Similarly, shelf life, total soluble solids, freshness and firmness were highest in neem leaf extract treated fruits next to the carbendazim treated fruits. Control was the most ineffective of all the treatment regarding all the parameters.