Abelmoschus esculentus L. (okra) is known as bhindi in Urdu and lady finger in English. It is a flowering plant of family Malvaceae. It is grown in sub-tropical Abstract | Salinization has severe affects on agriculture worldwide. For successful survival and better yield, ability of seeds germinations under high salt concentration is very vital. With this object we observed the effects of various levels of NaCl (0, 25, 50 and 75 mM) on six varieties (Green leaf, Rama posa, Arka anamika, Super green, Okra kashish and Nerali) of Okra. The results clearly indicated that seeds of all varieties can tolerate the lower concentration of salt (25 mM) and higher (50 mM) greatly reduced the seeds germination while at highest concentration (75 mM) no germination was recorded. Salt treatments also reduced the dry and fresh weight of roots and shoots in all varieties considerably (P<0.05). Over all Nerali performed better and thus concluded as tolerant variety while Rama posa was proved to be a sensitive variety.

The study aimed to determine the effect of common storage practices adopted at the domestic level on the ascorbic acid content of 12 summer vegetables. Five common techniques namely storage at room temperature, refrigeration, drying, freezing without blanching and blanching prior to freezing were applied. Results showed that almost all the vegetables were good sources of vitamin C. However, significant losses were observed during storage at room temperature (25% - 55.5%), refrigeration (11%-33.3%), freezing without blanching (12.5% - 61.5%), and freezing after blanching (38.8 – 66.6%). Data indicated sun drying being the most vulnerable method as far the percent losses in the Vitamin C levels in the sampled vegetables (66.6% - 87%) suggesting it to be the most inappropriate method at noncommercial level. The current study also confirmed the inevitable losses of Vitamin C in all the storage methods being evident from statistically significant lower values in the stored vegetables as compared to fresh vegetables. The present study thus emphasized the importance of nutrition education for the home makers to minimize nutritional losses and conserve the nutrients at the domestic level.