The effect of natural air temperature on the vegetative growth and alkaloidal yield of H. muticus L. was studied. The highest number of branches, diameter, fresh and dry weights of stem and roots occurred in September sowing at full‐flowering and fruiting stages. Relatively higher temperature in Sept. sowing favoured leaf growth (number, area and dry weight). Hyoscyamine yield in different organs of the plants sown in Sept., excessively exceeded all other sowings during flower budding and full‐flowering stages. Hyoscine yield was quantitatively very small as compared with that of hyoscyamine and even could not be detected in the leaves of winter sowings during full‐flowering stage.

No abstract

This study was conducted during the season 2019-2020 with the aim of testing the efficiency of some techniques to eliminate or reduce the frequency of storage fungi, namely Aspergillus flavus, A. niger, and Penicillium italicum naturally contaminating peanuts seeds. The seed sample was treated by soaking in hot water (50˚c, 60˚c, 70˚c), soaking in salt water at concentrations 10%, 15%, 20%, roasting in an ordinary oven at 150˚c for 10, 20 and 30 min, and roasting in a microwave oven at 100˚c for 1, 3, 5 and 7 min. The frequency of fungi occurrence percentage was estimated in seeds after treatments and incubation on the nutrient medium Potato Sucrose Agar (PSA). The results indicated the efficiency of all the techniques used in reducing the frequency of fungi in the treated seeds, as the fungus P. italicum was the most sensitive fungus under all techniques, and the study proved the superiority of the treatment by microwave roasting over the rest of the techniques, as it eliminated all the fungi carried in the seed by 100% when the duration of time used is 5 minutes.