Abstract:Medicinal plants form an important and often the only component in the formulations used by the folk medicinal practitioners of Bangladesh for treatment of various ailments. Folk medicinal practitioners, otherwise known as Kavirajes, perform an integral role in the delivery of primary health-care to substantial segments of both rural and urban population of the country. To get a comprehensive view of the medicinal plants of Bangladesh, it is therefore important to conduct extensive interviews of individual Kavirajes of both urban and rural areas. Towards obtaining such comprehensive information, the present ethno-medicinal survey was conducted among the Kavirajes of 15 randomly surveyed villages of Tangail Sadar Upazila in Bangladesh to document their use of medicinal plants and the ailments treated by those plants. Information was obtained from the Kavirajes with the help of a semi-structured questionnaire and the guided field-walk method. The results showed that the Kavirajes of the 11 villages surveyed used a total of 55 plants distributed into 35 families in their formulations. The Mimoceseae family provided 4 plants, while the Acanthaceae, Liliaceae, Lamiaceae and Fabaceae families provided 3 plants each. Mainly leaves were used for this purpose. Other plant parts roots and stems were also used. The various ailments treated included gastrointestinal disorders, cuts and wounds, fever, respiratory tract disorders, snake bites, pain, menstrual problems, physical weakness, diabetes, mental disorders, cardiovascular disorders, skin disorders, chicken pox, burns, spermatorrhea, bone fractures and cattle ailments.

This study was designed to develop cakes incorporating jack-fruit pulp. The seed free jackfruit bulbs blend were used at the level of 10%, 20%, 30% and 40% to prepare jackfruit cake The physical and chemical properties of cakes were analyzed and compared with plane cake (without jack-fruit pulp).The cake containing 10% jack-fruit pulp was best among the samples on the basis of rust and crumb colour and texture of the cakes..The flavours of the cake containing 20% jack-fruit pulp were better than other cakes. The statistical analysis of organoleptic test response of sensory attributes revealed that colour, flavour, taste, texture and overall acceptability werehigher in the cakes containing 10% and 20% jackfruitpulp than normal cake.Shelf life of jack-fruitcakes were decreased with the increased level of substitution of jackfruit pulp during seven day storage on the basis of microbial count.Cake containing 10% jack-fruit showed acceptable physical characteristics, sensory attributes and microbial load.

The study was carried out among the 246 school going children of urban slum of Tangail district and random sampling methods were applied. Slum population has been increasing in Bangladesh over the last three decades along with the growth and expansion of cities and towns.The facilities in urban slums were very much unsatisfactory due to lack of proper water supply and adequate hygiene and sanitation facilities. The good hygienic and sanitation knowledge and the practice have been found to be significantly low among the slum dwellers of Tangail district. Thewater supply and sanitation condition are improving very slowly in the urban slums of Tangail. Majority (94.7%) of the slum people use tube well water for drinking, cleaning and household purposes. The dustbin facility was the most neglected sector in these slums. Besides, Solid waste management and drainage system were totally unsatisfactory. It was observed that houses, shops, drains, roads etc. have been constructed unplanned and solid wastes were preserved on open places. Majority (58.1%) of the children did not ware sandal while going to latrine and did not cut finger nail regularly (54.5%). Most of the slum dwellers (63.4%) did not use cover for safety of the prepared food. It was observed that there was presence of pet/animal/insect in food preparation area of maximum households. Most of the people were unaware about toilet cleaning regularly. Findings of the study showed that 40.7% children were underweight, 28.9% children were stunted and 31.3% children were wasted. The child morbidity rate was high. Water quality, environmental sanitation and hygiene practices were positively correlated (r = 0 to +1) with health status of school going children. Thewater quality, environmental sanitation and hygiene practices have significant impact (p≤ 0.05) on the health of school going children of these slums.

A pot experiment was conducted in net house to study the effect of different rhizobial strains and N fertilizer on nodulation, growth, yield, N content and its uptake by soybean cv. Shohag. Saline soil was collected from Fultala of Khulna district. The experiment was laid out in the factorial combination following completely randomized design. There were altogether 16 treatment combinations (4 inocula × 4 fertilizer levels) replicated thrice. can be used for producing higher yield and quality of soybean cv. Shohag in the salt affected soil.

The Strawberry was collected from Rajshahi and the pulp was extracted. Then the pulp was analyzed for proximate composition. The proximate analysis of Strawberry pulp showed 91.91% moisture, 11.5% TSS, 3.50% reducing sugar, 2.50% non-reducing sugar, 6.00% total sugar, 0.36% ash, 2.80% pH, 1.12%acidity and 50.90mg/100g vitamin-C. A total three types of products with 3 different formulations were prepared and packed in appropriate containers for storage studies. Products were stored at room temperature and changes during storage were observed at an interval of 30 days for a period of 4 months. A taste panel consisting of 10 panelists studied the acceptability of the samples. The consumers preferences were measured by statistical analysis of the scores obtain from the response of the test panel. Among the products three samples of jam, jelly and squash were awarded the highest scores by the panelists; C2 (Jam: TSS-67%, Pectin-0.5%, pH-3.2%), D2(TSS-67%, pectin-0.5%, pH-3.2%) and E3 (squash: TSS-40%, Juice 25%, acidity-1.25%, KMS-350mg/kg ).