Background: This experiment was carried out during 2015 and 2016 seasons to investigate the effect of strand thinning treatments by removing 15 and 30% of the total number of strands from the bunch center after 8 weeks from pollination (kimri stage) on productivity and fruit quality of Khadrawi date palm cultivar compared to the control (without thinning). Results: The present results indicated that strand thinning by removing 30% of the total number of strands gave the lowest bunch weight and yield per palm compared to thinning 15% and control treatments during the two seasons of study. Also, removing 30% of the total number of strands improved some physical properties, i.e., fruit weight, flesh weight, fruit length, and fruit diameter than control in both seasons. All strand thinning treatments improved some chemical properties such as TSS %, total sugars %, and reducing sugars % than control (without thinning). However, both 15 and 30% strand thinning treatments had no significant effect on nonreducing sugars %, total acidity %, and tannins content in the two studied seasons. Conclusion: From the obtained results, it was revealed that application of thinning treatment by removing 15 or 30% of the total number of strands from bunch center improved some physical and chemical properties of Khadrawi date palm fruits although there are no significant differences found between strand thinning at 15% and control during the second season.

The purpose of our study is to evaluate the protective effect of diphenyl dimethyl bicarboxylate (DDB) in combination with some antioxidants, namely vitamin C (V.C), vitamin E (V.E), and selenium (Se), in liver damage induced by carbon tetrachloride (0.2 ml/kg body weight). This was done by monitoring the liver total and fractional lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) activities. The results revealed a significant increase in the activity of liver total LDH activity in CCl4-intoxicated rats with a significant increase in both LDH3 and 4 and a significant decrease in LDH5. LDH2 disappeared after CCl4 treatment and neither DDB nor its combinations could restore this permanent change. DDB alone significantly decreased the CCl4-raised total LDH and LDH4, but still far from the control and failed to correct LDH3 and 5 variations. A combination of DDB and V.C, V.E and Se showed the best corrective potential in both total LDH and LDH3 activities, without correcting the increased LDH4, nor the decreased LDH5 isoenzyme. Although this combination was previously reported to correct liver function disturbances, it seems that CCl4 and consequently hepatitis C may induce some irreversible, non-curable changes by DDB or even by additional antioxidants. Its clinical usefulness seems to be through different metabolic pathways, not including correction of LDH disturbances, which necessitates additional investigation for other adjunct medicines for treating liver fibrosis in clinical practice.

The present study was carried out during 2014 and 2015 seasons on adult Kitt Mango Trees to evaluate 4 levels of pruning pattern (removing one-third, one-half, all branch or without pruning) and 4 types of soil mulching (white plastic, black plastic, rice straw or without soil mulching) on vegetative growth, leaf mineral content ,flowering and yield. Average shoot length, shoot thickness and average number of shoot / tree of Kitt mangos greatly affected with both pruning pattern and soil mulching, especially with removing of one-third of branch and covering soil with white plastic sheet. However leaf N, P and K contents were improved with both one-third and one-half pruning of branches of Kitt mango trees where both white and black plastic of mulch soil were similar in their effect on leaf NPK content. There were an evident increase in fruit set %, total yield (kg/tree) and marketable yield % with one-third and one-half pruning of branch and also with white and black plastic of soil mulching. The increase of marketable yield% due to these treatments could be attributed to the increase of vegetative canopy of leaves which led to prevent sun burn of fruits and to minimize heat solar effect from the soil and protect the fruits in lower parts of the trees. Fruit chemical constituents including TSS%, acidity and L-ascorbic acid slightly affected with different treatments but one-third and one-half prunning of branch as well as with white and black plastic of soil mulch could be recommended as a good horticulture treatments in Kitt mango orchards

This experiment was carried out during 2015 and 2016 experimental seasons to investigate the effect of spraying with moringa extract at 3%, garlic extract at 3% or ascorbic acid at 300 ppm on fruit set, yield and fruit quality of Khadrawi date palm cultivar. Anyhow, bunches were sprayed at three times (3 hours before pollination then 4 and 8 weeks after pollination). The present results indicated that spraying date palm bunches with moringa extract or garlic extract recorded the highest initial fruit set in the first and second seasons, respectively. As well as, moringa extract gave the highest fruit retention and yield in both seasons. In addition, all treatments improved some fruit physical characteristics i.e. fruit weight, flesh weight, fruit volume and fruit length compared to the control treatment in the two studied seasons. Also, results showed that moringa extract or ascorbic acid increased TSS%, total sugars % and reducing sugars % in both seasons compared to the control. Meanwhile, the lowest fibers % was obtained by garlic extract in the two seasons. Also, all treatments had no significant effect on total acidity % and tannins content in both seasons.

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