Phytochemical screening (saponins, tannins, steroids, alkaloids, flavonoids, phenols and glycosides) of four medicinal plant seeds (Jatropha curcas, Simmondsia chinensis (Jojoba), Moringa oleifera and Datura metel) extracted by aqueous, ethanol and Folch solvents, were examined for their antimicrobial activity against three types of plant pathogenic fungi namely; Botrytis cinerea, Fusarium oxysporum and Rhizoctonia solani, in addition to four types of bacteria, namely; Bacillus cereus, Staphylococcus aureus, Ralstonia solanacearum and Pesudomonas aeruginosa using disc diffusion paper. Results revealed that different concentrations of aqueous extracts were more effective against bacterial activity compared to fungal activity, except for D. metel aqueous extract which showed no antifungal effect and very weak effect on only two of the tested bacteria. B. cereus was more sensitive to J. curcas aqueous extract, while P. aeruginosa was more sensitive to S. chinensis and M. oleifera aqueous extracts. On the other hand, results showed that J. curcas and M. oleifera ethanol extracts were more effective on Staph. aureus growth, while S. chinensis and D. metel did not have any effect on any of the fungi or bacteria under study. The evaluation of the antifungal and antibacterial effect did not confirm the broad spectrum of S. chinensis Folch extract, while M. oleifera and D. metel were more effective on reducing R. solani growth. Also F. oxysporum was affected by J. curcas Folch extract only at high concentrations. These findings support that the traditional use of the plant extracts in the treatment of different infections caused by pathogenic microbes is valuable and should be taken in consideration.

Background: The possibility of culturing Parmentiera cereifera in vitro was tested. Shoot tips and lateral buds were cultured in three media that were based on Murashige and Skoog (MS) but supplemented with different types and concentrations of growth regulators. Thirty-eight simple sequence repeat (SSR) primers were used to assess the genetic stability of the regenerated plantlets.Results: Lateral buds recorded the highest significant mean values for shoot, root length, and the number of leaves when cultured in MS + 1.2 mg/l of 6-benzylaminopurine (BAP) + 1.5 g/l of activated charcoal. Seeds were also grown in different media. The best results were obtained with MS basal medium. The resulting shoots were rooted in MS medium, with 1.5 g/l of activated charcoal. Regenerated plants were acclimatized in the greenhouse. The 38 SSR primers produced 63 scorable bands ranging from 1 to 3, with an average of 1.68 per primer. Fifty-five monomorphic bands were obtained that ranged from 0 to 3, with an average of 1.45 per primer. The coefficient of similarity matrix ranged from 0.92 to 1.0, with an average of 97.4. Dendrogram generated using the SSR data tended to group the in vitro plants with the mother plant into two major clusters. The first cluster contained 19 in vitro plants with the mother plant and consisted of 4 subgroups. The second cluster contained in vitro plants, P-15, which had the lowest genetic similarity (92%) with the mother plant. Conclusions: The results revealed the increase in the degree of similarity between the tested plants in the SSR analyses. Therefore, micropropagation is a safe mode for multiplication of true-to-type plants of P. cereifera.

The aim of this research was to study the possibility of creating genetic differences in Gardenia plant to obtain a new variety with high economic value. To achieve this goal, three laboratory experiments were conducted as follows: 1-In vitro propagation: The results indicated that the axillary buds when cultured on medium consisting of MS + 0, 5 of BA+ 0.1 mg l -1 of Kin. gave the highest significant results for leaves number 25.4, shoot number 3.28 and shoot length 3.1 cm. The highest significant values of root number and length 6.65 and 1.3 cm, respectively were recorded when shoots were transferred to MS medium combined with 0.75 mg l -1 of IBA. 2-In vitro mutation: Results indicated that the degree of variegated leaves increased by increasing the concentration of the mutagen Ethylmethanesulphonate (EMS) up to 0.4 %, but treatment with a concentration of 0.5% led to explants death or deformation of the leaves. 3-Molecular markers Experiment: An experiment was conducted to examine the applicability of SSR markers to discover the polymorphisms of mutations caused by EMS and their genetic relationships for the first time. Thirteen SSR primers were used. Plants were divided into five groups, namely the original plant and the mutant plants resulting from growth on the five EMS concentrations (0.0, 0.1, 0.2, 0.3 and 0.4%). Cluster analysis was done for all the genotypes under study. Results indicated that 24 bands were obtained, their size ranged between 50: 250 pb, and all of them were 100% Polymorphic. PIC values were calculated, which ranged between 0.32: 0.48 for each primer. H0 was also calculated and the values ranged between 0.32: 0.50. Results in the present study showed the effectiveness of EMS to induce in vitro mutation of Gardenia and this way can be used to develop breeding programs for ornamental plants. However, the use of more than one molecular marker in this type of studies may be more useful to cover multiple regions of the genome.

Lagunaria (Lagunaria patersonii) is considered to be a nearly threatened tree in Egypt where there are only few trees facing a very high risk of extinction owing to the effects of pathogens, pollutants and parasites. Hence, this study was conducted to establish a fast in vitro propagation protocol. Seeds, lateral buds and shoot tips were cultured on MS, NN and N6 media with different concentrations of BAP and NAA and their combinations. Results indicated that the optimum medium for the measured characters was MS free growth regulators and The best rooting medium was 1/4 MS. RAPD analysis was also applied to detect the genetic polymorphism among Lagonaria plantlet and their original parents.