Pre-milling processing has an effect on both nutritional composition and its -in-vitro availability. In the present study an attempt was made to find out the effect of different pre-milling processing on the in-vitro iron availability. Pearl millet grains were subjected to processing technique viz. acid treatment (2 hours, 12 hours, 18 hours and 24 hours), dry heat treatment (30 minutes, 60 minutes, 90 minutes and 120 minutes), blanching treatment (30 seconds, 60 seconds and 90 seconds), and malting treatment to find out the in-vitro iron availability. Iron content in raw pearl millet was 11.93 mg/ 100gm. After treatment the total iron content was reduced in all the treatments. The in vitro iron availability was found to be higher in all the treatments as compared to raw pearl millet. In vitro iron content was noted maximum after dry heat treatment for 120 minutes (i.e. 3.58 mg/100gm) and minimum for 24 hour acid treatment (i.e. 2.39 mg/100gm). Hence the present study indicates that the pre-milling processing may reduce the total iron content but it increases the in vitro iron availability.

Foods which are generally grown in tribal locality, hilly and wasteland can provide a solution to the problem of food security and nutritional security especially to the people who are living near to such places. World over, tribal population still stores a vast local food cultures are inseparable from traditional knowledge on utilization of local plants as food therapeutic systems. Due to maximum utilization of such indigenous plants by tribal community these plant food are also sometime called as "tribal foods". These tribal fruits and vegetable are not a part of commercial orcharding like mango, banana, spinach, potato etc. but appear in market in small quantities and these are often referred also know as uncommon foods/ underutilized foods /under exploited foods/ neglected foods or indigenous foods. In the present review paper pertinent text and research related to the area has been presented.

The present study with bottle gourd in the zaid season in open field, assessed the infestation of fruit fly Bactrocera cucurbitae (Coquillet). The infestation was observed from third week of May, with the peak being in the first week of June. Five varieties and three genotypes were screened and none exhibiting resistance. The incidence assessed by fruit number and weight basis revealed that variety PSPL (28.07and 23.34) and Narendra rashmi (30.32 and 25.14) were least susceptible; Pusa Naveen (34.80 and 30.48), Pant louki -3 (35.85 and 32.03), Thar smridhi (33.66 and 27.68), DBG -5(36.74 and 33.53) and DBG-6 (37.87 and 34.90) were moderately susceptible; while, DBG -10 (39.06 and 36.18) was susceptible.