No abstract

Mungbean seeds, despite being protected inside the pod, are susceptible to pre-harvest sprouting (PHS) following rainfall due to lack of fresh seed dormancy (FSD), which deteriorates the quality of the seed/grain produced. Therefore, development of mungbean cultivars with short (10–15 days) period of FSD has become important to curtail losses incurred by PHS. In this study, we investigated variations in PHS, fresh seed germination (FSG) and activity of α-amylase enzyme in diverse mungbean genotypes. There was a wide variation in PHS tolerance and FSG among 163 genotypes examined and 14 genotypes were found to be tolerant (<20%) to PHS. Seed germination in a pod, a measure used to evaluate PHS, varied from 7.14% in germplasm accession Chamu 4 to 82.52% in cultivated variety IPM 2–3. There was a marked increase in α-amylase activity in genotypes showing high FSG and PHS, especially at 48 and 72 h after germination as compared with PHS tolerant genotypes. Therefore, α-amylase can be used as an effective biochemical marker to evaluate a large number of mungbean genotypes for FSD and PHS. Also, the variation in seed germinability as found in this study could be further used for mungbean improvement programme.

No abstract

No abstract

The present study was aimed to evaluate the immunomodulatory activities of hot aqueous extract of pods & leaves (HAEP & HAEL) of C. fistula in albino rats. HAEP/HAEL were given oral dose of 125, 250 & 500 mg/ kg to healthy rats divided into one unfed (control group) and six fed groups. The humoral immune response was carried out by testing antibody titer against Salmonella typhimurium 'O' antigen by tube agglutination test and cellular immune response was carried out on DNCB (1-Chloro-2, 4-dinitrobenzene) sensitized albino rats. Results showed that agglutination titer in all HAEP treated rats ranged from 153.6+25.6 to 256.0+62.71 and HAEL treated rats exhibited antibody titer from 358.4+62.71 to 409+51.2 in relation to control & other groups. HPLC analysis of HAEP, HAEL for determination of active immunomodulants have confirmed the presence of Quercetin dihydrate within HAEP, HAEL and Kaempferol only within HAEL. Thus the present study concludes that rise in humoral immune response may be due to the stimulation of B-lymphocytes, T-helper Cells & macrophages subsets by pods, leaf extracts containing immunomodulants Quercetin dihydrate and Kaempferol. Hence it is concluded that C. fistula plant has immunomodulatory activity, although detailed study regarding digestibility, hepatic toxicity & molecular mechanism of action are needed to be carried out.