NAT PROD RESOUR REPOS, VOL. 2, NO.

3, 2011


164
OTHERS (incl. Cultivation,
Distribution, New species, Post harvest
Technologies, Packaging Technology,
New technologies/Know How
Developed, Book reviews, Forthcoming
events)
CULTIVATION
NPARR 2(3), 2011-0355, Genetic diversity analysis
in the traditional and improved ginger (Zingiber
officinale Rosc.) clones cultivated in North-East
India
Identification of clonal or genotypic variations is
a prerequisite for ginger (Zingiber officinale Rosc.)
improvement programmes. Genetic diversity analysis
was carried out in a set of forty-nine ginger clones
cultivated in North-East India using random amplified
polymorphic DNA (RAPD) markers. The set included
clones of released varieties and clones collected from
various parts of North East India. Jaccard's genetic
similarity, cluster analysis and principal component
analysis identified five clusters. Cluster V included
four clones traditionally cultivated in the Indian state
of Meghalaya known for production of high-quality
ginger indicating that the clones were a good
candidate for ginger improvement. Specific bands for
these clones were also identified. Principal component
analysis of the molecular data supported grouping of
the clones into six hypothetical populations based on
their source or location of collection [Sajeev, S., Roy,
A.R., Iangrai, B., Pattanayak, A*, Deka, B.C.
(Division of Plant Breeding, ICAR Research Complex
for NEH Region and Umiam, Meghalaya 793103,
India), Scientia Horticulturae, 2011, 128(3), 182-188].
NPARR 2(3), 2011-0356, Cultivation of Gracilaria
verrucosa (Huds) Papenfuss in Chilika Lake for
livelihood generation in coastal areas of Orissa
State
The agarophyte red alga Gracilaria verrucosa
occurs widely in Chilika Lake, one of the RAMSAR
wetland sites in India. The lake is situated in the
extreme southeast corner of Orissa between latitudes
1928 and 1954 N and longitudes 8506 and 8535
E. The natural biomass production is not sufficient for
the agar industry, and the only alternative is to
maximize the production of the seaweed through mass
cultivation by seaweed farming. To elucidate
important aspects of the growth and development of
G. verrucosa, experimental field cultivation was
undertaken at Langaleswar and Samal sites of Chilika
Lake using ropes and raft methods during March to
August, 2009. After 30 days of cultivation a
maximum 15- and 13.8-fold increase in biomass in
raft culture and rope culture, respectively, was
observed at Langaleswar and an 11.6- and 11.0-fold
increase in biomass at Samal. Environmental
parameters such as temperature, salinity, pH,
transparency, DO, conductivity, nitrate, and
phosphate were monitored at both stations, and the
influence of environmental parameters is discussed
[Padhi, S*. , Swain, P.K., Behura, S.K., Baidya, S.,
Behera, S.K., Panigrahy, M.R. (Algal Research
Laboratory, Department of Botany, Berhampur
University, 760 007 Berhampur, India), Journal of
Applied Phycology, 2011, 23(2), 151-155].
NPARR 2(3), 2011-0357, Distillery spentwash
irrigation on the yields of radish (Raphanus
sativus), Onion (Allium cepa) and Garlic (Allium
sativum)
Cultivation of radish (Raphanus sativus), onion
(Allium cepa) and garlic (Allium sativum) medicinal
plants was made by irrigation with distillery
spentwash of different dilutions. The spentwash i.e.,
primary treated spentwash and 33 % spentwash were
analyzed for their plant nutrients such as nitrogen,
phosphorous, potassium and other physical and
chemical parameters. Experimental soils i.e., normal
soil (plot-1) and spentwash treated (plot-2) soils were
tested for their chemical and physical parameters. The
seeds (Namadhari and Mayhco) were sowed in the
prepared land and irrigated with raw water and 33 %
spentwash. Influence of spentwash in normal and
spentwash treated soils on the yields were
investigated at their respective maturity. It was found
that the yields of all plants were high in 33 % than
raw water irrigation. Further, the yields were very
high in spentwash treated soil (plot-2) than normal
soil (plot-1) and raw water irrigations all plants
[Chandraju, S*, Nagendraswamy, R., Chidankumar,
C.S., Nagendraswamy, G. (Department of Studies in
Sugar Technology, Sir M. Visweswaraya PG Center,
CULTIVATION


165
University of Mysore, Tubinakere, Mandya-571 402,
India), Asian Journal of Chemistry, 2011, 23(4),
1585-1587].
NPARR 2(3), 2011-0358, Pros and cons of P. florida
cultivation for managing waste of handmade paper
and cardboard industries
The possibility of utilizing handmade paper and
cardboard industrial sludges in the production of
edible mushrooms involves risk of introducing toxic
substances into the human food chain. Therefore, in
the present study, genotoxic assessment of P. florida
(Pleurotus florida) cultivated on these industrial
sludges and their combination with wheat straw was
done by Ames test using Salmonella typhimurium TA
98 and TA100. Interestingly, P. florida carpophores,
cultivated on wheat straw did not show either
frameshift or basepair mutagenicity as revealed by
mutagenicity ratio (<2) and mean number of
revertants which was found to be 81.3 and 93.4
revertants per plate in the absence of S9 mix.
However, this number was found to be increased to
112.1 and 226.3 revertants with S9 mix. P. florida
cultivated on waste and its combination showed
increase in number of revertants (123.4-170.1
revertants with TA 100 and 79.5-84.1 revertants with
TA 98) in the absence of S9 mix over control.
Further, increase in number of revertants (229.0-247.3
with TA 100 and 100.3-129.1 with TA 98) was
observed on adding S9 mix with both strains S.
typhymurium but still mutagenicity ratio was found to
be below 2. Hence, these mushrooms were not found
to be genotoxic. This mushroom cultivation
technique, will not only provide proteinaceous food
but also help in reducing industrial wastes. Besides,
these can serve as very good source of income for the
poor workers working in these industries that can
collect the waste from the industries and use it for P.
florida cultivation [Kulshreshtha, S. , Mathur, N. and
Bhatnagar, P. (Amity Institute of Biotechnology,
Amity University of Rajasthan, Jaipur, India), IIOAB
Journal, 2011, 2(1), 45-48]