Salinity is among major threats to crop production and food security worldwide. World population is increasing at an alarming rate especially in the third world countries like Pakistan. So it requires more food production to ensure food security for this ever increasing world population. As the area under cultivation is limited and cannot be increased, we must resort to extensive salt affected areas worldwide to ensure food security. To utilize these salt affected areas we must devise strategies to able the crop plants to tolerate salinity and give economical yields. To accomplish this current research was planned to identify salt tolerant genotypes and alleviating the salinity stress by potassium application. In the preliminary experiment two salt-tolerant (Indent-1 and Nagina) and two salt-sensitive (Peto-86 and Red Ball) tomato genotypes were identified from fifteen genotypes based on the higher growth, lower Na + and higher K + accumulation at three NaCl levels (Control, 75 and 150 mM) in hydroponics experiment. Subsequently in the second experiment, the alleviating effects of potassium in foliar and solution form (0, 4.5 and 9 mM) on salt tolerant and sensitive genotypes were studied at same NaCl levels combined with. Results showed that response of tolerant genotypes was higher to potassium application compared to sensitive genotypes. It can also be concluded that salt tolerance of Indent-1 and Nagina might be due to higher value of antioxidant enzymes (SOD, CAT, GR), photosynthetic gas exchange, membrane stability index (MSI), Chlorophyll contents (Chl a and b), K + , K + /Na + and lower values melon dialdehyde (MDA) and Na + . Third experiment was conducted in pots under control, 7.5 and 15 dS m -1 salinity and control, 180 and 360 kg ha -1 (in soil) and 4.5 and 9 mM (foliar) potassium treatments to check the interactive effect of salinity and potassium on tomato fruit quality and yield. Potassium treatments significantly increased the fruit yield in tomato genotypes with highly significant values in tolerant genotypes than sensitive genotypes. Both salinity and potassium positively affected the fruit quality characteristics (TSS, TA, pH, DM %) in both tolerant and sensitive genotypes, however the fruit quality was higher in tolerant compared to sensitive genotypes. In the fourth experiment involvement of phytohormones (ABA, ethylene) in salt tolerance of tomato genotypes and changes in xiiistomatal morphological characteristics in response to NaCl and potassium application were studied. The experiment was conducted under controlled conditions in a climatic chamber with three NaCl (0, 75 and 150 mM) and two potassium levels (0, 4.5 mM) in hydroponics using salt-tolerant (Indent-1) and salt-sensitive (Red Ball) genotypes. The results revealed that salt-tolerant genotype had higher values of ABA and ethylene and correspondingly higher growth, chlorophyll content index (CCI), stomatal conductance (gs), lower Na + and higher K + as compares salt-sensitive genotype. Stomatal density (SD) and stomatal aperture size (SA) were significantly decreased by NaCl, with non-significant differences between the salt tolerant and sensitive genotypes suggesting these characteristics were not genetically controlled rather influenced by the environment. Based on the results of this research it was concluded that application of potassium increases yield and quality of tomato fruits under soil salinity and it could be used as an effective practice to produce even a salt sensitive species like tomato under saline conditions.
Shaykh Muhammad Nasiruddin Albani is known as the famous scholar of the twentieth century AD. He served in Hadith for almost 60 years. He has also some particularities in the hadith’s research in which he apposed a lot of scholars. The most important of them is that he has said that some Ahadith of Sahih Bukhari and Sahi Muslim are weak. Similarly, in contrast to the previous muhaddiseen, some weak traditions have said correct and some reliable narrators as weak. Apart from this, there are two particularities of him that are very important in the research world. One is that he has explored many of unknown Ahadith and secondly he has divided the books of Hadith into two parts; weak and accurate. Some detail of these particularities is presented in this article.
Present research was conducted to synthesize xylanase enzyme by Aspergillus niger using local agricultural wastes/by products for its utilization in baking industry. Wheat bran, corn cobs and sugar cane bagasse were used as carbon source at different concentrations i.e. 2.5, 3.0 and 3.5% employing submerged fermentation. The factors like temperature, pH and incubation time affected the xylanase synthesis significantly at various levels of substrates. The outcomes of the fermentation process showed that culture conditions i.e. 30°C, pH 5.5, 72 hrs & 3% substrates concentration were optimum for xylanase production. Wheat bran showed maximum xylanase activity 78.03±2.73 IU/mL followed by corn cob, 60.03±1.83 IU/mL and sugar cane bagasse 44.03±1.98 IU/mL. Large scale production of xylanase was carried out using wheat bran as carbon source at preoptimized conditions. Purified enzyme showed the specific activity of 613.13 IU/mg protein as compared to crude enzyme 41.85 IU/mg protein. Characterization of xylanase indicated that pH 7.5 and 55°C were optimum for maximum activity. As the ultimate goal was to apply xylanase in food products i.e. bread, so it was subjected to efficacy studies using experimental poultry birds. It is deduced that values for body growth performance, serological and hematological parameters were within normal ranges showing the safety of enzyme. In order to assess the potential of xylanase in bread making; a comparative study was conducted in which enzyme was applied in various doses at two different stages i.e. tempering of wheat kernels before milling and mixing of dough. Xylanase addition modified the rheological attributes of dough, especially farinographic, mixographic and amylographic characteristics. Furthermore, xylanase decreased dryness and stiffness of the dough whereas, resulted in increased elasticity, extensibility and coherency. It is concluded from the rheological and allied characteristics that enzyme addition improved the dough handling properties. Bread volume was increased in response to xylanase addition during tempering up to 600 IU/kg and during mixing stage up to 800 IU/kg. Additionally, specific and relative volume increased whereas, density decreased in response to xylanase application. Moisture retention capacity of bread samples also improved as a result of enzyme treatments. Lastly, sensory evaluation was conducted to study the effect of xylanase treatments on the external and internal characteristics of the bread. Enzyme treatments resulted in marked improvement in these traits, though in most of the cases, T3 (600 IU/1kg) showed better performance. The statistical results indicated that addition of xylanase during tempering is more beneficial and cost effective in enhancing the hedonic response as compared to mixing. In the nutshell, wheat bran at 3% concentration can be used as a potential carbon source for the production of xylanase enzyme under pre-optimized conditions. Overall, improvement in dough handling characteristics and bread quality traits indicates that xylanase has potential to be used in the baking industry.