eChapters

48.1. Aim

To conduct practical on drying of fruits

48.2. Theory

Drying generally refers to the method of removal of moisture from the food under natural condition such as sunlight and wind for example open sun drying, shade drying etc. Dehydration refers to a process of removal of moisture by application of artificial heat under controlled conditions of temperatures humidity and air flow. It also represents drying of agricultural commodity to dry state. For drying, single thin layer of fruit and vegetables, either whole or sliced after primary pre-treatments is spread on the trays which are then placed inside the dehydrator or in the open sun for drying. In the dehydrator initial temperature is generally kept at 43oC which is then gradually increased to 66-71oC for fruits.

The term bio-fertilizer is related with such microorganisms that they add, conserve and mobilize the plant nutrients in the soil. Excessive use of nonrenewable exhaustive petroleum product based chemicals in horticultural production system has residual effect on soil, environment and human health. Use of biofertilizers is ecofriendly, cost effective and organic based inputs such as botanical pesticides, FYM, vermicompost, biogas slurry, disease and pest resistant varieties in cultivation of horticultural crops for safeguarding soil health and quality production.

Biofertilizers are microorganisms, which are capable of mobilizing nutrients from unavailable form to available form through biological process. They are not only cost effective but also inexpensive source of plant nutrients. They do not require non-renewable source of energy during their production. Besides, improving crop growth and quality of the product by producing plant hormones and help in sustainable crop production through maintenance of soil productivity. They are also useful as biocontrol agents, as they control many plant pathogens.

Seed Packing

Seed packaging is the process of filling, weighing and sewing of bags with seed. The choice of packaging materials and amount of seeds to be packed depends on kind of seeds to be packed, duration of storage, storage environment, the seed moisture content, the cost of seed, the cost of packaging material, the geographical area where the seeds will be stored.

Introduction

Germination is the process by which a plant grows from a seed or similar structure. The most common example of germination is the sprouting of a seedling from a seed of an angiosperm or gymnosperm. Quick germination is the various ways and means that really fastened the process of seed germination. Through various ways, it is possible to reduce the time of germination by 70 per cent and also the success rate of germination can also be doubled.

West Indian Cherry is a nutritive fruit mainly grown in semi dry and tropical parts of the country. It is native to West Indies and Central and South America and distributed in Southern Florida, Hawaii and other tropical and sub tropical regions of the world. West Indian Cherry received considerable attention in the 1950’s in its area of distribution because of its extremely high vitamin C content (2000-4600 mg / 100 gm of edible matter). It has been considered to be far superior to guava (Psidium guajava L.) as a potential source of vitamin c and it is richer than even the Indian gooseberry (Phyllanthus emblica L.), which is reported to contain roughly 800 mg of ascorbic acid per 100 g of edible matter. One fruit the size of a large cherry can furnish a man’s daily requirement of this vitamin. Thus the fruit of West Indian Cherry can rightly be called as the “pill of nature’s vitamin”. The fruit can be utilized for the production of crystalline vitamin C. The fruit is also rich in vitamin A, iron and can be consumed fresh or can be used in preparation of sherbet, ice cream, jelly and baby foods, fruit nectars and soft drinks. The juice can also be used to fortify ascorbic acid content of various other products and fruit juices to improve their nutritive value. It can withstand mild frost and drought. Fruits are good source of vitamin C and bark yields tannin (Chadha, 2001).

Introduction

Use of acid/base is common in laboratories for experiments like titration and proper safety in their handling laboratory is necessary. In this chapter we will briefly discuss about the safety measures necessary to be adopted while using acids/bases in laboratory for any experiment.

Handling of Strong Acid/Base

There are four major points that need to be taken care of while working with strong acids or bases that might be quite harmful if any accident happens.

1. Protect Yourself

Wear a lab-coat and acid-resistant gloves: Always use lab-coat/apron and make it sure that the sleeves properly cover your arms. More importantly, use gloves made of acid-resistant materials and also wear shoes to protect your feet while wearing long-pants/jeans. Female with long hair, must tie her hair properly (with rubber band) to avoid any disturbance caused by appearance in between.

Wear safety goggles: It is important to wear safety goggles to protect your eyes using larger and fitting goggles that cover front as well as sides of your eyes. Always use properly fitting and adjustable goggles because smaller/ loose goggles may not protect the areas around your eyes against accidental acid spills and it may fall down from your face, if it is too loose.

Locate emergency wash area: There must be an emergency washing area nearby the work place or laboratory containing lab spill management kits. All the workers in the laboratory must be aware of using the kits and emergency plans.

Neutralize acid: Don’t panic even if an acid or chemical spill happens. Stay calm and act as quickly as possible. In case an acid spills, neutralize it by using sodium bicarbonate so that they can be cleaned and disposed safely. If acid comes in contact of skin, wash it off under running tap water but do not use/ apply sodium bicarbonate on skin.

The term seed blending is nothing but seed mixing done based on certain principles. It is simply combining two or more seed lots of same variety or hybrid of specified quality. The blendingmayinvolve lots which mayhave different quality in terms of germination. Usually individual seed lots are much better compared to blended lots but from the point of efficient inventory management blending is advisable. The main purpose of blending is to pool all the variable lots in to a larger bulk and mix the constituents effectively so that each pocket of seed has a uniform quality.

Unfruitfulness is a major problem in many fruit crops and their varieties. ‘Fruitfulness’ refers to the state, where a plant is not only capable of flowering and bearing fruit but also takes these fruits to maturity. The inability of plant to reach the fruits to maturity is known as ‘unfruitfulness’ or ‘barrenness’. In spite of adequate flowering, low fruit yields in orchards have been experienced because of low initial fruit set and subsequently higher fruit-let abscission. In an orchard, all the trees do not bear fruits equally or regularly and sometimes fail to flower and bear fruit under similar conditions, where another fruit tree bears heavily. This failure to fruit may be attributed to unfruitfulness. It is associated with internal and external factors.

Internal factors: These are as follows.

India has achieved tremendous increase in horticulture production after independence. Adoption of several production technologies developed by several agricultural universities across the countries boosted the production of the horticulture sector both by increasing area under various fruit crops as well as by elevating productivity. Though the country has acquired second position in world fruit production; the productivity is less than many under developed countries.Several reasons can be attributed for declining productivity; few of them are enlisted below.

• Cultivation of old and less bearing varieties
• Improper and unscientific management of fruit crops
• Large number of old and senile orchards with declining productivity
• Problems in flowering and fruiting due to aberrant climate especially during flowering and fruiting

56.1. Aim

To determine quality characteristics of dried and dehydrated fruits and vegetables.

56.2. Theory

The quality of dried/dehydrated products can be measured by estimating moisture contents, preservatives level, acid insoluble ash contents and most importantly enzyme reactions.

56.3. Estimation of Acid insoluble ash

1. To total ash add 25 ml of dilute HCl (10% w/w)

2. Cover with a watch glass and boil gently over a low flame for 5 minutes

3. Filter and wash the filter paper thoroughly with hot water

4. Return the paper to the original dish, ignite, cool and weigh the insoluble ash

Organically produced seeds are obtained by adapting the organic crop production system. Organic seed is a critical input but specialised efforts to produce organic seeds are not adequately and systematically followed. Accredited organic farming standards recognises the organic seed production as a prerequisite to organic farming. Seed health is important in organic seeds since seeds are not treated with chemical fungicides.

A cut-out examination is conducted for the evaluation of canned fruit and vegetables and other products for various quality attributes, viz., physical, chemical, sensory, and microbiological attributes. The examination is conducted by following the undermentioned steps: External/physical examination of unopened Can
1. External Appearance of the tin can: Note the external condition of the tin can like dents, rusty spots, scratches, leakage around seams, and the condition of ends. Based on external appearance describe the condition of the tin can by using the following terms:
i. Flat Can: A can where both ends are concave. The vacuum is high enough to maintain the ends concave.
ii. Flipper Can: A can where the vacuum is so low that mechanical shock will produce distortion of one or both ends.
iii. Springer Can: A can in which one end is distorted and the other end is flat and pressure on the convex end will cause the flat end to spring out when pressed.

Flower is symbol of beauty and by nature attracts every human being. It is a gift of nature to humanity. Flowers symbolize the quintessence of human spirit. In India, losses are estimated to be more than 30-35%. It is due to the lack of knowledge of postharvest management of cut flowers. Several factors at pre harvest stage including genetic or inherent, climatic or environmental and management harvest factors like stage, method, time of harvesting and postharvest factors such as watering, rehydration, precooling, storage environment, packaging techniques and microorganisms influence the postharvest quality and longevity of cut flowers.

Preharvest factors

1. Genetic or inherent makeup: Postharvest lasting quality of flower species and cultivars vary considerably due to differences in their genetic make up. It is therefore desirable to grow cultivars, which possess long vaselife. 

1. Introduction 

Medicinal plants are a basis of huge economic value all over the world. The use of plants and plant products as remedies could be sketched as far back as the beginning of human civilization. The most primitive medicinal use of plants in Hindu culture is mentioned in “Rigveda”, which is believed to have been written between 4500 - 1600 B.C. and is theoretical to be the oldest arsenal of human knowledge (Dhale and Mogle, 2011). Ayurveda is the base of curative science of Hindu culture, in its eight dissection deals with specific properties of drugs and different aspects of science of life and the art of healing (Rastogi and Mehrotra, 2002). Nature has presented on us an affluent botanical wealth and a large number of varied types of plants nurture in different parts of the country. Herbal medicine is still the basis of about 75 - 80% of the whole population. The major part of traditional therapy occupies the use of plant extract and their active components (Akerele, 1993). Secondary metabolites are green medicines present in plants and plant parts that act as defense system against disease inducing organisms or more accurately to protect against disease due to the physiological and biochemical mechanism failure (Alarcon-Aguilar et al., 2002).

A cropping system refers to the type and sequence of crops grown and practices used for growing them. It is based on the available technologies of crop production. Cropping systems have been traditionally structured to maximize crop yields. Now, there is a strong need to design cropping systems, which take into consideration the emerging social, economic and ecological or environmental concerns for each ecosystem. The goal of a cropping system must be to conserve natural resources i.e. soil, water and sustain crop production. Conserving soil and water and maintaining longterm soil productivity depend largely on the management of cropping systems, which influence the magnitude of soil erosion and soil organic matter dynamics. Crop diversification is an important option in sustainable agricultural systems. Management of cropping systems implies management of tillage, crop residue, nutrients, pests, and practices for soil conservation. Difference between dry land and rainfed farming is as follows.

Orchard management is one of the important aspects in the horticulture industry. Success of orchards is mostly depends upon economic utilization of natural resources namely land, water, trees and other external inputs. All these resources have to be well utilized to the best advantage for higher production per unit area on a sustainable basis without adversely affecting the quality of the environment. Important aspects of orchard management are related with soil and water conservation, canopy management, nutrition management, weed management, plant protection measures, biotic and abiotic stress management, maturity and harvest, post harvest handling, utilization and marketing.

Soil management: Soil management aims at maintaining the fertility and productivity of soil. It creates favorable conditions for moisture supply, proper drainage and nutrient availability. It helps to maintain high fertility level and replenishment against losses, gaseous exchange, microbial activities, it helps to check soil erosion, suppress the weed population, economic utilization of interspace of main crops. Common soil management practices are cultivation, sod culture, mulching and rotation.

1. Introduction

India throughout its long history has accumulated a prosperous practical acquaintance of the use of medicinal plants for the treatment of various diseases. Chemical studies on Indian medicinal plants make available a priceless material foundation for the discovery and development of new drugs of natural origin. Contrary to the synthetic drugs, antimicrobials of plant origin are not associated with many side effects and have an enormous therapeutic potential to cure many infectious diseases (Bibitha et al., 2002; Maghrani et al., 2005; Doughari, 2006). Plants are used as a medicine in different countries and are a source of many potent and powerful drugs (Kambizi and Afolayan, 2008). Extraction and characterization of several active compounds from these green factories have given birth to some high activity profile drugs (Mandel et al., 2007). Phyllanthus is a medicinally important genus belongs to the family Euphorbiaceae. A number of plants of this family are observed to be beneficial for the treatment of liver ailments. Phyllanthus reticulatus Poir. is a large climbing shrub growing from 8-10 feet in height. It is used in the traditional medicinal system of our country for treatment of a variety of ailments including small pox, syphilis, asthma, diarrhoea, and bleeding from gums (Kirtikar and Basu, 2003;

Tomato is one of the most popular and widely grown nutritious vegetable in the world. Tomato (Lycopersicum esculentum Linnacus Karst.) belonging to the family Solanaceae is one of the most nutritious and remunerative vegetable crop. It is the world’s important vegetable next to potato. The crop is cultivated throughout the year. In Northern plains, the crop is cultivated during autumn, spring and summer. In South India, the crop is grown in June – July, October – November and January – February. The optimum season for seed production in southern India is October – December. Nursery raised in late October and transplanted in the first week of December will produce a good seed crop.

The word ‘organic’, means ‘living’, ‘earth friendly’ or ‘of plant or animal origin’. Organic farming is a very native concept of India and has been followed from ancient times. Soil is a living entity and the focus in organic farming is the soil itself. Of course, it is based on understanding the ways of nature. All organic waste from agriculture and other sources is recycled to enrich the soil. Thus, the health of the soil and its structure is maintained. The natural microorganisms of the soil are protected and nurtureed.

Organic farming is primarily aimed at cultivating the land and raising crops in such a way to keep the soil alive and in good health by use of organic wastes and other biological means of sustainable production in an ecofriendly pollution free environment.

As per the definition of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) study team; organic farming is a system which avoids or largely excludes the use of synthetic inputs namely fertilizers, pesticides, hormones, feed additives, etc. and to the maximum extent feasible rely upon crop rotations, crop residues, animal manures, off farm organic waste, mineral grade rock additives and biological system of nutrient mobilization and plant protection.

A laboratory is essential for research work in science and development. Most of the research institutes have dedicated laboratories for researchers and students to conduct experiments, perform research work, as well as to provide hands-on learning/training to students. There are certain rules and regulations laid down by the laboratory in-charge which need to be followed strictly for safety purposes. Some of the laboratories keep ‘safety manual’ for researchers to read before entering into the laboratory to conduct experiments. Whenever safety is compromised in a laboratory, there is increase in risk of unwanted incidents in the laboratory. Storing food/beverages in the same refrigerator where laboratory chemicals are kept may lead to disastrous effects on health. This chapter aims to provide instructions in brief on the things to be performed (Do’s) before and after entering onto a laboratory as well as the things never to be done (Don’ts) in a laboratory for the safety reasons.

Good Laboratory Practices (Do’s)

• P Wear apron/labcoat while working in the laboratory.
• P Use gloves/respiratory mask/fumehood while handling toxic/volatile/inflammable chemicals/reagents.
• P Use pippet or pippetor for safety in transfer of solutions.
• P Protect eyes, face and naked parts of the body from UV radiations. Use safety goggles or face mask/apron.
• P Keep your eyes away from Liquid Nitrogen and use cryogloves while handling it.
• P Arrange all the necessary materials/solutions before starting the experiment.
• P Periodically fumigate/ozonize culture and inoculation rooms.
• P Autoclave all contaminated materials before discarding.
• P Pre-treat gel or solution containing Ethidium Bromide (EtBr) before discarding into laboratory waste-disposal bin, and use gloves while handling them.
• P Burn all the transgenic plant materials in an incinerator after taking necessary observations.
• P Make entry in the designated log-book and clean the instrument after using it properly.
• P Switch-off the instrument after use or when not in use.
• P Wash hands with soap and remove the labcoat before leaving/going out of the laboratory7.
• P Ensure that switches for fans/lights, and water taps are off while leaving the laboratory.
• P Follow the biosafety guidelines suggested for handling and disposal of the hazardous chemical.