Biochar enhances the growth and physiological characteristics of Medicago sativa, Amaranthus caudatus and Zea mays in saline soils.

Biochar is a promising solution to alleviate the negative impacts of salinity stress on agricultural production. Biochar derived from food waste effect was investigated on three plant species, Medicago sativa, Amaranthus caudatus, and Zea mays, under saline environments. The results showed that biochar improved significantly the height by 30%, fresh weight of shoot by 35% and root by 45% of all three species compared to control (saline soil without biochar adding), as well as enhanced their photosynthetic pigments and enzyme activities in soil. This positive effect varied significantly between the 3 plants highlighting the importance of the plant-biochar interactions. Thus, the application of biochar is a promising solution to enhance the growth, root morphology, and physiological characteristics of plants under salt-induced stress.

Quantification of aroma constituents of mango sap from different Pakistan mango cultivars using gas chromatography triple quadrupole mass spectrometry.

In this study, a quantitative method was developed based on gas chromatography triple quadrupole mass spectrometry (GC-QQQ-MS) for the analysis of aroma component of mango sap (latex) in nine Pakistani varieties that are Anmol, Began pali, Badami, Caroba, Chaunsa, Lal patra, Neelum, Sohnara and Tota pari. The non-aqueous phase of sap was studied and a total seven selected terpenes that are α-pinene, α-phellandrene, (+)-3-carene, sabinene, γ-terpinene, (-)-trans-caryophyllene and α-humulene were quantified using GC-QQQ-MS in MRM (multiple reaction mode) mode. Calibration curves were generated and R(2)>0.99 was found for all analytes. Intra-day and inter-day precision (% R.S.D.) of the developed method was less than 4% while % accuracy was in the range of 95.3-105.1 for all analytes. Among all the varieties, Neelum contains the highest amount of four terpenes out of seven quantified terpenes.