In this study, silver nanoparticles were synthesized using lemon leaf extract, which served as both a reducing and stabilizing agent. The synthesis process proved to be rapid, cost-effective, and environmentally friendly. The effect of the mixing ratio of the reactants was investigated. Optimal yield, approximately 70%, was achieved at 60°C with a 0.25 M silver nitrate solution interacting for 40 minutes with lemon leaf extract in a 1:1 (v/v) ratio. Confirmation of nanoparticle formation was achieved through visible color change, UV-visible spectra (UV-Vis), X-ray diffraction analysis (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectra (FT-IR), zeta potential, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Energy Dispersive X-ray Spectroscopy (EDX), and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The UV-Vis spectrum of the aqueous medium containing silver nanoparticles showed an absorption peak at around 412 nm. FT-IR spectra had shown that the biomolecule compounds were responsible for the reduction and capping material of silver nanoparticles. The XRD study showed the particles displayed an average crystallite size ranging from 9.4 to 36 nm. SEM and TEM showed a face-centered cubic (FCC) structure with an average size of 34 nm. The stability was detected using zeta potential analysis. These nanoparticles were used as antibacterial agents against Escherichia coli and Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), and the effect of silver nanoparticle concentration was investigated. The results indicated the synthesized silver nanoparticles demonstrated significant antibacterial activity against E. coli and MRSA, with average inhibition zone diameters exceeding 17 mm for E. coli and 15 mm for MRSA. Remarkably, antimicrobial activity was observed against two tested microbes at extremely low concentrations of 1-3 mM of silver nanoparticles.

Effect of pre- and postharvest treatments on the quality and storage ability of fresh artichoke heads: opinion article

Fresh-cut flowers are considered to be one of the most delicate and challenging commercial crops. It is important to take into consideration how to minimize loss during storage and transportation when preserving cut flowers. Many impinging (bad effect) forces can interact to shorten the flowers’ vase life. In the flower industry, effective methods need to be developed to extend freshly cut flowers’ life. Fresh-cut flowers’ vase life can be shortened by a variety of interlocking causes. The flower industry must develop new techniques to extend the flowers’ vase lifespan. This review provides comprehensive, up-to-date information on classical, modified atmosphere packaging (MAP), and controlled atmosphere packaging (CAP) displays. According to this review, a promising packaging technique for fresh flowers can be achieved through smart packaging. A smart package is one that incorporates new technology to increase its functionality. This combines active packaging, nanotechnology, and intelligence. This technology makes it easier to keep an eye on the environmental variables that exist around the packaged flowers to enhance their quality. This article offers a comprehensive overview of creative flower-saving packaging ideas that reduce flower losses and assist growers in handling more effectively their flower inventory. To guarantee the quality of flowers throughout the marketing chain, innovative packaging techniques and advanced packaging technologies should be adopted to understand various package performances. This will provide the consumer with cut flowers of standard quality. Furthermore, sustainable packaging is achieved with circular packaging. We can significantly reduce packaging waste’s environmental impact by designing reused or recyclable packaging.

IN a trial to control charcoal rot disease (Macrophomina phaseolina) in geranium using ecofriendly strategies, antagonistic microbes and essential oils were used. the treatments included three bacterial isolates, Bacillus polymixa, B. circulance, B. Subtilis and one fungus Tricoderma harzianum in addition to five essential oils, (Syzygium aromaticum(cloves), Ocimum basilicum L. (basil), Mentha spicata (Spearmint), Majorana hortensis Moench (Marjoram) and Mentha piperita L. (Peppermint). The in vitro antagonistic effect of microbial isolates and essential oils against M. phaseolina isolated from infected geranium was estimated in Petri plats, The essential oils were used in three concentrations 1, 3 and 5 microliter/plate. the most promising treatments were applied in an artificially infested geranium in a greenhouse experiment along two growing seasons of 2017, 2018. The in vitro screening step indicated that among the treatments, Bacillus subtilis and Trichoderma harzianum were the most promising microbes against the fungal pathogen under study using the dual culture technique. On the other hand, Peppermint oil recorded the highest reduction in radial growth of pathogen followed by Basil oil while Marjoram oil had no effect on the growth of pathogen. The green house experiment showed that, most treatments were efficient in pathogenicity reduction but the microbial treatment exhibited an advantage over essential oil where growth and yield parameters were sharply improved. The maximum enhancement was attained at T5 treatment (infested + dipping for 30 min before planting and spraying with T. harzianum after every cutting process) at all cuts during 2017 and 2018 seasons. Also, T. harzianum increased oil %, which recorded 0.45, 0.30 and 0.38% at 2017 season and 0.47, 0.31 and 0.39% at 2018 season for 1st, 2nd and 3rd cut respectively. Therefore, microbial and essential oil treatments not only reduced the fungal infection but also enhanced vegetative growth of geranium plants.

Cities become crowded and open areas that children can utilize decrease; therefore, it is extremely vital to have play areas and gardens to meet children's needs and requirements.This study was carried out at all children's gardens, Damietta governorate in the north of Egypt during the period from (2016 to 2019).The aim of this study was to investigate and assess all children's gardens in Damietta governorate (New Damietta, El-sananya child and the family, The Child garden in the Woman and Development Association, Faraskour and El-Zarqa gardens) , for comparing them to the model children's gardens for distribution, location, area, design, existing structures, plants, equipment, toys and their safety and maintenance in order to diagnose the points of weakness and strengths of each garden for the necessary procedures to reach the possibilities of improving or establishing a new children's garden at Damietta governorate.The design for this study was a descriptive research design.The results showed that number of children's gardens at Damietta governorate aren't sufficient or fit with population density.All children's gardens are located at the main streets jammed with traffic that endanger on the children and some gardens like El_sananya face the bars of the train in addition to a great noise pollution except for new Damietta garden which take place at wide street and design closest for the model garden.All children's gardens area are very small if compared to the global rates as the child is allocated only 0.22 square meters / child., which isn't accordance the international standards for children under the age of six needs 8-10m 2 except for New Damietta garden where it is 20243 m 2 , The design of these gardens mostly does not follow the scientific standards, but it is determine by the available space and insufficient resources.Neglecting a large part of most gardens by plants optimally.Some poisonous and cactus plants have to be eliminated from the children gardens.Most of the play equipment in the studied gardens aren't safe for children use.They are made from unsuitable materials, not according to safety measures, crowded in limited.Inspection and maintenance of these equipment are lost.In addition, some electrical and mechanical toys doesn't subjected daily inspection and maintenance periodically which can hurt children.So it is necessary to establish model gardens or modify the existing gardens as recommended in this study in order to meet the standards of the model gardens.Finally the results of this landscaping study and the recommendations have to be presented to the local administration leaders in the city for consideration and benefit of the children.

T HERE has been a rising demand for nanotechnology-based products in recent years, particularly in agriculture application.In this effort, the phytotoxicity and stimulatory effects of graphite and silica nanoparticles (NPs) on seed germination, yield characteristics, chemical conformation and root anatomical characteristics of (Pimpinella anisum L.) cv.anise were studied.Seeds were soaked in six concentrations of the two NPs (0, 20, 40, 60, 80 and 100 ppm) for 24 hr to investigate germination under laboratory conditions.The same concentrations were used for soaking and foliar application in the open field.The results displayed that silica NPs improved seed germination traits comparing with graphite NPs.Silica NPs at 20 and 40 ppm, showed the highest germination parameters for anise seeds.The increase in germination % reached 21.88%.Meanwhile, 80ppm silica NPs enhanced the seeds yield fed. -1 by 64.8%, Number of umbels by 50%, root diameter plant -1 , epidermis thickness and cortex thickness.Silica NPs (60ppm) increased biochemical characteristic.Otherwise, graphite NPs (80ppm) enhanced volatile oil% and root vascular cylinder thickness.In general, there was a considerable response by anise seeds to graphite and silica nano-sized presenting the possibility of a new methodology to overcome problems with seed germination and increasing the oil percent in some plant species, mostly medicinal plants.

There is an urgent need to overcome seed dormancy especially in some multi-benefit tree like baobab, which can be successfully cultivated in Southern Egypt, in order to improve their regeneration. Therefore, this study was carried out to investigate the effects of some pre-germination treatments i.e., soaking in tap water, boiling water or sulphuric acid at 98.5% for either 30 or 60 min, mechanical scarification with sandpaper alone or combined with soaking in sulphuric acid 98.5% for either 30 or 60 min, on germination characters and seedling traits of Adansonia digitata L. Results revealed that all pre-germination treatments significantly increased all germination parameters, growth performance and some chemical traits compared to the untreated seeds, except for soaking seeds in tap water. The descending order of pre-sowing treatments was scratching baobab seeds then soaking in sulphuric acid 98.5% for 60 or 30 min ˃ soaking in sulphuric acid 98.5% for 60 or 30 min˃ mechanical scarification with sandpaper ˃ boiling water. In the same order was minimized number of days from sowing until the emergence of the plumule from 68 to 6 days and increasing germination (%) from 9 to 94% for untreated and soaking in tap water without significant differences in between and scratching seeds then soaking in sulphuric acid 98.5% for 60 min, respectively. There were increments in seedling height (from 4.27 to 57.58%) and in stem diameter (from 21.67 to 61.48%) for seeds soaked in tap water, and scratching seeds then soaking in sulphuric acid 98.5% for 60 min, respectively. Generally, all previous treatments except soaking in tap water led to breaking baobab seed dormancy. The best treatment was scratching seeds before soaking in sulphuric acid 98.5% for 30 mints.

Jerusalem artichoke has gained popularity as a new vegetable appearing in markets over the past few years.To improve the quality and storability of tubers, two types of packages (perforate high density polyethylene HDPE and polypropylene PP) and two kinds of essential oil (spearmint and black cumin oils comparing untreated, control) were examined on two varieties (Local cultivar and Fuseau) of Jerusalem artichoke stored at 4ºC and 90-95 % RH for 2, 4, 6, 8 and 10 months.Weight loss%, decay%, dry matter%, general appearance (GA), sprouting %, microbial load (total count and yeast & mold), total soluble solids, inulin, total and reducing sugars content were monitored periodically every 2 months during storage.Results showed that Local cultivar tubers were much better in all physical and chemical characters except inulin and total sugars content, Fuseau cultivar tubers were the better.Moreover, storage in the perforated PP package allows maintaining suppress weight loss % and decay %, and increasing dry matter %, reducing sugars content and GA tubers quality.Conversely, HDPE package recorded the least microbial load and sprouting% and the better inulin, total sugars, and TSS.Otherwise, treated tubers with spearmint and black cumin oils resulted in loss less weight by about 63%, decay % was zero for 4 months, reducing microbial load, decreased sprouting % by 72.09% and maintain a good GA quality compared with control.Generally, it is recommended with storage Local cultivar tubers after treated with black cumin oil and packaged in PP at 4ºC and 90-95 % RH which showed significantly reduce in weight loss by 16% and decay by 18% only as well as maintaining the good overall appearance and most physical and chemical properties for 10 months storage.

W ATER SHORTAGE problem in Egypt is continuously increasing and it is prospected to reach the threshold level of less than 500 m 3 /year/capita which so-called water scarcity limit.Therefore, the present study was carried out to use alternative irrigation technique I 1 (traditional irrigation like to practice by local farmers in the studied area), I 2 (irrigation furrow and left furrow with a fixed shape during the growing season) and I 3 (irrigation furrow and left furrow with an alternative shape during the growing season) on Lawsonia alba Lam plants and were applied foliar sprayed by potassium, micronutrients and humic liquid fertilizer.Despite, all growth was enhanced under I 1 , chemical characteristics of henna plants were significantly increased by using I 3.The lowest values of applied irrigation water (AW) and water consumptive use (CU) were recorded under irrigation treatment I 3 (3397.09and 3410.32 m 3 / fed) and ( 2001.95 and 2020.49m 3 /fed) in the two seasons, respectively.Spraying plants with micronutrients only and micronutrients combined with potassium and humic observed highly growth characters, chemical criteria and the main component in most cases which increasing the leaves yield /fed for about 35.16%, lawsone yield/plant 43.37% and tannins yield/plant 35.64%, respectively when compared to non-sprayed plants.The deficit irrigated (I 3 ) spraying with micronutrients, potassium, and humic liquid fertilizer produced higher water productivity (WP) and productivity of irrigation water (PIW) in comparison to other irrigation treatments for both yields of leaves and lawsone.The decrease of AW in the treatment I 3 saving about 25.47% of water in the growing season.

Salinity is one of the extremely serious abiotic stresses for plants, affecting other subsequent consequences such as oxidative stress, which finally leads to cell death.A pot experiment was performed during 2014 / 2015 and 2015/ 2016 at Sakha Agricultural Research Station, to elucidate the alleviation of salinity effects by spraying gibberellic acid (GA 3 ), Azospirillum sp. and Azotobacter sp.Rhizobacteria (PGPR) and the combination between GA 3 +(PGPR) and their effects on the vegetative growth, yield characters, chemical composition and fixed oil percentage of black cumin plant.Salinity concentrations were 1000, 2000, 3000 and 4000 ppm sea water diluted compared with fresh water as control, GA 3 was used at 100 ppm and PGPR at10%.Salinity treatments significantly decreased plant height, number of branches, plant dry weight, number of capsules, number of roots per plant, root volume, roots fresh and dry weights, capsules yield, seed yield /plant and 1000 seeds weight compared with control.Salinity also decreased chlorophyll content, fixed oil percentage and relative water content.However, proline content, peroxidase and catalase activities, membrane permeability and total soil soluble salts were increased relative to the control.GA 3 or PGPR treatments alleviated the above mentioned undesirable effects of salinity.The increment of enzymes activities and proline accumulation due to GA 3 or PGPR treatments are suggested to involve as part of the defense versus salinity on Nigella sativa L plants.To reduce the unfavorable salinity influences, treatment of GA 3 at 100 ppm or PGPR at10% was recommended.

Experiment was conducted at Sakha Horticulture Research Station, Kafr El-Sheikh Governorate, Egypt, during thetwo successive seasons of 2014/2015 and 2015/2016 to study the effect of foliar spray with kinetin and zinc on Cliviaminiata, L. plant for improving growth performance and raising new formed rhizomes. Kinetin and zinc were sprayedafter three weeks of planting, three times, with three weeks' interval at the rates of 0, 30,60 and 90 mg/L for kinetin and0,100 and 150 ppm for zinc sulphate. Results indicated that application of kinetin at the rate of 90 ppm coupled with zincat the rate of 150 ppm significantly increased leaf length by 45.65%, number of leaves by 49.40%, fresh weight ofleaves/plant by 57.85 %, dry weight of leaves/plant by 56.90%, precocity in flowering by 35.17% , flowering stalk lengthby 34.47%, flowering stalk diameter by 41.89%, flowering stalk fresh weight by 66.11%, flowering stalk dry weight by64.84%, , number of florets/flower by 57.79%, number of flower/clump by 60.77% and flowering duration by 47.89% andnumber of rhizomes/clump by 66.6 as well as fresh and dry weights of rhizomes/ clump by 34.38 and 56.79%respectively. In addition, root length was increased by 55.27%, number of roots by 48.72% as well as fresh and dry rootsby 60.07 and 38.59% respectively. Besides, it increased chemical constituents i.e. nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium,chlorophyll (a), chlorophyll (b), carbohydrates content in leaves by 51.73, 51.62, 38.99, 58.36, 41.55 and 30.45%,respectively, compared to untreated plants. Therefore, application of kinetin at the rate of 90 ppm coupled with zinc at therate of 150 ppm after three weeks of planting Clivia miniata. L. three times with three weeks' interval improved growthperformance and raised new formed rhizomes/ clump under local conditions.

Afield experiment was conducted during 2016 and 2017 in the Research Farm of Sakha Agricultural Research Station, Kafr El-Sheikh Governorate, Egypt to evaluate the mutual effect of irrigation scheduling and silica nanoparticles on Ocimum basilicum L. vegetative growth, yield, chemical composition and some water relations. Irrigation scheduling treatments were 1.2, 1.0 and 0.8 of cumulative pan evaporation (CPE) while a foliar spray of silica nanoparticles at 30, 60, 90 ppm and distilled water as a control. Results showed that 0.8 of CPE decreased vegetative growth characters, fresh and oil yield ha-1 and transpiration rate nevertheless, increased chlorophyll content, oil% and stomatal resistance value in the two cuts of both seasons. Silica nanoparticles at 60 and 90 ppm increased all characters likely oil yield increased by 52.2% over the control. Irrigation at 1.0 of CPE with silica nanoparticles at 60 ppm recorded the highest values of vegetative growth, fresh and oil yield, chlorophyll content and oil%. The highest essential oil components were α –terpineol and linalool in plants sprayed with 60 and 90 ppm silica nanoparticles under all irrigation treatments. The greatest values of seasonal consumptive use and applied irrigation water were observed from plants treated with 1.2 of CPE while, the lowest values obtained from 0.8 of CPE. The highest values of productivity of irrigation water and water productivity were recorded after 1.0 of CPE. Finally, plants treated with 1.0 of CPE combined with silica nanoparticles at 60 ppm showed enhanced vegetative growth, fresh and oil yield, stomatal resistance value, oil components while, decreased transpiration rate. Furthermore, decreased water consumptive use 7% and applied irrigation water 5% while, increased water productivity by 24% and productivity of irrigation water by 20 % compared to 1.2 of CPE without silica nanoparticles spray.

Two Egyptian native (non-domesticated) plant species, Atriplex halimus L., and Suaeda pruinosa from family Amaranthacae were collected from North West Coast of Marsa Matrouh governorate, Egypt under abiotic stress. For cDNA synthesizing and analysis, it is essential to isolate RNA in good quality and quantity to be used for RT-PCR amplification. Two protocols; TRIzol® Reagent with RNeasy Plant Mini Kit for RNA cleanup and RNeasy Plant Mini Kits plus polyethylene glycol (PEG-6000) were evaluated for their efficiency in RNA isolation. Both methods proved to be suitable for isolating RNA from plants rich in secondary metabolites and bioactive compounds as they produced pure and with reasonable amount of RNA, without contamination with DNA. The ultimate goal of this study was to identify the vacuolar antiporter NHX1 candidate genes from Egyptian Atriplex halimus and Suaeda pruinosa. Multiple sequence alignments were conducted to NHX1 genes from plants related to Atriplex and Suaeda to identify the conserved regions and to design primers for cloning those genes. According to NHX1 family conserved region, several primers were synthesis either to amplify the full genes or core regions of the genes. Phusion Taq DNA Polymerase for RT-PCR amplification for cDNAs took place. Only touchdown PCR program (TD-PCR) succeeded in amplifying the cDNAs of the Na+/H+ antiporter genes when using with Phusion Taq. This technique increased specificity, sensitivity and yield to amplify cDNA. The obtained cDNA vacuolar Na+/H+ antiporter gene AhNHX1 from both Atriplex halimus and Suaeda pruinosa were sequenced and submitted to GenBank under accession numbers KJ452334.1 and KJ452335.1, respectively. Alignment of the amino acid sequences revealed highly conserved regions representing vacuolar Na+/H+ antiporter. Computer analysis for the prediction of amino acid sequence of AhNHX1 and SpNHX1 recognized different domains including amiloride-binding domain (85LFFIYLPPI94), NHE (Na+/H+ exchange) domain, and 10 and 9 trans-membrane segments (TM). In addition, phylogenetic relationship analysis indicated that AhNHX1 and SpNHX1 were clustered into the vacuolar Na+/H+ antiporter group. The obtained results indicated that AhNHX1 and SpNHX1 genes are new members of the vacuolar Na+/H+ antiporter families.

Exploitation of genetic variability is of major importance in basic genetic studies and in plant improvement programs. The Cruciferae (Brassicaceae) is the largest family of the Brassicales order. It is a natural family of major economic importance. The number of genera about 365 and the number of species about 3250, Mabberley (1997) and Judd et al. (1999) recorded 419 genera and 4130 species belonging to this family and is classified into 13 tribes. In Egypt, Teckholm (1974) recorded 61 genera and 106 species distributed in different habitat types. On the other hand, El-Hadidi and Fayed (1995) recorded 55 genera and 108 species for it. Mustard plants or their oils can heal rheumatic pains and as emetic in cases of poisoning. It may be used as stimulant for the heart (Naim et al., 1984). Brassica are major oil crop and broccoli, cabbage and mustard are important part of human diet worldwide. In general, genetic improvement of crops can be accelerated when broad genetic diversity and the information of these genetic resources are available. The collection of these genetic resources and the assessment of genetic diversity within and between species should have high priority. Traditionally, markers based on morphological differences among individuals have been used to demonstrate the genetic variability, but with the development of electrophoretic techniques, the biochemical analysis become the cheapest and simplest methods that offer sufficient information to use in plant breeding and serve as a starting point for DNA-based studies (Popov et al., 2002). Moreover, the best molecular markers for genome mapping, marker assisted selection, phylogenetic studied, and crop conservation has low cost and labor requirements and high reliability is called inter simple sequence repeat (ISSR), has been available (Zietkiewicz et al., 1994). Microsatellites are very short (usually 10-20 base pair) stretches of DNA randomly and widely distributed along the genome and they can be analyzed efficiently by the polymerase chain reaction (PCR), using specific primers (forward and reverse) to their flanking regions. The variation in (PCR) product length is a function of the number of SSR units. Primers based on a repeat sequence, such as (CA)n, can be made with a degenerate 3'-anchor, such as (CA) 8 RG or (AGC) 6 TY (Tsumara et al., 1996; Nagaoka et al., 1997). ISSR markers were successfully used for estimating the genetic diversity in several crops, for instance barley (Afiah et al., 2007a) and canola (Afiah et al., 2007b; Afiah and Farag, 2008). In this study isozyme and ISSR were carried out on 11 ecotypes of the Cruciferae collected from different localities of Egypt and to assess the genetic diversity among them.

The post-harvest technologies of roselle must be developed to maintaining quality.There are no appropriate structures for the shelling , drying, packaging and storage for the calyxes of Hibbiscus sabdariffa L and it appears that these operations are performed under unsuitable conditions leading to the deterioration of the quality of the Hibbiscus sabdariffa , L calyxes .For this, the effect of shelling methods ( hand and tools) ,drying processing (sun and oven drying), packaging materials and storage period on some quality of two cultivars of roselle calyxes extracts was studied.Dark and light roselle calyxes removed the seed's capsules for obtained fresh roselle calyxes one shelling hand and the other tool shelling, and the after that drying is carried out after shelling by two ways first is sun drying and second way is an oven air dryer at 55C o for 36 hours to obtain 11% moisture content of dried roselle calyxes.All previously treatment of dark and light red roselle calyxes were divided into two groups randomly assigned to each of the treatment combinations one were packed in polypropylene (pp) package and the other packed in glass bottles as three hundred gram of each sample and stored for eight months at room temperature.Cultivars of roselle calyxes extracts, the packaging materials and storage period were highly significant effect for TSS, total acidity and pH but there are no significant different in anthocyanin with drying processing The two, three and four-way interactions were highly significant for TSS, total acidity and anthocyanin.Total soluble solids content was found to be increased by increasing storage period for both dark and light red roselle cultivars dried by (sun and oven) and packed in (polypropylene and glass bottles).Higher total soluble solids content was recorded for dark cultivar dried by oven packed in glass bottles after 8 months of storage.PH value for dark and light red roselle calyxes decreased with the increase in storage period for the two cultivar with two packaging material and two drying methods from zero days to the end of storage (after 8 months).The pH values of dark roselle extracts was higher than that of light red roselle extracts with all treatments.Dark and light red Roselle calyxes packaged in polypropylene showed pH values largest compared with packaged in glass bottles.The pH values of dark and light red roselle calyxes extracts dried by sun was less than that dried by oven for two packaging materials after 8 months of storage.Anthocyanin value decreased in roselle calyxes extracts of both dark and light cultivars with increasing storage period with all treatments.Anthocyanin value for dark cultivar was higher than the light cultivar.Dark and light roselle calyxes extracts packaged in polypropylene had anthocyanin value higher than that packaged in glass bottles during storage periods.Total acidity of dark and light roselle calyxes extracts increased with increasing storage period for all treatments.The dark roselle calyxes recorded the higher titratable acidity than light red roselle calyxes for all treatments during storage period.Titratable acidity of dark and light red roselle was highly with roselle calyxes dried by oven for two packaging materials throughout storage.Roselle calyxes packed in (pp) gave the lowest value titratable acidity as compared with roselle calyxes extracts packed in glass bottles for two cultivars.

Evidences stated that microclimate causes noticeable effects on life cycle, consumptive use of water and planting time of the plant species. So, two field experiments were established at Sakha Agricultural Research Station during 2013 and 2014 growing seasons in order to evaluate the effect of microclimate on planting date as well as the influence of applying nitrogen fertilization (F1: without nitrogen, F2: 60kg nitrogen/fed as compost, F3: 30kg nitrogen/fed as urea+30kgN as compost/fed and F4: 60kg nitrogen/fed as urea) on growth, yield and components of coriander (Coriandrum sativum, L.) plants. The planting dates were October 10th, November 9th and December 9th. The obtained results showed that the microclimate affected planting date in the studied region which indicated that planting in the first third of December improved plant traits as significantly produced the heaviest weight of 1000 seeds, fruit yield/plant and /fed (1923.77kg/fed) and decreased number of days from planting to harvest to 135day, highest essential oil%, essential oil yield/plant and /fed, the highest N, P and K% for the two seasons. Cultivation on November 10th and December 10th were saving 11.25% and 25.17% of water applied, respectively as comparing with cultivation on October 9th. The highest productivity of irrigation water and water productivity were recorded on December 10th as 1.21 and 1.24kgm−3, respectively. On the other hand, the consumptive use decreased from 42.71cm on October 9th to 31.74cm on December 10th. For the application of nitrogen sources, the F4 treatment was observed to produce the highest promoted effect on most growth parameters, yield, and the rate of increase in yield% reached to 46.25, essential oil% and oil yield in both seasons. Fourteen components were identified in coriander oil. Linalool was found to be the first major compound with the highest percentage obtained in oil sample for plants sown under all planting dates with all fertilization treatments. The highest percentage of linalool was obtained from oil sample from plants sowing on December 9th and fertilized with F4 (60kg nitrogen/fed as urea (89.41%).

Two field experiments was established at Sakha Agricultural Research Station during the two seasons of 2008/2009 and 2009/2010 to evaluate the effect of planting spaces and active dry yeast on the growth ,yield and oil components of Melissa officinalis ,L .Three planting spaces (30, 40 and 50 cm) and four applications of active dry yeast (control, 5, 10 and 15gm / l) were used in the two seasons.The obtained results showed that wider plant spacing showed the greatest effect on growth parameters and chemical constituents.Similarly, active dry yeast levels had a promoting influence on most of the vegetative growth parameters and accelerated essential oil accumulation and chemical constituents including chlorophyll a ,b and total content and N,P and K%.The wider space between plants (40 or 50 cm) combined with maximum rate of dry yeast (10 or 15g/ l) had a favorable effect on the most growth characters and chemical constituents.The main constituent of the essential oil was, geranial (citral A) followed by camphene.Generally, it can be concluded that there is no significant difference between wider distance (50 cm) and medium one (40 cm) and rate of dry yeast (10 and15g/ l).So, it can be recommended to cultivate at distance of (40 cm) combined with applying (10 g/ l) of active dry yeast.

In the present study Citrullus colocynthis L. (Cucurbitaceae) plants were collected from four different sites (Red sea coast (Elba Mountain), New Valley area, North Sinai, and Saint Katreen) by Egyptian Desert Genebank .Molecular markers associated with drought tolerance were studied by fourteen preselected (ISSR) primers exhibited polymorphism obtained from the DNAs of sixteen samples of C. colocynthis (C1-C4) from the four different sites. Detection and sequencing of some drought tolerance genes in Citrullus colocynthis using the genomic DNA based on the four plants from different sites. The specific primers of those drought tolerant genes were (Dehydrin gene), (UB gene), (P5CS gene), (PEPKS gene) and (ACT gene), which were succeed to detect some drought tolerant genes among the four locations of Citrullus colocynthis.

Two field experiments were established at Sakha Agricultural Research Station during the seasons of 2010 and 2011 to evaluate the effect of cultivation method (normal furrow and raisedbed cultivation on the two sides) and irrigation treatments (Traditional irrigation, irrigation with 0.8 Ep and irrigation by using ETP = 0.1642 + 0.8 Ep Ibrahim equation) on the growth, oil yield and some water relations of sage plants. The obtained results showed that cultivation of sage on raisedbed was the best for producing taller plant with more branches, more number of leaves/plant, less leaves/stems ratio, heavier fresh and dry weight of herb as well as higher essential oil% and essential oil yield/plant and for saving water of 1357.2 m3/fed* than the normal furrows in the two cuts for both seasons. Traditional irrigation was effective in raising the productivity of herb, yield and essential oil. The interaction between the two treatments gave the best results. Concerning essential oil constituents cineol was the major compound followed by Myrcene, Thujon was the third component. The values of applied irrigation water, the used consumptive water, irrigation water productivity and productivity of irrigation water were clearly affected by cultivation method and irrigation treatments. So, it could be recommended to cultivate sage on raisedbed at the two sides and irrigate with traditional irrigation using approximately 3345.1 m3 Water /fed to obtain the best growth parameter and oil yield of Salvia officinalis L. plant cultivated in heavy clay soil. *fed (Feddan) =4200 m2