Comprehensive phytochemical exploration of red, sweet and sour tamarind genotypes through GC-MS analysis

Tamarind fruit pulp is a significant spice and flavouring agent used in various cuisines worldwide. Tamarind pulp has potential therapeutic value due to the presence of numerous bioactive components and widely utilized in preparation of different Ayurvedic medicines for treating the different illness. The present investigation aimed to evaluate the phytochemical constituents in the fruit pulp of different phenotypic variants of red, sweet and sour Tamarind clones. The Tamarind fruits were collected from the Tamarind germplasm bank at the ICFRE-Institute of Forest Genetics and Tree Breeding and subjected to phytochemical and GC-MS analysis. The Tamarind clones IFGTBTI-4, IFGTBRT-4 and IFGTBST-5 were subjected to GC-MS analysis. The methanol extract of fruit pulp was analysed by GCMS for identify the bioactive component present in the different phenotypic variants of Tamarind. The GCMS analysis revealed 22 components in sour Tamarind, 18 components in red Tamarind and 22 components in sweet Tamarind. The most important bioactive compounds present in all the Tamarind types are myo-inositol, 4-Cmethyl-, L-(+)-ascorbic acid 2,6-dihexadecanoate and 2-furancarboxaldehyde, 5 -(hydroxymethyl) and also the components such as ?-calacorene, gammasitosterol and levoglucosenon. Therapeutic potential, including antiinflammatory, antioxidant, antiviral and anticancer properties. The findings contribute to the pharmacological validation of Tamarind extracts and to supporting their utility in pharmaceutical, cosmetic and food industries. This study highlights Tamarind's role as a source of natural bioactive compounds with significant health benefits, emphasizing its potential in the development of new therapeutic agents and supplements based on sustainable, bio-based chemicals

Heat Stress and Goat Welfare: Adaptation and Production Considerations

This review attempted to collate and synthesize information on goat welfare and production constraints during heat stress exposure. Among the farm animals, goats arguably are considered the best-suited animals to survive in tropical climates. Heat stress was found to negatively influence growth, milk and meat production and compromised the immune response, thereby significantly reducing goats’ welfare under extensive conditions and transportation. Although considered extremely adapted to tropical climates, their production can be compromised to cope with heat stress. Therefore, information on goat adaptation and production performance during heat exposure could help assess their welfare. Such information would be valuable as the farming communities are often struggling in their efforts to assess animal welfare, especially in tropical regions. Broadly three aspects must be considered to ensure appropriate welfare in goats, and these include (i) housing and environment; (ii) breeding and genetics and (iii) handling and transport. Apart from these, there are a few other negative welfare factors in goat rearing, which differ across the production system being followed. Such negative practices are predominant in extensive systems and include nutritional stress, limited supply of good quality water, climatic extremes, parasitic infestation and lameness, culminating in low production, reproduction and high mortality rates. Broadly two types of methodologies are available to assess welfare in goats in these systems: (i) animal-based measures include behavioral measurements, health and production records and disease symptoms; (ii) resources based and management-based measures include stocking density, manpower, housing conditions and health plans. Goat welfare could be assessed based on several indicators covering behavioral, physical, physiological and productive responses. The important indicators of goat welfare include agonistic behavior, vocalization, skin temperature, body condition score (BCS), hair coat conditions, rectal temperature, respiration rate, heart rate, sweating, reduced growth, reduced milk production and reduced reproductive efficiency. There are also different approaches available by which the welfare of goats could be assessed, such as naturalistic, functional and subjective approaches. Thus, assessing welfare in goats at every production stage is a prerequisite for ensuring appropriate production in this all-important species to guarantee optimum returns to the marginal and subsistence farmers

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OPINION PAPERClimate change causes unprecedented challenge to the entire development of livestock production system. Climate change will negatively impact the animal directly through elevated temperature and precipitation pattern variation and indirectly through the reduced quality and quantity of crop yield, water availability and increased disease outbreaks. Among the all climatic variables, heat stress is the most intriguing factor which affects livestock sector. Heat stress detrimentally affects the animal growth, production and reproduction, which culminates in severe economic loss to the livestock farmers. Among the various internal regulators, hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis play a primary role in streamlining the adaptive activities of heat stressed domestic livestock. Therefore, methodologies pertaining to measuring stress level are very crucial for studying animal adaptation and its associated mechanisms. The HPA axis activity is often measured by corticosteroid release as a means to evaluate stress and well-being in animals. Although, the sympatho adrenal medullary system also originates from HPA axis still its products epinephrine and nor-epinephrine are available only for a transient period of time. Therefore, stress levels are primarily measured by the changes associated with HPA axis and its end-product glucocorticoids, has traditionally been the primary means to make inferences about the stress response in animals. Hence, future research efforts are needed to study in depth the functionality associated with HPA axis at cellular and molecular level to establish the hidden intricacies of stress pathways. These efforts may yield suitable biological markers which may be useful in identifying livestock species with superior thermo-tolerance ability to heat stress. Hence, attempt has been made in this opinion paper to project to the readers the significance of HPA axis for having in-depth understanding of the stress pathways in livestock. These efforts are vital as the scientific community battles in its efforts to identify the most suitable breed specific for different agro-ecological zones.ICAR-NIAN

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Not AvailableBackground and Objective: Climate change related heat and nutritional stress weakens the animal’s immune system and makes them more prone to diseases. Although this has been observed by various researchers, the impact of these stresses on immune gene expression and process of heat stress mediated immune suppression at molecular level has not been dealt in detail in goat. Hence, the study was conducted to establish the impact of heat stress, nutritional stress and combined stresses (heat and nutritional) on different spleen Toll Like Receptor (TLR) genes expression in Osmanabadi goats. Materials and Methods: Twenty four adult Osmanabadi male goats (average body weight 16.0 kg) were divided into four groups viz., C (n = 6, control), HS (n = 6, heat stress), NS (n = 6, nutritional stress) and CS (n = 6, combined stress). The study was conducted for a period of 45 days. The C and HS goats had ad libitum access to their feed while NS and CS goats were under restricted feed (30% intake of C bucks) to induce nutritional stress. The HS and CS goats were exposed to heat stress in outside environment for 6 h a day between 10:00-16:00 h to induce heat stress. The average minimum and maximum temperature and Relative Humidity (RH) during the study period were 27.23±3.46, 38.33±0.52 and 37.0±4.16, respectively. The animals were slaughtered and their spleen was collected for different TLR mRNA expression. The relative gene expression was calculated using the formula 2–ΔΔCT. The results were expressed in fold change as compared to untreated control (control = 1 fold). Results: The fold expression level of TLR 1, 2, 3, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10 mRNA in spleen followed the same trend in the current study where comparatively higher expression was noticed in CS group. These different TLR mRNA expressions in CS group were of higher magnitude as compared to both HS and NS group goats. This shows the severity of environmental stresses when occurring simultaneously and the consequences on immune response were much more severe than the individual stress. Conclusion: The activated splenic innate immune functions in terms of different increased TLR expression during combined stress indicate the Osmanabadi goat’s adaptation and disease resistance mechanism under extreme environmental conditions.ICA

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Not AvailableA study was conducted to establish the impact of heat stress, nutritional stress and the combined effect of both stresses (heat and nutrition) on the expression of toll-like receptors (TLRs) genes in liver samples of Osmanabadi goats. Twenty-four adult male Osmanabadi goats (average body weight 16.0 kg) were divided into four equal groups of six each: control (C), heat stress (HS), nutritional stress (NS) and combined stress (CS). The study was conducted over a 45 day period. The C and HS goats had ad libitum access to their feed while NS and CS goats were restricted feed (30% intake of C) to induce nutritional stress. The HS and CS goats were exposed to solar radiation for six hours a day between 10:00 h–16:00 h to induce heat stress. The animals were slaughtered at the end of the study and their livers were sampled for different TLRs gene expression assay. Among the different TLRs studied, TLR1, TLR3, TLR6, TLR7, TLR8 and TLR10 mRNA expressions were significantly (P < 0.05) higher in HS group as compared to other groups (C, NS and CS). The significantly higher levels of TLR1, TLR3, TLR6, TLR7, TLR8 and TLR10 mRNA expression in HS groups indicated that, when nutrition is not compromised, heat stressed animals were able to maintain their immune functions against heat shock proteins. This suggests that improving nutrition during heat stress condition may be highly beneficial to maintaining the immune status against heat shock proteins of the goats. The higher expression of TLR8 and TLR10 in the HS group indicates that these two genes may act as the immunological markers of heat stress in goats.Not Availabl

News Letter 2018

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