The incidence of Ganoderma root and bole rot of coconut in Sri Lanka

A tapering disease of coconut in Sri Lanka caused by Ganoderma boninense Pat. is described. Affected plams show necrosis of pinnae, dropping of dead leaves, necrosis of male flowers and a reduction in nut setting. Extensive root decay is also noticed. During the final stages of the disease, a soft rot is observed at the bud. Further, stem,-bleeding and rotting of the bole are observed. Fruit-bodies ususally occur at the base of the bole

Improvement of Quality of Composite Bread by Incorporating Dual Modified Traditional Rice Flour

Bakery industry is heavily depended on wheat flour due to its favorable properties. This dependency has proven disadvantageous for Bakery industry in countries where wheat cultivation is not possible. Rice flour with necessary modifications could be an ideal candidate to replace or used in combination with imported wheat flour in bakery industry. Traditional rice varieties suits best for obtaining flour since they nutritious and well adapted to the local setup. This study reports the impacts of physio-chemicals modifications of rice flour obtained from four traditional rice varieties grown in Sri Lanka in making of bread. Four traditional rice varieties namely Madatuwalu, Kaluhenati, Panchaperumal and Rathdal were selected and grains were soaked in 0.5M or 1M NaHCO3 solution for one hour followed by dehydration at 100oC for one to two hours. Functional properties of the modified rice flour such as, Water Solubility, Swelling Power and Water Absorption Index were determined. The treatments tested were shown significant effects (p 0.05) on functional properties of all four flour types. Dipping in 1M NaHCO3 solution for one hour followed by dehydration for two hours at 100oC was the best treatment and Madathuwalu was the highest performing flour type for all the functional properties. Hence, Madathuwalu was selected after the application of best treatment to develop rice flour incorporated composite bread. The results showed that composite bread developed by substituting 40% wheat flour with modified rice flour resulted in the similar sensory attributes to bread developed with 100% commercial wheat flour

MASS PROPAGATION OF LUNUMIDELLA Melia dubia USING INVIVO AND INVITRO CULTURE METHODS

Lunumidella (Melia dubia) is a fast growing short rotational tree species which can beharvested in 15-20 yrs. The timber is light and mainly used for ceilling and panelling.However due to the presence of a hard seed coat and limited period of viability planting ofLunumidella has become a problem.Therefore investigations were carried out with the objective of finding suitable propagationtechniques using invivo and invitro culture methods. Shoot tip culture method was carriedout using axillary buds and nodel segments taken from plant materials brought from theDodangolla University farm and kept under the running tap water for 2 hours. Thensurface sterilization was done using 10%. Naocl containing 2 drops of teepol/ 100mlsolution for 10 mts. in sterilized conditions. They were then washed with distilled water 3times for 2 min. each and transferred into Mureshige and skoog medium (MS) containingdifferent concentrations of cytokinins.The best medium to grow Lunumedella invitro was 112 strength Ms Agar medium with thesupplement of 1.0 mg/I SAP.In vivo methodsDifferent pretreatment methods were adopted to overcome the poor germination due to thehard seed coat by using acid treatments, base treatments, heat treatments and mechanicalscarification. Seeds were treated with 98% H2 S04 for different time periods; 1 mt, 5 mts.,IOmts, 15 mts, 30mts) and then soaked in water for 24 hours and planted them in polybags in the plant house.Likewise the same procedure was carried out with base Ca(OH)2 and KOH (ash).The best pretreatment method for Lunumidella was acid pretreatment method. In this casethe germination percentage was 40%.