Comparative organoleptic quality of Indian major carps collected from pond and reservoir.

An attempt was made to distinguish the possible organoleptic differences between the pond reared and wild fish species of reservoirs and correlate these with the physicochemical characteristics of water bodies. The texture was found to firmer in wild varieties of fishes than pond reared fish, with best in Catla catla followed by Labeo rohita and Cirrhinus mrigala. All the cultured fishes had lighter colour than wild fish species which were darker in appearance. Comparatively, higher dissolved oxygen and transparency levels with low temperature and alkalinity levels were found in reservoirs. Hydrobiologically, the efficient ecosystem of reservoir was responsible for stronger texture and dark colouration in wild fish species. The fishes from reservoir exhibit tendency to lead active and agile life, comparatively the fishes from ponds are docile. Reservoirs have the potential of enhanced quality fish production.

Field evaluation of ZeroFly® - an insecticide incorporated plastic sheeting against malaria vectors & its impact on malaria transmission in tribal area of northern Orissa.

Background & objectives: Insecticide incorporated plastic sheeting is a new technology to control mosquitoes in emergency shelter places and also temporary habitations in different locations. Therefore, field studies were conducted to assess the efficacy of ZeroFly® plastic sheeting treated with deltamethrin on prevailing disease vectors Anopheles culicifacies and An. fluviatilis and its impact on malaria transmission in one of the highly endemic areas of Orissa. Methods: The study was conducted in Birkera block of Sundargarh district, Orissa state. The study area comprised 3 villages, which were randomized as ZeroFly plastic sheet, untreated plastic sheet and no sheet area. ZeroFly plastic sheets and untreated plastic sheets were fixed in study and control villages respectively covering all the rooms in each household. Longitudinal studies were conducted on the bioefficacy with the help of cone bioassays, monitoring of the mosquito density through hand catch, floor sheet and exit trap collections and fortnightly domiciliary active surveillance in all the study villages. Results: In ZeroFly plastic sheeting area, there was a significant reduction of 84.7 per cent in the entry rate of total mosquitoes in comparison to pre-intervention phase. There was 56.2 per cent immediate mortality in total mosquitoes in houses with ZeroFly sheeting. The overall feeding success rate of mosquitoes in the trial village was only 12.5 per cent in comparison to 49.7 and 51.1 per cent in villages with untreated plastic sheet and no sheet respectively. There was a significant reduction of 65.0 and 70.5 per cent in malaria incidence in ZeroFly plastic sheeting area as compared to untreated plastic sheet and no sheet area respectively. Interpretation & conclusions: Our study showed that introduction of ZeroFly plastic sheets in a community-based intervention programme is operationally feasible to contain malaria especially in the high transmission difficult areas.

Antioxidant property of Smilex china Linn.

Smilex china Linn. (Smilacaceae Syn Liliaceae) has special pharmacognostic feature as its root is multiseriate, with sclerenchymatic pericycle. The alcoholic extract of rhizome of S. china shows significant protection against FeSO4 induced lipid peroxidation in rat liver homogenate, but has no effect on the rate of oxidation of reduced glutathione. This fraction scavenges the superoxide and hydroxyl radicals, but the effect was more towards the removal of superoxide than that of hydroxyl radicals. Thus it could be concluded that rhizome of S. china has strong antioxidant property.