With fruit sizes reaching almost 300 grams, it is likely that thinning may have been excessive and crop load per tree could have been increased while still reaching above minimum fresh market size requirements. The strong yield for high density plantings of August Flame during the 2017 harvest supports reports of higher density plantings reaching full cropping sooner than low density systems . By 2018 the Nema Quad systems were able to produce fruit of similar size compared to systems with size-controlling rootstocks, but fruit were still not the largest. Large fruit sizes indicate that the amount of thinning could, again, have been reduced. In 2019 there was noticeable water stress in the field due to some irrigation problems, but the magnitude of the problem was not documented. It is likely the water stress was a reason for some of the smaller fruit sizes compared to previous years. Most interesting about the 2019 season was the performance of the C-9 Quad system and how after producing significantly smaller and fewer fruit in both previous seasons, it now had the largest mean fruit size. Overall, systems with size-controlling rootstocks performed well and on par compared to the Nema Quad system giving confidence that reduced hydraulic conductance associated with size-controlling rootstocks does not necessarily reduce fruit size in either early or late bearing cultivars such as June and August Flame.In addition to fruit size, plastic pot plant containers number of fruits produced was not diminished in systems using size controlling rootstocks compared to the Nema Quad system.
The 2017 harvest for the June Flame cultivar was the only harvest that the Nema Quad system produced significantly more fruit per hectare than all other systems. These results differ with previous studies where KAC_V plantings reached full cropping at the same time as trees on vigorous rootstocks but, systems with size-controlling rootstocks pruned to an open-vase lagged behind more vigorous rootstocks . By 2018 the C-6 Quad and C-6 V systems produced more fruit per hectare than the Nema Quad system while the C-9 system had a substantially reduced yield compared to all other systems. Fruit count could have been increased had thinning been more consistently managed but since fruit sizes were also similar, results would not likely have changed in terms of differences between systems. 2019 was by far the most productive harvest for June Flame, with strong yields in the C-6 Quad, C-6 V, and Nema Quad systems while the C-9 Quad was less productive. Due to the lack of significant differences among systems there is no evidence that a reduction in either fruit size or fruit count would be expected in an orchard system using size-controlling rootstocks compared to a system with more vigorous rootstocks, when using appropriate management practices and planting densities adjusted for the reduced tree size. Results from the 2017 harvest of August Flame were much more aligned with previous studies where systems with high-density plantings reached maximum yield capacity earlier than in low-density systems . It is possible that if the amount of thinning in the C-6 Quad and C-6 V systems had not been as severe, they could have produced significantly more fruit than the Nema Quad system. The C-9 Quad system had the lowest fruit count but, with such a large fruit size, could have potentially produced a fruit count similar to the Nema Quad system if thinning had been done more precisely. In 2018 the fruit count was similar in the C-6 Quad, C-6 V, and Nema Quad systems while the C-9 Quad system had half the crop load as the other systems.
Since the most size-controlling rootstocks produced yields on par with the Nema Quad system, it is probable that the C-9 Quad system was under some stress that hindered production rather than its reduced fruit count being a result of reduced hydraulic conductance in the rootstock. It is likely in 2019 that all systems were under stress. Not only was fruit sizesignificantly smaller than previous years, fruit count per hectare was also fewer than that of even the earlier bearing cultivar for all systems except the C-9 Quad. In this study the relationship between crop load and fruit size was similar among systems with high density plantings on size-controlling rootstocks and the system with lower planting densities on a vigorous rootstock. Results were as expected, as crop load increased fruit size diminished. Although the relationship between fruit size and fruit produced per hectare was not significantly different among systems, appropriate crop load per tree and fruit size was influenced by planting density. The larger crop load that trees in the Nema Quad system could hold while maintaining similar fruit size as trees from other systems with significantly reduced crop load per tree indicate that trees with size-controlling rootstocks planted at a higher density may not be able to maintain as large of fruit size with larger crop loads compared to trees with more vigorous rootstocks at wider spaced plantings, this concurs with findings from Inglese et al., .
Results from this study also demonstrate that an increased number of trees per unit area compensate for the reduced crop load per tree, thus allowing high-density plantings on size controlling rootstocks to be a viable option for commercial production, similar findings have been reported by Webster and DeJong et al., .It is well documented that an orchard’s ability to intercept photosynthetically active radiation influences yield and that the two are linearly related up to 50% light interception . Data from this trial had a similar trend for the relationship between light interception and yield. In the June Flame cultivar, yield measurements up to 50% light interception had little deviation from the linear model, above this point yield varied significantly. Above 50% light interception, differences in yield are likely caused by other limiting factors such as water or nutrients . This would also explain the poor fit for the model of the C-6 V system. With a canopy that intercepted >50% in all three seasons, yield variation was likely a result of environmental conditions. August Flame systems had more time in the first growing season to fill out their allotted space. This resulted in most systems having >50% light interception in all three seasons. Due to the higher light interception, all models had a poor fit and did not provide confident yield predictions.Plants and their secondary metabolites have been used as one of the important sources in the field of medicines or health related issues since ancient times. The role of medicinal plants in the health care had been already mentioned in the Indian holy books like “Vedas”. Recent report of World Health Organization has been estimated that approx 45,000 plants being practiced for the medicinal purposes across the globe. Presently, around 65% of Indian population directly are dependent upon the traditional medicine for their need of primary health. Secondary metabolites of these herbal plants is an alternative source broadly used in the treatment of chronic diseases. Currently, traditional medicine is broadly used in the treatment of ulcer worldwide, and has been proven as one of the best strategies for the disease management of ulcer . Ulcer is a discontinuity or break in a bodily membrane in the form of wound or sores that are slow healing or keep returning. It impedes the organ of which that membrane is a part from continuing its normal functions . It is of many forms which occur on both, inside and outside of the human body. Currently, large plastic gardening pots different types of ulcer forms are recognized in medicine such as peptic ulcer, corneal ulcer, stomach ulcer, foot or leg ulcer etc. Ulcer causing problems in digestive system and wounds appearing in the lining of digestive track in human beings are very common. The digestive track of human beings is very sensitive and the health of digestive track can be good or bad and depends on many factors. Pepsin exposed ulcers i.e., peptic Ulcers are the most common type in the gastrointestinal tract area that result from an imbalance between stomach acid-pepsin and mucosal defence barriers and more than 4 million people affected worldwide annually. In medicine, the ulcer which occurs as mucosal lesions which penetrate the muscularis mucosae layer and form a cavity surrounded by acute and chronic inflammation is defined as peptic ulcer.Adesanwo et al.studied the anti-ulcerogenic effect of Melaleuca bracteata stem bark extract and showed thatthe extract significantly reduced gastric acid secretion. They also reported that the bark extract contains two important constituents’ betulinic acid and oleanolic acid, play major role in anti-ulcer effect. In another attempt, Agrawal et al. studied the antiulcer activity of petroleum ether, alcohol and aqueous extracts of Smithia conferta. Phytochemical analysis of petroleum ether extract found to have steroids, alcohol extract constitute isoflavonoids, alkaloids and carbohydrates whereas in the aqueous extract significant amount of amino acids, carbohydrates and flavonoids were present. However, the aqueous and alcoholic extracts showed significant reduction in ulcer index compared to petroleum ether extract.
All through in our evolution, natural products have enormous eminence in the fields of medicine and health. Natural products along being the earth friendly, they are free from any adverse effect to the human health.Plant metabolites have been the most successful source of potential drugs since ancient period. However, due to the emergence of new human diseases with the changing environment, continuous screening and validation of secondary metabolites in the form of drug identification/designing needs to be updated. Different cheminformatics approaches like target identification, active site prediction, drug likeliness properties, biological activity and molecular docking of selected phytoligands are the key features for identifying for functional aspects of any drug. Secondary metabolites of the plants have been recognized to elicit beneficial effects in virulent factors of diseases. The raw materials and pharmaceuticals needed for the preparation of essential drugs are largely obtained from the local herbal plants. The revolution of metabolic engineering and the development molecular docking algorithms approaches lead to improved molecular simulations with crucial applications in virtual high throughput screening and drug discovery. Analysis with molecular docking of interactions between protein-ligand, become an emerging tool in drug design. In case of Helicobacter pylori infected individuals, the frequencies of virulent factor IFNg cells have been increased in the antrum, which induces development of gastric ulcers. Protodioscin a secondary metabolites of Asparagus racemosus is used as medicinal compounds against several diseases. The analysis by molecular docking between the virulent factor and plant metabolites showed the interaction between structural protodioscin and interferon-g , in which all residues of interferon-g exhibited hydrophobic interactions . Although, the obtained binding energy of protodioscin- interferon-g complex revealed disruptions of interferon-g integrity. These types of interactions between the virulent factors of ulcer and plants secondary metabolites open a new door in the field of designing and discovery of a new drug in the ulcer treatment.Fleshy fruit gain most of their quality traits, such as color, texture, flavor, and nutritional value, as a result of physiological and biochemical changes associated with ripening. Fruit ripening has been studied for decades, yet there are still many unanswered questions about the timing and coordination of the biological processes related to this developmental program. Much of this research has been done in the model for fleshy fruit ripening, tomato , and has utilized the spontaneous single ripening mutants Cnr , nor , and rin . Each of these mutations produces pleiotropic defects to ripening and occur in or near genes encoding the transcription factors SPL-CNR, NACNOR, and MADS-RIN, belonging to the SQUAMOSA promoter binding protein-like , NAM, ATAF1/2, CUC2 and, MCM1, AG, DEF, SRF TF families, respectively. Each TF family functions in diverse developmental processes and have distinct spatiotemporal expression patterns . These mutants were used to study ripening under the assumption that the mutations cause a complete loss of function to the corresponding protein. Recently, it has been discovered that the nor and rin mutations produce proteins that are still functional and gain the ability to negatively regulate their targets . In nor, the two base pair deletion truncates the protein but still produces a functional DNA-binding and dimerizing NAC domain . In rin, a large deletion creates a chimeric protein with the neighboring gene MACROCALYX , producing a functional protein with suppression activity .