<div>Background:&nbsp;Due to their highly perishable nature, vegetables possess a higher chance of deterioration and damage after harvesting. Freezing is a potential preservation technique used to reduce the deterioration and increase the shelf life of vegetables by preventing the wastage of substantial quantities of tomatoes in Sri Lanka. 
 
Methods:&nbsp;In this research calcium chloride (2.4% w/w) pretreated Thilina and RIDA F1 tomato variety pieces were analyzed drip loss, pH, color, hardness, cutting shearing strength, ascorbic acid content and sensory parameters under air blast freezing (-30&deg;C, 3 ms-1 air velocity) and conventional freezing (-18&deg;C) conditions.&nbsp; &nbsp; 
 
Result:&nbsp;The L* values of colour, pH and ascorbic acid content were shown significant differences (p&lt;0.05) but a*, b* values, driploss%, cutting and shearing strength didn&rsquo;t show any significant differences (p&lt;0.05) during different freezing conditions. The magnitude of color change (∆E) is higher (p&lt;0.05) in conventional freezing treatment than in air-blast freezing. The preference among the panelists is significantly (p&lt;0.05) higher for blast frozen tomato samples than conventional frozen samples concerning color, odor, texture and overall quality parameters. According to the statistical analysis, air blast freezing preserve better physiochemical and sensory parameters of Thilina and RIDA F1 tomato varieties.</div>

Determination of the Effect of Freezing Methods on the Quality of Frozen Tomato Pieces

<div>Fruits and vegetables are a rich sources of different nutrients, pigments, secondary metabolites and other nutritional components which are beneficial and fundamental components for human health. In recent years, the consumption of coloured fruits and vegetables has increased significantly due to their superior nutritional characteristics. In this context, purple tomato is now gaining importance due to the high content of the pigment anthocyanins. This article provides knowledge on 1) Tomato in general and anthocyanin-rich purple tomato, 2) Benefits of anthocyanins in plants and human diet, 3) Strategies for development of purple tomato, 4) Better postharvest life of purple tomatoes, 5) Purple tomato in India and 6) Health benefits of purple tomato. Purple tomato fruits provide higher nutraceutical value as compared to the classical red tomato as it combines the health benefits of the anthocyanins along with other usual and known phytochemicals as already present in tomato fruit. Due to higher anthocyanins and antioxidative properties, purple tomatoes possess anti-inflammatory, anti-microbial, anti-cancerous, cardio-protective, hepto-protective and neuroprotective effects. Regular consumption of purple tomatoes has also been found effective in the prevention of certain chronic diseases of humans as well. The use of conventional breeding and modern transgenic approach is paving the way for higher anthocyanin and other nutraceuticals in tomato fruits. Higher anthocyanin content has also imparted enhanced shelf-life and better storability to purple tomatoes. In the coming time, the availability and popularity of purple tomatoes in India will be beneficial for farmers, processing industries and human health. This will also serve as another step forward towards attaining nutritional security.</div>

Purple Tomato - Importance and Scope: A Review

<div>Background: Yogurt is one of the most popular fermented dairy products worldwide which has great consumer acceptability due to its health benefits other than its basic nutrition. Yogurt is a rich source of calcium in bio-available form and also acts as a probiotic carrier food. Yogurt is reported to be beneficial for the treatment of Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) that includes gastrointestinal disorders. Because of these known health benefits of yogurt, consumer demand for yogurt and yogurt related products has been increased and became the fastest growing dairy category in the global market. Notably, India ranks first in psyllium husk (isabgol) production and is the sole supplier of seeds and husk in the international market. Among medicinal plants, psyllium is the first ranked foreign exchange earner for the country. India is the largest producer and the main supplier of seed and husk to the world market. The psyllium is high in soluble fibre content with detoxing effect over digestive system makes it a very apt nutraceutical. 
 
Methods: The present investigation indicates utilization of acid modified psyllium husk for the preparation of probiotic frozen yogurt. The prepared probiotic frozen yogurt was analyzed for sensorial, physicochemical and microbial quality parameters. Probiotic frozen yogurt was prepared from 1 liter buffalo milk, 10 gm sugar and 0.5 gm of acid modified psyllium husk (0.60% HCl in the ethanol solvent with ratio of 1:7). The probiotic culture (107, 108, 109 cfu/gm) containing equal proportions of Lactobacillus acidophilus and Lactobacillus plantarum were added in encapsulated form. It was then stored at refrigerated conditions at 4&deg;C for 8 hours. 
 
Result: The organoleptic evaluation of probiotic frozen yogurt was carried out. As per the score of 9-point hedonic scale, probiotic frozen yogurt prepared with 10 per cent encapsulated probiotic culture (109 cfu/gm and 5 per cent each of Lactobacillus acidophilus and Lactobacillus plantarum) and 0.5 gm of acid modified psyllium husk had shown maximum consumer acceptability (8.7) among all samples.</div>

Studies on Development of Fibre Rich Probiotic Frozen Yogurt

<div>Nowadays there has been a significant interest in the development of innovative functional food products conferring customized benefits to the consumers viz., physical and mental well-being, dental health, gastro-intestinal functions, etc. Among the dairy products with live cultures, probiotic ice cream and fermented frozen desserts such as frozen yoghurt are the emerging functional foods. Ice creams and frozen yoghurt are food products showing potential for use as probiotic vehicles and are highly popular with the consumers. The problem to be tackled relates to the loss of viability of probiotic cells in frozen dairy desserts which can occur during product formulation, processing, freezing and storage. The development of probiotic frozen dairy desserts containing live probiotic bacteria necessitates certain technological interventions. The means used to attain higher survivability of probiotic cells in such frozen products include use of selected probiotic strains, use of prebiotics along with probiotics, encapsulation of probiotic cells, use of cryoprotectants, etc.</div>

​Ice Cream and Frozen Yoghurt - A Suitable Carrier for Probiotics: A Review

Background: Tomato is one of the most important and popular vegetable crop grown mainly in dry seasons in Bangladesh. The southern part of the country is suffering from soil salinity problem due to tidal floods. The increasing salinity in the cultivatable land causes huge crop failure. A dozen of tomato varieties have been developed but they are not been tested for salinity tolerance. Therefore, this study was conducted to evaluate the tolerance level of tomato varieties against NaCl salinity stress at the vegetative stage.&nbsp; 
 
Methods: The study comprised of four levels of electrical conductivity (EC) based NaCl salinity viz., EC 2 (control), EC 4, EC 6 and EC8 mS/cm and eight varieties of tomato. The two-factor pot experiment was carried out in a randomized complete block design with four replications. NaCl salinity was imposed on the tomato plants through a hydroponic culture system and the effects of salinity on shoot-roots traits were measured. 
 
Result: Results showed that morphological traits of tomato plants varied significantly with the salinity levels and variety. It is also noticed that all the vegetative traits reduced as salt concentrations increased in the solution. In combined effects of variety and salinity levels, it was found that BARI Tomato-17 performed superior. It can be concluded that variety BARI Tomato-17 showed comparatively salt tolerant than the other varieties.

Effect of Salinity (NaCl) Stress on Root-shoot Traits of Tomato in Hydroponic Culture

The present study was conducted to evaluate the in vivo fertility of frozen thawed boar semen. Twenty ejaculates collected from six mature boars were frozen in a programmable freezer. After freezing the semen was evaluated for different sperm quality parameters. Twenty five sows were inseminated artificially utilizing frozen thawed semen. The percentage of sperm motility, live sperm, live intact acrosome, plasma membrane intact sperm, HOST-reacted sperm, live sperm with high mitochondrial membrane potential, lipid peroxidised sperm and DNA-damaged sperm of frozen semen utilised for AI were 56.25 &plusmn; 0.96, 63.75 &plusmn; 1.47, 59.88 &plusmn; 1.09, 41.08 &plusmn; 1.01, 40.31 &plusmn; 1.02, 86.23 &plusmn; 1.29, 9.28 &plusmn; 0.83 and 4.20 &plusmn; 0.29 respectively. The farrowing rate was 44.00 per cent and the mean litter size at birth was 5.91 &plusmn; 0.69. It could be concluded that the freezing and insemination protocol of boar semen used in the present study resulted in moderate fertility of frozen boar semen and it would help in further improvement and utilization of frozen boar semen for AI in India.

First report on in vivo fertility trial of frozen thawed boar semen in India#

<div style="text-align:justify">Background: The post-harvest tomato fruit rot disease is common threat to the tomato fruit, causing huge economic loss as revealed by (GOP, 2018). The present study was conducted for isolation and identification of causative agent of tomato fruit rot in order to formulate the proper management stretegies.&nbsp; Methods: Study was conducted in three phases. Phase one included collection of tomato fruit samples from vicinity of Tandojam. In phase two pathogens were isolated from the samples at laboratory, while in the phase three pathogens were identified using standard procedures.&nbsp; Result: The experimental results indicated Alternaria solani as the main cause of post-harvest tomato fruit rot. The symptoms observed were presence of brown to black rot lesions on tomato fruits with distinct rings ranging from small pin-heads to whole surface of fruit. A total of six different fungi viz., Alternaria alternata, Aspergillus niger, Alternaria solani, Geotrichum candidum, Fusarium oxysporum and Rhizopus stolonifer were found to be associated with post harvest tomato rot. Significantly higher infection was recorded for A. solani (53.667%) followed by A. niger (16.333%) and G. candidum (13.00%). The lowest infection percentage was observed for F. oxysporum (2.333%), followed by A. alternata (4.00%) and R. stolonifer (9.00%). A. solani produced aerial mycelium with yellowish to reddish diffusible pigments. A. niger cultures were typically black and colonies were initially whitish to yellow and later became brown to black in colour. G. candidum produced white and nonaerial colonies. F. oxysporum produced circular, aerial mycelium initially white, later changed to light pink. R. stolonifer produced whitish to grey fuzzy colonies.&nbsp;</div>

<div>Isolation and Identification of the Fungi Causing Tomato Fruit Rot Disease in the Vicinity of Tandojam, Sindh</div>

<div style="text-align: justify;">The present study was undertaken to explore the characters highly responsible for yield of tomato. Genotypic variability, heritability and genetic advance for yield and yield contributing characters were studied for 18 tomato genotypes and data were recorded on plant height at maturity, number of branches per plant, days to 50 percent flowering, number of fruits per cluster, number of fruits per plant, average fruit weight, number of locule per fruit and fruit yield per plant. The experimental results revealed that the phenotypic variation was high as compared to genotypic variation for all the traits studied and maximum for yield per plant, average fruit weight and plant height. High PCV, GCV and genetic advance was observed for yield per plant, number of fruits per plant and number of locules per fruit indicating the additive genetic effect. Phenotypic selection for their improvement could be achieved by simple selection.</div>

Variability, heritability and genetic advance in tomato genotypes &nbsp;

<div>Background:&nbsp;Root-knot nematodes (Meloidogyne spp.) are the most devastating pests of vegetables, especially in the tropic and subtropic regions. Meloidogyne incognita is among the major pathogens found in the tomato crop and causes a significant yield loss. This study evaluates the resistance and susceptible cultivar of tomato against root-knot nematodes (Meloidogyne incognita). 
 
Methods: A greenhouse study was conducted to evaluate the resistance or susceptibility of nine tomato cultivars against M. incognita. Nine cultivars of tomato (Jyoti-4, Navuday, P-21, T9, Pusa-Rohini, Pusa-Sheetal, Pusa-Ruby, Tomato-Ped and Tomato-Round) were procured from Indian Institute of Agriculture Research (IARI), New Delhi and Chola seeds store Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh, India. Two weeks old seedlings of each cultivar were transplanted singly into each pot of 15 cm diameter (1 kg mixture of soil). Only one healthy seedling of each cultivar was maintained in each pot, including the control. Each pot was inoculated with 1500 freshly hatched second-stage juveniles (J2s) of M. incognita. This experiment was carried out in a completely randomized design (CRD) with five replications of each cultivar. 
 
Result: According to the rating scale of galls and reductions in growth parameters, cultivars Pusa-Ruby and Tomato-Ped were found highly susceptible. Five cultivars, namely Jyoti-4, Navuday, Pusa-Sheetal, P-21 and Tomato-Round were found susceptible, while cultivar Pusa-Rohini was found moderately susceptible. Only one cultivar viz., T9, was found moderately resistant.</div>

Varietal Susceptibility and Disease Resistance of Tomato Cultivars against Meloidogyne incognita in Greenhouse Condition

Tomato is a most economic vegetable in India. Covers major area in its cultivation during crop production, it is threatened by major viral disease i.e tomato leaf curl disease, caused by begomovirus and transmitted by the vector. It causes yield loss up to 90-100 per cent, application of insecticide for the control of vector causes regular outbreak. Identification of resistant source from wild species and their introgression with susceptible source, development of lines/varieties, resistant/tolerant to Tomato leaf curl disease is the safest and long term alternative for solving this problem. This paper covers the major aspect related to virus, virus causing factors, vectors and sources of disease resistance and also breeding tools employed for its resistance and some of the barriers in&nbsp;breeding programme.