The present research work was conducted to assess the impact of nutrient-enriched diet on the physiological activities and subsequently honey yield. Eighteen colonies of Apis mellifera L. were selected from Dera Ismail Khan region, KPK, Pakistan, during the winter and summer seasons, 2019–2020. Five pollen supplement diets were prepared and provided to screen out the palatable one to be fed as pollen alternative nutrition to bee bread. Results of diet consumption regarding mean data for consumption rate displayed that soybean flour enriched artificial diet was maximally consumed (74.34 g) by honey bees per week. Minimum consumption was observed for grinded groundnut enriched diet (64.62 g) which was relatively lesser than the other tested artificial diets. Results of area of worker brood disclosed that soybean flour fortified diet (1489.27 cm²/colony) statistically noteworthy than the other artificial diets whereas control (463.51 cm²/colony) was least effective. Highest bee strength (10.00 bee frames/colony) was noted in the bee colonies fed with soybean flour fortified diet, date paste (8.0 bee frames/colony) was the next effective one, among the tested pollen replacement diets whereas relatively least (5 bee frames/colony) was noticed in case of grinded groundnut. Highest body weight (12.41 g) of neonate bees was noted in case of soybean enriched diet while lowermost (5.31 g) was noted in control bees. Results of wax cell built up and foraging efficiency were also superior in artificial diets than respective control bees. Hence, artificial diets especially soybean-enriched pollen alternative diet can boost up the physiology of honey bee leading to increased honey yield and profit.

Helicoverpa armigera (Hübner) is a major pest of several crops, e.g., Tomato, cotton, pigeon pea, and chickpea suffered by this insect in various parts of the worldwide. Trichocards as parasitoids regarding the different release levels of Trichogramma chilonis were used to evaluate the effectiveness against tomato fruit borer, Helicoverpa armigera as well as five insecticides with new chemistries were used to find out the comparative bio efficacy, which were relatively safer to human and environment, i.e., Capital plus (Beta-Cyfluthrin + Triazophos, 41.7% EC) 500 ml/Acre, Commando (Acephate, 97% DF) 62 g, Border (Profenofos + Lambda – Cyhalothrin, 61.5% EC) 500 ml/Acre, Polytrin C (Cypermethrin + Profenofos, 440 EC) 500 ml/Acre, Profit (Emamectin Benzoate, 1.9% EC & 90% Tech.) 500 ml/Acre. We also compared the insecticides with trichocards. There were 3 treatments, T1 Profit (Emamectin Benzoate, 1.9% EC & 90% Tech.) 500 ml/Acre, T2 (16000) of biological control agent (egg Parasitoid) and T3 (control plot). 16000 eggs of the parasitoid Trichogram chilonis, released per hectare were most effective in controlling tomato fruit borer. Out of the five insecticides tested, Border proved to be the best one, followed by Profit and Capital Plus in reducing the percent infestation of tomato by tomato fruit borer. In the third experiment, Profit gave best result followed by the Trichograma. chilonis cards with 16000 eggs per hectare. Among the tested insecticides, treatments sprayed with Border gave maximum yield (6179.0 kg/ha), followed by Profit & Polytrin C. Cost benefit ratio shows that highest net return (46.45 BCR) was obtained with Trichograma chilonis cards released plots followed by Profit. Trichocards are suggested for the controlling of Helicoverpa armigera as best substitute for insecticides. The use of trichocards practice have very effective role to protect the soil moreover, this practice may have significant role to protect the soil and save the natural resources from insecticides pollution.

Sucking pests of cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.), such as thrips, or Thrips tabaci Lindeman, and jassid, or Amrasca biguttula Ishida, are among the most threatening insect pests to young cotton plants in Pakistan. New chemical insecticides have been trialed to control their damage in commercial fields. Formulations that show good suppression of these pest’s populations, while sparing bio-controlling agents, are always preferred for obtaining better crop yield. Six different commercially available insecticides, namely Fountain^® (fipronil and imidacloprid), Movento Energy^® (spirotetramat and imidacloprid), Oshin^® (dinotefuran), Concept Plus^® (pyriproxyfen, fenpyroximate, and acephate), Maximal^® (nitenpyram), and Radiant^® (spinetoram) were evaluated in the present study to shortlist the best available insecticide against targeted pests. Harmful impacts of selected insecticides were also evaluated against naturally occurring predators, such as spiders and green lacewings (Chrysoperla carnea). Radiant^® (spinetoram) and Movento Energy^®, respectively, were best at controlling thrips (with 61% and 56% mortality, respectively) and jassid (62% and 57% mortality, respectively) populations during 2018 and 2019. Radiant^® proved itself as the best option and showed minimal harmful effects on both major arthropod predators of cotton fields i.e., spiders (with 8–9% mortality) and green lacewings (with 12–16% mortality). Movento Energy^® also showed comparatively less harmful effects (with 15–18% mortality) towards natural predatory fauna of cotton crops, as compared to other selective insecticides used in the study. The findings of current study suggest that the judicious use of target-oriented insecticides can be an efficient and predator-friendly management module in cotton fields. However, the impact of these chemicals is also depended on their timely application, keeping in consideration the ETL of pests and the population of beneficial arthropods.

The physiological and biochemical characterization of the “Halloween” genes has fundamental importance in the biosynthesis pathway of ecdysteroids. These genes were found to catalyze the final phases of ecdysteroid biosynthesis from dietary cholesterol to the molting hormone 20-hydroxyecdysone. We report the characterization of the Cs-Phm in a major insect pest in agriculture, the rice striped stem borer, Chilo suppressalis (C. suppressalis). A full-length transcript of Cs-Phm was amplified with an open reading frame (ORF) of 478 amino acids through 5′ and 3′ RACE. Cs-Phm shows five insect-conserved P450 motifs: Helix-C, Helix-I, Helix-K, PERF, and heme-binding motifs. Phylogenetic analysis clearly shows high similarity to Lepidoptera and evolutionary conservation in insects. The relative spatial and temporal transcript profile shows that Cs-Phm is highly expressed in the prothoracic glands and appears throughout the larval development, but with low expression at the start of the larval instar. It seems to peak in 3–4 days and decreases again before the larvae molt. Double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) injection of Cs-Phm at the larval stage efficiently knocked down the target gene and decreased its expression level. The dsRNA-treated group showed significantly decreased ecdysteroid titers, which leads to delayed larval development and higher larval mortality. Negative effects of larval development were rescued by treating 20E in the dsRNA-treated group. Thus, in conclusion, our results suggest that Cs-Phm is functionally conserved in C. suppressalis and encodes functional CYP that contributes to the biogenesis of 20E.

To achieve desired local or systemic effects, controlled drug delivery systems release therapeutic agents at a predetermined rate. For controlled drug delivery, chitosan-based methotrexate (MTX) nanoparticles encapsulated within alginate beads were developed and evaluated. Although methotrexate is widely used in breast cancer chemotherapy, its clinical utility is limited by its severe side effects. In this study, Methotrexate was loaded into chitosan nanoparticles (CS-MTX-NPs) via ionic-gelation technique, using tripolyphosphate (TPP) as cross-linker. The optimized nanoparticle was embedded into alginate beads. A variety of physicochemical properties of the nanoparticles and beads were evaluated, including particle size, shape, surface morphology, zeta potential, entrapment efficiency, drug content, swelling index, in vitro release, pharmacokinetic profile and percentage cell toxicity. According to the ATR-FTIR spectroscopy study, pure methotrexate (MTX), formulation excipients, and polymers were compatible with each other. The prepared nanoparticles have sizes ranging from 265 to 370 nm, zeta potentials of 32 to 44 mV, maximum drug content of 85.05%, and entrapment efficiency of 81.06%. Formulation NP4 having 1% chitosan shows favorable results. 90% of drug was released in vitro after 24 h from CS-MTX-NPs. The prepared CS-MTX-NPs loaded alginate beads have an acceptable bead size of 1.34 mm, drug content of 71.61%, entrapment efficiency of 94.22%, and swelling index of 66–81% at pH 1.2, 264–279% at pH 6.8, and 292–307% at pH 7.4. The effects of pH 1.2, 6.8, and 7.4 on the release profile of the drug from CS-MTX-NPs loaded beads were investigated in vitro. Approximately 90% of MTX was released within 24 h. Formulation BD4 showed controlled release behavior compared to other formulations due to higher % of alginate. As evidenced by the results of the cell viability test against the MCF-7 (ATCC HTB-22TM) human breast cancer cell line, optimized NP4 demonstrated enhanced tumor inhibition capability. Based on comparisons with MTX and CS-MTX-NPs, the chitosan nanoparticle embedded beads displayed a higher C_max and AUC. It was concluded that CS-MTX-NPs loaded alginate beads may be potentially promising oral controlled release carriers for MTX against breast cancer, representing a novel approach by combining chitosan nanoparticles with alginate beads for enhanced efficacy and controlled release. Graphical Abstract

Background: Plant-derived compounds are alternatives of synthetic insecticides in sustainable agriculture. Objective: This study investigated the phytotoxic effect of higher concentrations (2, 4, 8 and 16%) of four plants extracts (Azadirachta indica, Mentha arvensis, D. stramonium and Citrus limonium) on cotton plants. Methods: Each concentration was replicated four times to check the phytotoxic effect (CO2-in, CO2-out, H2O-in, H2O-out and photosynthesis absorption rate (PAR) in randomized complete block design. Data was recorded after 12, 24, 48 and 72 hours of spray with the help of Photosynthetic CL 340 meter. Results: The results showed that CO2-in was more affected by the D. stramonium (131.65±0.38) at 8% concentration. The overall progress showed that C. limonium was more affected the CO2-in of cotton crop. CO2-out was less affected by the C. limonium (117.83±1.46) at 4% concentration than M. arvensis (116.99±1.25) at 8% concentration and D. stramonium (115.77±0.74) at 16% concentration, but was more affected by the A. indica (118.15±0.71) at 4%. H2O-in was more affected by the C. limonium (0.39±0.05) than D. stramonium, A. indica and M. arvensis at 16% concentration. H2O-out of cotton was least affected by the D. stramonium (7.63±0.01) at 2% and more affected by the C. limonium (1.56±0.15) at 16% concentration. PAR was more affected by the A. indica (931.47±8.39) at 4% concentration and least affected by the M. arvensis (1499.7±9.94) at 8% concentration. Conclusions: Different dosages of various botanicals influenced the opening and closing of stomata and photosynthesis of cotton plants.