The present study was carried out to evaluate the effects of okra extract supplementation on kidney function, glycaemic control, inflammation and gene expression in patients with diabetic nephropathy (DN). A total of sixty-four DN patients based on the inclusion and exclusion criteria were recruited in this triple-blind placebo-controlled randomised clinical trial. Participants were randomly allocated to receive a 125-mg capsule of dried okra extract (DOE) (n 32) or placebo (n 32) for 10 weeks. At the baseline and endpoint of the trial, kidney function, glycaemic indices, inflammation and gene expression were evaluated. Statistical analysis showed that fasting blood glucose, HbA1c and insulin resistance significantly reduced in the DOE group although between-group analysis did not show any significant difference. Also, no significant difference was observed in urine protein, urine creatinine and high-sensitivity C-reactive protein between the two groups. Furthermore, gene expression of PPAR-α, PPAR-γ, transforming growth factor-beta and Nrf-2 did not affect the end of the trial in comparison with the baseline. According to the present study, DOE did not have impressive effects on kidney function, inflammation, glycaemic management and gene expression in patients with DN.

Okra (Abelmoschus esculentus L. Moench) is considered as a treasure house of nutrients and it is one of the major vegetables widely spread all over tropical, subtropical and warm temperate regions of the world. Yellow vein mosaic virus (YVMV) and enation leaf curl virus are the most destructive diseases of okra as they affect both crop growth and yield. Due to the frequent breakdown of resistance and lack of a stable source of resistance in the cultivated species, interspecific hybridization is considered as a reliable approach for durable resistance. Cultivated species from The United States Department of Agriculture and wild accessions from The National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources were screened at YVMV hotspot (Guntur, Andhra Pradesh) to identify the potential donors for disease resistance. Accessions IC141032 and IC141012 were found to be free from both viruses and categorized as resistant lines. Interspecific hybridization between A. tetraphyllus and A. esculentus revealed a high crossability index of around 80% when A. esculentus was utilized as a female parent. The bottleneck of hybrid sterility was partially overcome by the colchicine treatment of interspecific F1 hybrids. Good seed set was observed when raw colchiploids were backcrossed to the recurrent parent.

Whitefly (Bemisia tabaci Gennadius), leafhopper (Amrasca biguttula biguttula Ishida) and large yellow-banded blister beetle (Mylabris phalerata) cause considerable damage to okra, especially under organic farming. Thus, the present study was carried out to test the bioefficacy and environmental safety of six naturally derived components [indigenous water plant extracts, i.e. chilli (Capsicum annum), garlic (Allium sativum L.) and neem (Azadirachta indica A. Juss.) along with cow urine in three different combinations, one commercial botanical (azadirachtin 0.15%), and two formulated entomopathogenic fungi (Verticillium lecanii and Beauveria bassiana)] on aforesaid pests for two consecutive years at field scale. In addition to this, the eco-toxicological effect of naturally derived components was also studied on natural enemies’ populations, viz. spiders and coccinellids. Quaternary mixture application of chilli, garlic, neem leaf and cow urine (CGNC) at 10% w/v was found effective in reducing leafhoppers (94.6%), whiteflies (95.2%) and blister beetle (94.6%) over control. Okra treated with CGNC produced a higher marketable fruit yield (18.44 mg/ha) than those of other treatments. It was also observed that the application of CGNC had no phytotoxic symptoms on okra plants. Application of CGNC was found safer to the natural enemy's population (spiders and coccinellids). Thus, the study suggests that CGNC can be considered as a potential source for managing the population of whitefly, leafhopper and blister beetle without affecting the ecology of natural enemies and it could be a viable eco-friendly option in organic okra production for ensuring food safety and healthy environment.

Breeding for resistance to biotic stress and higher yield is a continuous process. Thus, the identification of desirable parents with good combining ability and nature of gene action for the target trait is of utmost importance. Hence, in this present investigation, 10 lines and three testers of Okra were crossed in line × tester mating design to generate 30 testcross progenies and their evaluation along with parents and check in a randomized complete block design with three replications. To depict the true picture of genetic variation among the parental genotypes, molecular diversity analysis was also carried out using genomic-simple sequence repeats before crossing to ascertain that sufficient variability is present among the parents. The molecular analysis grouped the parental genotypes into four clusters (I–IV). The analysis of variance revealed that all the treatments were significant for most of the traits. The combining ability analysis suggested Pusa A-4 as the best general combiner for earliness, Pusa Bhindi-5 for high yield, and DOV-92 for fruit length, plant height, yield per plant, and coefficient of infection for Yellow Vein Mosaic Virus Disease resistance. Similarly, the specific combining ability analysis suggested that the cross combinations DOV-92 × Pusa Bhindi-5 followed by DOV-92 × Pusa A-4 and DOV-92 × Pusa Sawani exhibit high economic heterosis for yield per plant as well as for disease resistance. Finally, estimation of the degree of dominance and predictability ratio was also worked out which indicated the prevalence of non-additive gene action for most of the traits pointing towards sufficient scope for heterosis breeding in Okra.

Field experiments were carried out during two growing seasons at Adnan Menderes University, Faculty of Agriculture, in Aydın-Turkey to evaluate the weed control efficacy of olive processing waste (OPW) in okra, faba bean, and onion. OPW was incorporated into the soil prior to seeding at 10, 20, 30, and 40 tons (t)/ha. Non-treated plots and plots treated with trifluralin in okra and pendimethalin in faba bean and onion were used for comparison. OPW suppressed common purslane, redroot pigweed, and junglerice in okra; littleseed canarygrass, annual bluegrass, wild chamomile, and shepherd's-purse in faba bean and onion. OPW was in most cases equally as effective as soil herbicides; however, 10 t/ha provided sometimes lower efficacy than herbicides. OPW had no negative effects on okra and faba bean, while onion was negatively affected by doses over 30 t/ha. Overall, OPW can be applied at 10 to 20 t/ha doses for weed control with adequate crop safety.

Okra, Abelmoschus esculentus (L.) Moench, is an important vegetable crop grown throughout the tropical and temperate regions of the world. Spotted bollworm, Earias vittella (Fab.), is one of the most important insect pests of okra. The effects of insecticides (cypermethrin, imidacloprid, carbaryl and neem oil) were studied on the fitness of the F1 generation of E. vittella by a demographic method. Life table was constructed from the eggs obtained by the surviving individuals that had ingested insecticides. Survivorship and expectancy was highest with the commencement of age and gradually decreased with the progression of age in the treatment groups and control. However, it was reduced in the treatment groups in comparison to control groups. Highest numbers of unhatched eggs (17%) were recorded with imidacloprid and cypermethrin treatments, whereas all the eggs hatched in control groups. Larval mortality was high in the initial instars as compared to late instars. Potential fecundity was significantly reduced to 94 females/female/generation treated with cypermethrin as compared to 256 in the untreated females. Developmental time of pre-pupa and pupa was significantly decreased with cypermethrin treatment. The intrinsic rate of increase was reduced to 0.0201 females/female/day in cypermethrin groups as compared to 0.046 in the control groups. The generation time was 33.27 days in the control, which was reduced to 26.78 days with carbaryl treatment and was increased to 37.5 days with neem oil. Insecticides cause adverse effect on the surviving generation of E. vittella, and may be incorporated as a valuable component in the integrated management of E. vittella on okra.

Inhibition of okra growth in response to flea beetle injury was studied in both the screen house and field. In the screen house or field, 0, 5, 10, 20, 30 and 40 pairs of Podagrica uniforma (Jacoby), representing six treatments, were introduced into different cages containing five 3-week-old okra plants, replicated three times. Data were collected on the number of flowers and branches, plant height, stem girth and functional leaf area in both experiments. With increasing densities of P. uniforma, days to 50% flowering and fruit initiation were prolonged by 1–13 days and 2–15 days, respectively. The beetle did not exhibit florivory but caused distortion of okra fruits, i.e. bending of fruit tips at the point of flea beetle-induced damage. From the 20-pair level (eight beetles per plant), there were significant reductions in plant height (up to 50%) and stem girth (up to 43%) in both the screen house and field. The number of distorted fruits showing bent tips was significantly higher relative to the control from the 5-pair level, and was more than 90% at the 40-pair level. Regression analysis indicated that plant height was a linear function of flea beetle population. Third-degree polynomial models best described the relationship between insect density and the number of bent fruits. χ2 analysis showed that these models derived from the screen house data were not significantly different from the field data models.

Information about the costs and labor requirements of experimental organic farming systems designed to restore highly degraded soils in the southeastern US are needed. Enterprise budgets were prepared for the production of okra, hot pepper and a corn/winter squash intercrop under 10 different production systems, nine of which were based on organic conservation tillage. A stochastic dominance analysis was conducted to determine the relative risk efficiency of the 10 systems over the course of the experiment in terms of productivity, profitability and carbon sequestration potential. Organic conservation tillage treatments had lower tractor labor and fuel costs than conventional treatments, due to the extensive tillage required in conventional vegetable farming. The subset of organic treatments receiving compost addition without additional mulches also demonstrated increases in soil carbon, an important driver of system productivity. Organic treatments had little pest and pathogen pressure, with the exception of Fusarium wilt in some treatments receiving straw mulch. Weed suppression by straw mulches reduced labor requirements by an average of 23%. Yields in all treatments were lower than conventional yields from other studies in the region, due to the degraded nature of the soil on the study site. However, net returns on high-labor, organic crops were over US$30,000 ha−1 in some treatments. The results of this work indicate that organic, conservation tillage systems can restore soil productivity and command high returns per hectare if labor requirements can be met.

A pot experiment to determine the effects of summer cover crops and soil amendments on okra yields and population densities of various soil nematode taxa was conducted in two consecutive growing seasons in a subtropical region. Two cover crops, sunn hemp (Crotalaria juncea) and sorghum sudangrass (Sorghum bicolor×S. bicolor var. sudanense), were grown and returned to the soil with fallow as a control. As soon as these cover crops were harvested, they were soil-incorporated together with one of several organic amendments. These organic amendments were biosolids, N-Viro soil (a 1:1 mixture of coal ash and biosolids), coal ash, co-compost (a 3:7 mixture of biosolids and yard wastes), and yard waste compost compared with a control (no additional amendment). Other treatments were fumigation with MC-33 (a mixture of 33% of methyl bromide and 67% of chloropicrin) and cover crop removal (harvested and removed cover crops and their residues from the soil). A nematode-susceptible vegetable crop, okra (Abelmoschus esculentus L.), was grown under these treatments. Among organic amendments, the application of biosolids produced the highest okra yield and biomass, and greatly suppressed root-knot nematodes, Meloidogyne incognita, in the soil. Between these two cover crops, sunn hemp was superior to sorghum sudangrass in improving okra production and in suppressing root-knot nematodes. The result indicates that growing sunn hemp as a cover crop and applying certain organic amendments can improve okra production and suppress root-knot nematodes, which are very damaging to okra plants. Such combined practices show a significant potential for application in organic farming and sustainable agriculture systems in a tropical or subtropical region.

Life table studies of Earias vittella (Fabricius) on different hosts in the Insect Biotech Laboratory, Department of Entomology, Dr PDKV Akola, revealed that survival (lx) of immature stages of E. vittella on different hosts was 0.65 on okra, 0.56 on cotton, 0.54 on semi-synthetic diet and 0.51 on mesta. The net reproductive rate (Ro), at the end of each generation, of E. vittella was 81.91 on okra, 56.70 on cotton, 53.02 on semi-synthetic diet and 36.63 on mesta (Hibiscus cannabinus L.). The net reproductive rate (Ro) followed the same order as the survival rate (lx) on the different hosts. The innate capacity for increase in numbers (rm) ranged between 0.0888 and 0.1334 females/female/day. In descending order, the rm values on different hosts were okra (0.1334), cotton (0.1111), semi-synthetic diet (0.1029) and mesta (0.0888).

An artificial diet for rearing the spotted bollworm, Earias vittella (Fabricius) was developed under laboratory conditions (temperature 27 ± 1°C, RH 60 ± 5% and 16:8 h scoto /photophase regime). The diet ingredients consisted of wheatgerm (5 g), seeds of cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L. var. Pusa 8–6) (50 g) and chickpea (Cicer arietinitm L. var. Kabuli)(35 g) as base materials along with agar-agar (15 g), dried yeast powder (8.0 g), methyl-p-hydroxybenzoate (1.0 g), l-ascorbic acid (1.2 g), sorbic acid (1.0 g), cholesterol (0.2 g), streptomycin sulphate (0.2 g), and multivitamin multimineral and vitamin E capsules (one each). After rearing neonates on okra for 3–4 days, the diet supported the growth and development of E. vittella successfully for eight generations. Larval development on this diet was completed in 11.9 ± 0.66 days against 11.64 days on the pest's preferred natural host, okra (Abelmoschus esculentus) Moench. The growth and developmental indices on the artificial diet for the eight generations are reported.

One hundred and five okra cultivars were evaluated in the field for resistance to the leafhopper Amrasca biguttula biguttula (Ishida) during the 1989–1990 season. On the basis of nymphal abundance and leafhopper injury index two resistant (Siswal Local and IC 7194) and nine moderately resistant [IC 6653, IC 8899, IC 13617, Sel. 1, HB 94, IC 6316,6 Dhari, Sel. 2–2 and Line 6(1)] genotypes were identified. Both of the resistant, two moderately resistant (Line 6(1) and IC 13617) and two highly susceptible (Pusa Sawani and Pusa Reshmi) genotypes were retested in 1990–1991. Resistant genotypes had significanlty (P < 0.05) fewer nymphs (18.5 to 22.0 nymphs/leaf) and lower values of injury index (2.2) compared with the other varieties. Nymphal duration was also longer (9.3 to 9.8 days) and nymphal survival lower (41.7 to 47.5%) in resistant cultivars. Higher trichome density, longer trichome length and higher concentration of sugars, silica, potassium, tannins and phenols in the leaves of resistant cultivars were associated with resistance to leafhopper.

The influence of host presence, age and mating on calling behaviour of the female spotted bollworm, Earias vittella, was studied under a 14L:10D photoperiod. Onset of calling was earlier in the presence of a host and 93% of the females initiated calling in its presence on day one after emergence, compared to 67% in its absence. A majority of the females initiated calling during the 10th hour of the first scotophase and thereafter the initiation shifted to earlier hours as age advanced. Females generally called longer in the presence of a host. The mean time spent in calling, from the 1st to the 10th day increased from 56 to 152 min in the absence of a host, and from 77 to 234 min in its presence. Most of the females resumed calling after mating, but the mated females exhibited a significant reduction in calling performance when compared with the virgin females.

Studies on critical time of insecticidal protection in relation to damage by aphid, Aphis gossipii Glover and leafhopper, Amrasca biguttula biguttula Ishida on plant growth and yield of okra revealed that 21–42 days after germination, was the most critical time prior to fruiting. Application of carbofuran at the time of sowing was redundant. Effective plant protection 21–42 days after germination resulted in lowest leafhopper and aphid infestation and subsequently the highest benefit to cost ratio.

Studies on seasonal patterns of okra leafhopper, Amrasca biguttula biguttula Ishida were conducted for two years. Time series analyses were adopted for working out weekly seasonal index of okra leafhopper. Low incidence of leafhopper was recorded from June to mid-January. Results further revealed that incidence of leafhopper was highly correlated with minimum temperature. There was no discernible time lag for population increase of leafhoppers. Prediction of leafhoppers at different crop growth stages for various months of sowing was done using dummy variable technique.