Oil palm breeders routinely carry out bunch analysis to estimate oil and kernel content in bunches (Rao et al., 1983). Normally, three to five bunches are analysed per palm and breeding trials involve thousands of experimental palms generating voluminous data. At present, bunch analysis data is captured manually in a record sheet and later the data […]

The liquid culture system offers advantages in reproducibility, versatility and efficiency with high potential for scaling-up propagule production. A liquid culture consists of small cell groups and large cell aggregates dispersed in a liquid medium and actively growing under agitation and aeration (Narayanaswamy, 1994). Application of this technology would lead to development of automation for oil palm […]

The importance of basal stem rot (BSR) infected stumps as foci of new infection is of considerable relevance to planting point sanitation. This was shown by results of a trial in which bait seedlings were planted at different levels of BSR points (Khairudin, 1990; Flood et al., 2000). Idris et al. (2004) reported that 87.5% of […]

Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt.) produces protein inclusions (parasporal inclusions) adjacent to the endospore during sporulation. The parasporal inclusions consist of one or more insecticidal proteins in the form of a crystal or crystal complex. These insecticidal proteins are commonly known as insecticidal crystal proteins (ICP) or delta (δ) endotoxin. The primary insecticidal activity of Bt. is due […]

Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt.), which harbours Cry 1 delta-endotoxins is effective for the control of several lepidopteran insect pests. It is lepidopteran specific, environmental friendly, does not affect man, bird, fish and therefore, an ideal alternative for chemical insecticide. New Bt. strains and formulations rapidly introduced in the 1990s had further increased the Bt market. In Europe […]