• Advances in Traditional Medicine
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.101-105
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• 2009

Morinda tinctoria Roxb. (Family: Rubiaceae) is commonly known as Indian mulberry or Aal in India. This plant is very well known for its therapeutic benefit in Indian systems of medicine including Ayurveda and Siddha and in other forms of traditional Medicine worldwide for the treatment of several ailments. Almost all parts of this plant have been explored for its medicinal uses. Several reports on the phytochemical and therapeutic benefits of this plant have been reported. In this article an attempt has been made to review the traditional uses, phytochemical profiles and therapeutic potentials of Indian mulberry.

• BMB Reports
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• v.41 no.3
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• pp.236-241
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• 2008

The antioxidant potential of silk protein sericin from the non-mulberry tropical tasar silkworm Antheraea mylitta cocoon has been assessed and compared with that of the mulberry silkworm, Bombyx mori. Skin fibroblast cell line (AH927) challenged with hydrogen peroxide served as the positive control for the experiment. Our results showed that the sericin obtained from tasar cocoons offers protection against oxidative stress and cell viability is restored to that of control on pre-incubation with the sericin. Fibroblasts pre-incubated with non-mulberry sericin had significantly lower levels of catalase; lactate dehydrogenase and malondialdehyde activity when compared to untreated ones. This report indicates that the silk protein sericin from the non-mulberry tropical tasar silkworm, A. mylitta can serve as a valuable antioxidant.

• International Journal of Industrial Entomology and Biomaterials
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.107-115
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• 2003

The present paper deals with the mulberry cultivation technology with package of practices for successful sericulture in Indian sub-tropics. The information on leaf nutritional quality in trained and untrained trees is provided. Besides, the current status of sericultural practices is discussed based on the problems faced by the industry and intensive field surveys undertaken in different areas of one of the most potential sericultural provinces.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.598-607
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• 2008

Bast fibers were applied for various usages from fabrics to household care products long time ago. In this study, we investigated the physical characteristrus of water retted & chemically rotted fibers of Yucca, New Zealand hemp, Corn, Kuzu vine, Indian mallow, and Mulberry paper that have been harvested by domestic cultivation. Water retting is more effective than chemical rotting for six kinds of plant fibers. When all fibers were rotted chemically with 1% sodium hydroxide, only Kuzu vine and Indian mallow were retted. Indian mallow, Yucca, New Zealand hemp, and Com fibers have higher tensile strength than any other fibers. The crystallinity of Kuzu vine, Indian mallow, Yucca, New Zealand hemp, and Corn was as low as 60% but Yucca, New Zealand hemp were flexible. Yucca had fewer lumina whereas New Zealand hemp more lumina in cross sectional shape. Especially com fibers have a structure like sponge, and Indian mallow had a net shape. The longitudinal section of New Zealand hemp showed smooth and long shape. Mulberry paper was proved to be short and thin, which is quite appropriate for making paper. In this study, we found that plant fibers for living material could be used for cloth materials.

• International Journal of Industrial Entomology and Biomaterials
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• v.1 no.2
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• pp.79-86
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• 2000

Strengthening of R & D components of sericulture in India since the sixties has led to a quantum jump in silk production and presently India is the second largest producer in the world. This achievement is primarily due to a number of breakthroughs in R & D to match the requirements of tropics, by way of introduction of improved mulberry varieties and silkworm breeds, better mulberry cultivation and rearing management practices suited to tropical conditions. Of late, new approaches in molecular biology and biotechnology have also been vigorously pursued to strengthen the current conventional strategies. The present paper attempts to provide an overview of the present status of silk production in both mulberry and non-mulberry sectors, breakthroughs achieved through new approaches of biotechnology and the future prospects for maximizing silk productivity in India.

• International Journal of Industrial Entomology and Biomaterials
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.69-73
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• 2003

Specific leaf weight (SLW), defined as the mass of tissue per unit leaf area has been found to be an important physiological parameter as it indicates the relative thickness of leaves. Greater SLW provides more photosynthetic potential per unit area of leaf and hence it is frequently been considered as correlated with photosynthesis in several plant species. Collections of 165 mulberry (Morus sp.) germplasm accessions, both Indian and exotic in origin were evaluated for their variability with respect to SLW. The mean specific leaf weight ranged from 35.3 to $72.3 g/m^{-2}$. The distribution of SLW was found to be normal. High heritability (97.08%) and a small difference between genotypic and phenotypic variance demonstrates the genetic control over SLW. Significant heterotic effect with respect to SLW was observed in crosses when parents with high and low SLW were chosen.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.32 no.9
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• pp.1366-1375
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• 2008

This studies were carried out in order to develope environmentally-friendly fiber materials and substitute resources of Paper mulberry. Various plant fibers such as New Zealand flax, Indian mallow, Kuzu vine and Yucca were used as raw materials of hand-made papers. We rotted these 4 kinds of plant fibers and removed non-cellulose. After rotting, the pulping rate(%) and the length of fibers in pulps were measured. The physical characteristics of papers made of various plants fiber were investigated and the probabilities of practical use were considered. The results were as follow: The non-cellulose contents of plant fibers were $30{\sim}40%$ and those contents must be lower down to 8% to be able to manufacture the hand made papers. The lignin in pulps were removed almost and the hemicellulose were partially removed to reach up to appropriate level of the pulp rates and fiber lengths. The more hemicellulose removed, the finer fiber thickness were and rapidly the lower Hanji tensile strength were. But the tear strength of these plants of hand-made papers do not decreased so much as tensile strength. So the property of 4 types of plant fibers might be of great advantages to make hand-made papers. Both tensile and tear strengths of Hanji of New Zealand flax, Indian mallow, Kuzu vine and Yucca were higher than Paper mulberry hand-made paper. When 30% of mulberry paper were mixed, the mixing effect showed maximum. Because of the functions of all plant fiber hand-made papers showed better than those of Paper mulberry hand-made paper, 4 types of plant fibers could be substitute Paper mulberry.

• International Journal of Industrial Entomology and Biomaterials
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.131-141
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• 2013

At the interface of reducing agricultural income and increasing unemployment in agrarian economy of rural India, this article summarizes and evaluates the state of mulberry sericulture in northwest India, which includes Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand, and Uttar Pradesh. In $11^{th}$ plan period (2007-2012), there was an addition of 6 196 ha (217.09 %) of mulberry acreage at annual linier growth rate of 33.44%. However, total silk production could increase only by 54.64 MT (78.57%) at annual linier growth rate of 15.59 %, due to 43.93% (10.82 kg/ha) reduction in silk productivity at negative growth rate of -13.46%, annually. And now, average raw silk productivity in north-western states of India remains at 13.81 kg/ha, which is lower by 452.93 % (76.36 kg) in comparison to the national average of 100.90 kg/ha. Paper summaries the reasons for increasing cocoon yield gap at farmer's level and discuss the ways and means to increase raw silk productivity to improve the livelihood delivery of mulberry sericulture in northwest India.

• International Journal of Industrial Entomology and Biomaterials
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.207-215
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• 2004

The present study was carried out to evaluate the ISSR and RAPD markers for their efficiency as genetic marker systems to establish the relationships between 18 mulberry genotypes. A total of 36 from 56 (64%) RAPD primers and 12 from 48 (25%) ISSR primers produced reproducible amplification patterns. A high proportion of polymorphic bands ranging from 44 to 91% was observed respectively with RAPD and ISSR markers. The average Resolving Power (Rp) of ISSR primers was higher than RAPD primers. The ISSR primers, UBC 825, 868 and 873, and RAPD primers, UBC 712, 720 and 729, possessed the highest Rp values and could in each instance distinguish all the 18 genotypes. Similarity matrix values were estimated based on Jaccards coefficient, considering 109 polymorphic ISSR and 212 polymorphic RAPD bands and two dendrograms were constructed. The dendrograms obtained with ISSR and RAPD markers distinguished the eight exotic genotypes from the ten indigenous (Indian) genotypes. A significant correlation value (r=0.959; p=0.001) for the cophenetic matrix between the RAPD and ISSR matrices was observed. The results indicated that the ISSR and RAPD markers could assist in the differentiation of genotypes and permit the determination of genetic distances that might be exploited by mulberry breeders in improvement programs.

• International Journal of Industrial Entomology and Biomaterials
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.6-16
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• 2015

This study established the genetic characterisation of 10 microsporidian isolates infecting non-mulberry silkworms (Antheraea assamensis and Samia cynthia ricini) collected from biogeographical forest locations in the State of Assam, India, using PCR-based markers assays: inter simple sequence repeat (ISSR) and random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD). A Nosema type species (NIK-1s_mys) was used as control for comparison. The shape of mature microsporidian spores were observed oval to elongated, measuring 3.80 to $4.90{\mu}m$ in length and 2.60 to $3.05{\mu}m$ in width. Fourteen ISSR primers generated reproducible profiles and yielded 178 fragments, of which 175 were polymorphic (98%), while 16 RAPD primers generated reproducible profiles with 198 amplified fragments displaying 95% of polymorphism. Estimation of genetic distance coefficients based on dice coefficients method and clustering with un-weighted pair group method using arithmetic average (UPGMA) analysis was done to unravel the genetic diversity of microsporidians infecting Indian muga and eri silkworm. The similarity coefficients varied from 0.385 to 0.941 in ISSR and 0.083 to 0.938 in RAPD data. UPGMA analysis generated dendrograms with two microsporidian groups, which appear to be different from each other. Based on Euclidean distance matrix method, 2-dimensional distribution also revealed considerable variability among different identified microsporidians. Clustering of these microsporidian isolates was in accordance with their host and biogeographic origin. Both techniques represent a useful and efficient tool for taxonomical grouping as well as for phylogenetic classification of different microsporidians in general and genotyping of these pathogens in particular.