Anthracnose caused by the fungal pathogen Colletotrichum gloeosporioides causes serious post harvest losses of avocado fruit worldwide. Typically, infections are initiated in the field on unripe fruit, but remain quiescent as germinated appressoria until fruit ripening. Over the past two decades pepper spot, a pre-harvest disease also caused by C. gloeosporioides, has been reported on 'Hass' av...

Mitochondria from avocado (Persea americana Mill, var. Fuerte and Hass) can be rapidly prepared at every stage of ripening using differential centrifugation and self-generated Percoll gradients. The procedure results in improved oxidative and phosphorylative properties, especially for mitochondria isolated from preclimacteric fruits.A gradual change in the buoyant density of avocado mitochondri...

objective: the aim of this study was to evaluate the clinical efficacy of an herbal medicine, piascledine, on the treatment of chronic periodontitis. materials and methods: twenty-four patients with chronic periodontitis participated in this interventional case control investigation. after initial screening the subjects were divided into case and control groups. clinical measurements including ...

Avocado (Persea americana Mill.) fruit is a valuable product and notorious for the difficulties encountered in determining quality. Typically the degree of ripeness of many climacteric fruits, such as avocado, is measured by assessing flesh firmness. The aim of the presented work was to elucidate the temporal and spatial changes in texture, biochemistry and micro-structure in different avocado ...

The efficacy of augmentative releases of a predatory thrips, Franklinothrips orizabensis, was assessed for control of avocado thrips, Scirtothrips perseae. F. orizabensis were released weekly at a rate of 50 pupae per tree into replicated experimental blocks in two different Hass avocado orchards in southern California, USA. Thrips-days calculated from weekly population counts and yellow sticky...

The use of vegetal extracts requires toxicological and genotoxic evaluations to establish and verify safety before being added to human cosmetic, pharmaceutical medicine, or alimentary products. Persea americana seeds have been used in traditional medicine as treatment for several diseases. In this work, the ethanolic seed extract of Persea americana was evaluated with respect to its genotoxic ...

The use of the percent dry matter as a maturity indicator for avocado is widely accepted. During a California Avocado Commission funded study to identify a minimum maturity standard for the Lamb Hass variety, we developed a new process for removing samples from the fruit for dry matter determination. After two years of testing and evaluation we have perfected a technique and designed an efficie...

The development of avocado fruit (Fuerte in particular) was observed over a number of years as part of a research project investigating the role played by endogenous plant growth regulators in the development of the fruit. Rates of growth of the various fruit tissues were measured and changes in auxin, gibberellin, cytokinin and inhibitor levels were established. Some results of this study have...

Many avocado growers are debating the question of whether or not to apply calcium to their groves. Some advocates say calcium is a necessary soil additive, creating almost magical improvements in soil chemical balance and tree growth. Others maintain that, since calcium is common in California soils, it serves only to improve soil structure in sodic soils or soils with permeability problems due...

The existence of multiple forms of avocado (Persea americana Mill. cv Hass) cellulase in crude protein extracts of ripe avocado fruit is reported. Cellulase was separated into at least 11 multiple forms by native isoelectric focusing in the pH range between 4 and 7 and visualized by both activity staining using Congo red and immunostaining. The enzyme components were acidic proteins with isoele...