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Maize (Zea mays L.) is an important cereal, which is affected adversely by nutrients deficiency. With the objective to combat nutrients deficiency in maize through bio-liquid (earthworm wash), experiments were conducted at University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, Pakistan. First experiment was executed for the characterization of bio-liquids from three different plant sources. In the second experiment, the concentrations of extracted bio-liquids were optimized on morpho-physiological characteristics of hybrid maize (P-1543). The experiment was conducted under Completely Randomized Design (CRD) with factorial arrangement replicating four times. The treatments comprised of three sources of bio-liquids i.e. alligator weed (Alternanthera philoxeroides), alfalfa (Medicago sativa) and rice (Oryza sativa) straw in first experiment and four concentrations of bioliquids (Zero, 10%, 15% and 20%) were tested on maize in second experiment. Foliar spray of bio-liquids was applied at 10, 15 and 20 days after the crop emergence. The evaluation was done 45 days after emergence on the basis of various morphological (plant height, number of leaf per plant, fresh weight of shoot, fresh weight of leaf) and physiological attributes (water potential, osmotic potential, chlorophyll fluorescence, cell membrane stability index and relative water contents). The results of first experiment showed that bio-liquid extracted from alligator weed proved to be best source of micro and macro nutrients as compared to alfalfa and rice straw bio-liquids. The results of second experiment indicated that foliar spray of bioliquids from all sources improved plant height (16.55 cm), number of leaves per plant (7.80), leaf area per plant (187.41 cm-2), total fresh weight per plant (5.74 g), water potential (-0.79 MPa), osmotic potential (-0.17MPa), chlorophyll fluorescence (0.84), cell membrane stability (40.27) and relative water content (91.80%) as compared to control. It can be concluded that growth of maize plants was improved when bio-liquids were sprayed on plants. Foliar application of alligator weed bio-liquid @ 15% showed maximum morpho-physiological performance of maize. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This is the first ethno-botanical study about the indigenous plants of district Faisalabad, Punjab-Pakistan. Main theme behind this study documents the existing ethno-medicinal data about local traditional herbal treatments. Overall, 300 local informants were interviewed from 22different locations of the district and collected data was analyzed by using different quantitative ethnobotanical tools. The 61 plants of 53 genera and 29 families be there found in use for 15 disease caused by microorganisms and contagious ones also. With reference to highest Use Value (UV), Ficus carica (0.83), Albizzia lebbeck (0.73) and Psidium guajava (0.71) were found the most used medicinal plant species in area. The 100% Fidelity Level (FL) was calculated for Acacia nilotica being used against gastro, respiratory, diabetics and hypertension. The highest Relative Frequency Citation (RFC) value was calculated for Citrus aurantifolia. The maximum Informant Consensus Factor (ICF) index was calculated for gastro and respiratory problems, fever, headache, and skin infection. The comparative study by calculating Jaccard Index (JI) with reported literature was shown that 8.18%resemblance and 12.81% distinction to earlier studies; however 79.01% medicinal uses of the reported species were documented the first time. The plants reported with high RPL index can be further analyzed for biochemical pharmaceutical and biotechnological screening. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]