Artemisia monosperma were collected from three independent locations in Riyadh during the periods between June 2009 –Feb. 2010 . The goal of this study is to compare the physiological and biochemical strategies during temperature seasonal variation in Artemisia monosperma that is divergent in photosynthetic pigments and antioxidant system. Photosynthetic pigments, including chl a, b and carotenoid were significantly varied according to temperature divergence in different seasons.

Antifungal potential of water, acetone and methanol extracts of leaves and pits of Phoenix dactylifera L. var. Barhee and Rothana were evaluated against seven pathogenic fungi. For assessing the antifungal activity, agar well diffusion and agar dilution methods were employed. Barring the water extracts, acetone and methanol extracts showed varying degree of growth inhibition of Fusarium oxysporum, Fusarium sp., Fusarium solani, Aspergillus flavus, Alternaria alternata, Alternaria sp. and Trichoderma sp.

Actinomycetes were isolated from various desert soil samples of Saudi Arabia using alkaline and normal pH media. A total of 42 akaliphilic actinomycetes isolated from yeast extract-soluble starch (YS agar media (pH 11.0 ± 1) and 102 actinomycetes were isolated from tap water agar media (pH 7.0 ± 1) for comparison. Aerial mycelium colours of actinomycetes were observed for the detection of strain varieties in the different soil samples from different areas.

Phoenix dactylifera L. (date palm) is well known for its innumerable health benefits and nutritional values. However, utilization of leaves as a source of element supplement has not been yet explored. Thus, the present study was aimed to employ inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectroscopy (ICP-OES) for the determination of macro and micro nutrients present in the leaves of three varieties (Rothana, Barhee and Sukri) of P. dactylifera.