Despite the risk of buying dangerous unregistered or counterfeit health supplement products online, the purchases still persist. This study aimed to identify the current preferred purchasing method and factors that influenced the preference. A cross-sectional study using simple random sampling was conducted among supplement purchasers within government servants in Putrajaya, Malaysia. Data were collected using an online self-reported questionnaire from 1st February to 1st August 2020. The traditional method became the preferred way of purchasing supplements (Traditional=68% vs Online=32%). However, younger and middle group (OR = 2.13, 95% CI = 1.41–3.21 and OR = 2.16, 95% CI = 1.22–3.82, respectively), females (OR = 1.38, 95% CI = 1.05–1.80) and, non-Malays (Indian and others, OR = 0.33, 95% CI = 0.11–0.95 and OR = 0.38, 95% CI = 0.17–0.88, respectively) significantly preferred online purchases. Product quality was the most important factor for both purchasing methods (P<0.001). Meanwhile, the main motivating factor for choosing the traditional method was ‘ease of getting the product to advise and relevant information (n=595, 72.4%), in online, it was ‘being able to read the product reviews through the internet (IT)’ (n=205, 52.8%). The majority of respondents checked for many similar supplement products before purchase (50.9% Traditional and 38.4% Online). Surprisingly, no significant differences were found in knowledge for identifying registered products between both methods (p=0.330). The traditional method was still preferred and indicates that the health awareness of the respondents is encouraging. However, this result cannot be generalized to the population. Hence, efforts to enhance public knowledge, awareness, and promoting the safety and efficacious issues on registered supplement products must be continued.

Aims: Trichoderma is a soil borne mycoparasitic fungus which comprises a number of fungal strains that act as biocontrol agent. In this present study have investigated the diversity of Trichoderma in different cultivated soils in state of Kelantan. The effectiveness of biocontrol agent of isolated Trichoderm species was evaluated against the phytopathogen of Pyricularia oryzae, Fusarium oxysporum, and Ganoderma boninense. Methodology and results: The identification experiment was carried out on the basis of morphological characteristics as colony appearance, shapes and size of conidia, the branching patterns of conidiophores and phialides. Then, the effectiveness of biocontrol agent of Trichoderma species against the pathogens was tested in plate assay experiment. A total of 11 isolates were obtained from three different cultivated soils from Jeli (J), Machang (M) and Pasirmas (P). Morphological studies data identified as two groups of Trichoderma species as Trichoderma harzianum, and T. koningii. All the isolates showed the antagonistic activity against the pathogens while T. harzianum strain THMPA1 showed highest antagonistic activity of 80.00% against P. oryzae and in T. koningii strain TKMPA3 group showed highest antagonistic activity of 69% against P. oryzae. Conclusion, significance and impact of study: Among the 11 isolates of Trichoderma, the species of T. harzianum strain THMPA1 was the best as biocontrol agent against P. oryzae. Thus, diversity of Trichoderma species study is important to find promising species isolation of Trichoderma species which will be influenced in future to sustainable crop production and maintain green environment.