eChapters

Introduction

During the last few decades, interest in Ethnobotany has evolved substantially world wide, particularly in India, Africa, Mexico, South America, and South-East Asia. Ethnobiological information on what and how local people make use of plants and animals have been traditionally gathered and passed on from generation to generation. India represents one of the greatest emporia of ethnobotanical wealth. Like other parts of India, in hot arid region also, rural and tribal communities have precious information about utilization of indigenous plants. Besides identification of plants as food, fodder, medicine etc., there also exists similar experience on life support species for exigencies like drought and famines, which is less utilized so far. Several researchers made contribution on etnobotanical aspects of Thar Desert. During 19^th century, King (1869 and 1870) listed wild plants used as food and vegetables during famine by people of Marwar region of Thar Desert. Afterwards, ethnobotanical aspects of edible plants of this region was attempted by several workers

Introduction

Several tropical indigenous fruits have still remained underexploited due to the lack of awareness of their potential, market demand and low and erratic bearing in many cases. Though wild and domesticated diversity is composed of nearly 3000 tropical fruit species, only a few are cultivated on large scale (Vietmeyer, 1990;Pareek et al., 1998). These species (approximately 600 tropical and subtropical) are better known in their areas of diversity and have not yet been utilized to their full potential inspite of their high economic value. There exists a very rich diversity of fruits across the tropical and sub-tropical regions of the world, with more than 500 species of fruits estimated to be found in Southeast Asia alone. The South and Southeast Asia represents above 300 species of native minor fruits (Arora, 1995). These species are being used by local people as minor fruits as well as for medicinal purposes as described in the Indian system of medicine. If properly harnessed, this diversity has great potential as a source of food besides meeting multipurpose needs of the local communities (Pareek et al., 1998).

Introduction

Fiber is that part of plant food which is not digested when eaten. Since it is not absorbed into the body, dietary fiber is not a nutrient. Nevertheless, fiber is a very important component of a healthy diet. Fiber, also called “roughage” helps prevent constipation, hemorrhoids and diverticular disease. Some types of fiber have a cholesterol-lowering effect, which could lead to reduced risk of heart disease.

Dietary fiber has been defined as plant cell wall material resistant to the intestinal secretions of the host. This definition gives the appearance of precision and allows gravimetric and chemical measurements. However, a proportion of other non-fibre dietary constituents (e.g, retrograded starch, protein, and fat) pass along the gut, without absorption or metabolism, to the caecum. Chemical analysis or quantitative measurements of the fibre content of specific diets do not allow prediction of their biological action. The physiological effects of dietary fibre depend predominantly on physical properties unrelated in any simple or direct way to chemical composition. Quantitative measurement of dietary fibre does not allow for diverse effects on nutrient absorption, sterol metabolism, fermentation in the colon, and stool weight. We still do not know whether to restrict the definition of “dietary fibre” to non-starch polysaccharides or to include related materials such as resistant starch, lignin, and the complex assemblies typical of plant tissues, where polysaccharides occur in close association with other molecules. An alternative to defining fibre in terms of chemical composition would be to develop measurements of physical properties relevant to physiological action in the intestine. This approach could be extended to other polymeric constituents, in particular proteins (ingested and secreted) and mucous glycoproteins.

Polysaccharides are the main constituents of dietary fibre and show a wide spectrum of physical, properties that reflect the nature and extent of intermolecular association. Dietary fibre can be likened to a water-laden hydrated mass passing along the gut. Physical properties that influence function are a combination of the rheological and colligative properties of the water-soluble fibre components, the surface characteristics of the water-insoluble components, and the network properties of the swollen hydrated components. Such features include viscosity, water holding, cation exchange, organic acid adsorption, gel filtration, and particle size distribution.

Introduction

Khejri (Prosopis cineraria) grows in dry and arid regions of Arabia and in regions of India mainly Rajasthan, Haryana, Punjab, Gujarat, Western Uttar Pradesh and drier parts of Deccan. The tree is locally known as Jandi or Khejri (India), Jand (Pakistan) and Ghaf (Arabic). It is the State tree of Rajasthan, India. Prosopis cineraria are small to medium size evergreen thorny tree. It is also known as “wonder tree” and “king of desert” as all the parts of tree are useful. The importance of the medicinal value of this tree has been highlighted in our ancient literature. The bark of the tree has abortifacient and laxative properties and is also used as a remedy for rheumatism in the central provinces. The leaves are of high nutritive value and locally called ‘’Loong’’. Leaf paste of P. cineraria is applied on boils and blisters, including mouth ulcers in livestock. The smoke of the leaves is considered good for eye troubles. Leaf extracts of P. cineraria have been reported to show antibacterial, antihyperglycemic, antihyperlipidemic and antioxidative activities . Pods are brown to chocolate in colour on ripening, each containing several seeds embedded in sweet dry yellow pulp. P. cineraria pods are locally called ‘’sangar’’ or ‘’sangri’’. The pod is considered astringent in Punjab. Sangri pods are known to prevent protein and mineral deficiency. Cooked pods of Khejri are used as a functional food in Rajasthan, for the amelioration of numerous illnesses. Pods of khejri have been studied for various phytochemicals like alkaloids, saponins, tannins, flavanoids, flavanols and total phenolics. As this plant is found in water stress (or deficient area) so antioxidant potential of pods has also been investigated. Acetone and methanol extracts of Sangri pods are the most potent bioactive extracts. Nutritional analysis shows it as a good source of proteins and minerals like calcium, sodium and potassium. This study demonstrates that P. cineraria pods may be employed as nutraceutical food with rich nutrition, disease prevention and health promoting effects.

The importance of air in human life is well known as air is required for running different biological processes in human body. Unfortunately, the same life giving air or oxygen can cause harmful side effects like generation of oxidants or free radicals in our body. Reactive oxygen species, by product of respirative cycle of oxidative phosphorylation, are well known to interfere with cytoplasmic function and bio-molecules and for inflicting damages on cellular bio-molecules, which pre-disposes cells to several anomalies like mutagenic aberration, cell ageing, diseases, cancerous tumour growth and development of various lethal diseases such as cardio-vascular diseases, cancer, atherosclerosis etc. (Gorinstein and others 2001; Apak and others 2004). Free radicals disrupt the proper membrane function, denature proteins and inhibit enzyme function. Antioxidants, naturally present in food, play a vital role in trapping the radicals and; therefore, effective in reducing the risk of heart diseases, immune system decline, different inflammatory reactions etc. (Silici and others 2010).

Free radicals are unstable because they are missing an electron and they try to become stable by attaching to cell membranes in the body, snatching away electrons from them. This, in turn, sets free radicle molecules on an electron snatching spree and starts a chain reaction that ultimately leads to cell death. On the other hand, antioxidants (such as carotenoids, anthocyanins, ascorbic acid, flavonols, flavonoids, polyphenols etc.), present in our foods can prevent or slow down the oxidative damage by donating one of their own electrons, ending the electron-stealing reaction. Epidemiological evidences suggests that intake of antioxidants helps in scavenging free radicals, cause of a broad spectrum damages to biological system (Vertuani and others 2002). This has led consumers to look for a diet, derived from natural sources as well as rich in antioxidants as an strategy to counteract the cellular damages wreak by oxidative stress.

Introduction

The mankind in the past two centuries has witnessed several technology revolutions: industrial, agricultural, medical, info-tech, biotech etc. Nanotechnology is recent one in the series. Nanotechnology is the manipulation or self-assembly of individual atoms, molecules, or molecular clusters into structures to create materials and devices with new or vastly different properties. It uses techniques, processes and materials at the supramolecular level, approximately in a range between 1-100 nanometres (nm), in order to create new properties and to stimulate particular desired functionalities. For the food industry, nanotechnology applications include: release systems for pesticides or fertilizers in agriculture; antibacterial or easy-to-clean surfaces in food processing machines; food additives such as anti-caking in salt, powders and coffee creamers; anti-foaming agents for beer; natural colour additives for beverages; encapsulated nutraceuticals(antioxidants, vitamins) for dietary supplements; and, micelle systems for low-fat foods. It is predicted that in the foreseeable future nanotechnology will transform the entire food industry, changing the way food is produced, processed, packaged, transported, and consumed. The word “nano,” derived from the Greek “nano” signifying “dwarf,” is becoming increasingly too vast in terms of its huge potential in agriculture, health and the environment. In the agricultural sector, nanotech research and development is likely to facilitate next stage of development of genetically modified crops, farm and animal protection and production inputs, food processing, nutraceuticals etc. India is bestowed with a variety of crops, vegetables, fruits, flowers but food sector is handicapped due to inefficiencies in production, processing, storage and packaging. Most of the processing and packaging in industry and agriculture leaves behind a trail of environmental hazards, which if not tackled at this juncture, will add to long term ecological problems.

Introduction

From centuries, mankind is totally dependent on plants as a source of carbohydrates, proteins and fats for their food & shelter. In addition, plants are valuable source of a wide range of metabolites, which are used as pharmaceuticals, agrochemicals, flavors, fragrances, colors, biopesticides and food additives. In 1985, 3500 new chemical structures have been identified and 2600 derived from the higher plants. Worldwide, 121 clinically useful prescription drugs are derived from plants. Even today, 75% of the world’s population relies on plants for traditional medicine. In the US, where chemical synthesis dominates the pharmaceutical industry, 25% of the pharmaceuticals are based on plant-derived chemicals.

Biotechnology offers an opportunity to exploit the cell, tissue, organ or entire organism by growing them in-vitro and to genetically manipulate them to get desired compounds. Since the world population is increasing rapidly, there is extreme pressure on the available cultivable land to produce food and fulfill the needs. Therefore, for other uses such as production of pharmaceuticals and chemicals from plants, the available land should be used effectively. Chemical engineers are currently developing improved and appropriate bioreactors for the improvement of production systems by adopting techniques of growth and metabolite production coupled with downstream processing of the products. The improvements in molecular biological research have given a new dimension to in-vitro culture as well as for plant improvement, enhancing the yields of the product and resulting in multiple products or producing novel products from genetically engineered plants. Moreover, the need for safer drugs without side effects has led to the use of natural ingredients with proven safety. These factors have laid emphasis on the use of biotechnological methods to enhance the production of pharmaceuticals and food additives in quality and quantity.

Plant in vitro cultures are able to produce and accumulate many medicinally valuable secondary metabolites. Antioxidants are an important group of medicinal preventive compounds as well as being food additives inhibiting detrimental changes of easily oxidizable nutrients. Many different in vitro approaches have been used for increased biosynthesis and the accumulation of antioxidant compounds in plant cells. Antioxidants are capable of stabilizing, or deactivating, free radicals before they attack cells. Antioxidants are absolutely critical for maintaining optimal cellular and systemic health and well-being. Antioxidants are gaining a lot of importance as a panacea for a large number of life-style diseases like aging, cancer, diabetes, cardiovascular and other degenerative diseases etc. The present lecture summarizes the achievements of in vitro technology for the production of antioxidants compounds. The focus will be on the major chemical classes of antioxidants and on the approaches used to improve the in vitro methods for producing these compounds.

Feed accounts for a major portion of farm expenses in livestock and poultry production. Thus, to obtain maximum profitability, it must be ensured that the feed should not only be well balanced nutritionally but economical too. Rising prices of feeds certainly have reduced the profitable nature of broiler farming. For better utilization of feed and to improve feed efficiency, antibiotics were used at sub-therapeutic levels in the animal ration.

Development of antibacterials progressed very quickly and as a result, certain new antibacterial substances were discovered and developed for use as growth promoting agents in livestock and poultry. The antibiotics act by reducing nutrient destruction in the intestine, increasing microbial synthesis of certain vitamins and amino acids, reducing the rate of passage of nutrients in the gastrointestinal tract and reducing the thickness of the intestinal wall. This thinner wall and reduced rate of passage have been suggested as factors favoring efficient absorption of nutrients. It is also reported that the antibiotics also inhibit the bacterial production of ammonia and other harmful nitrogenous compounds such as trimethylamine that reduce the growth of chickens.

Fruits and vegetables are important part of our dietary, which are rich source of nutrient (carbohydrates, protein, fat, vitamins, minerals, and dietary fiber). Carbohydrates, protein and fat are macronutrients, considered as energy sources. Vitamins and minerals are micro nutrient, play important role in body building. Fibers have several direct and indirect advantages. ICMR, New Delhi recommends 125g of leafy vegetables, 100g of root and tuber vegetables and 75g of other vegetables (total 300g/day) and 85g of fruits per capita every day for balance diet.

Maturity

It is derived from Latin word ‘Maturus’ which means ripen. It is that stage of fruit development, which ensures attainment of maximum edible quality at the completion of ripening process.

Maturation

It is the developmental process by which the fruit attains maturity. It is the transient phase of development from near completion of physical growth to attainment of physiological maturity. There are different stages of maturation e.g. immature, mature, optimally mature, over mature.

Maturity Indices

The factors for determining the harvesting of horticulture commodities according to consumer purpose and type of commodity.

Maturity Indices is two type

Fruits and vegetables are living tissues subject to continuous change after harvest. Some changes are desirable from consumer point of view but most are not. Post-harvest changes in fresh fruit cannot be stopped, but these can be slowed down within certain limits to enhance the shelf life of fruits. The post-harvest handling plays an important role in extending the storage and marketable life of horticultural perishables.

Post Harvest Treat ment of Fruits and Vegetables Washing

It is useful in removing surface adhering material water. Mechanically, it is also accomplished by passing the fruits/vegetables through machine arranged with water tank equipped with rotating brush. In some produce washing improves appeal by facilitating removal of sap as case in mango, papaya, jackfruit, kronda, dirt in case of carrot, reddish, turnip, sugar beet, sweet potato, etc. and for removal of debris in case of banana. The water use for the purpose should be cleaned otherwise fungal and bacterial levels may build up. Disinfected treatment using ultraviolet light, ozone, chlorine (100 ppm), calcium hydroxide, etc. help to clean water for washing purpose.

Physiological disorders refer to non-parasitic or inanimate disease of fruit crops, or it is the breakdown of tissue that is not caused by either invasion by pathogens or by mechanical damage. They may develop in response to an adverse environment, especially temperature or to a nutritional deficiency during growth and development. Physiological disorder is broadly classified into two broad categories. They are:

Canning is a process of sealing food stuffs hermatically in containers and sterilizing them by heat for long storage is known as canning.

Principle of Canning

Destruction of spoilage organism within the sealed container by means of heat.

Selection of Fruit and Vegetable

For canning fruit should be ripe but firm and uniformity mature and vegetables except tomato should be tender.

Grading

Selected fruit and vegetable are graded according to size and colour to obtain uniform quality. This is done by hand or machines such as screw grader and roller grader.

Removal of water from the food by non-conventional energy source like sunlight, wind, and a smoky fire. Drying (dehydrating) food is one of the oldest and easiest methods of food preservation.

Dehydration

Dehydration is the process of removing water or moisture from a food product under controlled condition like temperature, relative humidity, air flow, etc.

Principles of Drying and Dehydration

Drying removes the moisture from the food so that bacteria, yeasts and moulds cannot grow and spoil the food. It also slows down the action of enzymes, but does not inactivate them. Dried food items can be kept almost indefinitely, as long as they are not rehydrated.

Fruit juices which do not undergo alcoholic fermentation are termed as unfermented beverages. They include natural and sweetened juices, RTS, nectar, cordial, squash, crush, syrup, fruit juice concentrate and fruit juice powder. Barley waters and carbonated beverages are also included in this group.

Jam is prepared by boiling the fruit pulp with required quantity of sugar to thick consistency, firm enough to hold fruit tissues in position. It should contain not less than 68.5 per cent soluble solids. Jam may be made from a single fruit (apple, strawberry, banana, pineapple etc.) or from combination of two or more fruits. Jam contains 0.5-0.6% acid and invert sugar should not be more than 40%.

Introduction

Organic seeds are produced by purchasing conventional non-treated seeds and growing them on organic plot / farm for one season without the use of any synthetic chemical. The seeds harvested are then sold on to organic farmers as organic seeds.

Over 98% of sprayed insecticides and 95% of herbicides reach a destination other than their target species, because they are sprayed or spread across entire agricultural fields. Runoff can carry pesticides into aquatic environments while wind can carry them to other fields, grazing areas, human settlements and undeveloped areas, potentially affecting other species. Other problems emerge from poor production, transport and storage practices.

Production of organic seeds without the use of pesticides like herbicides (weeds), insecticides (insects), fungicides (fungi), nematocides (nematodes), and rodenticides (vertebrate poisons) is a matter of skill and expertise. For this purpose, the seeds used for planting, the soil where they are planted, the water used for irrigation and even the air, need to be kept free of pesticides in order to prevent their contamination.

Seed

Purpose-The term ‘Grafting’ includes all forms of grafting and budding. It is the art of joining the part of together in such a manner that they will unite and continue their growth as one plant. A grafted plant consist of two parts a rootstock, also known as understock or stock, and a scion. The part of the graft combination which is to become the upper portion or top and performs the function of flowers production and fruits is known as scion and the part which is lower portion or root which performs the function of fixing itself in the soil, absorbs moisture and nutrient from the soil is known as rootstock.

When the scion part is a small piece of bark containing only one bud the operation is termed as budding, but when the scion part is a branch containing more than one bud, the operation is termed as grafting.

ABSTRACT

Bunium persicum (Boiss.) Fedtsch., (Family: Apiaceae) is an important plant of temperate regions and its seeds are used as carminative substance in various food recipes. The seeds of the species act as a good source of economy to the hilly and mountain people. As the species is restricted in its habitat, therefore, it requires mass cultivation practices. Many attempts are already made to cultivate species near to its natural habitat. In recent years some efforts have been done to domesticate this plant in certain areas of India like Shong area in Kinnaur district of Himachal Pradesh, India, but the cultivation remained very limited. Therefore, in addition to its collection from the wild sources the species needs more scientific intervention in agriculture sector. This species has typical Palaeo-Mediterranean distribution. In India the species is distributed in wild only in North West Himalaya (J&K, HP and UK) which makes its ocurrence rarity in the country. The species restricted its distribution between 1850-3100 meters above mean sea level. Phylogenetically the species is near to Carum carvi L., therefore, C. carvi is the potential adulterant of B. persicum.

ABSTRACT

Green revolution provided sufficient amount of foods but the way resources were utilized causes the degradation of natural resources in various aspect. The adverse effect on the ecological system can be visualized in the form of various diseases in human and loss of biodiversity. The population burst is the root cause of imbalanced ecological system because agricultural land decreases drastically. Therefore we must aim to develop and improve the agri- economic growth of farmers by introducing elite variety of Mucuna pruriens (L.) DC. M. pruriens, a member of Fabaceae family, is an adaptogen and known for its tonifying, strengthening and all around beneficial properties from every part of the plant. M. pruriens has range of medicinal applications, because of unusual amino-acid L-DOPA (L3, 4dihydroxyphenylalanine) a precursor of neurotransmitter dopamine (Anti Parkinson’s) and involved in various secondary metabolite pathways. It acts like aphrodisiac, anti-snake venom, anti-depressant, antidiabetic, anti-microbial. It has a nutritional quality comparable to soyabeans. M. pruriens exhibits a tolerance for various kinds of environmental stresses such as drought, low soil fertility, and high soil acidity. M. pruriens suppresses weeds through indeterminate growth and large leaves reduce the amount of light for weeds. It shows allelopathy and effective in lowering nematodes. M. pruriens is used as forage, fallow, green manure prevents the soil erosion. It has a longer time span to be used in rotations for management of various pathogens.

ABSTRACT

Phosphorus is a macro nutrient, acts as a limiting factor in most ecosystems. Phosphorus immobilization is a major issue in most agricultural soils of India. Phosphate Solubilizing Bacteria (PSB) help in the solubilization of insoluble mineral phosphates by the production of organic acids. The aim of this research was to isolate, identify and characterize phosphate solubilizing bacteria from different agricultural crop soils of river banks of Yamuna, Delhi. Experiments were established in the laboratory to isolate phosphate solubilizing bacteria from various soil samples. Biochemical tests were performed to identify and characterize phosphate solubilizing bacteria. The phosphate solubilization efficiency of bacteria was measured. Organic acid production by different PSB for solubilization of insoluble phosphates were estimated. PSB from the soils of four agricultural crops such as Fennel, Spinach, Coriander and Mustard were isolated, identified and their ability to solubilize mineral phosphates by the production of organic acids were studied. Different PSB isolated were characterized as Citrobacter sp., Pseudomonas sp., Staphylococcus sp. and Bacillus sp. The PSB varied in phosphate solubilizing efficiency and production of organic acids. Pseudomonas sp. produced the maximum amount of organic acids and hence was the most efficient PSB. These PSB can be used as biofertilizers instead of chemical fertilizers and lead to sustainable agriculture.

1. Introduction

Ornamentals include plants which have either attractive foliage or flowers. They are used for various purposes like bedding plants in the garden or as cut-flowers and have huge commercial importance in terms of nursery business. New cultivars of ornamentals, which have been developed by various plant improvement techniques (hybridization, mutation breeding and colchiploidy) are always an added attraction to the plant lovers and a highly prized commodity for commercialization.

New cultivars of ornamentals usually inherit characters of both the parents singly or in combination and produce an entirely new trait. The progenies, thus, express a range of phenotypic characters. One has to screen these plants and identify elite plant(s) having desired phenotypic characters.

Second part of this process is characterization of the selected plants. Various characters of these plants are studied as per laid down procedures, which include vegetative, floral, seed and rhizome characters. The recorded observations are then compared with the parental characters to establish their distinctiveness. Subsequently, these plants are subjected to field trials for studying their uniformity and stability of the desired phenotypic characters.

New cultivars of ornamentals have enough potential for commercialization and good source of earning on the part of breeders who may be farmers, nurseryman, and researchers. However, for claiming right over the new cultivars developed, it is now mandatory to get those new varieties registered with appropriate agencies. The registration authorities ask for every morphological details as well as parental history. Therefore, characterization is a must for the newly developed cultivars/varieties.

The term rare amino acid is misleading in some respects. It refers to all those amino acids that are not incorporated into proteins. We already got to know some of them like ornithine or citrulline that are rather common intermediates of the basic metabolism. Roughly 220 different structures are known, most of which occur in plant cells in a free state though glutamate-, oxalate- or acetyl- derivatives can also sometimes be found.

The phenomenon and behavior of supercritical fluid (SCF) has been the subject of research right from 1800's and suggestion of supercritical fluid chromatography (SFC) came in to exixtence in 1958. Supercritical fluid chromatography (SFC) was first developed in 1960, and that time, it was considered as a science fiction chromatography and a revolutionary separation technique. But its reputation has slowly ebbed over the years and it is now moving forward by leaps and bounds as a stable analytical method with many advantages over the existing chromatographic methods. It is an unit operation that exploits the high dissolving power of fluids at temperature and pressurre above their critical values for extracting analytes from sample matrices.The first commercial packed column of SFC was made available in 1981 and the first commercial capillary column SFC instrument was introduced in 1985. Several refrences are useful for understanding the super critical fluid extraction and super critical fluid chromatography

Organic meat food products are choice products for health conscious people. These are the products produced mainly in most natural way without using fertilizers, pesticides and growth regulators in their feed and fodders. In addition, meat animals are also reared without growth hormones, antibiotics drugs etc. and grazing of the animals is a prerequisite in organic farming system.

The term organic farming was first time used by Lord Northbourne. The term organic farming was derived from his concept of “the farm as organism”. It is a holistic, ecologically balanced approach to farming. In 1991, the European Commission formulated the first government system to regulate organic labelling. In India, standards for organic agriculture were announced in May 2001 and the National Programme on Organic Production (NPOP) is administered under the Ministry of Commerce. The concept of organic meat food products has been emphasized now a day due to animal welfare point of view, consumer’s conscious ness, less residue level of chemicals, antibiotics and drugs, Bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), Foot and mouth disease (FMD), genetically modified food etc.

Organic meat food products as a whole are dependent on the life stages of the livestock like its origin, feeding, housing, health, breeding, transportation and slaughter. The other factors accounting for organic foods are its production, harvesting, preservation and processing. Inspite of low growth rate of organic red meat globally, growth in dairy, egg and poultry is increasing day by day. At present 1.2 million hectares (0.6%) of Indian land is producing organic products (Willer and Kelcher, 2011).

Soil temperature is an important environmental parameter for plant growth and development. It has direct effects on microbial growth and development, organic matter decay, seed germination, root development, and water and nutrient absorption by roots. In general, the higher the temperature the faster these processes occur. Variation in soil temperature is much more pronounced because of varying characteristics and composition of soil.

The soil gains heat by absorption of solar radiation and longwave counter radiation from the atmosphere, downward transfer of sensible heat and horizontal transfer of heat from the surroundings. On the other hand, soil loses heat by longwave radiation to the atmosphere, upward transfer of sensible heat to air when the soil surface is hotter than air and with evaporation and horizontal transfer of heat from the column to surroundings.

Atmospheric pressure is the force per unit area exerted on a surface by the weight of air above that surface in the atmosphere of earth. The gas molecules of the atmosphere are pulled towards the earth by the force of gravity and hence exert a force on earth surface. In most circumstances atmospheric pressure is closely approximated by the hydrostatic pressure caused by the weight of air above the measurement point. Atmospheric pressure influences other weather elements in a significant way. Small changes in air pressure may not be felt, but they are important for bringing a change in weather. Atmospheric pressure can be calculated as the summed weight of all gas molecules between a horizontal plane and top of the atmosphere and divided by the area of the plane. Low pressure areas have less atmospheric mass above their location, whereas high pressure areas have more atmospheric mass above their location.

Measurement of atmospheric pressure

The standard unit of pressure in the SI system is the Pascal which is the name given to one Newton per square metre (N/m²). For meteorological purposes, standard sea-level pressure is 101325 pascal (Pa). To simplify this large number, the millibar unit (mb) has been adopted, which is equal to 100 pascals. Units like kiloPascal (kPa) or hectoPascal (hPa) are also used to measure pressure. 1 kiloPascal is equal to 10 millibars and 1 hPa is 1 millibar. The standard sea-level pressure is represented as 1013.2 mb or hPa.

Water is the only substance that exists in the atmosphere in all the three phases, i.e., solid, liquid and gas. The moisture on the earth’s surface is in a constant phase change. The moisture content of the atmosphere is about 0.035% of all fresh water. The atmosphere receives its supply of moisture from the earth’s surface through evaporation from oceans, lakes, rivers, damp soil, etc. and through transpiration from vegetation. Water vapour is the gaseous state of water and is invisible.

The amount of water vapour present in the atmosphere is called atmospheric moisture or humidity. It is a measure of the amount of water vapour dissolved in the air, not including any liquid water or ice falling through the air. While humidity itself is a climate variable, it also interacts strongly with other climate variables. The humidity is affected by winds and by rainfall. Moisture content is determined by the local rate of evaporation, air temperature and the horizontal transport of moisture. Humidity indicates the likelihood of precipitation, dew or fog. It also plays a major role in the heat budget and the weather phenomenon of the atmosphere.

Water vapour changes to the liquid water through condensation process. Condensation is the direct cause of the various forms of precipitation. It occurs as a result of changes in air volume, temperature, pressure or humidity. Water vapour can also be converted directly into the solid form through a process called sublimation. The latent heat expended in evaporation is liberated in the process of condensation. Four mechanisms may lead to condensation.

Abstract

This chapter will look at the major reasons why farmers in India are unable to take advantage of Agricultural profession as a mode of generating income and suggest ways to change this by employing new technologies. Agriculture has basic processes which require identifying the season for planting the seeds at the right time, watering the plants to the required level, undertaking maintenance for the different plants and then finally harvesting at the right time to ensure that the effort that has been put into the agricultural process results in useful output. In business terms the output when it is valued in terms of money, should enable the farming business to sell their output at a certain price that will enable them to pay off the money that has been used for setting up the crop for that cycle. This chapter will underscore the valuable contribution of remote sensing data in farming to enhance operational decisions. We will look at how low-cost technologies can be implemented into the existing agricultural extension activities and help farmers make better decisions that will enable them to be more business oriented. It is envisaged that incorporating high technology-based data into simple to understand terminology willhelp reduce the burden on farmers. This is due to the lack of knowledge but also due to the low volume of information that is possible to be fed to the farmers through the agriculture extension network in the country. However, due to the varied nature of farming in India it is difficult for extension officers to specialise but concentrate their efforts on widely utilised crops in an area. The following figure below explains in simple terms how the cycle of activities occur in a farmer’s world and where business decisions are taken that will have an impact on the profitability.

Flowers, the aesthetic creations of God over the earth and symbolize beauty, purity, peace and love. Flowers have been associated with progress and prosperity from ancient times. They have long been associated with each civilization and culture in the world, and are integral part of traditional, religious ceremonies and rituals and no function, from birth till death, are complete without the use of flowers. They play a cardinal role in human behaviour and culture, bringing tranquility and peace of mind. Sensory elements of flowers like fragrance, colour, texture, softness, freshness, etc. influence human psyche in different manner.

From a symbol of love, flowers have transformed into an industry generating both income as well as employment. In the flower industry, significant changes are occurring in the competitive relationships worldwide due to increasing habit of “saying it with flowers” to celebrate major life events, expressing emotions in ways that words are deficient. Estimate of the annual consumption of commercially grown flower vary by source and range from 40-60 billion USD. Global exports over the last few years have grown by more than 10 per cent annually. Flower growing and its value addition viz., essential oils, natural dye extraction, dry flowers, floral ornaments, bouquets and artistic garlands, etc. is associated with variety of employment generation activities. Besides the traditional centres of production, new production centres are also developing.

In the beginning, human kind selected some of the useful wild flowers and brought them to gardens for decoration; mainly used for their floral and other values. The rose, which is an high value flower today, has long history, perhaps older than man. Carnation was grown in Greece during 300 B. C. Orchids were known for their attractive flowers and scent in China about 2500 years ago as mentioned by Confucius. Chrysanthemum is the another oldest flower grown in China as early as 500 B. C. At the time of Confucius, only a wild single-flowered type was known in chrysanthemum. Later on many new varieties arose and in Japan, the flower reached a high stage of development and popularity. From Japan, the chrysanthemum spread to Europe. Now some of the best known modern varieties have been developed in Europe, America, and Australia. Lotus, an aquatic ornamental flower, is native to India and is associated with religion, art and culture of Indian civilization. Eloquent references to the aesthetics of these ornaments are available from ancient literature and sculptures. Most of the garden flowers were introduced into Europe for cultivation from their wild habitats between 16^th and 19^th centuries.

Growing of flowers in gardens was patronized by the rulers themselves earlier. Commercial production of flowers gathered momentum globally, efforts to breed new varieties of flower crops intensified in the 70s, and 80s primarily due to their high commercial value. With the advent of WTO followed by the Plant Breeder’s Rights, the commercial breeding efforts got intensified further. Domestication, introduction, selection, hybridization, mutation, and polyploidy breeding have played a major role in the evolution of the present day ornamental plants.

4.1 Brief historical account

Flowers have long been associated with each civilization and culture in the world. Numerous cultures have incorporated flowers into their everyday lives expressions of beauty and art. Flowers are used to celebrate major life events and to decorate graves, expressing emotions in ways that words are deficient.

In the beginning, human kind selected some of the useful wild flowers and brought them into gardens for domestication. They were used for their floral and other values. According to Theophrastus (372-287 BC), carnation was grown in Greece during 300 BC. It was used for medicinal purpose in France. Romans prepared dye from calendula flowers. During early days, Bells of Ireland (Moluccella laevis) was used as a vegetable, but now after much improvement, it is used as a cut flower. The rose, which is an important flower today, has long history, perhaps older than man. Orchids were known for their attractive appearance and fragrance in China about 2500 years ago as mentioned by Confucius. Man’s interest in cultivating and growing orchids developed during the 19^th century in Europe. Chrysanthemum is the one of the oldest flower grown in China as early as 500 BC. Most of garden flowers were introduced into Europe from their wild habitats between 16^th and 19^th century. Ornamental annuals constitute an amazing group of plants widely grown in the parks and gardens in different seasons. The enchanting beauty of colour, shades, form and fragrance have made them an obvious choice for every garden. No other plant can influence the general landscape in such an incredible manner by riot of colours.

One of the important studies in the crop improvement programme is the discriminant function analysis. This is a method of exercising selection in plants, which show the extent of which character is genetically related to yield (Goulden, 1959). The technique of discriminant function was developed by Fisher (1936). But, the application of this method for plant selection was first made by Smith (1936) in wheat. He developed an index design for the selection of plant lines in wheat using the concept of discriminant function to derive a linear equation based on observable characteristics as the best available guide to the genetic value of each line.

Stephens (1942) reported about the interaction of yield components within the plant and within the population, which serves as an index for yielding ability. According to Hazel and Lush (1943), selection for a total score or net desirability is more efficient that selection for one trait at a time. The formulae presented by them for selection index give proper weight to each trait that are more efficient than selection for one trait at a time or for several traits with an independent culling level for each trait. According to Darlington and Mather (1949) discriminant function has been defined as a linear compound of series of varieties, obtained by giving the different varieties with individual coefficients which will minimize the difference between classes relative to variation within classes of objects of which the variates are measurements. Mather (1949) reported that these functions afford to the best available means of discriminating the classes and evaluating the genotype of a plant in terms of the observed values of various characters. Pundir and Raj (1971) reported that selection index based on three characters combination i.e., seeds per siliqua, 1000 seed weight and yield per plant was efficient in toria.

3.1 Introduction

There is now latest national thinking going on to conserve the known sources of energy such as firewood, cow dung, agricultural waste, kerosene, oil etc. i.e. by limiting their conventional uses and to propagate the use of non conventional energy especially in the rural area. The large scale indiscriminate use of non commercial fuels fully in the rural areas are not only providing to be inefficient but also inadequate to cope with the growing rural energy demand caused by growing population and growing consciousness among rural people for a better way of life. Planned input of energy are, therefore urgently require to protect the environment and to cope with raising rural energy demand. In order to assess the widening gap between the supply and demand of commercial energy and indiscriminate use of non commercial fuels in rural areas, there is a need for various types of statistical or quantified information to be collected and analyzed in an objective manner and presented suitability so as to serve as a sound basis for taking policy decision to make an optimum utilization of commercial energy in a balanced manner. This will require conducting of survey in areas to be covered.

The statistical data may be collected by complete enumeration or by a sample survey. The earlier method is very cumbersome, time consuming, cost ineffective and requires an intensive development of manpower, if domains of study is quite large. Complete enumeration and sample surveys presuppose the existence of a certain minimum of facilities such as funds, professional personnel for planning the survey methodology and supervision of field operations, sufficiently qualified enumerators, sampling frames, machine tabulation equipment, transport and communication facilities etc. These facilities or combinations there of do not always exist to the extent needed for a complete enumeration survey. As such, sample survey is preferred to complete enumeration for ethic type of studies giving due importance to sampling error.

In the integrated energy planning, there is an objective to find out the present consumption pattern of energy for different end uses, shortages being experienced and people’s reaction to using alternate sources of energy is also enumerated.

The survey methods determine – incident, distribution and the interrelation among sociological variable and psychological variable. The sociological variable s consists of age, education, income and attitude, behavior, motivation, belief and knowledge about the problem.

These three requirements are required to be followed in sequence for getting maximum benefits. However, integrated rural energy concept is a new area of work and not much experience is available in this field as compared to other rural development activities. It is difficult to give any guidelines for planning. One can only recommend approaches and not solutions to planning.

The rural area in developing countries are almost always rich in one or another sources of energy, which could be used separately or in combination with other sources in decentralized small scale units, or even on a household scale. Thus, the problem is one of good planning, management and a strong educational and promotions campaign, rather than the non availability of resources or the lack of technology. Further, after planning, prefect development of device and their effective operation is required.

The purpose of the Integrated Rural Energy Planning project should be clearly defined. It may design either for research and development or demonstration for Popularisation of system, education and training, promotion, health or combination of these.

It is usually better to start with a small size to gain experience and build up confidence before undertaking the large scale project. As defined earlier, one of primary requirement of Integrated Rural Energy Planning is to develop energy demand pattern, energy supply system and optimally match demand with supply.

Abstract

The anomalies observed in the reverine systems have been demonstrated to be the potential tool in deciphering the tectonically active zones. Such various drainage anomalies viz: radial drainages, anomalous compressed meanders, eyed drainage and the youthful floodplains observed in Annamali – Palani - Varushanad hill ranges of the Western Ghats of Tamil Nadu show that the N-S and NE-SW trending faults are tectonically active in the recent years.

Much has been talked about the mighty river systems and their migratory histories, since Purana and Vedic times. In Mahabharata the places where the Lord Krishna is said to have played with Gopis in the banks of River Yamuna are now forming flat lands many kilometers away from the present day Yamuna. In the same way, there is a mention in ancient literature about the ‘Indo-Brahm’ river which was originated from the Himalayas and flown through Brahmaputra valley, Indo-Gangetic plains, Rajasthan desert and met the Arabian Sea in Rann of Kutch. Such a mighty river is said to have fragmented into Brahmaputra, Ganges and the Indus rivers due to Tectonic activity in Himalayan regions. Similarly there are many evidences in the Tamil literature. For example in ‘Kalingathuparani’ it is mentioned that the river ‘Palar’ was flowing north of Kanchipuram but the same river is now flowing south of it.

All these facts show that the rivers have the tendency to frequently change their courses. The advent of modern Remote Sensing Technology has opened up new vistas in studying such migratory rhythms of the rivers, as such old and buried rivers exhibit spectacular ribbon like, linear, curvilinear and contorted features with typical darker tone in black and white images and reddish tone in false color composites (FCC) and other color coded images.

Abstract

The Remote Sensing and the followed up field based investigations show that the Tamil Nadu coast, India, is facing series of geoenvironmental problems due to tectonic movements and morphodynamic processes. Such problems pose a challenge to the engineering geologists. The paper discusses such challenging engineering geological problems and plausible remedial measures.

INTRODUCTION

Molecular tools generally refer to molecular genetic tools. Although the first use of these tools began more than four decades ago, whenLewontin & Hubby (1966) used allozymes to find out the amount of genetic variation present in wild populations of Drosophila, the lack of expertise and high cost of these tools have prevented their widespread use among ecologists in general and behavioural ecologists in particular. But recently the accessibility and costs of these techniques have come down a lot and with the right kind of collaboration, lack of expertise is no longer an issue.

As was mentioned above, the Lewontin & Hubby’s (1966) investigation was done using allozymes. Although still an option, user-friendly neutral nucleotide markers are more preferred by investigators nowadays. The discovery of the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) in 1983 by Kary Mullis was the single landmark in this field, if one has to mention one. The use of molecular markers has totally revolutionized the field of ecology. It has provided ecologists the tool to ask questions, which were hitherto impossible to tackle and also to answer questions with much more precision and accuracy than was possible till now. It has toppled long held beliefs, sometimes, romantic ones, by ecologists.

Introduction

Increasing production of cereal crops, oil seed crops, and horticultural crops is becoming more important than ever before owing to increasing population and changing food habits of the people. The modern tools of biotechnology are being exploited to the fullest throughout the world for developing transgenic crop plants with improved traits. Already about 20 countries in the world are growing transgenic crops, predominately with traits such herbicide tolerance and resistance to insect-pests. However, there is a constant fear of pollen flow from theses transgenics to the neighbouring non-transgenic fields or to their weedy or wild relatives. It has become a matter of great concern to all biotechnologists to develop alternative strategies to prevent the pollen flow.

The best alternative strategy available today to circumvent the nuclear- transformation associated bottlenecks in developing tenable crop transgenics is the chloroplast transformation technology. This technology allows introduction and insertion of foreign genes into the chloroplast genome, called plastome. Chloroplasts are the site for photosynthesis in plants mostly present in leaves. In general called plastids, they are also present in other parts of the plant. For example, chromoplasts in coloured leaves and fruits, amyloplasts in starch storing organs, leucoplats in roots, and etioplasts in dark-grown seedlings. The plastids arise from proplastids - the undifferentiated form of plastids present in most plant cells. Just like nucleus, these plastids (and also mitochondria) contain their own genetic material on the chloroplast genome.

ABSTRACT

Commercial propagation using tissue culture techniques started in seventies for orchids in USA. Since then, the science and technology of tissue culture have advanced particularly after the development of the most widely used medium by Murashighe and Skoog (1972). The science has led to the development of the fascinating area of gene transfer. Today, micropropagation protocols are available for almost all horticultural crops. But, there are certain grey areas where research need to be intensified to solve the problems confronting certain difficult to propagate species belonging to plantation and spice sectors. The major area that needs to be addressed is recalcitrance.

ABSTRACT

Microbial contamination is perceived as the most serious threat faced by plant tissue culture research laboratories and commercial production units. A culture is often viewed as contaminated when obvious microbial growth incited by fungi, yeast or bacteria is noticed on the culture medium. On the other hand, there can be situations when microbes may be present in a covert or latent form with serious side effects on the cultures. The present investigations were taken up with the objectives of elucidating the cause of poor growth, lack of regeneration response or modification of rooting observed with visibly clean cultures of different horticultural crops. Apparently clean cultures of grape, banana, watermelon, eggplant, gerbera and chrysanthemum of recent origin or after long-term in vitro culturing were used in this study. Indexing the medium of such cultures using fungal/ yeast and bacteriological media brought out the covert association of one or more bacterial types with varying proportions of incidence in such cultures. Indexing of tissue revealed bacterial presence in different parts of in vitro plantlets. In some instances, bacteria showed endophytic colonization while being not detectable in the tissue culture medium subsequent to a disinfection or antibiotic treatment. Such bacterial association appeared to be the cause of in vitro decline observed with long-term micropropagated cultures, lack of reproducibility of tissue culture protocols, failure of in vitro rooting etc. besides being a threat to in vitro gene banks and germplasm exchange.

ABSTRACT

Recognizing the need to apply plant tissue culture tools for generating planting materials of important spice crops especially vanilla, the Spices Board started Biotech Production Unit at its head quarters building at Kochi with an annual production potential of 8 lakhs plantlets. Complete tissue culture protocols were developed and scaled up for large scale production of vanilla and other spices viz. large cardamom, small cardamom and tree spices. The laboratory is equipped with all modern facilities and is established in an area of about 2000 sft. Department of Biotechnology, Govt. of India also participated in the venture by sanctioning a project entitled “Regional centre for large scale production of tissue culture plantlets of vanilla and other spices” with a financial out lay of Rs 95 lakhs equally shared by DBT, New Delhi and Spices Board, Cochin.

At present there is a stock of over 3.00 lakh vanilla cultures in the lab and already 1.25 lakh plant lets were sent for hardening. The Spices Board, in coll aboration with “Kudumbashree”, a poverty eradication mission of Govt. of Kerala, extend short term training in tissue culture techniques to undergraduates from ‘Below Poverty Line’ (BPL) families and engage them as long term trainees in the Biotech Production Unit. The Board also coordinates and extends support to Kudumbashree members for, establishing and maintaining hardening facilities for TC plantlets thus providing means for empowering women from BPL families.

ABSTRACT

Astudy was undertaken to evaluate the performance of tissue culture derived plants vis a vis open pollinated seedlings of cardamom (Elettaria cardamomum Maton). A total of 102.5 ha (units) covering 50 ha in Kerala, 37.5 ha in Karnataka and 15 ha in Tamil Nadu was selected for the present study out of which each demonstration plot (unit) had an area of one hectare in which 80% of the plants are tissue cultured and 20% are open pollinated. Elite cardamom clones were subjected to in vitro multiplication and their respective open pollinated seedlings were compared. The planting was initiated in 1989 and completed with 1991 in all the zones identified. Plant growth characters such as number of tillers, number of bearing tillers and panicles per clump were recorded and compared. The yield was recorded in 1993-94 and 94-95 seasons after its stabilisation. Results indicated that tissue culture plants performed better compared to open pollinated seedlings with regard to growth attributes and yield irrespective of the seasons and zones. In Kerala region tissue culture plants exhibited a yield increase of 24.3 and 36% over open pollinated seedlings for the 1989 and 1990 plantings respectively. Similar trend was observed in Tamil Nadu for 1989 and 1990 planting where the percentage increase in yield became 130 and 21 respectively. In Kerala, the yield performance of tissue culture plants and open pollinated seedlings was on par during 1990 planting but in the subsequent year (1991) tissue culture plants showed 24% increase in yield compared to their respective open pollinated ones. Further, the study enabled to identify cardamom clones suited to in various zones of the cardamom tract. Accordingly 14 clones with a yield potential of over 750 kg/ha under moderate management were identified and this indicated that cardamom clones are highly location specific in their performance.

ABSTRACT

Vanilla planifolia Andrews - the high value, exotic spice crop has recently gained wide acceptance in the southern and northeastern states of the country. Being an orchid, germination of naked embryo is limited and this favours genetic uniformity. An attempt was made to induce genetic variability in Vanilla through biotechnology tools for its exploitation in crop improvement programmes. In vitro embryo culture and mutagenesis were applied for the purpose. Plantlets were multiplied, hardened, planted out and evaluated for morphological, biochemical and molecular markers. Great interclonal variability was observed in the in vitro derived plantlets. The intraclonal variability was very low in tissue culture derived regenerants. Isozyme and RAPD assay confirmed genotypic variation. Six superior clones were identified and distributed to farmers for further evaluation.

ABSTRACT

Vanilla (Vanilla planifolia Andrews) is a high value spice crop having immense potential for cultivation in India as a source for natural vanillin. Though the crop was introduced way back in 1835, its cultivation gained momentum only in the recent past due to various reasons. Lack of sufficient good quality planting materials is one of the constraints for expanding the area under the crop. Conventionally vanilla is propagated by vine cuttings, but this method is inadequate to have large number of planting materials in a short span of time. So, micropropagation was attempted and proved to be highly successful. In the present study, performance of vanilla plants raised from tissue culture plantlets and vegetative cuttings was assessed on large-scale in planters’ field covering a total area of 111 ha in Kerala(68ha), Karnataka(28ha) and Tamilnadu(15ha) with the financial assistance of the Department of Biotechnology, New Delhi under the project entitled “Tissue culture Vanilla : Product Plan“. Disease free elite accessions of vanilla identified by the Indian Cardamom Research Institute (Spices Board), Myladumpara from its germplasm repository were used as mother plant source for tissue culture multiplication and also for raising the nursery for producing vegetative cuttings. The field planting for the demonstration plots was carried out during 1996-1999 on a cluster approach basis having 400 plants in each unit or plot of 0.25 ha. Accordingly a total of 444 evaluation plots were laid out under the project covering the aforesaid three states. Out of the 400 plants in a plot, 80% were nursery hardened grown up tissue culture plants and the balance( 20% )vegetative cuttings of comparable length. Observations on growth and yield attributes such as vine length, number of leaves per vine, internodal length, number of beans per vine, bean size, yield etc. revealed that performance of tissue culture plants is on par with that of conventional plants raised from vegetative cuttings of comparable length. It is also observed that if good management practices are adopted, tissue culture plants perform better at the full bearing stage of the plant. This proves that tissue culture plants of vanilla can be popularized as a cost effective and faster source of planting materials compared to conventional vegetative cuttings. As the demonstration plots were distributed under varied agroclimatic situations, the influence of different weather parameters on yield was also ascertained. Further, the project could convince the farmers about the comparable performance of tissue culture plants and that is quite evident from the ever increasing request for tissue culture vanilla plants received by the Spices Board.

ABSTRACT

Vitex trifolia L. (Verbenaceae) is known for its medicinal property. Micropropagation can provide the opportunity to obtain large number of homogeneous plants and there are no reports of micropropagation of this species. So, we attempted for in vitro propagation of this species and described here is an efficient and rapid propagation method. This report describes in vitro shoot induction and plant regeneration from mature nodal explants of Vitex trifolia L. on Murashige and Skoog (MS) medium fortified with benzylaminopurine (BAP), kinetin (KN), thidiazuron (TDZ), adenine (ADE), and 2- isopentenyladenine (2 - iP) (0.25-10.0 mM). Multiple shoots differentiated directly without callus mediation within 3 weeks when explants were cultured on medium supplemented with cytokinins. The maximum number of shoots (9 shoots per explant) was developed on a medium supplemented with 5.0 mM BAP. Shoot cultures was established repeatedly by subculturing the original nodal explant on the same medium. Rooting of shoots was achieved on half strength MS medium supplemented with 0.5 mM naphthaleneacetic acid (NAA). Rooted plantlets were transferred to pots containing autoclaved soil and vermiculite mixture (1:1) that showed 90 % survival when transferred to outdoor. Plants transferred to the field have established themselves in the soil and are growing well. The regenerated plants did not show any immediately detectable phenotypic variation. Natural stands of Vitex trifolia are fast disappearing in India because of indiscriminate collection and over exploitation and the outlined procedure here offers a potential system for mass multiplication and conservation of Vitex trifolia.

ABSTRACT

Considering the difficulties faced during ex vitro establishment of orchid plants the present investigation was undertaken to elicit information on the influence of different sucrose levels in the in vitro rooting medium and by subjecting the plants to different levels of triazole at the time of planting out in order to overcome the mortality percentage at the time of ex vitro establishment. Among the growth parameters observed viz. crop growth rate, net assimilation rate, and relative growth rate was found to be high in plants treated with 40 g/l of sucrose concentration and also at the triazole level of 5 mg/l. The photosynthetic rates were observed to increase meanwhile the transpiration rate was declined in plants grown under the above treatment levels of sucrose and triazole. The maximum survival percentage was observed when the in vitro plants grown in rooting medium with 40g/l of sucrose which is attributed to the influence of sucrose concentration on morphological characters studied viz. plant height, number of leaves per shoot and number of roots per shoot. Triazole treatment of plantlets at the time of planting out helped in better survival percentage which is the whole sum effect of increase in number of leaves per shoot, number of roots per shoot of plants grown under the triazole level of 5 mg/l. Where as the height of the plant was inversely proportional to triazole concentration,the biometric aspects studied viz root length, total fresh and dry weight of the plants with the above mentioned treatments were found to be superior. The present study envisages the measures to be taken during in vitro propagation and ex vitro establishment of tissue cultured plants in order to over come the field mortality.

ABSTRACT

Mucuna pruriens (L.) DC. is one of the important medicinal plants that contains L DOPA (L-3,4 dihydroxy phenylalanine) which is the precussor for the neurotransmitter dopamine that plays an important role in curing Parkinson?s disease. To accommodate the huge demand for L DOPA, in vitro production of the drug using cell cultures is felt essential. Hence, an experiment was carried out with completely randomized design with seven treatments viz., T₀ - Control; T₁ - MS + 2 mg l^-1 NAA; T₂ - MS + 2 mg l^-1 IAA; T₃ - MS + 2 mg l^-1 2,4-D; T₄ - MS + 2 mg l^-1 Kinetin; T₅ - MS + 2 mg l^-1 BA; T₆ - MS + 1 mg l^-1 IAA + 1 mg l^-1 BA and 3 replications. Among the various explants investigated stem bits registered the least days (12.38) for callus induction. The stem bits responded well with better callusability (78.57 per cent), relative growth rate (2.57) and callus index (249.16). MS medium + 2 mg l^-1 2,4-D was found to be the best for inducing callus in various explants namely stem bits, leaf bits and root bits. L DOPA accumulation was more in cell suspension cultured in liquid MS medium with 4 per cent sucrose + 1 mg l^-1 IAA + 1 mg l^-1 BA and that was confirmed by means of HPLC.

ABSTRACT

Tamarind, an economically important multipurpose tropical tree, is a species of choice for sustainable development of wasteland due to its hardy nature and adaptability to various agroclimatic conditions. However, there are very few reports on in vitro regeneration of tamarind. In an attempt to induce caulogenic response, effect of different cytokinins on nodal explants from mature trees was tested. The study extended to seedling explants, revealed that 6-Benzylaminopurine (0.08 - 44.39μM) and Zeatin (0.09 - 9.12μM) induced multiple shoots with callusing at the base of explant. Kinetin (0.09 - 9.29μM) and 6-γ,γ- dimethylallylaminopurine (2iP) (0.09-9.84μM) remained ineffective for multiplication of shoots and callusing was noted at the cut end of explant in contact of medium. Thidiazuron (TDZ) (0.09- 9.08μM) failed to induce morphogenic response and triggered dedifferentiation in the basal cut end. This led to profuse callusing in the explant and restricted morphogenesis. To avoid wound in the explant, tamarind seeds were cultured in medium containing TDZ.

Seedlings were germinated in medium with or without Thidiazuron (4.54, 9.08, 13.12, 18.16μM). Differentiation of the apical meristem to shoot was restricted and proliferation of the cotyledonary node meristem was triggered. Large number of meristematic buds appeared in a radial pattern around the node. The meristematic activity subsequently spread towards the cotyledonary bridge and also in the proximal part of the hypocotyl. These buds differentiated to form shoot primordia and subsequently to shoots in medium devoid of growth regulator. Plants developed by micrografting of these shoots on seedling derived rootstocks, survived in soil.