eChapters

Introduction

Fruits contain various beneficial compounds that possess biological activities and can be used as pharmaceutical nutraceutical products. Most of the fruits contain polyphenolic components that can promote antioxidant potential on human health. Wild Blueberries, strawberries, plums, oranges, grapes, cherries and mangoes are rich in antioxidant. Additionally, anti-inflammatory, antibacterial, antifungal and chemopreventive effects are associated with the various fruits. Besides polyphenols, other compounds such as xanthones, carotenoids, saponins also exhibit health effects. Fruit consumption is considerably increasing in the daily diet because they supply high levels of biologically active compounds that impart health benefits beyond basic nutrition. Fruits provide an optimal mixture of antioxidants such as vitamins C and E, polyphenols and carotenoids, vitamins, phytoestrogens, glucosinolates and anthocyanins. Diets rich in fruits may help to delay the ageing processes and reduce the risk of certain types of cancer, cardiovascular diseases and other chronic diseases. The combination of vitamins, minerals, phenolic, antioxidants and fibre seems to be responsible for these effects. The most dietary components in fruits acting as antioxidants are fibre, polyphenols, conjugated isomers of linoleic acid, D-limolene, epigallocatechin, gallate, soy protein, isoflavones, vitamins A, B, C and E (group of tocopherols), calcium, selenium, chlorophyllin, alipharin, sulphides, catechin, tetrahy-drocurecumin, seasaminol, glutathione, uric acid, indoles, thiocyanates and protease inhibitors.

Introduction

Consumers are nowadays very much concerned about the food they purchase and consume. Consumer wants the food containing antioxidant properties or can say functional food in safe and stable forms, so that the availability of daily requirements of functional food ingredient must be ensured for normal growth and development of the body. The functional food that can provide a health benefit such as increased dietary fibre, vitamins or minerals to the body. The incorporation of antioxidant compounds acts as an efficient way to fight against reactive oxygen species (ROS) generated in our body. As it is already known that the ROS causes oxidative stress and acts as a main trigger for different life threatening chronic diseases like cancer, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, aging etc. Therefore, seeing the consumers’ demand for value added products with bioactive ingredients, all small and large scale food industries are taking initiatives to process different types of food (fruits, vegetables, dairy, sea food, animal, microbial products etc.) to extract and purify its active fraction of functional ingredients to valorize different value added products. Functional ingredients may also be derived from different food wastes generated during processing of food. This practice provides additional economic benefits to food businesses. Food industries are also giving importance to different processing methods to extract high quality of functional food ingredients in large quantity because processing method affects the concentration of extracted bioactive compounds. The simple addition of functional ingredients may cause an unwanted and negative change of sensory and texture of food. Therefore, using novel processing technologies such as microencapsulation, the negative changes could be minimized or avoided because these technologies could prevent the inactivation of bioactive ingredients.

Introduction

Our traditional knowledge of medicine has been one of the strongest areas of research because of our rich heritage in herbal plants & great biodiversity in our fauna & flora. Consumption of plant foods and the structurally diverse natural products provided by them have long been associated with health-protective and therapeutic effects. Natural products in plant foods have been shown to have pleiotropic therapeutic and chemopreventive properties. These bioactive products are known to potentiate the efficacy of other drugs and have synergistic effects too. Most of the prescription drugs discovered so far is from plant sources and 75% drugs had been claimed in folklore claims and traditional medicinal system (Reynold, 1991; Benowitz, 1996). The traditional Indian medicinal system utilizes multicomponent formulations of plant extracts which may either act synergistically or avoid many side effects and might have added up trace element through combination of different plant extracts which could have additive effects. However the effort to utilize traditional knowledge in the light of modern scientific findings is lacking in India. Accumulating evidences as well as in-vitro studies implicates inverse relationship between regular consumption of fruits vegetable and the risk of specific cancer. Diet derived nutritional compound mediated interventions in the process of tumorigenesis may be promising chemopreventive strategy with minimal toxicities to the physiological system.

Introduction

Society is dynamic. The requirement of society varies in course of time. During the life process human being faces lots of health hazards which are mostly due to intake of various foods. So people become cautious about the intake of food and think about the quality of foods which can protect the health of human being. In ancient times people made medicines from plant extracts to protect their health. In 1989, Dr. Stephen coined the term “Nutraceuticals” which is combination of nutrition and pharmaceutical. Nutrition is required for health and pharmaceuticals provide remedy for sickness. So it is a preventive approach. Nowadays, the definition of nutraceuticals has been expanded to include vitamins, minerals, herbs and other botanicals, amino acids, and dietary substance for human use as a supplement diet (Stauffer, 1999).

Nutraceuticals are dietary supplements made only from whole foods to augment health. Currently over 470 nutraceutical and functional food products are available with documented health benefits (Brower, 1999). The patients are much aware about the side effects of chemical agents in short and long term therapy. So to avoid medicine used for small diseases, new therapies came into trend with the help of nutritional approaches i.e. “Nutraceuticals”. The use of nutraceuticals becomes easier than pharmaceuticals since nutraceuticals does not require any animal verification for its use in human. Nutraceuticals,

Functional foods and Dietary Supplements are most important concept in food science. They have distinction amongst themselves.

Introduction

The health and wellness continue to drive growth in the global food industry as the consumers are constantly looking for the foods, beverages and other dietary solutions that will help them more aggressively to meet their own unique nutrition and personal health goals. Worldwide countries are going through a nutritional transition and are now affected by double burden of problems like nutritional and food security. The common alarming problems are under nutrition and specific nutrient deficiencies simultaneously coupled with imbalanced diets and chronic diseases. The problem of chronic diseases, non-communicable diseases (cardiovascular diseases, respiratory diseases, diabetes, obesity, cancer etc.) and malnutrition is more serious in the developing countries. The lack of access to health services, sufficient income, healthy and nutritious foods characterize majority of poor people in developing countries. So, food is not only the solution but also viewed as a product to enhance health and wellbeing, and it encourages the producers by supplying new goods that meet these needs. From the past decade, there has been growing consumer awareness regarding health, nutrition and the food safety which are often triggered by specific food incidents, especially in the developed countries and high-income groups in such countries. In the food industry there have been two broad trends which are hazards in the food chain and nutritional profile of the food. There has been recognition that hazards and contaminants can enter the food chain and can cause sickness, death and diseases, and so governments, often to deal with consumer and industry concerns, establish regulations and standards on food hazards including standards on pesticides, antibiotics, microbiological hazards and other chemical and physical contaminants. On the other hand, there is also a growing awareness of the health-enhancing properties for prevention and treatment of health concerns beyond the basic nutritional component of many foods.

Indian Institute of Horticultural Research (IIHR), Bangalore

Indian Institute of Vegetable Research (IIVR), Varanasi

Indian Institute of Spices Research (IISR), Calicut, Kerala

Central Institute of sub-tropical Horticulture (CISH), Lucknow

Central Institute of Temperate Horticulture (CITH), Srinagar

Central Potato Research Institute (CPRI), Kufri, Shimla

Central Tuber Crops Research Institute (CTCRI), Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala

Central Plantation Crops Research Institute (CPCRI) Kasargod, Kerala

Central Institute of Arid Horticulture (CIAH), Bikaner, Rajasthan

Central Institute of Post Harvest Engineering and Technology (CIPHET), Ferozepur, Punjab

Importance of training and pruning

1. To control the habit of vegetative growth and regular bearing.
2. Remove all limbs and dead branches.
3. To improve flowering, fruiting and fruit quality
4. Remove all broken shoots, diseased, or pest infection branches from all trees and shrubs.
5. It is usually best to prune temperate fruits and shrubs during early spring before full leaf.
6. Maintain balance between shoots and roots at planting and nutrients uptake
7. Provide the basic tree form and to aid the development of a strong tree framework by encouraging strong wide crotch angles
8. Stimulate shoot growth near a cut.
9. Permit proper light distribution and penetration to the tree canopy.
10. Increase insect and disease control by allowing for better spray penetration.
11. Facilitate harvesting.
12. Achieve orchard uniformity.
13. Produce the proper amount of well distributed fruiting wood.
14. Encourage a structurally sound tree by removing branches with weak narrow crotch angles or those with diseased, damaged, or unproductive wood. Invigorate and renew the bearing area of older trees.

Selection of orchard soil in rainfed areas

A good or adequate soil for orchard production is to say that a given plot or area of land must possess the following qualities.

1. A deep and well aerated soil with good drainage.
2. Adequate nutrients for optimum tree growth and high yields.
3. Good Water holding capacity - the ability to store and feed the fruit tree with an abundant supply of water.

It is a scientific technique which provides maximum outputs of various inputs consistently without any loss of fertilizers and manure, plant, plant protection chemicals, produce etc. Therefore, one should understand the management of these qualities of both resource and output.

Plant Propagation

Plant propagation involves the formation and development of new individuals, which are used in establishment of new plantings. It is simply the reproduction or multiplication of a plant from a source that is often referred to as a mother plant. In general, two methods are employed: 1) sexual and 2) asexual. Sexual propagation is multiplication of plants from seed and asexual or vegetative propagation involves starting a new plant from some vegetative part of a plant. Propagation by seed results in seedling variability. It is an extreme disadvantage for a nursery operator trying to produce a uniform crop containing chosen desirable characteristics. Seed propagation is not practiced in fruit nursery as plants raised by this method fail to bear true to type fruits.

Germination of seed

The activation of the metabolic machinery of the embryo leading to the emergence of a new seeding plant is known as germination. Germination is essentially a quickening of the growth of the embryo. As germination proceeds, the growing points of the radical and plumule divide rather rapidly Usually the radical emerges from the seed coat first, proceeds downward, and develops into the root system, the plumule proceeds upward and develops into the shoot system. Germination is entirely a food utilization process. Processes going on in seed during germination are: 1) Absorption of water; 2) Secretion of enzymes and hormones; 3) Hydrolysis of stored food into soluble form; and 4) Translocation of soluble foods and hormones to the growing points. These processes are either wholly or in part influenced by the food reserves, hormone supply, water supply, oxygen supply and temperature level.

The plan reviewing the arrangement of fruit plants in an orchard is known as the orchard layout. Although several systems of planting are followed to increase the production of orchard, selection of root stocks, soil, system of training pruning and cultivars are very important factor influencing designing of layout. However, improper system results in overlapping of plant parts, competition for water, light, nutrient and unequal distribution of water etc., which ultimately results in poor performance or fruit orchard.

Layout plan

The marking of position of the plant in the field is referred as layout. The layout plan of the orchard should be prepared carefully, preferably in consultation with horticultural experts or fruit scientists. The orchard layout plan includes the system of planning provision for orchard paths, roads, water channels and farm building. A sketch of the proposed orchard should be prepared before the actual planting is taken up.

Minor fruit crops are considered important for their food, fibre, fodder, oil or medicinal properties, but have been reduced in value over time owing to particular supply and use constraints. These can include poor shelf life, unrecognized nutritional value, poor consumer awareness and reputational problems food or “poor people’s food”. The main products consumed by people are fruit cordial, jam, fruit drinks, chutney, candy, pickle and squash concentrate crop species. The entire country is mainly depend on handful of crop species neglecting large number of vegetables, fruits and other crop species with high nutritional and medicinal values which were grown traditionally in the past, resulting these valuable crop species are critically facing the state of speedy disappearing.

Soil

Soil is the upper most crust of earth surface which supports plant growth. It is defined as a three phase system in which plants grow. These phases are solid, liquid, and gas are essential. Solid part is frame which provides space for other two. It consists of minerals, clay minerals and organic matter. The soil is also a living system with millions of microbes that breakdown organic matter. The microbes are very essential and survive only when soil is well aerated and rich in organic matter and devoid of waterlogged conditions. Texture of soil depends on the size of solid particles and classified as gravel, coarse and fine sand, silt and clay. Soils are classified according to the relative distribution of these particles. Likewise, arrangement of these particles is referred as structure. Generally loamy soils and crumb structure are most growing preferred for fruit crops. According to level of organic matter, soils are classified as mineral soil or organic soil and soil having more than 20% organic matter is organic soil like peat and muck etc. Minerals and salts lend chemical properties to the soil like pH, alkalinity, sodicity, salinity and cation exchange capacity which influences the availability of nutrients in soil. Therefore, for making choice for soil, soil analysis in terms of following criteria isessential to decide on land capability. Maximum numbers of fruit orchards in India are depleted from micro and macro plant nutrients which interrupted the growth and development of the fruit plants and their quality. Therefore, like growers are not attain profit desired. To obtain marketable fruits, nutrients managements are highly beneficial to the fruit growers rainfed areas. Analysis of soil is useful to determine the level of the elements available in the orchards to get maximum yield.

Major field operations for horticultural crops viz., fruit nursery/seedling preparation, post hole digging for planting, intercultural operation, aeration, training and pruning, irrigation, plant protection, harvesting, handling, packaging transport are completed through field tools and implements. The cultivation of horticultural crops is predominantly dependent upon human labour, since commercial cultivation is only on a limited scale. So animal/power tiller or tractor-drawn mould board ploughs, disc ploughs, harrows, cultivators and rotavators are available for land preparation and development of new orchards. The fruit plants are generally perennial plants. So different types of sprayers and dusters are available from manually to power operated such as knapsack sprayers foot operated sprayers, power operated mist blowers and dusters or plant protection equipments used for application of insecticides, pesticides and herbicides in the fruit orchards. Some of important implements and sprayers are enlisted below

1. Fruit : Types and their Classification

Fruit:The botanical definition of fruit is a seed-bearing part of a flowering plant or tree that can be eaten as food

or

Fruits are matured ovaries plus any associated flower parts and contain the seeds of the plant. The ovary may be subdivided into two or more carpels (then termed compound ovary) each bearing one to many ovules. Individual carpels develop into sections of a whole fruit, as with citrus where each familiar segment of the fruit represents one matured carpel. If the ovary is not subdivided, then it is termed simple. The ovules will mature into seeds if fertilized. Fruit has three parts.

A. Multiple Choice Questions

1. While studying the history of domestication of various cultivated plants were recognized earlier:
   1. Centers of origin
   2. Centers of domestication
   3. Centres of hybrid
   4. Centres of variation
2. The quickest method of plant breeding is:
   1. Mutation breeding
   2. Hybridization
   3. Selection
   4. Introduction

Biostatistics are the development and application of statistical methods to a wide range of topics in biology. It encompasses the design of biological experiments, the collection and analysis of data from those experiments and the interpretation of the results.

Quantitative traits are polygenic meaning they are controlled by many genes and gene interactions. Examples: height, weight, length etc.

Qualitative character

Qualitative traits are under the controlled of one or few genes, also called oligogeneic traits. For example, black or red coat color, horned or polled, coat color dilution, leaf color are all qualitative traits.

Intellectual Property: Intellectual property is an intangible creation of the human mind, usually expressed or translated into a tangible form that is assigned certain rights of property. It includes, inventions, trademarks, industrial design and geographical indications.

Intellectual Property Rights: Intellectual property rights (IPR) are the rights given to people over the creation of their minds. They usually give the creator an exclusive right over the use of his/her creations for a certain period of time. It includes, creations of the mind: inventions, literary and artistic works, and symbols, names, images, and designs used in commerce.

Marker Assisted Selection (MAS)

Marker Assisted Selection [MAS] is defining as the indirect selection for a desired plant phenotype based on the banding pattern of linked molecular (DNA) markers. It is based to infer the presence of a gene from the presence of a marker which is tightly linked to the gene of interest and high heritability of the gene of interest. Marker assisted selection (MAS) is also known by other names as marker aided selection and marker assisted breeding (MAB).

Molecular markers, including DNA based genetic markers have found their applications in almost all areas of biology, more so in evolutionary biology, genetics and breeding in order to identify a particular sequence of DNA in a pool of unknown DNA. For many applications, DNA markers are preferred over other molecular markers since DNA is stable within an organism over time and among stages of development whereas other molecules are dynamic. A molecular marker is a DNA sequence that is readily detected and whose inheritance can be easily monitored. The uses of molecular markers are based on the naturally occurring DNA polymorphism. Most commonly used molecular markers in biological science include:

1. Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphism (RFLP)

RFLP is the first molecular marker technique which was invented by Botstein et al. (1980). The technique is based on restriction fragment length polymorphism; a molecular marker based on the differential hybridization of cloned DNA to DNA fragments in a sample of restriction enzyme digested DNAs; the marker is specific to a single clone/restriction enzyme combination. It consists of the following steps:

Advances in molecular biology have sharpened the tools of the breeders, and brighten the prospects of confidence to serve the humanity. The application of biotechnology to field crop has already led to the field testing of genetically modified crop plants. Genetically engineered Rice, Maize, Soybean, Cotton, Oilseeds like Rape seed, Sugar Beet and Alfalfa cultivars are expected to be commercialized in the late of 20^th century. Genes from varied organisms may be expected to boost the performance of crops especially with regard to their resistance to biotic and abiotic stresses

Genetic engineering involves isolation of DNA fragments within a cell recombining them outside. The basic technique is quite simple. Two DNA molecules are isolated and cut into fragments by one or more specialized enzymes, the fragments joined together in a desired combination, then restored to a cell from replication and reproduction. This method also referred to as recombinant DNA technology. Genetic engineering developed in the mid 1970 when it becomes possible to cut DNA and to transfer particular pieces of DNA containing specific bits of information, from one type of organism into other.