eChapters

Although the common cold affects all parts of the body, it usually begins in the nose and throat. Colds are so common we hardly give them a second thought, yet they can be rather serious. Most colds are due to virus infections of one type or another. Unfortunately, none of these viruses are susceptible to our present antibiotic medicines. Adenoviruses produce the more serious type of colds, and they are often followed by tonsillitis and sore throat even virus pneumonia, particularly in children. Sometimes the membranes of the eyes are also involved.

The common cold is the most prevalent of all diseases known to man. The average person seems to have two or three colds a year. The condition is highly contagious. When one member of the family has a cold, the others are very likely to have one within a few days.

What makes a person susceptible to a cold? Probably his lowered resistance is a chief factor. Allergic disorders of the nose and throat also make a person more susceptible to colds and other virus infections. Chilling of the body does seem to play a part, particularly in those whose resistance is already weak. Lack of sleep may be another factor.

Any person may carry the cold virus. However, children under six years of age seem readily to pass the infection from one to another, and soon all the family is involved. Colds are always more serious in the younger children.

1. FRUIT CROPS

1.1 Physiological Disorders

A wide variety of physiological disorders are found in apple fruit, but the susceptibility varies with variety, pre-harvest factors and post harvest conditions. Disorders can be considered in three categories:

1. Disorders that develop only on the tree: Most important is watercore in which intercellular air spaces in the core and cortical tissues become filled with liquid, Presence of watercore in fruit at harvest creates problems in certain varieties such as ‘Delicious’ because fruit with moderate or severe watercore can develop breakdown during storage.
2. Disorders that develop on the tree and during storage: Bitter pit is a disorder characterized by development of discrete pitting of the cortical flesh. Rapid cooling, CA storage and application of postharvest calcium drenches may be able to reduce its occurrence.
3. Disorders that develop during storage: Senescent breakdown disorders, chilling disorders and disorders associated with inappropriate atmospheres during storage are common disorders. The most common disorders associated with temperature and atmospheres are superficial scald, soft scald, low temperature breakdown, brown core, internal browning, low O2 injury, and high CO2 injury.

Juniperus communis, the common juniper, is a species of small tree or shrub in the cypress family Cupressaceae. This evergreen conifer has the largest geographical range of any woody plant, with a circumpolar distribution throughout the cool temperate Northern Hemisphere from theArctic south in mountains to around 30°N latitude in North America, Europe and Asia. Relict populations can be found in the Atlas Mountains of Africa.

As to be expected from the wide range, J. communis is very variable, with several infraspecific taxa; delimitation between the taxa is still uncertain, with genetic data not matching morphological data well.

• Subsp. communis – Common juniper. Usually an erect shrub or small tree; leaves long, 8–20(–27) mm; cones small, 5–8 mm, usually shorter than the leaves; found at low to moderate altitude in temperate climates.
• Subsp. communis var. communis – Europe, most of northern Asia
• Subsp. communis var. depressa Pursh – North America, Sierra Nevada in California
• Subsp. communis var. hemisphaerica (J.Presl & C.Presl) Parl. – Mediterranean mountains
• Subsp. communis var. nipponica (Maxim.) E.H.Wilson – Japan (status uncertain, often treated as J. rigida var. nipponica)

This study deals with the ethnomedicinal prospects of common weeds thriving in the wide array of terraced paddy fields used for rhizipisciculture by the Apatanis, a unique tribe indigenous to the remote Ziro valley in the Eastern Himalayas. Surveys were conducted in agricultural fields surrounding three villages in order to record the paddy field flora present on the partition bunds. Elderly villagers were also interviewed with the help of an interpreter to document their traditional knowledge about the medicinal uses of these weeds. A total number of 36 species of indigenous medicinal plants were recorded along with the local name, the plant parts used, the modes of preparation and administration of traditional herbal remedies and the illnesses treated. This easily accessible medicinal plant resource, ameliorating a wide range of common ailments, was found to be a reliable means for managing the primary healthcare of this indigenous agrarian community of the Eastern Himalayas.

ABSTRACT

The tissue culture derived black pepper plants of variety Panniyur 4 were compared with conventional propagules for its vegetative growth and field performance. The in vitro derived plants recorded better rooting, survival rate and shoot growth than the conventional propagules. More than 90% of the TC derived plants recovered after primary hardening and 99% recovered after secondary hardening, while it was only 70% in conventional propagules at both the hardening stages. The secondary roots developed in TC derived plants were observed to be far more superior in number and length. The initial growth rate in terms of plant height, number and size of leaves was much better in TC derived plants. The TC derived plants developed numerous bearing shoots - laterals - in the first year of growth and started bearing in the first year itself. The performance was superior to conventional propagules in which production of laterals and bearing begins much later. Thus the performance of TC derived plants was rated as superior to conventional propagules.

ABSTRACT

Protoplast isolation of Piper nigrum L.and Piper colubrinum Link. was attempted using axenic leaves at two different osmotic potentials viz. 0.60 and 0.65 molar (M) osmoticum. In Piper nigrum, highest protoplast yield (6.90 x 10⁴ protoplasts ml^-1) was observed in the enzyme combination 1.40 per cent cellulase and 0.310 per cent pectinase while in Piper colubrinum, highest protoplast yield (13.0 x 10⁴ protoplasts ml^-1) was observed in the enzyme combination 1.0 per cent cellulase and 0.217 per cent pectinase during 21 h of digestion. In both the species, 0.6 M osmoticum was found to be optimum to maintain the osmotic potential of the isolation solution. Filtration-centrifugation technique was found to be superior in purifying the protoplasts of Piper species compared to sucrose floatation method. Centrifugation at 1000 rpm for three minutes was found to be best in purifying Piper nigrum protoplasts. For purifying Piper colubrinum protoplasts, 600 rpm for three minutes was found optimum. The protocol developed for protoplast isolation in Piper species can be used for biotechnological means like somatic hybridization between the two and gene transfer to develop foot rot resistant black pepper lines.

The food plants of world are damaged by more than 10,000 species of insects, 30,000 species of weeds, 1,00,000 diseases (caused by fungi, bacteria, viruses and other microorganisms and 1000 species of nematodes (Hall, 1995). The global losses due to various categories of pests vary with the crop, geographic location and weather. Total yield losses from different pests to all the crops have been estimated to be US$ 500 billion worldwide (Oerke et al., 1994). In India, the current losses due to insect pests in principal field crops have been estimated to be Rs. 6, 89,400 million (Dhaliwal et al., 2004). In addition, there is loss of Rs. 60,000 million due to insect pests during storage. Thus, total losses to major crops and food grains in storage caused by insect pests are estimated to be Rs. 750 billion annually (Dhaliwal and Arora, 2006). Among regions, losses in Asia and Africa almost reaches 50 percent whereas in Europe (28.2%), North America (31.2%) and Oceania (36.2%) are below average. Losses due to animal pests in Asia (18.7%) are almost double those in developed countries and losses from weed competition in Africa and Asia are approximately double than those in Europe (Oerke et al., 1994). To combat such heavy losses mostly chemical pesticides are used by the farmers but indiscriminate use of pesticides has led to severe ecological consequences like destruction of natural enemy fauna, effect on non target organisms, residues in consumable products including packed pure and mineral water and ultimately resistance to the pesticides, to which we solely rely. Insecticides are always required to suppress rapidly expanding insect pest populations. Strategies should be employed to increase efficiency and accelerate insect mortality by combining microbials with sub lethal doses of chemical insecticides and botanicals. Biointensive pest management (BIPM) is the recent trend in Indian farming and attracting the farmers for higher income to their produce. This has resulted due to increased awareness among the end users and concerns about the deteriorating ecological situations among the eco-campaigners.

Microbial pesticides consist of disease causing microorganisms, which are disseminated in the pest populations in large quantities in a manner similar to application of chemical pesticides. It includes bacteria, viruses, fungi, nematodes and some protozoans. Pathogens may exert controlling effect by means of their invasive properties, toxins, enzymes and other substances (Lewis, 2006). The use of microbial insecticide has been proved to be a viable alternative to chemical insecticides, especially in management of forest insect pests. The combination of particular active ingredients and their ability of replication in host populations in the fields define the major differences between microbial insecticides and chemical insecticides. These differences have practical implications for their use in insect pest management programmes.

Introduction
Understanding the concepts of technology transfer, licensing, and commercialization is crucial as it plays an important role in understanding how scientific discoveries leads to generation of new technologies further making them the impactful solutions that benefit industries and society. In the context of Indian HEIs, this especially important because a large volume of impactful research often remains underutilized due to limited commercialization channels. This chapter explains the terminology, essential components of technology transfer, outlines its significance for the innovation ecosystem. It also outlines the evolution of India’s technology transfer ecosystem, and emphasizes while understanding its potential to boost India’s economy, encourage entrepreneurship, and strengthen global competitiveness. From initial idea to a market-ready product is complex and multiphased process. The stepwise process is shown in Figure 1. It highlights a structured pathway consisting of five core phases: Idea/Concept, Technology development, Intellectual Property (IP) rights, Technology transfer, and Technology commercialisation.
Phase 1: Idea/Concept stage
This process of technology transfer starts with the Idea/Concept phase, where an invention is created. Each phase plays an important role in transforming raw scientific knowledge into innovative solutions that benefit society and generate economic value. In this phase breakthrough ideas emerge, within labs. Researchers explore and develop initial proof-of-concept or prototypes to validate their ideas. At this stage, the focus is primarily on knowledge creation rather than commercialization. This pathway of technology transition is summarized in Figure 1.

In India many medicinal plants traditionally used by tribal and other sources have been recorded by different authors, workers and researchers. Many plants that can cause symptomatic relief for various ailments have also been established. Attempts have been made by different scientists to ascertain the active principles behind the herbal cure of certain diseases. Ayurvedic preparations from plant sources have been developed in our country to certain extent. Many Homeopathic medicines have also been procured from plants and herbs. Scientific conferences in State, National and International levels are being held on Traditional Asian Medicines to ascertain the scientific truth behind them. Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, New Delhi, Regional Research Laboratory, Bhubaneswar and many other Institutes of our country are doing creditable work to isolate the composition of medicinal plants. Many useful compounds have been isolated from different medicinal flora and their efficiency has been established scientifically. Good numbers of Allopathic medicines prepared on the basis of herbal cures are flooding in the market in different trade marks. Still the country is to find preventive and curative medicines for Cancer, AIDS, Thalsamia and other such deadly diseases. Recent International Conference on Cancer held at New Delhi came out with a suggestion that certain flora could be explored for the possibility of treating cancer without side effects. When we are starting to realize the importance of flora for a healthy living and scientists are in search of drugs from the vegetation to irradicate diseases deforestation is reampant in our country. Our environment has been contaminated due to various types of pollutants from industries and other anthropogenic sources. At this juncture man has to maintain a balance to achieve harmony of both the factors for our better living. The tribal dweller who is considered as the ‘Maa in the forest’ has to be recognized first so far his knowledge in medicinal plants is concerned. After ascertaining the utility of medicinal plants they are to be protected, propagated both by Government and Public. Scientific experiments are to be carried out to establish the active principles behind the herbal drugs. Herbal gardens are to be instituted at different places by adopting modern biotechnological methods. There is a need to make joint efforts by the workers from the fields of Allopathic, Ayurved and Homeopathic, as a step towards “the irradication of diseases”. Such an inter-disciplinary work on medicinal plants may throw a new light for achieving success, in finding out medicines without side effect. In this context, Pharmacologists have to play a vital role while preparing the doses of drugs from plant sources.

India is primarily an agriculture based economy, which implies, agriculture dominates the nation’s economic landscape. In the course of socioeconomic growth, agriculture is crucial. Around 58 per cent of the population in India relies only on agriculture for their livelihood. India is enriched with various agricultural and horticultural crops with diversified agro-climatic conditions and different soil types. India is one of the leading producing countries of cereals, pulses, oilseeds, fruits, vegetables etc. India is also have a prominent scope in allied sectors of agriculture includes livestock, poultry, forestry, sericulture etc. Among such crops, Moringa is the selected crop for this research study. Moringa (Moringa oleifera), which is popularly known as ‘Drumstick’ belongs to the family Moringaceae. Moringa is basically a native crop of India. This crop has its own therapeutic properties with greater nutritional content. Especially in South Indian cuisine, moringa pod is a highly regarded vegetable because of its distinctive flavour and fragrance.

Introduction 
Polymers are mostly distinguished from metals by their property of inability to conduct electricity. Because of the insulating properties, polymers find advantages for many applications of plastics. However with the discovery of poly sulphur nitride [(SN)x], which acts as super-conductor at low temperature the evolution of conducting polymers began in 1975. After two years the linear conjugated organic polymer polyacetylene treated with gaseous bromine or Iodine found to have metallic properties. Some examples of conducting polymers are polyaniline, polypyrrole and polythiophene etc. Conducting polymers are organic polymer, possesses the magnetic, electronic, electrical properties, mechanical properties, and processibility etc. These properties are most commonly related to the conventional polymer. The transformation of polymer from insulator to conductor is called doping. For example: the effect of conductivity due to the absorption of I2 into polyacetylene is analogous to the effect of doping of arsenic, boron, and phosphorus into silicon to make semiconductor. Doping and undoping can be achieved in conducting polymers by an alternate route of electrochemical oxidation and reduction. Doping includes either the removal of electrons from or addition of electron to the conjugated backbone of conducting polymers. Doping is therefore of two types: Oxidative doping (p-type): In this case, the polymer backbone carries a positive charge due to removal of an electron by ordinary oxidation. Examples of p-doped conductive polymers are polyacetylene, polyaniline, polypyrroles etc. The p-doping causes oxidation of the polymer backbone to form cations. When these cations move along the polymer backbone in an electrical field, the polymer is electrically conductive. Reductive doping (n-type): the polymer backbone acquires negative charge by receiving electrons. Ex: Polyacetylene can be n-doped by alkali metals but these are less explored because they are very much sensitive towards atmospheric air than specific undoped type polymer. According to the principle of electroneutrality, doped conducting polymer needs counter ion to balance the opposite charges in the polymer backbone. These counterions are called dopant. Some common examples of dopants are usually small anions e.g. Cl-, I-, and SO4 2-. However poly-electrolyte like p-toluene sulphonic acid can act as the dopant. The process by which the doped polymer loses its charges and becomes an insulator is called undoping. For a doped conducting polymer with isolated small anions as dopants, undoping is accompanied by the loss of the dopant. Undoping causes the conductive polymer to lose its electrical conductivity and useful optical properties.

Threats

There are sixteen threat factors have been identified from Indian mangroves (Kathiresan 2010). However, habitat conversion for agriculture and aquaculture activities, environmental pollution by upstream anthropogenic activities, Climate change processes (e.g. sea level rise; increasing frequency of cylones, etc.) are the major threat factors for mangroves. Mangroves are able to cope up with short-term oscillations and long-term fluctuations of climatic conditions, but the consequences of global climate change, such as increased extreme events, will have unprecedented effects on biota and threaten the resilience and recovery potential of the ecosystems (Harris et al. 2018; Sippo et al. 2018). Despite conservation measures, the mangroves still experience an annual loss of 0.2-0.7% during 2000-2012 and they remain the most threatened ecosystem of the world (Hamilton and Casey 2016).

Biodiversity is a matter of concern to everyone as most of the economic sectors depends on it e.g. agriculture depends on it for wild genetic resources and biological control, human health depends on nature for many pharmaceuticals, industry requires raw materials which come from the nature, tourism increasingly base its attraction on natural amenities linked to biodiversity, water resources require intact vegetation to protect watershed and prevent siltation, disaster prevention needs natural vegetation to help people to respond to drought and the lists goes on and on (Mc Neely, 2004). Each of these sectors needs to be reminded of its reliance on biodiversity and provided with opportunity to invest in insuring the continued survival of the biological basis of their prosperity. Thus biodiversity has emerged as an integral aspect of human life and hence undoubtedly one of the keystone of sustainable development. Biodiversity in arid lands are under severe threats due to habitat destruction (Manuder and Clubbe, 2002), invasion of species (O’Kennen et al., 1999) dilution of customary conservation practices, climate change (Given, 1994; WCMC, 1992), increasing human population, unsustainable exploitation of natural resources, grazing pressure etc.

Ethnobotany deals with different aspects of man-plant relationship with special emphasis on ethnic community of a region, nay country or any geographical territory. This perhaps gives us a new dimension, orientation and objectives to make it complete with vivid information on people and their resource use pattern including science background behind scientific use. The new form of ethno-botany is now reformed and re-oriented as beta-ethnobotany. Earlier taxonomists, anthropologists and social workers have made their work on a wide field of man-plant relationship which was very loose in the sense that no specification or special focus was there which has its origin so called alpha-ethnobotany. Beta-ethnobotany deals with objective based oriented studies, divine, dynamic and quantitative ethno-botany with special emphasis to assessment of credibility of folk claims, ethno pharmacology, ethno-pharmacotherapy and ethno-medicine. Presently scientists estimated that out of over 5000 plants have been used in ethno-medicine much less than 1000 are utilized in herbal drug industry in different indigenous systems of medicine like ayurveda, homoeopathy, unani and siddha. A wide variation of use and conservation strategies on that medicine or the raw sources of these materials are available in the lower tract of Chotanagpur plateau in red lateritic part of West Bengal so called the ‘ rarh’ region. Tribal people like santal, kol, sabar, kheria, oraon, munda etc. inhabiting the rarh region use the medicine as ethno-medicine since time immemorial and conserve the plants and similar plant propagules in their home gardens and nearby sal (Shorea robusta) dominated forests for future generation. Wide application and conservation strategies of a large number of ethno-medicine and ethno-medicinal plants have been presented here with special emphasis on landscape conservation to make the ecosystem pristine rather than degraded in near future.

Biofertilizers can directly or indirectly influence the growth of plant. The direct influence can be through production of phytohormones or making the nutrients available to plants. The indirect effect can be through management of plant pathogens through biological control. Therefore, the purposeful introduction of biofertilizer inoculants to plant microbiome represents an environmentally sound option that holds a prominent position in order to reduce the dependency on agrochemicals (Adesemoye and Kloepper, 2009; Abhilash et al., 2016; Aloo, et al., 2019).

Microbes in soil can rarely exists as single cells and survive near the plant root canopy or in bulk soils or endophytes or even on plant surfaces (Lorito, 2006). The soil microflora occurs as complex members of microbiota (Hacquard, 2015). Microbial consortia (MC) are unique mixture of organisms which respond to the environment stress and adapt to stresses due to internal beneficial interactions among the microbial community. Ecosystem’s physiological functions by microflora is carried out by more than one microbial species with the functional diversity and succession among different microbial components. The microbial balance among the different microflora of a MC will consist of a continuous shift between actively growing cells and non-dividing cells of the microbial consortia. It has been reported that different microbial populations “talk” to each other by “quorum sensing” mechanism in a given environment by exchanging specific chemical signals (Thompson, 2015). Natural microbial consortia holds many specific properties like stability, functional diversity and perform complex functions. The natural consortia have generated an interest in manpulating synthetic consortia for the benefit of application (Minty, et al., 2013).

Constipation means difficult or infrequent passage of the feces. In some cases it is due to mechanical obstruction of the intestines, such as cancer, diverticulitis, or perhaps to some functional cause, such as an irritable colon discussed above. In most cases there is no actual obstruction.

Many elderly people suffer from constipation; probably they do not take sufficient fluid. They may think they are drinking enough, but careful observation may reveal that they are having only two or three glasses of liquid a day. For normal bowel habits, one should drink from six to eight glasses of fluid each day.

Sometimes constipation results from ignoring the normal call of nature. Many people suffering from constipation become dependent upon laxatives in early childhood. This is most unfortunate, for it means that the child may be dependent on drugs for the rest of his life. As far as possible do not use an enema on a child unless absolutely necessary. Laxatives and enemas are only for unusual conditions. Nature will provide for the normal needs of the body.

It has been well established that the biofertilizers are beneficial to plants and are cost-effective inputs for sustainable production system. However, there are some constraints with respect to its production, which are presented below:

10.1 Production constraints

10.1.1 Raw material

Eventhough there are large number of biofertilizer formulations, only few are considered as good carrier materials for biofertilizers such as peat and lignite. Moreover, its availability in India is limited and the quality is lacking for these carrier materials. Hence, a cost effective and locally available material with increased shelf-life is the need of the hour.

10.1.2 Specificity and availability of strains

As the microbial strains used as biofertilizers are specific to soil and agro-ecological conditions, availability of specific strains for the specific host and soil edaphic factors are inadequate.

Some of the constraints in cashew production in the country which limits the productivity of cashew per unit area

• % Large area under cashew in the country is still covered with non-descript genetically inferior seedling progenies.

• % Cashew is a neglected plantation crop among the farmers and generally grown under neglected condition.

• % The land which is not suitable for other plantation crops only are available to cashew crop. Hence, the land which is available for cashew is usually eroded and degraded with poor soil fertility.

• % Farmers are not fully aware of the latest cashew production technologies due to inadequate transfer of technology.

• % Even if farmers are aware of the latest cashew production technologies, non adoption of recommended package of practices to the extent required.

• % Absence of compact and dwarf high yielding varieties, because of which high density planting cannot be adopted to realize the full potentiality of high density planting technology.

1. Introduction
 Laboratories form the backbone of research, clinical diagnostics and industrial quality control. Good Laboratory Practices (GLP) serve as the foundation for ensuring the quality, integrity, and reliability of scientific research, particularly in different pharmaceuticals drug testing, environmental studies and chemical testing. Good Laboratory Practices (GLP) in animal husbandry and dairy research play a crucial role in ensuring the accuracy and reproducibility of scientific studies related to livestock management, dairy production animal health and promoting animal welfare. Originally developed to prevent fraud and ensure regulatory compliance, GLP has evolved in response to advancements in technology, increased regulatory demands and the growing human and animals need for sustainability in laboratory operations. Laboratory settings are inherently fluid, with regulatory frameworks and technological progress constantly reshaping the environment. Studies indicate that even minor lapses in quality control can trigger significant inconsistencies in test results, outcomes that can have serious repercussions in both clinical and research domains. Therefore, cultivating a philosophy of ongoing improvement is crucial for addressing these evolving challenges, meeting the rising demand for safe, superior dairy products and embracing innovation. This article, synthesize the latest research findings and guidelines, delve into trusted best practices and outline practical strategies for embedding continuous improvement into everyday laboratory operations. A study published in the Journal of Laboratory Quality demonstrated that the adoption of structured quality indicators significantly minimized error rates and bolstered patient safety in clinical laboratories. Their research also provided a comparative analysis of different continuous improvement strategies, including the Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA) cycle and Lean Six Sigma, highlighting their respective benefits in lab environments. Based on these insights, the authors advocate for a comprehensive quality management system that seamlessly integrates automation, comprehensive staff training and routine audits to enhance process efficiency. Ultimately, the findings underscore that continuous improvement is an enduring journey, one that evolves along with advances in science, technology and regulatory standards.

Abstract

Wild medicinal plants have been major source of therapeutic agents for alleviation or cure of human diseases since time immemorial. These are extensively utilized throughout the world in two distinct areas of health management i.e., modern medicine and or folk medicine. Some of the important medicinal plants grown and cultivated in India for medicine, phytochemicals, nutraceuticals, cosmetics and others are Abelmoschus moschatus, Aristolochia bracteata, Cassia alexandrina, Caralluma fimbriata, Gymnema sylvestre, Withania somnifera and other species. They have become important sectors of trade and commerce. However, in India, about 90% collection of medicinal plants is form wild source and since 70% of collections involve destructive harvesting, many plants have become endangered or vulnerable or threatened. The increasing demands of the pharmaceutical industry have created problem of supply and one of the major difficulties being experienced by the industry is that of obtaining sufficient quantities of medicinal plants for the manufacture of genuine medicine.