eChapters

Pimples are very common in young people during their teen years. This condition, which is also known as acne, is apparently due to certain hormone changes in the body. It is particularly prevalent during early adolescence, from 12 to 16 years of age, and is more likely to occur in those who have an oily skin. In the early stages a blackhead or comedone blocks the outlet of an oil gland within the skin. This is not a serious problem, for it leaves no permanent effect.

If the sebaceous duct ruptures and the oily material ooze out between the layers of the skin instead of coming to the surface, there may be a cyst or swelling known as a sebaceous cyst. These are somewhat disfiguring, but not harmless unless they become infected and form small abscesses. When these heal they may leave ugly scars. Severe acne may occur on the shoulders, the back and chest, as well as the face and neck.

Effects of diet: Acne is not caused by diet, but certain foods definitely aggravate this condition, especially in some patients. Rich foods, such as chocolate, nuts, cola drinks, ice-cream, fatty meats, and excessive amount of sugar, all seem to aggravate this condition. Certain drugs, such as those containing bromides and iodides, may also play a part in some people.

Some girls develop one to two pimples just before menstruation. These only last a day or two and are of no consequence. But when acne continues over months or years, it is very distressing, especially to a young woman, and something should definitely be done to clear up the condition. Nervous tension due to family trouble may also play a part in continuing this difficult problem. Even in its mildest form, acne usually persists for a year or more until the hormone system of the body has become fully adjusted.

This chapter provides a readily available means of reference for helping in life threatening emergencies, accidents and for providing first aid, where any delay caused by the lack of medication or non-availability of the doctor can have serious consequences either in terms of life or in terms of resulting serious sickness.

As soon as possible competent medical help should be availed of in emergencies and accidents. In the meanwhile the homoeopathic medicines suggested hereafter would provide relief, would halt deterioration in most cases and may save life in many instances.

Emergencies can be life threatening. One of these can be severe haemorrhage, where copious bleeding can lead to death. Obstruction of breathing for different reasons is a matter for concern. Serious accidents are life threatening because there may be unmanageable bleeding, shock and pain.

Below, a list of few medicines and other items required for first aid in emergencies has been given. This can be helpful in homes, in factories and offices.

Homoeopathy system of medicine is the system of healing suited to all the young, and the old, the rich and the poor, the people in the developed as well as the underdeveloped countries and for persons in any place or climate. This is not to take away from the value and utility of the other prevalent systems of medicine. The aim of every science of healing is the relief of sick. Every system is successful in its own fashion. Homoeopathy too fights sickness and does so with remarkable results. Additionally the cost of diagnosis in this system is negligible because the diagnosis is by and large symptomatic. The medicine itself is inexpensive. Notable efficacy and low costs are the strong points of homoeopathic medicine. There are no toxic effects of the drugs, no side effects. The time taken for the medicine to show improvement is not long. Homoeopathic medicines are easy to store and have a long life.

Homoeopathy has been attacked again and again on the ground that the potencised drugs cannot be tested in a laboratory. But that way a number of phenomenon is still outside the pale of conventional science. However, laboratory tests have been going in many countries and certain phenomenon not acceptable to conventional scientific beliefs have been observed.

The homoeopathic system of medicine develops for its special use, the inner medicinal powers of the crude substances by means of a process peculiar to it and which has never been tried, whereby they only all become immeasurably and penetratingly efficacious and remedial. Even those that in the crude state give no evidence of the slightest medicinal power on the human body.

This remarkable change in the qualities of natural bodies develops the latent, hidden powers, which influence the body, change the well-being. This is affected by mechanical action upon their smallest particles by means of rubbing and shaking and through the addition of an indifferent substance, dry or fluid. This process is called dynamization; potencizing and the products are dynamizations or potencies in different degrees.

The homoeopathic materia medica consists of around 1000 drugs, the characteristics of which have been verified or proved. Homoeopathy is unique in that it uses no drug, which has not been proved. The proving has been done by administering pure medicines to healthy human beings and recording in minute detail the effects, mostly adverse, produced by such administration. The tests were conducted on men and women who were mostly medical people and students who were not sick. The drugs were administered in doses consisting of crude drugs or homoeopathic potencies. These volunteers were then asked to describe the effects of the drugs in their own words. These descriptions were noted down by the doctors conducting the experiments and were carefully recorded. Hundreds of thousands of such symptoms were recorded while proving the homoeopathic drugs and the materia medica forms a record of the best proving along with other data collected as a result of laboratory tests and experiments.

In paragraph 25 of the 'Organon of medicine', Dr.Samuel Hahnemann the founder of the system laid down the basis of homoeopathy in the following words: "Now, however, in all careful trials, pure experience, the sole and infallible oracle qi healing art, teaches us that medicine which, in its action on the healthy human body, has demonstrated its power of producing the greatest number of symptoms similar to those observable in the case of disease under treatment, does also, in doses of suitable potency and attenuation, rapidly, radically and permanently remove the totality of the symptoms of this morbid state, that is to say the whole disease present, and change it into health; and that all medicines cure, without exception, those diseases whose symptoms most nearly resemble their own, and leave none of them uncured."

Homoeopathic treatment is based on an overall understanding of the symptoms in the body and mind created by a sickness. Dr. Samuel Hahnemann, the founder of the homoeopathic science of healing, after years of experiment and trial, came to finding that symptom - similarity is the curative method of medically curable diseases. In paragraph 25 of the 'Organon of Medicine⁷, he formulated the principle of 'like cures like' in these words: " Now, however, in all careful trials, pure experience, the sole and infallible oracle of the healing art, teaches us that actually that medicine which, in its action on the healthy human body, has demonstrated its power of producing the greatest number of symptoms similar to those observable in the case of disease under treatment, does also, rapidly, radically and permanently remove the totality of the symptoms of this morbid state, that is to say, the whole disease present, and change it into health; and that all medicines cure, without exception, those diseases whose symptoms most really resemble their own, and leave none of them uncured."

The aforesaid indicates the importance of symptoms in the diagnosis and treatment in homoeopathy. If a drug creates a symptom during the course of proving, then it can be cured by a potencised dose of the drug; whatever may be the name of the disease. For instance, in proving GLONOINE produces a bursting, throbbing sensation in the head in a healthy person. Conversely any surging of the blood to the head requires GLONOINE. This can happen in a sun - stroke, in high blood pressure, in cerebro - spinal meningitis. KALI BICROMICUM produces in proving, a tough, stringy discharge of mucus. In homoeopathy, KALI BICROMICUM cures a similar discharge whether from the nose inwards from mouth, from fauces, from pharynx, from larynx, trachea, bronchi, vagina, and uterus or from any mucus membrane. CACTUSGRANDIFLORUS produces in pure form and gross doses, constriction of the heat and a constriction, anywhere in the body, which is like an iron band being tightened. The same sensation of constriction leads us to the use of CACTUS in a homoeopathic dose and it need not be confined to the heart. There can be constriction of the scalp, in the oesophagus, in the chest, in the abdomen, bladder, uterus, vagina or rectum.

This individualizing examination of a case of disease, for which Dr. Hahnemann give general directions, of which the practitioner will bear in mind only what is applicable for each individual case, demands of the physician nothing but freedom from prejudice and sound senses, attention in observing and fidelity in tracing the picture of the disease.

The patient details the history of his sufferings; those about him tell what they heard him complain of, how he has behaved and what they have noticed in him; the physician sees, hears, and remarks by his other senses what there is of an altered or unusual character about him. He writes down accurately all that the patient and his friends have told him in the very expressions used by them. Keeping silence himself, he allows them to say all they have to say, and refrains from interrupting them (every interruption breaks the train of thought of the narrators, and all they would have said at first does not again occur to them in precisely the same manner after that.) unless they wander off to other matters. The physician advises them at the beginning of the examination to speak slowly, in order that he may take down in writing the important parts of what the speaker says.

He begins a fresh line with every new circumstance mentioned by the patient or his friends, so that the symptoms shall be all ranged separately one below the other. He can thus add to any one that may at first have been related in too vague a manner but subsequently more explicitly explained.

Dr. Samuel Hahnemann laid down the fundamentals of the then new doctrine of homoeopathy in organon of medicine. As observed by him in the 'Introduction⁷ to this work, till then no one had ever taught this homoeopathic mode of cure, no one had carried it out in practice.

Dr. Hahnemann was of the view that the art of the medical practice "should. Rapidly and mildly, effect an unalloyed and permanent cure, and restore to health by means of the smallest doses of a few simple medicines carefully selected according to their proved effect, by the only therapeutic law comfortable to nature, that is Similia Similibus Curentur".

Homoeopathy is based on the following principles:

"The physicians high and only mission is to restore the sick to health, to cure, as it is termed"

The highest ideal of cure is rapid, gentle and permanent restoration of health or removal and annihilation of the disease in its whole extent in the shortest, most reliable and most harmless way on easily comprehensible principles.

Unprejudiced observer of a sick person takes note of nothing in every individuars disease except the changes in the health of the body and of the mind, which can be perceived externally by means of the senses. "All these perceptible signs represent the disease in its whole extent, that is, together they form the true and only conceivable portrait of the disease"

The homoeopathic system of medicine is one of the finest systems of cure available in the world. It achieves in totality the ideal laid down by its founder, Dr. Samuel Hahnemann:

"The highest ideal of cure is rapid, gentle and permanent restoration of the health, or removal and annihilation oftlie disease in its whole extent, in the shortest, most reliable, and most harmless way, on easily compreltensible principles".

In homoeopathy, not a single drug is used without knowing its effect on healthy human beings. Hence there is no shooting in the dark. The system operates, by and large, without laboratory tests and other expensive means of diagnosis, which are being used when not needed and that too, unfortunately on patients who can hardly afford the expenses.

Cost wise, there is no medical system in tlie world, which is as inexpensive as homoeopathy. No patient who requires a speedy cure without side effects can ignore homoeopathy; no doctor who has nothing but the good of his patient at heart can overlook the utility and effectiveness of homoeopathy and no Government which has to balance its budget can afford not to use homoeopathy in hospitals and other institutions run for the health and care of the sick and thus it is the most cost effective treatment

The discovery of homoeopathic system of medicine makes a fascinating story.

8.1 Black Pepper Breeding

Black pepper (Piper nigrum L., family:Piperaceae), known as the ‘King of Spices’ and “Black gold”, is one of the important spices since time immemorial and perhaps the oldest spice regarded globally. It is a perennial climber grown for its fruits that are used as spice with plethora of medicinal properties. Black pepper is also very important in traditional medicine (Ravindran, 2000). However, it is mainly valued for its characteristic pungency and flavour, as an ingredient in food preparations and also as a condiment.

Genetic Resources

World’s largest collection of black pepper germplasm is maintained by the Indian Institute of Spices Research (IISR) at Kozhikode, Kerala, containing local cultivars, wild forms collected from the area of origin and related species. At present there are about 3466 accessions, consisting of 1266 wild relatives, 2062 cultivars, in addition to 9 exotic collections maintained in India. These collections were characterized and evaluated to estimate the genetic diversity for various yield and quality characters. Cultivar diversity is one of the principal components of diversity in black pepper. The cultivars are evolved directly from the wild P. nigrum.

7.1 Plant Tissue Culture

Spices have great socio-economic impact in moden food habit of human but loss of resources day by day due to various reasons (industrialization, high population pressure) make the access of these valuable spices limited to people. Low production is general phenomena of common spices due to lack of high yielding varieties. Hence there is a need to improve the propagation method to meet the gap between demand and supply. Conventional vegatative propagation method is common approach for propagation but low multiplication rate, seasonal dependency and susceptible to abiotic stresses and diseases are major problems to achieve the optimum productivity. To overcome these drawbacks scientists have chosen the plant tissue culture technique (a modern approach of biotechnology which deals with the propagation the valuable/endangered plants under laboratory condition). Details about this technique and its role on spices are given below.

Plant Tissue Culture: Basic Components and Objectives

The technique of growing of a whole plant cell, tissue or organ under an aseptic condition in suitable synthetic medium is termed as plant tissue culture (Thorpe, 2007). De-differentiation and re-differentiation are two essential fundamental processes which help in the physio-morphological development of the plant.

6.1 Introduction

Plant breeding is the indispensible component of elevating production and productivity of spices by evolving high yielding and/or with good quality type. Thereby, the practice of identification and selection of desirable traits and introgression of those characters in a single plant is being done since the beginning of organized agricultural activities by humankind. The act of plant breeding was reshaped and got a momentum with a scientific basis after the discovery and rather rediscovery of Mendel’s laws. Worldwide, humankind could enjoy the direct benefits of methodical plant breeding during green revolution. Manipulation of genetic architecture for creating variation in the population and successive selection is the basic of all kinds of crop breeding. But the process of creation of variability and selection differs from crop to crop depending on their mode of reproduction. It is comparatively easier to get a new homogeneous population in self pollinating plants. Therefore, segregating generations are handled differently in these two categories of self and cross pollinated crops.

Pollination

Pollination is the act of transfer of pollen from the male reproductive organ of a plant to the female reproductive organ of same or another plant.

Pollination is of two types

5.1 Self Pollination

It is the transfer of pollen from the anther to the stigma of the same flower from where the anthers have been generated. Thus, self pollination happens to be denominated as autogamy where auto means “same” and gamy means “union”. Obviously, self pollination is found in bisexual flowers. But self pollination also occurs when pollen is transferred from one bisexual flower to the stigma of another bisexual flower of the same plant. This kind of autogamy is known as geitonogamy. So, self pollination has to be defined keeping the parent plant on the main focus not the flower. If genetical consequences are considered, self pollination promotes the occurance of purelines or homozygotes. Self pollinating species developed themselves evolutionary fit due to homozygous balance and do not exhibit significant inbreeding depression.

Cultivated plants in general including the spice crops observed today have been evolved through selections from their weedy and wild types. Apart from this, there had been another force which could bring the wild forms into cultivated forms named human intervention which is actually the process of domestication. Natural mutations and genetic recombination after selfing and crossing also played a significant role in the entire process. Whereas, natural forces take a long time to come into act, the techniques of plant breeding was devised and fine tuned throughout passing of times, essentially to accelerate the speed of evolution using these natural phenomenons. It was, therefore, mandatory for us to know the modes of reproduction and pollination to create variability in natural population and make all thise happen to what we see today in organised cultivated forms. Moreover, knowledge on reproduction of different plant species helps the breeder to choose the right breeding procedure to be used for crop improvement. Modes of reproduction help to evaluate the genetic constitution of crop plants by determining the extent of homozygosity or heterozygosity which, in turn, are unanimously applicable to any plant. To comprehend modes of reproduction in spice crops effectively, understanding about the floral biology is absolutely necessary. Plant reproduction, a process by which one species gives birth to its offsprings, may be of two types

Since historical times, Indian spices have been contributed not only to the country’s wealth and prosperity but also to the subcontinent itself as a whole. Spices precisely witnessed many wars, bloodshed, armoury alongwith the glowing accounts and adventurous voyage by Pliny, Ptolemy, Marco Polo, Vasco da Gamma and other travelers. The Southern parts of India, especially the Malabar Coast, with its abundance of the World’s best pepper, cinnamon and ginger was enormously creating impact of a plethora of spices which attracted the foreign trade and continue even today by creating a unique brand value globally. In the past, invaders travelled to India by overcoming many odds and barriers with the prime focus on capturing spice trade and dominating the trade scenario of those days throughout the world. As a result, gradually Indian spices travelled far and wide to traditional destinations by providing flavor, aroma, pungency, taste and colour to a variety of foods and beverages.

It was the end of 18^th century, from when scientific research began on the idea of origin of cultivated plants. The pioneers of this field were Darwin, Alphonse de Candolle, N.I Vavilov and many more. Charles Darwin wrote his famous book ‘On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection’, or the ‘Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life’ published on 24^th November 1859. According to him, cultivated plants may have originated from its wild form after a series of intense modifications. Afterwards, a Swiss botanist Alphonse de Candolle studied 247 cultivated plant species and documented his work in the book “Origin of cultivated plants” in 1886. Later, Vavilov first identified the Centres of origin. He could determine the origin of plants by analyzing the pattern of variation and proposed that, crop plants have been evolved from their wild species in the geographic region of the greatest genetic diversity of that particular plant. That area is known as the primary centres of origin of the particular plant. But, some crop species were found to show substantial genetic diversity even though they did not originate there. Such areas are known as secondary centres of origin for that particular species.

A. General Morphology

2.1 The Root

It is the organ of a plant that typically lies below the surface of the soil.The root is best defined as the non-leaf, non-nodes bearing parts of the plant’s body. However, important internal structural differences between stems and roots exist. Root spices are, rather surprisingly, rare. Some popular examples of spices having roots are: Apium graveolens (Celery), Armoracia rusticana (Horse radish), Coriandrum sativum (Coriander), Ferula asafoetida (Asafetida), Glycyrrhiza glabra (Licorice), Levisticum officinale (Lovage), (Petroselinum crispum (Parsley), etc. All of the mentioned plants have aromatic roots.Roots of gingiberaceae are adventitious and storage roots arise from among the nodes of these scales.

Plant breeding is described as an art and science of changing the genetic architecture of plants with a goal towards betterment of mankind. Apart from this generalized concept, plant breeding is accomplished through inter-disciplinary mode assorted from simple selection in a variable plant-population having some desirable traits to the application of biotechnology and more. Worldwide, cultivars of different crops are routinely manufactured by Multinational and National level Industries, Government Institutions, Universities, Crop specific Organizations, professional plant breeders and even by the individuals such as gardeners and farmers.

Plant breeding is basically operated by the principles of Genetics where selections are practiced from a variable population and the selected variation needs to be inherited. Three categorized broad goals of plant breeding are 1) high yield 2) uplift in quality and 3) resistance against biotic and abiotic stress.

Spice crops are known to add nutritive value and increase the palatability as well as quality of food. Therapeutic uses of spices are also well recognised. The spice industry in India and trade has shown stunning progress over the last 5 years with 120% increase in revenue which is very close to touch $ 3 billion. East Asia is the major market for spices, followed by America and the European Union and the world spice trade has almost touched $ 17 billion by 2020. So, increased production is of paramount importance across the world and the potential is increasing. On the other hand, quality improvement is one of the primary objectives of spice crop breeding apart from achieving high yield. Cultivar and species diversity are the principal components of diversity of spices (Sasikumar et al. 1999; Krishnamoorthy et al., 1997; Prasath and Venugopal, 2004). A good amount of variability is found in many important Indian spices like black pepper, cardamom, cinnamon, curry leaf, ginger, garcinia, tamarind and turmeric. A number of cultivars have been released followed by intra-germplasm evaluation and selection in spices. Contribution of recombination breeding is less in spice crops with regard to other field crops and a number of valuable varieties have been bred by clonal and seedling selection (Peter, 2008). Deployment of high yielding, water use efficient, climate resilient genotypes and technologies are also necessary.

The biofertilizer technology has paved way for the manufacturers and entrepreuners to establish a biofertilizer production unit due to an increasing demand and awareness among farmers. Biofertilizer production units have already been started with most of them in the southern states of India. The biofertilizers can be produced using different kinds of carrier materials (peat, coal, lignite, clays, inorganic soil), organic materials (composts, soybean meal, wheat bran, sawdust, etc.), or inert materials (e.g., vermiculite, perlite, kaolin, bentonite, silicates). Natural carriers like peat, plant waste materials, composts, sawdust, sludge lignite, clays, coal, vermiculite, perlite and bentonite and mixture of organic and inorganic materials may also be used.

The Government of India is also encouraging a low cost technology by providing a subsidy to establish a biofertilizer production unit . The major equipment’s and other materials required for a biofertilizer production unit with the capacity of 150 metric tonnes/annum are given below

There are many manufacturers of biofertilizers in both government and private sectors. Only some of them have been listed here for the information

The soil fertility is depleting in the current scenario of gap between nutrient removal from soil and supplies. Moreover, increase in the fertilizer prices has become unaffordable to small and marginal farmers. There is also a growing concern about the environmental hazards and its threat to sustainable crop production. Indiscriminate use of synthetic fertilizers for intensive crop production has resulted in large quantity of nutrient (particularly P) accumulation in soils which has resulted in generating a dead soil. In this context, the long term use of biofertilizers are considered to be economical, eco-friendly, more efficient, productive and accessible to marginal and small farmers over chemical fertilizers (Subba Rao, 2001). Biofertilizers mainly consists of specific living cells which supplies nutrients to plants through their root system. Microbes in these fertilizers provide nutrients to the plants by nitrogen fixation, phosphate solubilization, phosphate mobilization, and promotion of beneficial rhizobacteria (Bhat et al., 2010). Biofertilizer application improves the supply of nutrients, organic carbon, accumulation of soil enzymes, productivity, soil fertility index, economy of farmers, and maintenance of sustainability in natural soil ecosystem and horticultural crops. The production of efficient and sustainable biofertilizers for crop plants needs to be undertaken to make the biofertilizers popular and efficient. The important and specific research in future may be focused on the following aspects.

Microbes present in the biofertilizer formulations help in microbial processes in the soil which augment the availability of nutrients to be taken up by plants. They are of different types based on their nature and function such as nitrogen fixing, phosphate solubilizing, phosphate mobilizing or biofertilizers for micronutrients. Plants use different strategies for growth promotion at different stages of plant growth and development. Biofertilizers are mass multiplied cultures of specific beneficial microbial strains which improves the fertility of soil and productivity. The nutrients are added through natural processes of nitrogen fixation, solubilization of phosphorus and synthesis of growth promoting substances to stimulate the plant growth. The main sources of biofertilizers are bacteria, fungi and cyanobacteria.

11.1. Bio-enrichment of chemical fertilizers- A new approach

Yield response of different host plant depends on the mineral fertilizer and its fertilizer use efficiency. Generally, such fertilizers are low in efficiency due to environmental and soil factors. A large portion of synthetic fertilizers are lost due to fixation, leaching, run-off, erosion, volatilization, denitrification and precipitation without reaching plants. Hence, there is an economic loss and water and environmental pollution.

Microbial inoculants applied to the soil enhances the uptake of nutrient by plants and increase the efficiency of synthetic or organic fertilizers. In this context, it is possible to impregnate mineral fertilizers with specific microbial strain. A new approach is to incorporate the microbes or microbial compositions into fertilizer compositions.