eChapters

Purpose: It is important that the plants occupy the same position where the pegs were placed in the field. At the time of planting the tree the peg is removed first followed by pit making to receive the plant. The plant may be with the ball of earth or without the ball of earth. While planting the tree in the pit there is every possibility that plant may not occupy the same position where the pegs were originally placed. In order to overcome this problem planting board is used. Use of a planting board ensures the planting of the plant in the correct position.

Materials and equipments: Spade, khurpi, planting board, wooden pegs and chain.

Problem- Prepare a layout plan for establishing on ideal mango orchard near Varanasi city in 2ha area under high density planting. Calculate the number of plants needed for planting and amount of DAP and sulphate of potash heeded or planting. Also mention the name of cultivars for this region under HDP (200:100:200 NPK g/plant)

Problem-Prepare of a layout plan of orchard for 10 ha. area which is situated on the highway. The dimension of the orchard is 3:2. Calculate the areas under each crop which will you grow and also write their suitable variety along with their suitable diagram. Also fulfill the following information about orchard

Purpose-There are several planting plans or systems which can be adopted for planting orchard. The following points need to be considered before choosing any system of planting.

1. It should accommodate maximum number of plants per unit area.
2. It should allow sufficient space for the development of each tree.
3. Orchard operation such as ploughing, dusting are easy to perform.

Purpose- Burnt porous clay or cement or plastic pots are commonly used for various purposes in horticulture. The pots are used in propagation or plants, cultivation of ornamental plants and flowering annuals. Growing of plants in pots in referred as pot-culture. In pot-culture, operations such as potting, shifting and filling of pots are very important. Potting refers to planting of plants in pots containing soil mixture, while shifting means removal of plants from pots and planting them again in the same or different pot. Plants growing for more than one year in the same pot need shifting. The time for potting and shifting of plants is monsoon season (July to Sept.) and during spring (Feb-March).

Materials and Equipments-Flower pots, crocks (broken pieces of pots), potting mixture, khurpi and watering can (with fine nozzle).

Sickle: Used for cutting grass, fodder and harvesting crop. Sickle made of steel is better and lasts longer.

A. Research journal

1. Haryana Journal of Horticultural Science (Quarterly)-Society of Haryana, Department of Vegetable Crops, CCS, HAU, Hisar (Haryana).
2. Hort. Science (Annualy)-American Society for Horticultural Sciences 600, Camerun Street, Alexandria, USA
3. Horticulture Research (Half yearly)-ScottishAcademic Press, 25, Perth Street, Edinburgh.
4. Indian Journal of Horticulture (Quarterly)-Horticulture Society of India, Division of Fruits and Horticultural Technology, IARI, Pusa, (New Delhi).
5. Journal of Applied Horticulture (Half yearly)-Managing Editor, Journal of Applied Horticulture, A-859, Indiranagar, Lucknow (UP).
6. Progressive Horticulture (Quarterly)- Hill Horticulture Development Board, Horticultural Experiment and Training Centre, Chaubattia, Ranikhet, (Uttarakhand).
7. Scientia Horticulture (Annualy)-Elsevier Science P.O. Box 945, New York,

A. ICAR Agricultural Institutes

• Central Agricultural Research Institute (CARI), Post Box No. 181. Andaman Nicobar & Lakshwadeep Group of Islands, Port Blair.
• Central Arid Zone Research Institute (CAZRI), Jodhpur, (Rajasthan). Website: www.icar.org.in (Rajasthan).
• Central Avian Research Institute (CARI), Izatnagar, (Uttar Pradesh)
• Central Inland Fisheries Research Institute (CIFRI), Barrackpore (West Bengal). Web site: www.cifri.com.
• Central Institute for Cotton Research (CICR), P.O. No. 225, G.P.O., Panjari, Wardha Road, Nagpur (Maharashtra).
• Central Institute for Freshwater Aquaculture (CIFA), P.O. Kausalyaganga, Bhubaneshwar (Orissa).

1. Agriculture universities in India

A. State agriculture universities in India

1. Acharya NG Ranga Agricultural University, Guntur, Hyderabad, Telangana
2. Sri Venkateswara Veterinary University, Tirupati, Andhra Pradesh
3. Assam Agricultural University, Jorhat, Assam
4. Bihar Agricultural University, Sabour, Bhagalpur, Bihar
5. Bihar Animal SciencesUniversity, Patna, Bihar

Introduction

“The World Packaging Organisation’s (WPO) slogan, “Better Quality of Life Through Better Packaging”, sumps up the important place that packaging occupies in a modern economy.

As the economics of many countries are increasing, the consumers have started using more processed food. As a matter of fact global food processing and packaging business has reached to multi trillion dollars. In today’s world of global markets and stiff competition in every product along with increasing consumer demand, it becomes imperative for companies to explore ways to improve their productivity in terms of maintaining safety, using sustainable packaging materials, implementing flexible and standardized technology, and adopting proven management. Towards this end, companies have been striving to improve the efficiencies of their operations through improvements in the processes. Reducing wastes and shortening lead times becomes all the more imperative in the food industry due to the perishable nature of the product. Moreover, recent advances in technology such as Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) and nano-materials afford companies greater opportunities to streamline the processing, packaging, and manufacturing schemes.

Introduction

Microencapsulation is a process of entrapping solid particles, liquid droplets or gases in thin polymeric coatings. The outer film (wall) protects the encapsulated material (core) and allows for its controlled release. Application of this technique is wide spread in several industrial fields, including the manufacture of foods, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics and pesticides. Common food ingredients subjected to microencapsulation include probiotic bacteria, acidulates, flavours, colours, sweeteners, minerals and vitamins. A number of coating materials are employed in production of microcapsules, such as gums, starch, and starch derivatives, cellulosic materials, lipids, proteins and inorganic materials.

Actually the development of the formation of micro-encapsulates was partially inspired by the nature. Eggs, seeds, grains, nuts, fruits etc. are typical examples of the food encapsulation and natures own way of conserving and protecting natural products against its own deteriorating elements. Taking clue from this, man adopted this technology of protection of some of the foodstuffs as sauces, puddings etc. Microencapsulation can improve the convenience of food. The shell provides a barrier between reactive components (for instance, delaying the release of leavening agents for fluffier bread products or protecting oxygen-sensitive materials during processing and storage). Microcapsules can help fragile and sensitive materials survive processing and packaging conditions and stabilize the shelf-life of the active ingredient.Karel (1994) described various methods of encapsulation of food ingredients.Inaddition, microencapsulation can simplify the food manufacturing process by converting liquids to solid powder, decreasing production costs by allowing batch processing using low-cost, powder-handling equipment. To improve food safety, the technology can be used to indicate product tampering, thermal spoilage, and freeze-thaw cycles.

Preservation methods are generally believed to be responsible for a depletion of naturally occurring antioxidants in food. Processed fruit and vegetables are expected to have a lower health protecting capacity than fresh ones. This is because, up to now, only selected and barely stable antioxidants of nutritional interest (e.g. ascorbic acid) have been commonly assessed as indicators of processing damage. On the basis of these supposed negative effects, in the past few years, the main tool for minimizing eventual processing damage was the strategy of ‘reconstitution’, achieved by the addition or the enrichment of the product with natural antioxidants.

It is well known that food processing can have many effects not all of which result in a loss of quality and health properties. Blanching also represents a useful tool in preventing enzymatic oxidations, which are the main cause of loss in naturally occurring antioxidants in raw material of plant origin. In fact, fruit and vegetables subjected to blanching retain most of their original antioxidant properties.

Lycopene appears to be a relatively stable compound during food processing but it has been reported that heating tomato pulp to produce paste, ketchup, juice and other products, can cause degradation of lycopene and other carotenoids. Other antioxidants naturally present in tomato, such as vitamin C, vitamin E, polyphenolic flavonoids and non-lycopene carotenoids, may play a role in preventing the degradation of lycopene. Thermal processes might break down cell walls and weaken the bonding forces between lycopene and the tissue matrix. Such disruptions in the cell wall fraction may enhance the release of phytochemicals from the matrix. This may make lycopene more accessible or more stable and thus increase the nutritional quality and antioxidant activity of product. An increase in carotenoids by thermal processing has also been attributed to enzymatic degradation which causes weakening in protein-carotenoid aggregates. Destruction of vitamin C is destroyed mainly due to oxidation reactions and the heat applied in the presence of air. The degree of loss of ascorbic acid is closely correlated to the drying temperature used for the production of the end product. The increase in the amounts of some phenolic substances having antioxidant activity was associated with two concomitant events: firstly, the thermally induced extraction of antioxidant molecules previously complexed or polymerized and secondly, the retention of active compounds caused by the inactivation of the enzymes involved in their catabolism.

Introduction

Fruits, vegetables and some non food crops are rich source of natural antioxidants, food colorants and other bioactive natural products. Nutraceuticals and natural food colorants exhibit anti-oxidant, anti-carcinogenic, anti-inflammatory, anti-bacterial and anti-proliferative properties. They tend to enhance ability of the body to fight, cure and prevent diseases. Natural anti-oxidants are particularly important because they scavenge harmful superoxide, hydroxy, and/or peroxide free radicals, and protect the body against a variety of cancers, heart and other life style related diseases. Vegetable like orange carrot, red carrot, black carrot, beet root, tomato, chilli, and fruits like pomegranate, cherries, berries, watermelon and jamun are rich source of natural antioxidants and food colorants. While tomato and red carrot are rich in lycopenes, and carotenes; black carrot is a major source of stable acylated anthocyanins. The dark red colour of beet root is associated with anthocyanin, betacyanin and betaxanthins. Similarly, the red colour of chilli is attributed to the carotenoid pigment capsanthin. Capsaicinoids in chilli are responsible for the hot flavour and anti-inflammatory properties. Antioxidant and other beneficial health effects of pomegranate, cherries, berries, etc. have been attributed to anthocyanins and related polyphenols. Jamun, an under-utilized tropical fruits is rich in anthocyanins and flavonoides. Like anthocyanins, flavonoides and carotenes, lycopene helps to prevent various types of cancer particularly the prostate cancer.

Microalgae represent a promising alternative to renewable source of feedstock for natural food colorants and nutraceuticals and functional food production. With over 40,000 identified species, microalgae are one of the most diverse groups of organisms on earth. They naturally produce large quantities of many biomaterials. Out of the diverse compounds produced by microalgae, the algal pigments such as phycobillins, carotenoids and xanthophylls have gained commercial importance owing to their unique and multiple applications as food and cosmetic colourants, antioxidants and several beneficial effects of nutraceutical and pharmaceutical value. Microalgal research over the years has geared up significantly from outdoor mass culture in algal ponds, refinement of the cultivation process and life cycle assessment, downstream processing of biomass (i.e., harvesting, dewatering, and drying), to extraction, to systems/process scale-up analysis and development of an economic feasibility model for commercialization of algal biomaterials with nutraceutical properties. Among the various microalgae, Spirulina and Haematococcus are the major source of naturally occurring biopigments which are gaining importance as natural pigments in food, drug and cosmetic industries as an alternative to currently used synthetic colour. Improvement in the cultivation methodologies and use of closed photobioreactors of different configurations, fermentation reactors, open reactors and tubular reactors have opened up new vistas for the development of microalgal biotechnology and bioprospecting. The main constraints in non-exploitation for mass cultivation of microalgae are their slow growth rate, low biomass yield and inadequate culture methodologies and these issues remain to be addressed.

Introduction

Functional food or medicinal food is any healthy food claimed to have a health-promoting or disease-preventing property beyond the basic function of supplying nutrients. The general category of functional foods includes processed food or foods fortified with health-promoting additives, like “vitamin-enriched” products. Fermented foods with live cultures are considered as functional foods with probiotic benefits. Functional foods are an emerging field in food science due to their increasing popularity with health-conscious consumers. The term was first used in Japan in the 1980s where there is a government approval process for functional foods called Foods for Specified Health Use (FOSHU) (Benkouider, 2005).

Distinguishing functional foods from dietary supplements and natural or herbal medicine is especially difficult, and cultural perceptions on this vary. Further complications are the large number of terms often used interchangeably and in a confusing manner such as health foods, nutraceuticals, designer foods, pharmafoods, and so forth. Much of the basic fortification (such as iodization of table salt) is no longer considered “Functional food” but new specialized extracts and ingredients for functional food fortification have emerged, including dietary fibres, plant sterols and probiotics. There is growing research on the potential of biotechnology to develop functional foods for improved health effects of the staple foods in developing countries—for example, high-iron rice, high-vitamin A rice, improved oil content in oil crops, and improved protein.

Introduction

Plants contain a variety of substances of nutraceuticals importance which are useful medicines, food additives, cosmetics and health supplements etc. However, low availability under in vivo condition, decreased plant resources, increases in labour cost and other problems in obtaining these high-value added substances from natural plants have pointed toward the use of in vitro techniques for production of the products. Because in vitro cultures are not affected as the production affected under in vivo conditios.This has led scientists and biotechnologists to consider plant cell, tissue and organ cultures as an alternative way to produce the corresponding secondary metabolites.Therefore, studies on the production of useful metabolite by in vitro techniques have been carried out on an increasing scale since the end of the 1950’s. The large scale cultivation of tobacco and various vegetable cells was examined in the late 1950’s and early 1960’s in the U.S., Canada, and Europe. At present, several firms are manufacturing a plant pigment, shikonin, and ginseng cell biomass on a commercial scale and several other products including anti-oxidant products.

Research efforts on in vitro derived extracts is well documented on each of these major product categories: flavors (onion and garlic, peppermint and spearmint, fruit flavors, chocolate aroma, seaweed flavors, vanilla, celery, coffee, spice, sweeteners, and so on); edible colors for foods and medicines (mainly betalains and anthocyanins): non-food pigments for cosmetics and textiles (shikonin, berberine, and various other products); several examples of fragrances and essential oils; and bioactive natural insecticides and phytoalexins useful in current integrated pest management programs. Of course, intensive activity has centered on production of natural drugs of chemoprotective compounds from plant cell culture. Some of the most prominent pharmaceutical products in this latter category include ajmalicine (a drug for circulatory problems) from Catharanthus roseus and taxol (a phytochemical effective in treatment of ovarian cancer) from Taxus species.

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.

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.

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

Modern life style has taken the fitness out of the men. In ancient times, our life was labour oriented, whereas now we have lots of gadgetry to support our day to day living, thus making our life least labour oriented and we are now more susceptible to diseases diabetes, blood pressure and asthma were, until recently, associated with rich people only, however, these have now become common in urban and even rural areas irrespective of social status and age. The minimum physical exercise, coupled with carbohydrate and fat rich and fiber free diet and lots of tension in day to day life has given way to these diseases.

Since ages, plants have been mainstay medicinal support either in the form of herbal therapy (Like Ayurveda, Unani) or in the form of isolated active substances as being used in allopathic system of medicine. As per a WHO calculation, at least 80% population, in developing world, is dependent on direct use of medicinal plants.

Many of herbal therapies are very simple to use. It is therefore worthwhile to know about some of medicinal plants available commonly around us. The herbal preparations from these plants may not be dramatically effective to palliate disease, as allopathic medicines do, however, with judicious and regular use, we can avoid conversion of some of simple diseases into a major treatment problem.

It is fortunate that side effects of allopathic medicines have compelled us to reconsider the use of herbal remedies and physical exercise in the form of ‘Yoga’, aerobics or whatever you call it. The arid region of Northwest Rajasthan, although vegetated sparsely, is rich in medicinal plants. Some of the species, which are abound in the extreme arid ecosystem, have unique curative and therapeutic properties and some of them are getting a lot of mileage as nutraceuticals as well.

Introduction

Functional food is a natural or processed food that contains biologically active compounds like nutraceauticals and phytochemicals which have health benefit and thus, an important source in the prevention, management and treatment of chronic diseases. For centuries consumption of fruits and vegetables has been attributed to beneficial health effects. Research studies stated that approximately one-third of cancer risk in humans could be attributed to diet. Free radical formation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and subsequent oxidative stress have been correlated to many human disorders including those of the kidney, eye, lung, liver, nervous system, heart and cardiovascular system. Therefore, foods in our diet that can aid in prevention of these diseases are of major interest to both the scientific community and the general public. Biologically active plant chemicals including traditional nutrients have a beneficial effect on human health. Onion and garlic have received considerable attention for their healthful, functional benefits.

Onion and garlic are the most important vegetable crops grown and consumed almost all over the country. Both the crops belong to the family Alliaceae and have gained the importance of a cash crop in recent years. Maharashtra, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh and Odisha are the major onion growing states whereas Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh and Odisha are the major garlic growing states. India is a leading producer of onion supporting 20.2% of the world production. Onion is grown in kharif, late kharif and rabi seasons whereas, garlic is grown in rabi season only except in Nilgiri Hills where summer crop is also taken. Onion is normally produced from seeds except multiplier onions where production is taken up vegetatively from bulblets. Garlic is produced vegetatively by planting cloves. Both the crops are rich source of bioactive compounds and have outstanding nutritive value. The nutritive value (per 100g edible portion) of onion and garlic are as follows.