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

28.1. Aim

Estimation of reducing sugars in fresh fruits and processed products using Lane and Eynon method.

28.2. Theory

Sugars are inherently present in different fruits and vegetables or added during preparation of different products. They are added to the fruit products to improve the taste and also to act as a preservative. Glucose and fructose in the fruits represent reducing sugars while sucrose or cane sugar added represents the non-reducing sugar. They are estimated by using Lane and Eynon method which measures sugar as reducing sugar and total sugar as invert sugar.

Potato has special seed production problems as the quality characteristics of seed potatoes are influenced by a number of factors and important amongst them are the diseases and pests namely, viruses, fungi, bacteria and nematodes. Once the seed tuber is infected the pathogens, specially viruses, permeate through the plant system. The plant growth, therefore declines and the yield reduces progressively. It is therefore, important that seed stocks should not only be genetically pure but also should be in right physiological condition and disease free at the time of planting. Seed production technology developed for seed potato production, thus aims at producing disease free, genetically pure seed. There are now two independent channels of seed production for hills and plains.

Hill seed : The seed produced in hills (2500 metres above sea level) at suitable locations is called ‘Hill Seed’.

Plain seed : The seed produced in plains at suitable locations is called ‘plain seed’. Northern plains have emerged as an important source of potato seed production. The low aphid, plains seed is in right physiological condition at the planting time and yields higher than the traditional hill grown seed.

Once healthy seed potatoes are introduced into the system of growing them during low Aphid period accompanied by a systematic insecticide application, roguing and removal of haulms before the aphids attain critical number and the re growth is checked, the health standards for the seed crop could be maintained for a number of generations. This system of seed potato production has been designated as ‘Seed Plot Technique’.

India is regarded as a horticulture paradise due to growing of tropical, subtropical and temperate fruit crops in varied soil and climatic conditions. However, increasing pressure on land owing to diversion of orchard lands to various other obvious reasons as well as rising energy and land-costs, together with mounting demand for fruits have made HDP imperative to achieve higher productivity from limited space.

There is a shift in farmers’ perception from production to productivity and profitability, which can be achieved through high density planting. India is the second largest producer of fruits in the world. However, the average productivity of various fruit crops in the country is quite less. Low productivity can be attributed to many reasons such as old and senile orchards, lack of canopy management practices, planting of poor yielding varieties, low or no adoption of recommended package of practices by the farmer leading to poor orchard management, etc.

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

Principle of Canning

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

Selection of Fruit and Vegetable

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

Grading

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

Fruit trees like ber, aonla, jamun, tamarind, custard apple, bael, lasora, phalsa, ker, pilu, etc well suited for arid environment, remained under exploited owing particularly to lack of appreciation of their quality as fruits, their economic potential and above all due to non-availability of the needed technology for their profitable cultivation. Because of their curative properties, these fruits have been used in Indian system of medicine such as Ayurvedic and Unani since time immemorial. Apart from their nutritive and medicinal values, quite a few of these underutilized fruits have excellent flavour and very attractive colour. In spite of these quality attributes, most have not undergone any conscious phase of domestication and human selection. Their cultivation is very restricted and they grow mainly wild. Being tolerant to biotic and abiotic stresses, these fruit species are suitable for growing in the disaster- and drought-prone areas.India has a rich heritage of indigenous fruit types. Significant advances have been made in recent times towards providing technology support for their cultivation.

Lima beans are flat green or light green beans. It is only utilised for the seed because the pods are coarse or woody. There are two kinds used in commercial canning: a climbing or pole variant and a dwarf or bush variation. Like other legumes used for seed, the lima bean (Phaseolus Iunatus) has a wide range in seed size, shape, and colour, as well as plant structure and primary applications. For freezing, canning, or fresh market usage, mature seeds are utilised like a vegetable. Lima’s have long been used as a grain legume when they are firm and dry. Peru is where they were discovered. The first domestication occurred in the Andes around 2000 BC, resulting in a large-seeded variety (Lima type), while the second occurred around 800 A.D. in Mesoamerica, resulting in a small-seeded variation (Sieva type).

History and development of seed Industry in India can be discussed under two heads

1. Pre-independence development.
2. Post-independence development.

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

Dehydration

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

Principles of Drying and Dehydration

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

Manila tamarind (Pithecellobium dulce  (Roxb.) Benth.), also known as ‘Jangle jalebi’, ‘Madras thorn’, Sweet inga and ‘Monkey pod’ has a potential to become an important tree of semi- arid and arid regions since it is a drought hardy plant and tolerates harsh environmental conditions as well as salinity. In general, it is planted on the boundary of orchard, road and field sides as protective hedge plant. It is a medium size, much branched tree, suitable for silvi-pastoral system (Gupta et al., 1994). It is drought resistant species but susceptible to frost under arid conditions, coming up well in areas of low rainfall due to its extensive root system. Names like dulce (sweet) and “Manila tamarind” reflect the wide use of the pods as food. The most valuable and commonly used part of Manila tamarind tree is the pulp, which is white or red, very sweet and has a pleasant flavour. The large aril represents 50 per cent of the fruit (Seeds 25%, husk 25%). The major constraint in commercialization of this tree species is lack of improved genotypes, agro-techniques for cultivation in different ago-climatic conditions and limited commercial value.

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

Introduction

Landscape gardening is a very fascinating and interesting subject. It is a money spinner business and people who are involved in designing and preparing landscape gardens are earning handsome money. It is an aesthetic branch of horticulture which deals with application of garden forms, different styles, methods and materials with a view to improve the landscape. Frescos of flowers of old times reveal the association of human with flowering plants which they used in making gardens and planting on road side. In India, the landscape gardening is a developing subject and as such offers much scope for improvement. A beautiful landscape is a vital part of your home and community. A well-planned landscape can save your money by reducing energy consumption.

Phalsa (Grewia subinaequalis syn. G asiatica) is a minor fruit crop. It is the most hardy fruit, drought resistant and requires little care. This fruit crop is mentioned in vedic literature having medicinal properties. It can be grown almost in all parts of north India except at higher elevations. It cannot be grown in temperate climates with severe winters.  Phalsa being very vigorous in growth can be an ideal plant for plugging gullies and ravines and for contours to protect bunds. It can also be grown as a hedge along the field boundary. It is also grown as filler tree(Chundawat,1990).  It is capable of growing under marginal, waste lands and water scarcity conditions. The tiny fruits have to be picked from bush several times during the fruiting season. Fruits are used for fresh eaten and having short shelf life is suitable for disposal in local market.

Mulberry (Morus nigra , Family : Moraceae)  also known as toot, shehtoot is a multipurpose tree.  It is found all over India from temperate to tropical regions.  Fig and Jackfruit are other important fruit trees of this family Moraceae. Morus alba is white mulberry mainly used in Sericulture whereas Morus nigra produces black fruits which have tremendous nutritional and medicinal value and are produced for fruit cultivation.  Mulberry is a fast growing, deciduous, woody perennial plant, which is mainly grown in the orchards as windbreak due to its dense foliage. It can be grown on wide range of climate and soil conditions (Hare Krishna et al., 2012). It is not commercially cultivated as fruit crop and trees are planted mainly on road sides, wind breaks and in the orchard for getting shade. In most parts of the country particularly southern states, mulberry is grown for its foliage, which is the only food for the silkworm (Bombyx mori). Mulberry leaf is a major economic component in sericulture since the quality and quantity of leaf produced per unit area has a direct bearing on cocoon harvest.

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

Kair also known as Karil or Ker {Capparis decidua (Forsk) Edgew} is an economic desertic plant species, which grows well on sand dunes. The plant is adopted so well under hot arid ecosystem that during extreme of summer when it is difficult to survive by many other vegetation, it produces flowers and fruits. Ker is indigenous to India and growing wildly in arid and semi-arid regions of the country. In India, it is found growing naturally in arid and semiarid tracts of Rajasthan, Gujarat, Haryana, Punjab, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi and southern part of Deccan Peninsula. Besides India, it is found in tropical Africa, Arabia, Sind, Baluchistan, Socotra, South Persia, Pakistan (Sind), Sudan and Egypt. The natural habitat of ker is pediments plains all over dry regions and its density ranges from 8-44 bushes ha-1 (Pareek, 1978). The population density of Capparis decidua on different land forms have been reported by Gupta et al., (1989) as the population varies from 9-70 bushes/ ha. They recorded highest population density on older alluvial plains (81 plant/ ha) and minimum on the periphery of runs (20 plants/ha).  In semi-arid of Pali region, 20-40 bushes /ha was noted in rangeland area (Singh,1993). In recent decade, the natural population of ker bushes has been declined due to increase in population pressure of man and animals and increase in cropping area due to canal irrigation in north-western Rajasthan.

Phenotypic Diversity

Phenotypic diversity measures the portion of genetic diversity which is expressed phenotypically. So it varies with the character under study and the genetic background and the environment in which it is measured. The measures of genetic diversity based on variance of quantitative traits may be unreliable indicators of diversity in a population at the level of individual gene. But diversity at the molecular level (isozymes, RFLPs) may be a reasonable estimate of phenotypic diversity. The degree of differentiation is related to several biological attributes such as breeding system, mode of pollination and seed dispersal, life history, geographical range, successional stages, etc. The outbreeding populations are much less differentiated whereas the selfers or apomictic are strongly differentiated. Populations of outbreeders contain different alleles especially the rare alleles which contribute little to the diversity. Inbreeders should have greater interpopulations diversity and less intrapopulation diversity than the comparable outbreeders. Further, inbreeders are more prone to show an even distribution of their genetic diversity among populations and this makes their optimum sampling more difficult and any evidence of the geographic pattern of this diversity levels would greatly improve sampling efficiency but geographical and environmental factors rarely explain more than 50% variation.

Plant growth regulators are defined as chemicals other than nutrients and vitamins which regulate (or) modify the physiological process ofthe plant. A plant hormones or phytohormones are chemical substances which are naturally produced by plant in specific organs and are translocated from site of synthesis to the site of action. They bring about specific physiological response, even in very low concentration. The quantity of synthesis of these hormones differ from plant to plant, plant internal and external factors. They are readily absorbed and these chemicals move rapidly through the tissues when applied to different parts of the plant. A plant growth hormone may be termed as a plant growth regulator, but not vice - versa, since other than natural plant hormones, plant growth regulators are synthetically manufactured chemicals.

Plant growth regulators have a diverse chemical composition. Based on the general response the chemical mediates in the plant system, they are classified as growthpromoters and growth inhibitors/retardants. However, a particular growth regulator may be growth promoter at a lower concentration and growth inhibitor at higher concentration.

Introduction

While experimenting with chemicals, sometimes we need to dry the chemical/ solution (solid, liquid or gas) using a process like evaporation or distillation, mainly to remove water or different solvents. Drying is the process of evaporation or distillation to remove water/solvent from a solution, solid or even from gas. Generally, a drying agent (usually an anhydrous inorganic salt) is used for this process, which reacts with the water (present in the chemical/ solvent to be dried) to form a hydrate. For example, anhydrous MgSO4 is one of the drying agents. The drying agents are recognized by their capacity (the rate at which they absorb water) and their intensity (the amount of water left behind in the solvent at equilibrium). No chemical reaction or change in phase occurs during the drying process.

Type of Solvents

Apart from water (a universal solvent), there are three families of organic solvents used in laboratories.

1) Oxygenated solvents: Alcohols, Ketones, Glycol ethers, Glycol esters, etc.

2) Hydrocarbon solvents: Aliphatic and Aromatic hydrocarbons.

3) Halogenated solvents: Chlorinated hydrocarbons.

Lasoda (Cordia myxa L.) known by many names viz., cherry of desert, assyrian palm, sebestene plum,  lasura, lehsua, gonda and naruvilli, is an underutilized, multipurpose fruit tree distributed in arid and semi-arid regions of the world. Arid regions are considered under the category of wastelands which are not being used to their fullest potential. Among the arid region crops, lasoda is very suitable crop for cultivation in Rajasthan as it can withstand drought to a very great extent and can tolerate temperature as high as 48 to 50°C during summer months. Lasoda thrives well on neglected, low fertile, sandy, gravelly, saline, alkaline soils and hence can be used for forestation of waste lands. However, it grows vigorously in moist sandy loam soils and gives high productivity.