The book provides currently available information on the changing climate and its impact on functional and adaptive features of plants. The book also cover cutting edge research on key determinants of plant growth

This book focuses on recent advances in biosensors and nanosensors to monitor, manage and improve horticultural crops in terms of plant growth, nutrient deficiency, toxicity, diseases, abiotic stress, soil amendments and agrochemicals entry into surrounding environment. Besides contributing to sustainable agriculture, these innovative tools facilitate promoting plant health and horticultural products quality and safety. The book consists of 11 chapters grouped in 4 parts. Part I Growth, Development and Productivity, Part II Trends in Abiotic and Biotic Stress Management, Part III Harvest Quality, Part IV Precision Agriculture and Environment Sustainability. Increased productivity, stimulation of plant growth, precise farming, monitoring food quality and freshness during production, processing, distribution and storage, reduced costs and waste, and sustainable agriculture are some of the concepts discussed. The book presents the mechanisms of biosensors and nanosensors for monitoring the various changes during pre- and post-harvest stages of horticultural crops. These are considered as efficient tools to achieve goals of plant breeders in horticultural crops improvement programs. Chapters are written by globally recognized scientists and subjected to a rigorous review process to ensure quality presentation and scientific precision. Each chapter begins with an introduction that covers similar contexts and includes a detailed discussion of the topic accompanied by high-quality color images, diagrams and relevant details and concludes with recommendations for future study directions in addition to a comprehensive bibliography.

South Africa boasts high biodiversity among its flora and this is associated with many undiscovered medicinal plants with therapeutic potential. To target this untapped resource, the first step is to introduce these species to a wider spectrum of audience, be they the academics who carry out research, students interested in holistic medicine and healing, or those working in the natural product industry. In this work, we document a list of medicinal plants from Sub-Saharan Africa that have been underestimated in their therapeutic value and not thoroughly studied. Our book contains the recent scientific studies and validation on the individual plants. Written and organised in an easily accessible way, each entry includes specific information on the plant’s distribution, traditional usage and their phytochemical content.

This edited volume provides insights into the current state of food and nutritional security, highlights the significance of micronutrients for human health, offers a historical perspective on biofortification, and covers current strategies and challenges. This book explores the role of multidisciplinary approaches to cope up with the challenges of major nutrient deficiency.

This book explains the translational aspects of ethnomedicinal plants of different geographical regions including India by explaining the medicinal properties against several diseases, genomic evolution in changing environments, metabolic profiling for biomarker discovery, the role of non-coding RNA in the synthesis of secondary metabolites, genome-wide transcriptome profiling, application of pluripotent stem cells for drug discovery, the importance of high-throughput omics, and genome-editing techniques. In addition, some of the chapters have been designed to describe the role of artificial intelligence, plant database, and network-based drug discovery to explore the medicinal importance of compounds as well as challenges and opportunities in drug discovery from ethnomedicinal plants. The book serves as a great source of information for the students, researchers/scientists of diverse fields such as pharmacognosy, plant physiologists, biotechnologists, and pharmaceutical scientists etc., working in the areas of phytotherapy from ethnomedicinal plants.

This book is focused on the production, cultivation, processing, composition, nutritional value, value addition, health implications, limitations and safety of nutricereals with an emphasis on their functional significance.

This book entitled, The Pearl Millet Genome, is the first comprehensive compilation of deliberations on history, domestication, genetic and genomic resources, traditional breeding, genetic diversity, molecular maps and mapping of important biotic stress as well as nutritional quality traits, whole genome sequencing and comparative genomics, functional genomics, genetic transformation. The economic, nutritional, and health importance of the pearl millet is also discussed. It also presents the input use efficiency and wide adaptation of the crop. Altogether, the book will contain about 200 pages over 10 chapters authored by globally reputed experts on the relevant field in this crop. This book will be useful to the students, teachers, and scientists in the academia and relevant private companies interested in genetics, pathology, molecular genetics and breeding, genetic engineering, structural and functional genomics, and nutritional quality aspects of the crop. This book will also be also useful to seed and pharmaceutical industries.

This book provides a comprehensive overview of plants and plant-derived phytochemicals in the management of cardiovascular diseases. It presents the cardioprotective potential of plants and phytochemicals, covering various preclinical models, assays, and clinical research protocols of plant medicine for cardioprotection. Chapters cover the role of plants and phytochemicals in prevention and cure of atherosclerosis, hypertension, cardiomyopathy, arrhythmia, myocardial ischemia, cardiotoxicity and the underlying pharmacological, molecular, biochemical, and immunobiological mechanisms. The book also includes toxicological aspects (safety evaluations), meta-analysis of clinical trials, critical assessments, drawbacks and challenges for adopting phytomedical approaches in evidence-based medicine for the treatment of CVDs. Screening methods and plant foods for cardioprotection are also covered.

This edited book focuses on plant growth regulator synthesis, potential applications, stress tolerance mechanisms and preservations. It explores the recently registered molecules strigolactones, karrikins, and hemin-mediated regulation of plant biology. Chapters cover the integration of plant hormones in the biological system as an opportunity for sustainable agriculture. This book explores the latest information on plant growth regulators covering both theoretical and practical aspects.

In many parts of the world, soil and water are slightly to moderately contaminated with metals and metalloids such as Cd, Cu, Zn, Ni, Co, Cr, Pb, Si, B and As. This could be due to long-term use of phosphatic fertilizers, sewage sludge application, dust from smelters, industrial waste and bad watering practices in agricultural lands. Beside natural factors, human activities have contributed to the enormous increase in heavy metal and/or metalloid pollution in the environment. Metal and metalloid stress are major abiotic stress factors that limit crop production and reduce agricultural yield. The primary response of plants is the generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) upon exposure to high levels of metals/metalloids. They either generate ROS directly through Haber-Weiss reactions or overproduction of ROS and occurrence of oxidative stress in plants could be the indirect consequence of metals/metalloids toxicity. The indirect mechanisms include their interaction with the antioxidant system, disrupting the electron transport chain or disturbing the metabolism of essential elements. One of the most deleterious effects induced by heavy metals exposure in plants is lipid peroxidation, which can directly cause biomembrane deterioration.

Almond and peach species have global importance as food crops as well as use in landscaping including restoration and reforestation. Because currently available breeding germplasm has a very narrow genetic base, genetic improvement programs are turning to wild germplasm as sources of improved quality, productivity and resistance traits. This germplasm is also enabling the dramatic modification of traditional cropping systems as with the transfer of self-fruitfulness from related wild almond and peach species to normally self-sterile cultivated almond. While presence of an extensive wild almond and related germplasm has been documented in the literature over the past century, most information remains dispersed and often not generally accessible owing to its publication in treatises and journals of limited distribution.

This book explores two Rubus species from South America. It will address the species Rubus bogotensis Kunth and Rubus acanthophyllos Focke. It addresses aspects, such as origin, phenology, propagation, floral and fruit morphology, arthropod visitors, pollination, breeding, morphological diversity, and genetic diversity. It includes new unpublished data and results about plant phenology, flowering, insect visitors, fruit length-weight relationships, and fruit and pyrene morphology. This work includes an in-depth review of the most recently published information on the topic. The Rubus species studies are underutilized crops from Latin America. Furthermore, these species could be used in breeding programs for improvement. They can also be hybridized with other Rubus species to obtain better-quality hybrids. This book contains numerous photographs selected by the author to provide the reader with detailed information about the plant´s morphological features and arthropod visitors.

This book discusses the importance of plants in terms of their natural bioactive products and medicinal, nutraceutical and health benefits. Plants are natural sources of many pharmaceutical compounds used in traditional and modern medicine, and their mass production and efficient use is imperative in view of the new emerging diseases. This book covers breakthroughs in the research of plant natural products by focusing on how different state-of-the-art biotechnologies facilitate their discovery, the molecular basis of their biosynthesis, as well as synthetic biology. Research on plant's natural products in the pre-genomic era was focused on discovering bioactive molecules with pharmaceutical activities, and identifying individual genes responsible for biosynthesis. In the post-genomics era, however, integration of inter-disciplinary approaches and detailed analysis of all accessible data from multi-informatics is necessary. This would accelerate the full characterization of biosynthetic and regulatory circuit for producing plant natural products.

This book uncovers the basic principles of microbial photosynthesis and the latest technological interventions of this crucial phenomenon. In the recent past, the basic principles of microbial photosynthesis were technologically articulated to engineer several cell factories that can utilize waste resources and generate different groups of industrially valuable products. Also, the list of model organisms for specific usage have been increasing enormously. This volume covers the material in four sections; each of the part dealing with the basic principles of microbial photosynthesis in an applied orientation focusing on waste valorization and circular bioeconomy. Furthermore, the following chapters deal with the very recent advancements in metabolic engineering and artificial photosynthesis with respect to value addition. Not only will this book be available for graduate and postgraduate students in microbiology, biotechnology, plant sciences, environmental sciences, energy engineering, and renewable energy, it is also an excellent material for researchers needing a multidisciplinary approach.

This book covers correlation and combined disciplinary aspects implying the use of secondary metabolites (SMs) of different plant species for control and monitoring of environment states. Phytochemical management of ecological systems represents an integrative field aiming for determination/evaluation of environment conditions from qualitative and quantitative analysis of plant metabolites. Plants respond to environmental conditions through productions of secondary metabolites. SMs represent highly variable and sensitive phytocompounds because of their small produced amounts, high structural variability and diversified activities. These characteristics make variations of SMs in plants to be highly informative on environmental conditions, physiological states and biological interactions. Qualitative and quantitative variations of SMs in plants are subject to correlation analyses to highlight links between biotic/abiotic conditions and plant chemical patterns.