Legumes include many very important crop plants that contribute critical protein to the diets of many around the world. Many important forages and green manure crops are legumes. Legumes are also large contributors to the vegetable oil and animal feed protein sectors. One characteristic of legumes that could become even more important as world energy sources decline and nitrogen fertilizer prices increase is nitrogen fixation, something few other plants can do. Thus legumes have a unique and important niche in agriculture. While some of the small seeded forage legumes have been relatively easy to work with in tissue culture as far as culture initiation, plant regeneration and transformation are concerned, most large seeded legumes, like soybean, have been recalcitrant. Today, however, many laboratories are inserting genes into soybean and producing unique plants for both commercial and scientific uses. These advancements have taken a large amount of research effort and still require time and labour.

A comprehensive and groundbreaking collection of ideas for plant improvement Most of the world's supply of legumes is cultivated under adverse conditions that make this commercially important crop susceptible to the vagaries of nature and damaging stresses. Genetic manipulation has become a proven way for cultivators to battle these pro

This book presents deliberations on molecular and genomic mechanisms underlying the interactions of crop plants to the abiotic stresses caused by heat, cold, drought, flooding, submergence, salinity, acidity, etc., important to develop resistant crop varieties. Knowledge on the advanced genetic and genomic crop improvement strategies including molecular breeding, transgenics, genomic-assisted breeding, and the recently emerging genome editing for developing resistant varieties in pulse crops is imperative for addressing FHNEE (food, health, nutrition, energy, and environment) security. Whole genome sequencing of these crops followed by genotyping-by-sequencing has provided precise information regarding the genes conferring resistance useful for gene discovery, allele mining, and shuttle breeding which in turn opened up the scope for 'designing' crop genomes with resistance to abiotic stresses. The nine chapters each dedicated to a pulse crop in this volume elucidate on different types of abiotic stresses and their effects on and interaction with the crop; enumerate on the available genetic diversity with regard to abiotic stress resistance among available cultivars; illuminate on the potential gene pools for utilization in interspecific gene transfer; present brief on classical genetics of stress resistance and traditional breeding for transferring them to their cultivated counterparts; depict the success stories of genetic engineering for developing abiotic stress-resistant crop varieties; discuss on molecular mapping of genes and QTLs underlying stress resistance and their marker-assisted introgression into elite varieties; enunciate on different genomics-aided techniques including genomic selection, allele mining, gene discovery, and gene pyramiding for developing adaptive crop varieties with higher quantity and quality of yields, and also elaborate some case studies on genome editing focusing on specific genes for generating abiotic stress-resistant crops.

The use of nuts and seeds to improve human nutritional status has proven successful for a variety of conditions including in the treatment of high cholesterol, reduced risk of Type-2 Diabetes, and weight control. Nuts and Seeds in Health and Disease Prevention is a complete guide to the health benefits of nuts and seeds. This book is the only single-source scientific reference to explore the specific factors that contribute to these potential health benefits, as well as discussing how to maximize those potential benefits. - Organized by seed-type with detailed information on the specific health benefits of each to provide an easy-access reference for identifying treatment options - Insights into health benefits will assist in development of symptom-specific functional foods - Includes photographs for visual identification and confirmation - Indexed alphabetically by nut/seed with a second index by condition or disease

The fight against global hunger demands a fresh perspective. Lesser-known legumes, often called 'potential pulses', can play a pivotal role. These underutilized powerhouses, including adzuki bean, bambara groundnut, faba bean, cowpea, grass pea and horse gram, among others, are currently untapped resources. Their potential goes beyond their ability to thrive in harsh environments (caused by high temperature, drought, etc.) and fix nitrogen. With increased understanding of these legumes and their genetic and genomic potential, we can unlock a new world of sustainable and nutritious food sources. Focusing on the untapped genetic and genomic potential of these legumes, this book empowers researchers, breeders, and policymakers to unlock a new era of food and nutritional security. By leveraging the power of their genes, we can transform underutilized pulses into the nutritional heroes of tomorrow.

Since ancient times, plants serve as a valuable source of traditional herbal medicines. Unlike modern medicines, herbal medicines have consistently demonstrated health advantages, including a lack of serious adverse side effects, long-lasting curative impacts and overall cost-effectiveness. Even today, with various modern pharmaceutical medicines commonly available, plant-based medicines and aromatics are increasingly in demand throughout the health sector globally, where they are used not only for the treatment of disease, but also, preventatively for maintaining good health. People are seeking alternatives to modern medical treatments turning to phytomedicine for primary health care. However, an inadvertent consequence of this increased demand for herbal medicines has resulted in medicinal plants being threatened due to their initial small population sizes, narrow distribution areas, habitat specificity, and increasingly destructive non-sustainable harvesting. This book critically examines and reviews the status of medicinal plants and includes several important case studies of representative plant species. It contains information on aspects concerning phytochemistry, natural products, cultivation, conservation techniques, environmental interactions, and therapeutic features of medicinal aromatic plants. Features Evaluates plants as medicine and aromatics covering pharmacognosy and ecology of plants having therapeutic values. Discusses how plants can play a role in treatment of diseases and as potential therapeutics standards for maintaining good health. Presents conventional and contemporary approaches to conservation of such plants with commercial feasibility.

Wild Edible Underutilized Plants explores the role of wild plants in human nutrition—a topic that continues to take precedence in various fields of research. Despite the increasing evidence on past and present nutritional roles of wild edible plants, the use of these resources is often overlooked and neglected in countless policy areas. This book emphasizes the importance of these plants and explores their relevance to sustainable agriculture, biodiversity, and public health in different agro-ecological regions. The book implements a conceptual approach to wild plants, focusing on the benefits of incorporating these plants into people’s diets and daily lives and the advantage they will provide to future generations. The book also addresses widespread issues of scarcity, proposing solutions that promote food sovereignty and security. The book begins by first discussing the nutritional aspects of wild edible plants to explore their value as a source of vitamins, antioxidants, fiber, minerals, and other nutrients. It then continues to elaborate on the anti-nutritional elements of these plants, providing a comprehensive overview of their utility.

Legumes include many very important crop plants that contribute very critical protein to the diets of both humans and animals around the world. Their unique ability to fix atmospheric nitrogen in association with Rhizobia enriches soil fertility, and establishes the importance of their niche in agriculture. Divided into two volumes, this work presents an up-to-date analysis of in vitro and recombinant DNA technologies for the improvement of grain, forage and tree legumes. Volume 10B presents the current state and future prospects of in vitro regeneration and genetic transformation expression and stability of transgenes modification of traits in almost all the important legumes, for example: soybean; peanut; pea; french bean; chick pea; pigeon pea; cowpea; mung bean; black gram; azuki bean; lentil; Lathyrus; lupinus; Lotus spp; Medicago spp; Trifolium spp; Winged bean; Guar; and tree legumes for their improvement.

The Beans and the Peas: From Orphan to Mainstream Crops presents a comprehensive literature resource on the most important food legume crops previously known as "orphans," but which are increasingly becoming mainstream as their production opportunities have been improved through genetic improvement and biotechnology, and their role as an important nutrient source gains urgency. This book focuses on 12 important food legumes and discusses all relevant aspects on their economic importance, crop statistics, botany, and their general description. It also provides exhaustive information on plant genetic resources and their use, genetic improvement, resistance to biotic and abiotic stresses, improved varieties, agronomy, seed system, and use of information and communication tools in each individual food legume.Development of innovative biotechnological tools, genetic transformation, and the genome sequencing information has also been covered in each chapter providing the readers with state-of-the-art information on pulses. All chapters have been supported by relevant figures, illustrations, and tables, which make the contents accessible and easy to understand.Each of the chapters has been authored by globally known scientists/researchers presenting up-to-date information on various aspects of food legumes. This book provides a current and comprehensive treatise to the readers and will be tremendously helpful in furthering their academic and research pursuits. - Provides a single-volume resource on the most important food legumes having a prominent role in food and nutritional security - Written by experts with a focus on providing foundational information for further research and development - Presents both theoretical aspects and application-based case studies - Supported by relevant figures, illustrations, and tables

The Volume 2 of the treatise on the Developments in Physiology, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology of Plants provides additional information in the crucial areas for making precise and applied research in the national context, on the one hand, and to unravel the science, on the other hand. In the earlier volume, the theme of publishing this needful treatise has been already made obvious. However, in view of the experiences and enormous advances in plant science research in the last few decades providing enough insight to scan vital research in this century has, almost certainly, enlightened the path to undertake necessary research projects for the benefit of mankind to which we are indispensably committed. We, the plant physiologists, biochemists, molecular biologists and plant nutritionists must be proud of our support to the world's farmers which has helped them make their achievement possible. In this century, up to 2025, the human population is expected to double and that is in truth a serious issue for us to trace out the limiting factors reducing yield potentiality of crop plants, on the one hand, and to understand the science of related processes at different levels, alternatively. This principally necessitates for elucidation of dimensions of environmental stresses in relation to crop plants and their genotypes, optimally suitable to prevailing stress conditions. Of course, in the last few decades more emphasis was laid in this direction and remarkable progress has been made at the global scale to meet the challenges. Owing to this, distinguished scientists have been consistently reviewing and synchronizing the manifold research and signifying specific research of basic and applied implication in classified segment. It is delightful to mention that our attempt to sufficiently provide the essential and comprehensive literature to speed up important research in explicit areas of plant sciences has been once again tremendously satisfactory due to exceptional dedication of illustrious Indian scientists in the preparation of this momentous work. This treatise has been ordered with twelve excellent contributions in the form of review articles by thirty well- known Indian workers and academicians. The reviews are relevant to guide for theme oriented research as well as for scientific future planning of research projects. The four applicable sections related to: I. Sustainable Crop Productivity, II. Recent Advances in Plant Metabolism; III. Molecular Physiology of Plants; IV. Environmental Stresses in Plants consist of over twelve meaningful review articles as substantial chapteMoreover, as promised, prominence has been given to compile extremely important aspects of Stress Physiology. The detailed choice of the contents of the various contributions has been left largely to the individual authoDoubtless, this book will be of immense help to scientists, teachers and students of almost all disciplines of Agriculture, Botany and Biotechnology.