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Topic Review
Pharmacological Efficacy of Tamarix aphylla
Tamarix aphylla is a well-known species of the genus Tamarix. T. aphylla (Tamaricaceae) is a perennial tree in Asia, the Middle East, and Central Africa. It is used as a carminative diuretic in tuberculosis, leprosy, and hepatitis. Various pharmacological properties have been shown by T. aphylla, such as antidiabetic, anti-inflammatory, antibacterial, antifungal, anticholinesterase, and wound-healing activity. However, T. aphylla has not received much attention for its secondary metabolites and bioactive constituents. Research has shown that this plant has hidden potential that needs to be explored. 
  • 2.9K
  • 29 Mar 2022
Topic Review
Application of Nanoparticles on Plants as Fertilizers
Soil degradation has led to an imbalance between food and feed production, climate regulation, water retention and carbon storage in the ecosystem. On a larger scale, it has led to soil erosions and nutrient runoffs, leading to soil infertility, thus affecting human beings through malnutrition and other related diseases. To increase productivity and improve soil quality, fertilizers have been used for decades by farmers worldwide on degraded soils affected by human factors. However, their intensive usage has led to the pollution of both water and soil as the crop uses less than half of the applied amount; the other remaining amount is lost through photolysis, hydrolysis, leaching and microbial immobilization and degradation; thus, threatening the soil microorganisms, human health and the ecosystem, and reducing the profit margin of farmers.
  • 2.9K
  • 04 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Mulberry
Mulberry has acquired a special importance due to its phytochemical composition and its beneficial effects on human health, including antioxidant, anticancer, antidiabetic and immunomodulatory effects. Botanical parts of Morus sp. (fruits, leaves, twigs, roots) are considered rich source of nutrients and secondary metabolites. Various mulberry-based foods have been developed and marketed around the world.
  • 2.9K
  • 24 Feb 2022
Topic Review
Fruit breeding ： pomegranate
Many fruit trees have been whole-genome sequenced, and these genomic resources provide us with valuable resources of genes related to interesting fruit traits (e.g., fruit color, size and taste) and help to facilitate the breeding progress. Pomegranate (Punica granatum L.), one economically important fruit crop, has attracted much attention for its multiple colors, sweet and sour taste, soft seed and nutraceutical properties. In recent years, the phylogenesis of pomegranate has been revised which belongs to Lythraceae. So far, three published pomegranate genomes including ‘Taishanhong’, ‘Tunisia’ and ‘Dabenzi’ have been released on NCBI with open availability. This article analyzed and compared the assembly and annotation of three published pomegranate genomes. We also analyzed the evolution-development of anthocyanin biosynthesis and discussed pomegranate population genetics for soft seed breeding. These provided some references for horticultural crop breeding on the basis of genomic resources, especially pomegranate.
  • 2.9K
  • 21 Jul 2020
Topic Review
Germplasm Resources and Distribution of Oaks in China
Oaks (Quercus spp.) are a major component of subtropical and temperate forests in the Northern Hemisphere. There are approximately 464 species, and they are dominant tree species in ecosystems. Oaks have a long history of cultivation in Europe, North America, and other continents. They are also cultivated and distributed in most provinces of China.
  • 2.9K
  • 16 Jan 2023
Topic Review
Wetland Systems
We provide here an overview of the use and role of aquatic macrophytes in constructed wetland systems. The ability of plants to remove metals, pharmaceutical products, pesticides, cyanotoxins and nanoparticles in constructed wetlands were compared with the removal effciency of non-planted systems, aiming to evaluate the capacity of plants to increase the removal effciency of the systems. Moreover, this review also focuses on the management and destination of the biomass produced through natural processes of water filtration. The use of macrophytes in constructed wetlands represents a promising technology, mainly due to their effciency of removal and the cost advantages of their implantation. However, the choice of plant species composing constructed wetlands should not be only based on the plant removal capacity since the introduction of invasive species can become an ecological problem.
  • 2.9K
  • 17 Nov 2020
Topic Review
Health Benefits of Chlorophylls and Chlorophyll-Rich Agro-Food
Chlorophylls play a crucial role in photosynthesis and are abundantly found in green fruits and vegetables that form an integral part of our diet. Although limited, existing studies suggest that these photosynthetic pigments and their derivatives possess therapeutic properties. These bioactive molecules exhibit a wide range of beneficial effects, including antioxidant, antimutagenic, antigenotoxic, anti-cancer, and anti-obesogenic activities.
  • 2.9K
  • 10 Aug 2023
Topic Review
Natural Antioxidants in Cosmetic Formulation
A natural antioxidant can be a single pure compound/isolate, a combination of compounds, or plant extracts; these antioxidants are widely used in cosmetic products.
  • 2.8K
  • 19 Apr 2022
Topic Review
Non-Cannabinoid Compounds
Cannabinoid and non-cannabinoid phytochemicals possess bioactive and protective properties that are beneficial to human health. In addition to cannabinoids, the cannabis plant also produces hundreds of non-cannabinoid secondary metabolites including approximately 120 terpenoids (61 monoterpenes, 52 sesquiterpenoids, and 5 triterpenoids, essential oils, over 26 flavonoids lignans, stilbenoid derivatives, alkaloids, amino acids, spiroindans, polyphenols, 20 steroids ), dihydrophenanthrenes, glycoproteins (such as galactose, glucose, mannose and xylose), and dibenzyls. This list also includes a-cannabispiranol, chrysoeriol, 6-prenylapigenin, cannflavin A and b-acetyl cannabispiranol.
  • 2.8K
  • 01 Apr 2021
Topic Review
Photoprotection of Vanilla Orchid
Vanilla orchid is a shade-loving plant that is very sensitive to high radiation. We found that blue light treatment can induce photoacclimation and enhances vanilla orchid acquired photoprotection. Blue light induces chloroplast avoidance, increases antioxidant enzyme activities, and enhances photosynthesis rate when vanilla orchid is exposed to high light stress. This study found that acclimating vanilla orchid with blue light before transplantation to the field might eliminate photoinhibition and enhance vanilla growth and production. 
  • 2.8K
  • 11 Nov 2020
Topic Review
Natural Blues by Anthocyanins
Anthocyanins are a subclass of flavonoids; polyphenolic derivatives consisting of a fused benzopyrylium core (C- and A-rings) with an additional phenyl group attached at C2 (B-ring) formed by condensing a C6-C3 unit (p-coumaroyl-CoA) with three molecules of malonyl CoA. Although most anthocyanins are capable of producing blue colours in theory, at neutral pH (where the blue coloured anionic quinonoidal. base is formed) anthocyanins favour the formation of colourless species over the coloured species. The mechanisms whereby blue pigmentation by anthocyanins is achieved in nature are complex and multifold.
  • 2.8K
  • 18 May 2021
Topic Review
Applications of Artificial Intelligence in Smart-Crop Breeding
Artificial intelligence (AI) has emerged as a revolutionary field, providing a great opportunity in shaping modern crop breeding, and is extensively used indoors for plant science. Advances in crop phenomics, enviromics, together with the other “omics” approaches are paving ways for elucidating the detailed complex biological mechanisms that motivate crop functions in response to environmental trepidations. These “omics” approaches have provided plant researchers with precise tools to evaluate the important agronomic traits for larger-sized germplasm at a reduced time interval in the early growth stages. The big data and the complex relationships within impede the understanding of the complex mechanisms behind genes driving the agronomic-trait formations. AI brings huge computational power and many new tools and strategies for future breeding. 
  • 2.8K
  • 31 Aug 2023
Topic Review
Guttation and Growth of Bamboo Shoots
Guttation is the process of exudating droplets from the tips, edges, and adaxial and abaxial surfaces of the undamaged leaves. Guttation is a natural and spontaneous biological phenomenon that occurs in a wide variety of plants. Despite its generally positive effect on plant growth, many aspects of this cryptic process are unknown.
  • 2.8K
  • 10 Jan 2022
Topic Review
Castor Bean
Castor bean (Ricinus communis L.) is an unpalatable tropical plant belonging to the spurge family (Euphorbiaceae). It has great phytoremediation potential and is used for biofuels production. Its cultivation on contaminated and marginal land can be considered a great alternative to fossil fuel, lowering the social-economic implication and ecological impacts of biodieselproduction. In this entry, we analyze the botanical, agronomical, and the by-product obtainable from castor bean. More information about the castor bean phytoremediation potential and its resistance to abiotic stresses can be found at 10.3390/agronomy10111690  
  • 2.8K
  • 06 Nov 2020
Topic Review
Protoplasts
Plants are sessile organisms that have a remarkable developmental plasticity, which ensures their optimal adaptation to environmental stresses. Plant cell totipotency is an extreme example of such plasticity, whereby somatic cells have the potential to form plants via direct shoot organogenesis or somatic embryogenesis in response to various exogenous and/or endogenous signals. Protoplasts provide one of the most suitable systems for investigating molecular mechanisms of the plant cell totipotency, because they are effectively single cell populations. The term protoplast originates from the ancient Greek word prōtóplastos, which means “first-formed”, and refers to a cell without a cell wall. Protoplasts represent a powerful tool to study the mechanisms that induce cell proliferation from individual, differentiated somatic cells, enabling successful reprogramming of plant cells when cultured in vitro.
  • 2.8K
  • 26 Oct 2020
Topic Review
Piper betle (L)
Piper betle (L) is a popular medicinal plant in Asia. Plant leaves have been used as a traditional medicine to treat various health conditions. It is highly abundant and inexpensive, therefore promoting further research and industrialization development, including in the food and pharmaceutical industries.
  • 2.8K
  • 07 May 2021
Topic Review
The Seed and the Metabolism Regulation
Seeds are the reproductive units of higher plants. They have a significant place in agriculture and plant diversity maintenance. Because they are dehydrated, they can remain viable in the environment for centuries. The dry seed is a metabolically inactive organism, but well organized to protect its components and enter intensive repair to restore metabolic activities upon imbibition for the completion of germination. 
  • 2.7K
  • 28 Jan 2022
Topic Review
Leaf Senescence
Leaf senescence is an ordered physiological process in which cellular structures and biomolecules are progressively broken down and the resulting products mobilized to other plant organs such as fruits, seeds, tubers and/or more apical leaves.
  • 2.7K
  • 02 Apr 2022
Topic Review
Seaweed Extracts
The use of seaweed-based bioproducts has been gaining momentum in crop production systems owing to their unique bioactive components and effects. They have phytostimulatory properties that result in increased plant growth and yield parameters in several important crop plants. They have phytoelicitor activity as their components evoke defense responses in plants that contribute to resistance to several pests, diseases, and abiotic stresses including drought, salinity, and cold. 
  • 2.7K
  • 01 Jul 2021
Topic Review
Receptor-Like Kinases
Receptors form the crux for any biochemical signaling. Receptor-like kinases (RLKs) are conserved protein kinases in eukaryotes that establish signaling circuits to transduce information from outer plant cell membrane to the nucleus of plant cells, eventually activating processes directing growth, development, stress responses, and disease resistance. Plant RLKs share considerable homology with the receptor tyrosine kinases (RTKs) of the animal system, differing at the site of phosphorylation. Typically, RLKs have a membrane-localization signal in the amino-terminal, followed by an extracellular ligand-binding domain, a solitary membrane-spanning domain, and a cytoplasmic kinase domain. The functional characterization of ligand-binding domains of the various RLKs has demonstrated their essential role in the perception of extracellular stimuli, while its cytosolic kinase domain is usually confined to the phosphorylation of their substrates to control downstream regulatory machinery. Identification of the several ligands of RLKs, as well as a few of its immediate substrates have predominantly contributed to a better understanding of the fundamental signaling mechanisms. In the model plant Arabidopsis, several studies have indicated that multiple RLKs are involved in modulating various types of physiological roles via diverse signaling routes. Here, we summarize recent advances and provide an updated overview of transmembrane RLKs in Arabidopsis.
  • 2.7K
  • 27 Oct 2020
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