M. Naeem

Sustainability in business education in the Asia Pacific region: A snapshot of the situation

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to provide information about the extent to which sustainability is integrated into business school education and learning in the Asia Pacific region.Design/methodology/approach – A survey was developed, and administered to business schools in the Asia Pacific region. In addition to measuring the number of courses and programs integrating sustainability, the study solicited qualitative observations by respondents, to provide information and insight into the issues.Findings – The research found that whereas corporate governance, sustainability and business ethics were quite commonly taught in business schools, they were not generally prioritized. There was also an overall lack of systematic approaches to the integration of sustainability in business curricula, and significant barriers to the integration of sustainability into programs remained.Originality/value – This is the first region‐wide survey of sustainability in business education in the Asia Pacific region.

Irradiated sodium alginate improves plant growth, physiological activities and active constituents in Mentha arvensis L.

Sodium alginate, irradiated by Co-60 gamma rays in solid state, elicits plant growth promoting responses in various plants. Irradiated sodium alginate (ISA) was applied as a foliar spray on mint (Mentha arvensis L.) to investigate its effect on plant growth, physiological attributes and herbage yield as well as on content and yield of essential oil and its components (menthol, L-menthone, isomenthone and methyl acetate). A simple pot experiment was conducted applying five concentrations of ISA, viz. 25, 50, 75, 100 and 125 mg L, as foliar sprays. GPC study revealed formation of lower molecular weight oligomer fractions in irradiated samples which could be responsible for plant growth promotion in the present work. Of the five ISA concentrations, 100 mg L proved the best. As compared to the control, the ISA applied at 100 mg L resulted in the highest values of all physiological parameters at 100 and 120 days after planting.

Artemisia annua - Pharmacology and Biotechnology

This chapter summarises an earlier study that detailed in chronological order the translation of all the entries on qinghao 青蒿 (and its synonyms caohao 草蒿, chouhao 臭蒿, huanghuahao 黃花蒿, etc.) that Frederic Obringer and I could locate in the premodern Chinese materia medica (bencao 本草) in the time period between 168 BCE and 1596. The aim of that study (Hsu in Plants, health and healing: Berghahn, Oxford, pp 83–130, 2010) was threefold: it aimed to make a contribution to ethnobotany, the history of Chinese medicine and herbal medical practice. It underlined, first and foremost, that ‘herbal’ medications are not to be conceived of as ‘natural’ ‘herbs’ but as cultural artefacts: the entries on qinghao in the Chinese materia medica contained detailed information on the culture-specific transformation of plant parts into the drugs that the patient would then consume. This underlined that the so-called ‘herbal’ medical practice depends not only on plant classifications that are culture specific, but also on practical interventions that treat the plant as a thing. Accordingly, the study of qinghao involved not merely attending to the cultural acquisition of knowledges (epistemologies) but also to the techniques and practices of intervening with perceived realities (ontologies). Second, the study highlighted that the practical recommendations of how to use the plant and its various parts changed over time; it remains, to date, one of the first longitudinal studies on a specific item of the materia medica in the history of Chinese medicine. Finally, it evaluated the identification of qinghao and other hao 蒿 in terms of modern botanical taxonomies (as given in the Zhongyao dacidian

Proliferating effect of radiolytically depolymerized carrageenan on physiological attributes, plant water relation parameters, essential oil production and active constituents of Cymbopogon flexuosus Steud. under drought stress

Carrageenan has been proved as potent growth promoting substance in its depolymerized form. However, relatively little is known about its role in counteracting the adverse effects of drought stress on plants. In a pot experiment, lemongrass (Cymbopogon flexuosus Steud.), grown under different water stress regimes [(100% field capacity (FC), 80% FC and 60% FC)], was sprayed with 40, 80 and 120 mg L-1 of gamma irradiated carrageenan (ICA). Foliar application of ICA mitigated the harmful effects of drought stress to various extents and improved the biochemical characteristics, quality attributes and active constituents (citral and geraniol) of lemongrass significantly. Among the applied treatments, ICA-80 mg L-1 proved the best in alleviating detrimental effects of drought. However, drought stress (80 and 60% FC), irrespective of the growth stages, had an adverse impact on most of the studied attributes. Generally, 60% FC proved more deleterious than 80% FC. At 80% FC, application of ICA-80 mg L-1 elevated the essential oil (EO) content by 18.9 and 25%, citral content by 7.33 and 8.19% and geraniol content by 9.2 and 8.9% at 90 and 120 days after planting (DAP), respectively, as compared to the deionized-water (DW) spray treatment (80% FC+ DW). Whereas, at 60% FC, foliar application of 80 mg L-1 ICA significantly augmented the EO content by 15.4 and 17.8% and active constituents viz. citral and geraniol, by 5.01 and 5.62% and by 6.06 and 5.61% at 90 and 120 DAP, respectively, as compared to the control (water-spray treatment).

Synergistic Effect of Irradiated Sodium Alginate and Methyl Jasmonate on Anticancer Alkaloids Production in Periwinkle (Catharanthus roseus L.)

Periwinkle (Catharanthus roseus L.) G. Don contains about 130 indole terpenoid alkaloids including vincristine and vinblastine, which are antineoplastic drugs produced in a very minute quantity in periwinkle leaves. Researchers have been finding ways to enhance the production of these valuable alkaloids. A pot experiment was conducted on periwinkle to explore the effect of single and combined application of irradiated sodium alginate (ISA) and methyl jasmonate (MeJA) on growth, physiological attributes and alkaloids production (vincristine and vinblastine) at 6 and 9 month after plantation (MAP). Foliar application of ISA at 80 mg L−1 improved the growth and other physiological parameters, whereas MeJA at 40 mg L−1 enhanced the content and yield of anticancer alkaloids (vincristine and vinblastine). As compared with the control, their combined application (80 mg L−1 of ISA and 40 mg L−1 of MeJA) increased the total alkaloids content by 33.8 and 36.6% and the total alkaloids yield by 47.7 and 58.0% at 6 and 9 MAP, respectively. Combined application increased the vincristine content by 46.7 and 42.8% and vincristine yield by 59.8 and 66.0% at 6 and 9 MAP, respectively. Similarly, it increased the vinblastine content by 24.6 and 21.0% and the vinblastine yield by 35.3 and 40% at 6 and 9 MAP, respectively. Conclusively, combined application of ISA and MeJA could be considered recommendable to enhance the anticancer alkaloids of periwinkle.