Muhammad Ejaz

Impacts of Heat Stress on Wheat: A Critical Review

A brief review is given of investigations on stress-induced alterations in the yield of different biochemical contents in wheat. Wheat is major cereal crop for fulfilling the calories demands of growing population. Alterations in the worldwide climate are predicted to have critical sentence for crop production. Abiotic stresses such as heat and drought are major abiotic stresses restraining crop production. Heat stress reduces wheat growth by upsetting various physiological and biochemical processes and the developmental stage of the plant is critical in demonstrating the vulnerability of various species and cultivars subjected to high temperature. Heat stress did not affect the protein content but there is strong correlation between leaf nitrogen content and grain protein content. Induction of HSPs seems to be the universal response and adaptation to temperature stress. The synthesis of HSPs is believed to play significant role either in preventing or minimizing the adverse effects of high temperature both at molecular and cellular levels. Wheat has the tendency to adopt diverse types of responses to temperature stress as well as a heat shock by developing thermo-tolerance for the enhancement of the grain quality and yield.

Review on Therapeutic and Pharmaceutically Important Medicinal PlantAsparagus officinalis L

The use of medicinal plants is as old as human civilization. About 600-700 plants species in Pakistan are used for preparation of ayurvedic, unani and homeopathic drugs. Asparagus officinalis a sub-erect prickly shrub with white tuberous root usually is of prime importance in this regard. It naturally occurs in areas of southern Africa, Europe, Australia and Asia. Nutritive tonics are prepared from its roots and it is also a source of a nutritious starch, low in calories and is very low in sodium and good source of vitamins. This plant offers multiple health benefits because of presence of ingredients like proteins, alkaloids, saponins and tannins that help in improving fertility and vitality in women and men. Pharmacological activities of Asparagus include anticancer, antioxidant, antifungal, antibacterial, anti-dysenteric, anti-inflammatory, and anti-abortifacient, anti-oxytoxic, antiulcer, hypertensive and anticoagulant effects. Moreover, it is reported to reduce the risk of constipation, diarrhea, osteoporosis, obesity, cardiovascular disease, rheumatism and diabetes. Now days, the demand of such medicinally important plants has increased all over the world. However, indiscriminate use of such vital natural resources overtime and fragmentation of habitats may pose serious threat to their survival. Therefore, keeping in view the significance of Asparagus, efforts must be made to it protect it in its natural population.

Case Study of Functional Neurological Disorder (Aphonic)

Mr. S (initial instead of real name), the clients, age was 23 years. He visited to the clinic along with his cousin. His cousin informed that client is suffering from speech disorder while his medical reports are clear. His cousin also mentioned about his aggressive behaviour, disturbed sleep, and use of drugs. The client was not able to answer vocally so his answers were in written form. After that, further informations were collected from his parents and family. Pre morbid history was taken in six days from him (in written form) and from his parents. Unstructured method was used for data collecting. After data collecting, client was diagnosed by “Functional Neurological Disorder (Aphonic).” He was fully recovered after ninety sessions.

Effect of silver nanoparticles and silver nitrate on growth of rice under biotic stress

This study was organised to check the effect of silver nanoparticles and silver nitrate on rice growth against biotic stress. Silver nanoparticles were synthesised by using plant extract as reducing agent, followed by characterisation through UV Vis spectroscopy, XRD, EDS and SEM. Aspergillus application significantly reduced rice plant fresh mass (0.9%), dry mass (0.21%), root length (2.3%), shoot length (5.2%) and root number (1%) in comparison to control. Similarly, leaf area, leaf fresh mass, dry mass and leaf number were also reduced by 23.1, 0.02, 0.11 and 0.9%, respectively. AgNPs and AgNO3 treatments increased the root length (16.2 & 12.8%), shoot length (21 & 20%), root number (8.1 & 6.8%), plant fresh weight (6.4 & 5%) and plant dry weight (4.6 & 3.5%) in 75mg/l treatment of AgNPs and AgNO3 respectively. Similarly, AgNPs and AgNO3 treatment (75 mg/l concentrations) reflected remarkable increase in leaf area (58.8 & 57.2 %), leaf number (4.3 & 3.7 %), leaf fresh weight (1.7 & 1.4 %) and leaf dry weight (0.9 & 0.8 %). Overall AgNPs showed more significant results as compared to AgNO3. The quantity of aflatoxins ranged from 3.1 to 7.7 μg/kg against tolerable limit (4 µg/kg). Overall AgNPs and AgNO3 treatments showed significant results and it could be considered as a strategy for aflatoxin management in rice plants.

A Review on Secondary Metabolites of Rosa laevigata Michaux: AnImportant Medicinal Plant

Rosa laevigata is a white aromatic rose inhabitant to Southern China and Taiwan and growing offensively as invasive in the United States of America. It is herbaceous climbing shrub, growing over the other shrubs and reaching upto 5-10 metre in height. In 1780’s, it gained its English name Cherokee rose from America. This review was aimed to analyze various active secondary metabolites of Rosa laevigata with their medicinal value. The study infers that plant possess novel secondary metabolites i.e., polysaccharides, flavonoids, steroids, tannins, laevigatins E, F, G, triterpenoids, 11α-hydroxytormentic acid, 2α-methoxyursolic acid, 6-methoxy-β-glucopyranosyl ester, tormentic acid and 5α-diol 3-O-β-d-glucopyranoside with their antibacterial, anticancer, astringent, depurative and anti-inflammatory activities. A profound efforts has been done in past to address the active secondary metabolites, but still consistent struggles are required to explore the volatile compounds present in Rosa laevigata and their medicinal and therapeutic values should be investigated in future.

Seed germination and biochemical profile of Citrus reticulata (Kinnow) exposed to green synthesised silver nanoparticles

The biosynthesis of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) is substantial for its applications in different fields. The Moringa oleifera leaves were used as reducing and stabilising agent for the biosynthesis of AgNPs. The synthesised AgNPs were characterised through UV-visible spectroscopy, zeta analyser, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and energy dispersive Xray (EDX). In this study, effects of the synthesised AgNPs were also evaluated on nucellus tissues germination frequency and biochemical parameters of plant tissues. Nucellus tissues of Citrus reticulata were inoculated on MS medium supplemented with 10, 20, 30 and 40 µg/ml suspension of the synthesised AgNPs. Green synthesised AgNPs enhanced the in vitro germination because of low toxicity and nonfriendly issues. Significant results were obtained for germination parameters i.e. root and shoot length and seedling vigour index in response to 30 µg/ml suspension of green synthesised AgNPs. The 30 µ/ml suspension of AgNPs also enhanced antioxidant activity (41%) and SOD activity (0.36 nM/min/mg FW) while total phenolic content (4.7 µg/mg FW) and total flavonoid content (1.1 µg/mg FW) was significantly high when MS medium was fortified with 40 µg/ml suspension of the synthesised AgNPs. The content of total protein was significant (558 µg/BSA Eq/mg FW) in control plantlets as compared to the other treatments.

Smoke produced from plants waste material elicits growth of wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) by improving morphological, physiological and biochemical activity

Highlights • Smoke produced from plants waste material is more efficient, cost effective, vegetative growth promoter, inexpensive, rapid and most appropriate eco-friendly bio-fertilizer in sustainable agriculture.• Plant derived smoke was generated by burning of plant material (leaf, straws etc) in a specially designed furnace.• Four level of plant derived smoke (1 h, 2 h, 3 h & 4 h) along with control were tested on four wheat cultivars in CRD repeated pot experiment.• Plant derived smoke exposure applied for short time i.e. 1 h & 2 h induced significant results as compared to prolonged PDS exposure.