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Basic techniques of plant tissue culture Basic techniques of plant tissue culture Techniques of plant tissue culture Techniques of plant tissue culture are listed below:- 1. Culture vessels The culture vessels used for plant tissue studies includes Erylenmayer flask (conical flask), petri plates and culture tubes (25 x 150mm). 2. Culture medium The important media used for all purpose experiment are Murashige and Skoog medium (MS medium), Gamborg medium (B5 medium), White medium (W medium) and Nitsch medium. The culture medium is closed with cotton plug/ or aluminium foil sheet. The pH of the medium is adjusted to 5.8 (acidic range). 3. Sterilization Sterilization is the technique employed to get rid of the microbes such as bacteria and fungi in the culture medium and plant tissues. So, it is important to sterilize the culture medium and plant tissue. The culture medium can be sterilised by keeping it in an autoclave and maintaining the temperature of 121’C for 15 minutes. The pla...

Structure of DNA Structure of DNA DNA and RNA are identified in the nucleus. They are complex macro molecules and made up of millions of smaller units called nucleotides. Hence, DNA is a macromolecular substance with double stranded polynucleotide. Each nucleotide is made up of pentose sugar, a phosphate group and a nitrogenous base. Ribose is the constituent sugar in RNA and Deoxyribose in DNA. The nitrogenous bases are of two kinds – purines and pyrimidines. Adenine and guanine are the purines and thymine and cytosine are pyrimidines. The nitrogenous bases found in DNA are adenine, guanine, cytosine and thymine, whereas in RNA thymine is replaced by uracil. The sub-unit containing only sugar and nitrogenous base is known as nucleoside. A nucleoside combines with phosphate to form a nucleotide. Thus, four kinds of nucleotides are seen in DNA molecule. They are adenine nucleotide, guanine nucleotide, thymine nucleotide and cytosine nucleotide. Hence, nucleotides are building blocks of ...

Botanical description of Hibiscus rosa sinensis Hibiscus rosa sinensis Botanical description of Hibiscus rosa sinensis Hibiscus rosa sinensis General Characters Habit Perennial shrub. Root Tap root system. Stem Aerial, erect, cylindrical, woody and branched. Leaf Simple, Alternate, petiolate, stipulate, serrate, glabrous, apex acuminate with multicostate reticulate venation. Inflorescence Solitary cyme and axillary. Flower Pedicel jointed, bracteate, bracteolate, bisexual, large, showy, pentamerous, dichlamydeous, actinomorphic, complete and hypogynous and mucilage is present in floral parts. Epicalyx 5 to 8 bracteoles outer to the calyx. They are green and free. Calyx Sepals 5, green, gamosepalous showing valvate aestivation and odd sepal is posterior in position. Corolla Petals 5, variously coloured, polypetalous but fused at the base and showing twisted aestivation. Androecium Numerous stamens, monadelphous, filaments are fused to form a staminal tube around the style. Staminal tube...

Timber yielding plant – Teak Back to botany topic list Its binomial is Tectona grandis. It belongs to Verbenaceae. It is large deciduous tree and shows resistance to termites. Sap wood is white and heart wood is green emitting fragrance. The timber retains its fragrance for a long time. It is hard , durable and strong and also takes up good polishing. In India, it is used for making furnitures, buildings, cardboards, railway sleepers, etc. Ships and bridges are also made from this timber. Economic importance Teak wood is durable and it is an important timber in the tropics. As the seasoned teak, timber does not shrink, crack or alter its shape, it is extensively used in making household furnitures. It is also used in ship building, boats, etc. It is used for interior decoration. It is used for the manufacture of boards. Back to botany topic list Other links  Plant physiology – photosynthesis and its significance BIOLOGY IN HUMAN WELFARE Introduction &  Food production Aims of plant...

Fibre plant – Cotton Back to botany topic list Many members of Malvaceae yield fibres. Gossypium barbadense (Egyptian cotton) and G. hirsutum are some examples for fibre plants. The seed coat of cotton seeds produce fibres on their external surface. So, it is called as surface fibre. Almost the entire textile industry depends on this fibre. Cotton is used in stuffing the pillows and cushions. It is also used in making rubber tyres, carpets, blankets and cordages are made from cotton. Economic importance It is a cash crop. It gives three important products: fibre, food and cattle feed. Lint fibre is for clothing which is very much useful in the textile industries. Seed is used for extracting oil. This is also used as vanaspathi. Cotton flour prepared from the seed is used for bread and biscuit making. Cotton seed cake is used as a good organic manure. Fatty acids obtained from oil is used in the preparation of insecticide, fungicidies and plastics, etc. Back to botany topic list Ot...

Oil plant – Groundnut Back to botany topic list Its binomial is Arachis hypogea. It belongs to Fabaceae. It is an annual. The word groundnut derives its name from the fact that its fruits ripe beneath the ground. The roasted seeds are edible. Oil is extracted from the seeds and used as fine cooking medium. Vegetable ghee (peanut butter) is also prepared from this oil. The oil cake is fed to the livestock. It is rich in fatty acids and proteins. Economic importance Ground nut oil is one of the important edible oils. It is extensively used in cookery as a salad oil. It is used for the manufacture of vanaspathi. Groundnut kernel is rich and cheap source of vegetable protein. Kernels are eaten, fried and salted and added to a number of dishes. Peanut butter is prepared by grinding roasted and blanched kernels. It is nutritious. Groundnut oil is used to a limited extent in soap making. Oil is used as illuminant, lubricant. Oil cake is used as animal feed and organic manure. Groundnut shell ...

Economic importance of food plant rice Back to botany topic list Many plants are economically important and useful to mankind in several ways. Based on their utility, they are broadly classified as food plants, fibre plants, oil plants and timber plants. Now, we will discuss some of the economically important plants for each category. Food plant Rice Its binomial is Oryza sativa. It belongs to Poaceae. It is the most important cereal of tropical climate. This plant is an annual grass. The inflorescence is panicle containing a number of branches, each terminating in a single grain. IR – 8, ponni, kannagi, kavery, ganga, etc. are some of the recent varieties cultivated in India. Food plant Rice is the chief source of carbohydrates. Polished rice is less nutritive. Straw is used as livestock feed. In Japan, alcoholic beverages are also distilled from the grains of rice. Recently, from the husk of paddy, a cooking (rice bran oil) oil is extracted. Now, bio-diesel is obtained from rice bran...

Microbes in medicine Back to botany topic list Microbes like bacteria and fungi produce antibiotics. The substance produced by a living organism, which inhibits the growth and metabolic activities of pathogenic organisms (mostly bacteria) without affecting the metabolism of host is called an antibiotic. Penicillin, streptomycin, aureomycin and chloromycetin are some of the examples for antibiotics. Penicillin is a well known antibiotic obtained from the blue green mold called Penicillium notatum. When it is grown in culture medium, the mycelium excretes an antibiotic substance called penicillin. The crude penicillin is recovered, purified and dehydrated. It is effective against gram-positive bacteria like Pneumonia bacteria. Streptomycin is obtained from the filamentous bacterium, Streptomyces griseus, an actinomycetes. It cures urinary infections, tuberculosis, meningitis and pneumonia. Aureomycin mis obtained from actinomycetes, Streptomyces aureofaciens. It is used as a medicine in ...

COMMONLY AVAILABLE MEDICINAL PLANTS Back to botany topic list 1. Acalypha indica It belongs to Euphorbiaceae. The vernacular name of A. indica in tamil is kuppaimeni, poonamayakki and its trade name is Indian Acalypha. It is a common herb growing upto 75 cm tall with ovate leaves. Flowersare green, unisexual found in catkin inflorescence. The paste obtained from the leaves of this plant is applied to burns. The juice extracted from the leaves, mixed with lime and applied on skin to cure diseases caused by ringworms. Fresh juice of leaves mixed with oil and salt is used for Rheumatoid arthritis and to cure scabies. Powdered leaves are used to cure bedsores and infected wounds. The active medicinal compounds like Acalyphine and Triacetoneamine are extracted from this plant. They contain cyanogenic glucoside and alkaloids. 2. Aegle marmelos It belongs to Rutaceae. The vernacular name of A. marmelos in tamil, is vilvam. It’s trade name is baer fruit. It is an aromatic tree growing 6 to 7.5...

Medicinal plants including microbes Back to botany topic list India is endowed with a rich wealth of medicinal plants. From earliest times mankind has used hundreds of medicinal-plants in an attempt to cure diseases and relieve physical sufferings. They derived this knowledge as a result of trial and error. Medicinal properties of plants have been mentioned even in the oldest “Rig Veda”. Medicinal plants are becoming popular throughout the developed world, as people want to treat illness. It is estimated that around 70,000 plant species, from lichens to tall trees, have been used as medicinal plants. 500 plants have been studied in detail. According to WHO about 25 per cent of prescribed human medicines are derived from plants. India accounts for nearly 1,100 species used in different systems of medicines like Ayurveda, Siddha, Unani, etc. Out of these, 600 to 700 species are used much in the country. But 95 per cent of medicinal plants are obtained from wild sources and they are not c...

Sustainable agriculture Back to botany topic list Increased food production in India was made possible by the employment of modern technology in agriculture. The increase in the productivity is mainly due to rapid rise in overall area under cultivation of cereals. To maintain the crops and productivity, we have to expand irrigation facilities and use large amounts of fertilizers and pesticides. This overexploitation had resulted in the degradation of soils and their erosion. Due to degeneration in soil fertility, the traditional varieties of crop plants as cultivated in earlier periods got disappeared or are on the brink of extinction. Our agriculture is slowly being converted into an unsustainable system in the years to come, as the cost of chemicals and fertilizers, labour, cost of seeds are going to make the agricultural products costlier. This will affect millions of uneducated farmers. Hence, to remedy this situation, we will have to find alternative permanent arrangements in sust...

Biopiracy Back to botany topic list Countries like America, Japan, United Kingdom, France and Germany are industrialised nations. These nations are advanced in technology with financial resources but compared with the Indian sub-continent are poor in bio diversity and traditional knowledge related to utilisation of flora and fauna that constitute the bio resources. The clandestine exploitation and utilisation of bio resources from a country by several organisations and multinational companies without proper authorisation is known as Biopiracy. Although the developing nations are not so financially sound, they are however rich in traditional knowledge and bio diversity. For a very long period, the tribal people in the remote areas of jungles as also the people of rural areas have been using certain important herbal plants for treating certain diseases. Since, the habitations of the tribal people are surrounded by a variety of plants and animals, they have acquired a sound knowledge of t...

Bio – war Back to botany topic list Nowadays, microbes are misused as biological weapons. For instance, a single gram of the most virulent strains of weaponized. Smallpox or anthrax could contain 250 million infectious doses. Under ideal dispersal conditions, about half the people of the entire. World when exposed to these germs could become ill and one-third might die. Deadly organisms Even from a very long period, pathogens causing some of the deadliest diseases in men are being used as biological weapons. More than 2,000 years ago, Scythian archers used their arrow heads. Which were dipped in rotting corpses in order to cause panic amongst people. The tips of arrowhead caused infections. During World war II, papar bags filled with plague infested fleas were employed as biological weapons to kill thousands of people. At that time, well equipped and expensive laboratories were established to mass produce biological weapons. At present, each and every nation is facing the threat f...

Genetically modified food Back to botany topic list The greater concern in food biotechnology is the integration of both modern biological knowledge and techniques and current bioengineering principles in food processing and preservation. Modern biotechnological techniques will have considerable importance in influencing trends in the food market, namely cost, preservation, taste, consistency, colour and above all, health aspects. Every year more than a million children die and another 3,50,000 go blind from the effects of vitamin A deficiency. Employing genetic engineering techniques, Potrykus of Switzerland and Peter Beyer of Germany transferred genes that make carotene in daffodils into Oryza sativa. Ordinarytechniques of plant breeding do not offer a way to enrich the crop. Extracting carotene genes from daffodils, Potrykus and Beyer had introduced these genes into the soil bacterium. Agrobacterium tumefaciens, the transgenic agrobacteria were then incubated with rice embryos in pl...