Ethnobotanical and pharmacological importance of Taxus wallichiana Zucc.

Taxus wallichiana Zucc. or the Himalayan Yew is a gymnosperm growing along the Himalayan region of Indian and adjoining countries. The plant is extensively used by local people for treatment of various diseases such as fever, headache, diarrhea, fractures, problems of nervous system etc. It also finds usage in Unani system of medicine. The plant is rich in various bioorganic compounds natural products such as hydrocarbons, terpene alcohols, terpenoids (including taxoids), organic acids etc. The plant has been explored for anti-inflammatory, analgesic, antipyretic, anticonvulsant, immunomodulatory, hepatoprotective and anticancer activity with satisfactory outcome. The pharmacological activity of the plant is largely due to the presence of large number of terpenoids. The bioactive constituents present in the plant interacts with a large number of biochemical pathways involved in inflammatory processes, cell division cycles and inhibits a number of enzymes to bring about its protective action against various diseases. In this review, an attempt have been made to highlight the beneficial properties of Taxus wallichiana in various levels of usage starting from its fundamental ethnobotanical use to pharmacological use involving both in-vitro and in-vivo studies. Insights into the molecular mechanisms of action of the active constituents in bringing about the beneficial activity have also been illustrated. The plant can very well become a source of medicine for better management of a large number of diseases including cancer

A Comparative Analysis of Retrievability and PageRank Measures

The accessibility of documents within a collection holds a pivotal role in Information Retrieval, signifying the ease of locating specific content in a collection of documents. This accessibility can be achieved via two distinct avenues. The first is through some retrieval model using a keyword or other feature-based search, and the other is where a document can be navigated using links associated with them, if available. Metrics such as PageRank, Hub, and Authority illuminate the pathways through which documents can be discovered within the network of content while the concept of Retrievability is used to quantify the ease with which a document can be found by a retrieval model. In this paper, we compare these two perspectives, PageRank and retrievability, as they quantify the importance and discoverability of content in a corpus. Through empirical experimentation on benchmark datasets, we demonstrate a subtle similarity between retrievability and PageRank particularly distinguishable for larger datasets.Comment: Accepted at FIRE 202

Genetic Transformation of Arachis hypogaea Using Novel Genes Conferring Fungal Resistance-A Review

Peanut (Arachis hypogaea L.) or the common ‘peanut’ is a worldwide popular, affordable food containing high protein, calories, vitamins, and minerals. Several biotic and abiotic stresses are responsible for reaching the expected production of peanuts worldwide. Especially, the fungi are the major constraints that not only hamper the production but also that is deadly health hazardous for both human consumption and poultry-livestock. Approaches from various dimensions like cultural management, diseases free cultivar development, hybridization, tissue culture, and genetic transformations have been tried to overcome such challenges. This review epitomizes the total scenario from the plant physiological basis of fungal diseases to the peanut development approaches, which aimed to develop a concrete understanding of sustainable management of peanut production. Comparisons of Genetic Engineering methods such as Agrobacterium-mediated and direct gene gun (particle bombardment- mediated) with traditional hybridization have been compiled here, furthermore, candidate genes transformed to achieve fungus-resistance in peanuts have been listed up to provide an overview. Along with, the limitations of transformation attempts and the techniques for improvisation of transformation techniques have been discussed in sustainable peanut production. This study provides, comprehensive information on fungal-resistant peanut development so that, further research in this arena could be guided in an integrated way, which may serve for the thrust of sustainable improvisation in peanut cultivation

Role of microbes in alleviating abiotic stress in plants

The leading threat to agricultural productivity is the recurrent variations in environmental conditions. A battery of abiotic stresses namely flooding, salinity, temperature, drought, heavy metal toxicities, nutrient deficiencies and oxidative stress causes irreversible damage resulting in loss of plant’s vigor and yield. The relationship between plants and microorganisms is a highly dynamic system. The plant microbiome consists of plant growth-promoting bacteria and fungi. In the last decade, many microbes that give hosts the ability to withstand abiotic stress have been characterized in detail. Their beneficial association with plants enables the plant to endure different stresses imposed on them thereby enhancing the plant's sustainability and productivity. For sustainable agriculture, it is very significant to comprehend microbiome-assisted mechanisms for mitigating abiotic stress. This review will shed light on the current knowledge about the roles of various microorganisms in mitigating against abiotic stresses. The understanding of these mechanisms will help to increase the yield of plants and meet the food demands of the expanding population

Dactylorhiza hatagirea (D. Doon) Soo, an important medicinal herb of the Himalaya and urgent need for its conservation- A review

Dactylorhiza hatagirea (D. Doon) Soo (Family Orchidaceae) is a terrestrial orchid, native to alpine and sub-alpine zones of Himalaya, well known for medicinal uses because of its immense pharmacological properties and therapeutic potential. Leaves and tubers of the herb finds enormous uses in traditional Indian medicinal system like Ayurveda, Siddha, Unani and Sowa-rigpa for treatment of different ailments like dysentery, diarrhoea, chronic fever, cough, wounds, burns, fractures, stomach-ache, etc. The present review analyses the distribution, medicinal uses, phytochemistry, pharmacology, and conservation status of D. hatagirea. The review is based on literature available on this orchid with an objective to compile and understand diverse medicinal uses among the indigenous Himalayan communities and phytochemical potential in pharmacology. This review also highlights the potential threats faced by this orchid and suggests future conservation prospects and strategies

Dactylorhiza hatagirea (D. Doon) Soo, an important medicinal herb of the Himalaya and urgent need for its conservation- A review

265-273Dactylorhiza hatagirea (D. Doon) Soo (Family Orchidaceae) is a terrestrial orchid, native to alpine and sub-alpine zones of Himalaya, well known for medicinal uses because of its immense pharmacological properties and therapeutic potential. Leaves and tubers of the herb finds enormous uses in traditional Indian medicinal system like Ayurveda, Siddha, Unani and Sowa-rigpa for treatment of different ailments like dysentery, diarrhoea, chronic fever, cough, wounds, burns, fractures, stomach-ache, etc. The present review analyses the distribution, medicinal uses, phytochemistry, pharmacology, and conservation status of D. hatagirea. The review is based on literature available on this orchid with an objective to compile and understand diverse medicinal uses among the indigenous Himalayan communities and phytochemical potential in pharmacology. This review also highlights the potential threats faced by this orchid and suggests future conservation prospects and strategies

Negative Impacts of Arsenic on Plants and Mitigation Strategies

Arsenic (As) is a metalloid prevalent mainly in soil and water. The presence of As above permissible levels becomes toxic and detrimental to living organisms, therefore, making it a significant global concern. Humans can absorb As through drinking polluted water and consuming As-contaminated food material grown in soil having As problems. Since human beings are mobile organisms, they can use clean uncontaminated water and food found through various channels or switch from an As-contaminated area to a clean area; but plants are sessile and obtain As along with essential minerals and water through roots that make them more susceptible to arsenic poisoning and consequent stress. Arsenic and phosphorus have many similarities in terms of their physical and chemical characteristics, and they commonly compete to cause physiological anomalies in biological systems that contribute to further stress. Initial indicators of arsenic’s propensity to induce toxicity in plants are a decrease in yield and a loss in plant biomass. This is accompanied by considerable physiological alterations; including instant oxidative surge; followed by essential biomolecule oxidation. These variables ultimately result in cell permeability and an electrolyte imbalance. In addition, arsenic disturbs the nucleic acids, the transcription process, and the essential enzymes engaged with the plant system’s primary metabolic pathways. To lessen As absorption by plants, a variety of mitigation strategies have been proposed which include agronomic practices, plant breeding, genetic manipulation, computer-aided modeling, biochemical techniques, and the altering of human approaches regarding consumption and pollution, and in these ways, increased awareness may be generated. These mitigation strategies will further help in ensuring good health, food security, and environmental sustainability. This article summarises the nature of the impact of arsenic on plants, the physio-biochemical mechanisms evolved to cope with As stress, and the mitigation measures that can be employed to eliminate the negative effects of As

Dual targeting of folate receptor-expressing glioma tumor-associated macrophages and epithelial cells in the brain using a carbon nanosphere-cationic folate nanoconjugate

Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM), the highly invasive form of glioma, exhibits the highest mortality in patients with brain malignancies. Increasing glioma patients' survivability is challenging, as targeting only tumor-associated malignant cells would not reduce the overall aggressiveness of the tumor mass. This is due to the inadequacy in countering pro-proliferative, invasive and metastatic factors released by tumor-mass associated macrophages (TAMs). Hence, strategically, dual targeting both tumor cells and TAMs is necessary for effective glioma treatment and increased survivability. Conventional FR-targeting systems can easily target cancer cells that overtly express folate receptors (FRs). However, FRs are expressed only moderately in both glioma cells and in TAMs. Hence, it is more challenging to coordinate dual targeting of glioma cells and TAMs with lower levels of FR expression. A recently developed carbon nanosphere (CSP) with effective blood-brain barrier (BBB) penetrability was modified with a new folic acid-cationic lipid conjugate (F8) as a targeting ligand. The uniqueness of the cationic lipid-folate conjugate is that it stably associates with the negatively charged CSP surface at about >22 mol% surface concentration, a concentration at least 5-fold higher than what is achieved for conventional FR-targeting delivery systems. This enabled dual uptake of the CSP on TAMs and tumor cells via FRs. A doxorubicin-associated FR-targeting formulation (CFD), in an orthotopic glioma model and in a glioma subcutaneous model, induced the maximum anticancer effect with enhanced average mice survivability twice that of untreated mice and without any systemic liver toxicity. Additionally, we observed a significant decrease of TAM-released pro-aggressive factors, TGF-β, STAT3, invasion and migration related sICAM-1, and other cytokines indicating anti-TAM activity of the CFD. Taken together, we principally devised, to the best of our knowledge, the first FR-targeting nano-delivery system for targeting brain-associated TAMs and tumor cells as an efficient glioma therapeutic