Physiological impact of heat stress and their alleviation measures in agriculture: A review

Abiotic stresses are becoming more prevalent in modern agriculture as a result of shifting climate scenarios. Elevated temperature stress is one of the most important abiotic stresses to address since it has detrimental consequences for plant physiology, molecular structure, and phenology. The morphological impact occurs in the form of reduced germination, poor emergence, poor seedling vigor, abnormal seedling. Heat stress also results in the closure of stomata, reduced leaf size and consequent increase in stomatal density. One of the major physiological impacts of heat stress is on the fluidity of the membrane structure of the plant cell. Heat stress leads to increased fluidity of the thylakoid membrane and disruption of metabolic functions, which either deliver or accept electrons from PSII and, thus, cause dislodging of PSII from thylakoid membrane. The respiration generally increases in the temperature range of 0-35/ 40⁰C, reaches plateau at 40-50⁰C and decreases beyond 50⁰C due to damage to the respiratory mechanism. Elevated temperature directly impacts the cellular water content and indirectly through the increased water depletion rate from the soil. In order to design the appropriate corrective actions, it is crucial to research all the factors leading to heat stress thoroughly. The traditional agronomic and breeding interventions are crucial, but the rising food demand and the intensifying heat stress call for some cutting-edge biotechnological interventions, such as transgenics, genome editing, and CRISPR/cas9, to induce genome-level heat tolerance. The present review deals in detail with each of the previously listed aspects.

A Pharmaceutical Standardization of Guduchi (Tinospora cordifolia)

Guduchi, scientifically known as Tinospora cordifolia, is a prominent herb in Ayurveda and traditional medicine systems. Its rich history of use for centuries, is owing to its composite therapeutic properties. This botanical has gained increasing attention in modern medicine due to its potential as an immunomodulatory, anti-inflammatory, antioxidant and adaptogenic agent. This abstract focuses on the standardization of Guduchi to ensure consistent quality and potency in herbal formulations. Standardization involves the quantification of key bioactive compounds, such as alkaloids, glycosides and polysaccharides, which contribute to its therapeutic effects. For the identification, purity and strength these must be fulfilled - analytical parameters like foreign matter, total ash value, acid insoluble ash, alcohol soluble extractive, water soluble extractive and moisture content in fresh drug. Overall, no adverse reactions or toxicity of Guduchi have been obtained. The present study was focused on analytical studies which was carried out separately on the basis of classically illustrated organoleptic tests, modern physio-chemical parameters like loss on drying at 110°C, ash value, acid insoluble ash, alcohol soluble extract, pH (10% aqueous solution), water soluble extractive in different parameters and microscopic study of Guduchi powder. Hence the present work may be used for the quality assessment and standardization of Guduchi (Tinospora cordifolia). &nbsp