Download or read book Aflatoxin written by Lukman Abdulra'Uf and published by BoD – Books on Demand. This book was released on 2017-08-30 with total page 292 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Aflatoxins are a group of highly toxic and carcinogenic substances, which occur naturally, and can be found in food substances. Aflatoxins are secondary metabolites of certain strains of the fungi Aspergillus flavus and A. parasiticus and the less common A. nomius. Aflatoxins B1, B2, G1, and G2 are the most important members, which can be categorized into two groups according to the chemical structure. As a result of the adverse health effects of mycotoxins, their levels have been strictly regulated especially in food and feed samples. Therefore, their accurate identification and determination remain a Herculean task due to their presence in complex food matrices. The great public concern and the strict legislation incited the development of reliable, specific, selective, and sensitive analytical methods for pesticide monitoring that are discussed in this book.

Download or read book Emerging Technologies to Benefit Farmers in Sub Saharan Africa and South Asia written by National Research Council and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2009-02-21 with total page 292 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Increased agricultural productivity is a major stepping stone on the path out of poverty in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, but farmers there face tremendous challenges improving production. Poor soil, inefficient water use, and a lack of access to plant breeding resources, nutritious animal feed, high quality seed, and fuel and electricity-combined with some of the most extreme environmental conditions on Earth-have made yields in crop and animal production far lower in these regions than world averages. Emerging Technologies to Benefit Farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia identifies sixty emerging technologies with the potential to significantly improve agricultural productivity in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. Eighteen technologies are recommended for immediate development or further exploration. Scientists from all backgrounds have an opportunity to become involved in bringing these and other technologies to fruition. The opportunities suggested in this book offer new approaches that can synergize with each other and with many other activities to transform agriculture in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.

Download or read book Matthews Plant Virology written by Richard Ellis Ford Matthews and published by Gulf Professional Publishing. This book was released on 2002 with total page 1084 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It has been ten years since the publication of the third edition of this seminal text on plant virology, during which there has been an explosion of conceptual and factual advances. The fourth edition updates and revises many details of the previous editon, while retaining the important older results that constitute the field's conceptual foundation. Key features of the fourth edition include: * Thumbnail sketches of each genera and family groups * Genome maps of all genera for which they are known * Genetic engineered resistance strategies for virus disease control * Latest understanding of virus interactions with plants, including gene silencing * Interactions between viruses and insect, fungal, and nematode vectors * New plate section containing over 50 full-color illustrations.

Download or read book Crop Production and Global Environmental Issues written by Khalid Rehman Hakeem and published by Springer. This book was released on 2015-12-08 with total page 604 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Meeting the world’s food security challenge will require a multi-national, collaborative effort to integrate the best research from science, engineering and socioeconomics so that technological advances can bring benefits where they are most needed. The present book covers the effect of major environmental problems on crop production and how to cope with these issues for sustainable agriculture and improvements of crops. The world’s population is predicted to hit 9.6 Billion by 2050, up from today’s total of nearly 7.3 Billion, and with it food demand is predicted to increase substantially. The post-war ‘second agricultural revolution’ in developed countries, and the ‘green revolution’ in developing nations in the mid- 1960s converted agricultural practices and elevated crop yields spectacularly, but the outcome is levelling off and will not meet projected demand. Simultaneously, crop production is affected by many other factors, including industrial pollution, overuse of fertilizers and insecticides, heavy metal and radiation stresses etc. It has been noted that many pests are becoming resistant to insecticides. Estimates vary, but around 25% of crops can be lost to pests and diseases. Climate change associated with agriculture is also a global issue. Agriculture is a significant contributor to greenhouse gases and is estimated to account for 10-12% of total greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Many of the issues highlighted are global problems and are addressed thoroug hly in this work.

Download or read book Current Trends in Plant Disease Diagnostics and Management Practices written by Pradeep Kumar and published by Springer. This book was released on 2016-04-28 with total page 471 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Plant diseases play an important role on our daily lives. Most of plant diseases are visible and are caused by biotic and/or abiotic factors. Symptoms are usually the results of a morphological change, alteration or damage to plant tissue and/or cells due to an interference of the plant’s metabolism. All basic structures of vascular plants are subject to attack by pathogens. The failure in accurate disease diagnosis and management may lead to huge losses in plant production and related commodities, which causes nutritional food scarcity. Typically, the appearance of a biotic symptom will indicate the relatively late stage of an infection and/or colonization of a pathogen. Expert detection, accurate diagnosis, and timely management play a significant role in keeping plants free from pathogens. In this book expert scholars share their research knowledge and key literature which are vital toward the diagnosis of plant diseases across the globe, addressing traditional plant pathology techniques, as well as advanced molecular diagnostic approach.

Download or read book Food and Potential Industrial Applications of Bambara Groundnut written by Samson A. Oyeyinka and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2021-10-06 with total page 248 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Bambara groundnut (Vigna subterranea) is a crop native to the Bambara tribe of Mali and is grown as a subsistence crop in Africa. Recent advances in research, however, have brought the crop to the forefront of the sustainable agriculture movement. The Bambara plant is highly drought tolerant and rich in protein and carbohydrates, including starch. These macromolecules have enormous industrial potentials. For example, the starch in Bambara grain has been found to exhibit higher (double) viscosity than conventional corn starch. Modified Bambara groundnut starch has been used to produce edible bioplastics that could be upgraded industrially to suit the fourth industrial revolution shift. Bambara plants are also a natural source of soluble fiber, which is gluten-, lactose- and cholesterol-free, with potential as a stabiliser, thickener and gelling agent as well as a cryoprotectant in frozen products. The health benefits include lowering of cholesterol levels, levelling of blood glucose and as a detoxing aid. Furthermore, several researchers have explored the grain either alone or as composite with cereal and tubers for the development of value-added products. Food and Potential Industrial Applications of Bambara Groundnut presents in a clear, coherent way the research findings on Bambara grain and its status as a promising food and industrial crop.

Download or read book Fungal Wilt Diseases of Plants written by Marshal Mace and published by Elsevier. This book was released on 2012-12-02 with total page 655 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Fungal Wilt Diseases of Plants focuses on wilt diseases caused by the fungal genera Verticillium, Fusarium, and Ceratocystis. Special attention is given to the interactions of physiological, biochemical, and anatomical factors, as these relate to pathogenesis and mechanisms of disease resistance. Organized into 16 chapters, this book begins with a description, in a historical perspective, of the major research themes in fungal wilt diseases. It then looks into the worldwide status of this plant disease. The three subsequent chapters describe the epidemiology and life cycle of the major fungal wilt pathogens in Fusarium, Verticillium, and Ceratocystis. This book also provides an in-depth view of the genetics and biochemistry of these pathogens; the nature of pathogenesis and the effects of wilt pathogens on host-water relations; and the sources and genetics of host resistance in field and fruit crops, vegetable crops, and shade trees. Other chapters are dedicated to the biochemistry, physiology, and the anatomical aspects of resistance and to the progress in the biological and chemical control of these pathogens. This text will be of great value to graduate students and senior research scientists in plant pathology, physiology, and biochemistry, who are specifically involved in studying wilt diseases and host-parasite interactions. It will provide them the detailed background information needed to supplement their specialized research interests.

Download or read book The Role of Plant Pathology in Food Safety and Food Security written by R.N. Strange and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2009-11-28 with total page 154 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This collection of papers represents some of those given at the International Congress for Plant Pathology held in Turin in 2008 in the session with the title “The Role of Plant Pathology in Food Safety and Food Security”. Although food safety in terms of “Is this food safe to eat?” did not receive much direct attention it is, never theless, an important topic. A crop may not be safe to eat because of its inh- ent qualities. Cassava, for example, is cyanogenic, and must be carefully prepared if toxicosis is to be avoided. Other crops may be safe to eat providing they are not infected or infested by microorganisms. Mycotoxins are notorious examples of compounds which may contaminate a crop either pre- or post-harvest owing to the growth of fungi. Two papers in this book deal with toxins, one by Barbara Howlett and co-workers and the other by Robert Proctor and co-workers. In the first of these, the role of sirodesmin PL, a compound produced by Leptosphaeria ma- lans, causal agent of blackleg disease of oilseed rape (Brassica napus), is discussed. The authors conclude that the toxin plays a role in virulence of the fungus and may also be beneficial in protecting the pathogen from other competing micro-organisms but there seem to be no reports of its mammalian toxicity.

Download or read book The Toxicology of Aflatoxins written by David L. Eaton and published by Elsevier. This book was released on 2013-10-22 with total page 571 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Aflatoxins, natural fungal toxins found in foods and animal feeds, have great public health significance. This book presents the basic and applied toxicology of aflatoxins, including analytical identification, agricultural and veterinary implications, toxicology and carcinogenesis in humans, and economic and regulatory problems associated with aflatoxin contamination and control. - Molecular mechanisms of aflatoxin toxicity - Analytical issues in sampling and analysis - Regulatory and economic issues associated with aflatoxin contamination of food and feed - Presentation of human and animal toxicology, veterinary, and agricultural issues related to aflatoxin contamination

Download or read book Maize In The Third World written by Christopher Dowswell and published by CRC Press. This book was released on 2019-04-01 with total page 277 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Maize is the world's most widely grown cereal and a dietary staple throughout the Third World, but its full potential has only begun to be tapped. This book thoroughly examines the biological and economic issues relevant to improving the productivity of maize in developing countries. The authors explore a wide range of practical problems, from maxi

Download or read book Crop Improvement written by Khalid Rehman Hakeem and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2013-06-13 with total page 504 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The improvement of crop species has been a basic pursuit since cultivation began thousands of years ago. To feed an ever increasing world population will require a great increase in food production. Wheat, corn, rice, potato and few others are expected to lead as the most important crops in the world. Enormous efforts are made all over the world to document as well as use these resources. Everybody knows that the introgression of genes in wheat provided the foundation for the “Green Revolution”. Later also demonstrated the great impact that genetic resources have on production. Several factors are contributing to high plant performance under different environmental conditions, therefore an effective and complementary use of all available technological tools and resources is needed to meet the challenge.

Download or read book Microbial Root Endophytes written by Barbara J.E. Schulz and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2007-05-24 with total page 380 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the first book dedicated to the interactions of non-mycorrhizal microbial endophytes with plant roots. The phenotypes of these interactions can be extremely plastic, depending on environmental factors, nutritional status, genetic disposition and developmental stages of the two partners. This book explores diversity, life history strategies, interactions, applications in agriculture and forestry, methods for isolation, cultivation, and both conventional and molecular methods for identification and detection of these endophytes.

Download or read book Improvement of Crops in the Era of Climatic Changes written by Parvaiz Ahmad and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2013-11-12 with total page 410 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Current trends in population growth hint that global food production is unlikely to gratify future demands under predicted climate change scenarios unless the rates of crop improvement are accelerated. Crop production faces numerous challenges, due to changing environmental conditions and evolving needs for new plant-derived materials. These challenges come at a time when the plant sciences are witnessing remarkable progress in understanding fundamental processes of plant growth and development. Drought, heat, cold and salinity are among the major abiotic stresses that often cause a series of morphological, physiological, biochemical and molecular alterations which adversely affect plant growth, development and productivity, consequently posing a serious challenge for sustainable food production in large parts of the world, particularly in emerging countries. This emphasizes the urgency of finding better ways to translate new advances in plant science into concrete successes in agricultural production. To overcome the pessimistic influence of abiotic stresses and to maintain the food security in the face of these challenges, new, improved and tolerant crop varieties, contemporary breeding techniques, and cavernous understanding of the mechanisms that counteract detrimental climate changes are indubitably needed to sustain the requisite food supply. In this context, Improvement of Crops in the Era of Climatic Changes, Volume 1 provides a state-of-the-art guide to recent developments that aid in the understanding of plant responses to abiotic stresses and lead to new horizons vis-à-vis prime strategies for translating current research into applied solutions to create strong yields and overall crop improvement under such unfavourable environments. Written by a diverse group of internationally famed scholars, Improvement of Crops in the Era of Climatic Changes, Volume 1 is a brief yet all-inclusive resource that is immensely advantageous for researchers, students, environmentalists, soil scientists, professionals, and many others in the quest of advancement in this flourishing field of research.

Download or read book Revolutionizing Tropical Medicine written by Kerry Atkinson and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2019-08-27 with total page 790 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A comprehensive resource describing innovative technologies and digital health tools that can revolutionize the delivery of health care in low- to middle-income countries, particularly in remote rural impoverished communities Revolutionizing Tropical Medicine offers an up-to-date guide for healthcare and other professionals working in low-resource countries where access to health care facilities for diagnosis and treatment is challenging. Rather than suggesting the expensive solution of building new bricks and mortar clinics and hospitals and increasing the number of doctors and nurses in these deprived areas, the authors propose a complete change of mindset. They outline a number of ideas for improving healthcare including rapid diagnostic testing for infectious and non-infectious diseases at a point-of-care facility, together with low cost portable imaging devices. In addition, the authors recommend a change in the way in which health care is delivered. This approach requires task-shifting within the healthcare provision system so that nurses, laboratory technicians, pharmacists and others are trained in the newly available technologies, thus enabling faster and more appropriate triage for people requiring medical treatment. This text: Describes the current burden of communicable and non-communicable diseases in low- to middle-income countries throughout the world Describes the major advances in healthcare outcomes in low-to middle-income countries derived from implementation of the United Nations/World Health Organisation’s 2000 Millennium Development Goals Provides a review of inexpensive rapid diagnostic point-of-care tests for infectious diseases in low-resource countries, particularly for people living in remote rural areas Provides a review of other rapid point-of-care services for assessing hematological function, biochemical function, renal function, hepatic function and status including hepatitis, acid-base balance, sickle cell disease, severe acute malnutrition and spirometry Explores the use of low-cost portable imaging devices for use in remote rural areas including a novel method of examining the optic fundus using a smartphone and the extensive value of portable ultrasound scanning when x-ray facilities are not available Describes the use of telemedicine in the clinical management of both children and adults in remote rural settings Looks to the future of clinical management in remote impoverished rural settings using nucleic acid identification of pathogens, the use of nanoparticles for water purification, the use of drones, the use of pulse oximetry and the use of near-infrared spectroscopy Finally, it assesses the potential for future healthcare improvement in impoverished areas and how the United Nations/World Health Organization 2015 Sustainable Development Goals are approaching this. Written for physicians, infectious disease specialists, pathologists, radiologists, nurses, pharmacists and other health care workers, as well as government healthcare managers, Revolutionizing Tropical Medicine is a new up-to-date essential and realistic guide to treating and diagnosing patients in low-resource tropical countries based on new technologies.

Download or read book The Use of Plants and Minerals as Traditional Protectants of Stored Products written by P. Golob and published by . This book was released on 1980 with total page 46 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Disease Resistance in Crop Plants written by Shabir Hussain Wani and published by Springer. This book was released on 2019-07-24 with total page 314 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Human population is escalating at an enormous pace and is estimated to reach 9.7 billion by 2050. As a result, there will be an increase in demand for agricultural production by 60–110% between the years 2005 and 2050 at the global level; the number will be even more drastic in the developing world. Pathogens, animals, and weeds are altogether responsible for between 20 to 40 % of global agricultural productivity decrease. As such, managing disease development in plants continues to be a major strategy to ensure adequate food supply for the world. Accordingly, both the public and private sectors are moving to harness the tools and paradigms that promise resistance against pests and diseases. While the next generation of disease resistance research is progressing, maximum disease resistance traits are expected to be polygenic in nature and controlled by selective genes positioned at putative quantitative trait loci (QTLs). It has also been realized that sources of resistance are generally found in wild relatives or cultivars of lesser agronomic significance. However, introgression of disease resistance traits into commercial crop varieties typically involves many generations of backcrossing to transmit a promising genotype. Molecular marker-assisted breeding (MAB) has been found to facilitate the pre-selection of traits even prior to their expression. To date, researchers have utilized disease resistance genes (R-genes) in different crops including cereals, pulses, and oilseeds and other economically important plants, to improve productivity. Interestingly, comparison of different R genes that empower plants to resist an array of pathogens has led to the realization that the proteins encoded by these genes have numerous features in common. The above observation therefore suggests that plants may have co-evolved signal transduction pathways to adopt resistance against a wide range of divergent pathogens. A better understanding of the molecular mechanisms necessary for pathogen identification and a thorough dissection of the cellular responses to biotic stresses will certainly open new vistas for sustainable crop disease management. This book summarizes the recent advances in molecular and genetic techniques that have been successfully applied to impart disease resistance for plants and crops. It integrates the contributions from plant scientists targeting disease resistance mechanisms using molecular, genetic, and genomic approaches. This collection therefore serves as a reference source for scientists, academicians and post graduate students interested in or are actively engaged in dissecting disease resistance in plants using advanced genetic tools.

Download or read book Fermented Foods and Beverages of the World written by Jyoti Prakash Tamang and published by CRC Press. This book was released on 2010-07-01 with total page 364 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Did you know? It's estimated that fermentation practices have been around since as early as 6000 BC, when wine was first being made in Caucasus and Mesopotamia. Today, there are roughly 5000 varieties of fermented foods and beverages prepared and consumed worldwide, which accounts for between five and forty percent of daily meals. Fermented Foods a