Global climate change and associated adverse abiotic stress conditions, such as drought, salinity, heavy metals, waterlogging, extreme temperatures, oxygen deprivation, etc., greatly influence plant growth and development, ultimately affecting crop yield and quality, as well as agricultural sustainability in general. Plant cells produce oxygen radicals and their derivatives, so-called reactive oxygen species (ROS), during various processes associated with abiotic stress. Moreover, the generation of ROS is a fundamental process in higher plants and employs to transmit cellular signaling information in response to the changing environmental conditions. One of the most crucial consequences of abiotic stress is the disturbance of the equilibrium between the generation of ROS and antioxidant defense systems triggering the excessive accumulation of ROS and inducing oxidative stress in plants. Notably, the equilibrium between the detoxification and generation of ROS is maintained by both enzymatic and nonenzymatic antioxidant defense systems under harsh environmental stresses. Although this field of research has attracted massive interest, it largely remains unexplored, and our understanding of ROS signaling remains poorly understood. In this review, we have documented the recent advancement illustrating the harmful effects of ROS, antioxidant defense system involved in ROS detoxification under different abiotic stresses, and molecular cross-talk with other important signal molecules such as reactive nitrogen, sulfur, and carbonyl species. In addition, state-of-the-art molecular approaches of ROS-mediated improvement in plant antioxidant defense during the acclimation process against abiotic stresses have also been discussed.

Reactive Oxygen Species and Antioxidant Defense in Plants under Abiotic Stress: Revisiting the Crucial Role of a Universal Defense Regulator

Alpine Plant Life Functional Plant Ecology Of High Mountain Ecosystems

Lead toxicity in plants: Impacts and remediation.

Biodiversity contributes significantly towards human livelihood and development and thus plays a predominant role in the well being of the global population. According to WHO reports, around 80 % of the global population still relies on botanical drugs; today several medicines owe their origin to medicinal plants. Natural substances have long served as sources of therapeutic drugs, where drugs including digitalis (from foxglove), ergotamine (from contaminated rye), quinine (from cinchona), and salicylates (willow bark) can be cited as some classical examples.Drug discovery from natural sources involve a multifaceted approach combining botanical, phytochemical, biological, and molecular techniques. Accordingly, medicinal-plant-based drug discovery still remains an important area, hitherto unexplored, where a systematic search may definitely provide important leads against various pharmacological targets.Ironically, the potential benefits of plant-based medicines have led to unscientific exploitation of the natural resources, a phenomenon that is being observed globally. This decline in biodiversity is largely the result of the rise in the global population, rapid and sometimes unplanned industrialization, indiscriminate deforestation, overexploitation of natural resources, pollution, and finally global climate change.Therefore, it is of utmost importance that plant biodiversity be preserved, to provide future structural diversity and lead compounds for the sustainable development of human civilization at large. This becomes even more important for developing nations, where well-planned bioprospecting coupled with nondestructive commercialization could help in the conservation of biodiversity, ultimately benefiting mankind in the long run.Based on these findings, the present review is an attempt to update our knowledge about the diverse therapeutic application of different plant products against various pharmacological targets including cancer, human brain, cardiovascular function, microbial infection, inflammation, pain, and many more.

Medicinal plants, human health and biodiversity: a broad review.

Thiamine is an essential micronutrient that plays a key role in energy metabolism. Many populations worldwide may be at risk of clinical or subclinical thiamine deficiencies, due to famine, reliance on staple crops with low thiamine content, or food preparation practices, such as milling grains and washing milled rice. Clinical manifestations of thiamine deficiency are variable; this, along with the lack of a readily accessible and widely agreed upon biomarker of thiamine status, complicates efforts to diagnose thiamine deficiency and assess its global prevalence. Strategies to identify regions at risk of thiamine deficiency through proxy measures, such as analysis of food balance sheet data and month-specific infant mortality rates, may be valuable for understanding the scope of thiamine deficiency. Urgent public health responses are warranted in high-risk regions, considering the contribution of thiamine deficiency to infant mortality and research suggesting that even subclinical thiamine deficiency in childhood may have lifelong neurodevelopmental consequences. Food fortification and maternal and/or infant thiamine supplementation have proven effective in raising thiamine status and reducing the incidence of infantile beriberi in regions where thiamine deficiency is prevalent, but trial data are limited. Efforts to determine culturally and environmentally appropriate food vehicles for thiamine fortification are ongoing.

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Thiamine deficiency disorders: diagnosis, prevalence, and a roadmap for global control programs

Green synthesis of silver nanoparticles and their applications as an alternative antibacterial and antioxidant agents.

This explorative study was undertaken for the first time in Kel village located in the Upper Neelum Valley, Azad Kashmir, Pakistan. The purpose was to document the indigenous knowledge of the native people used in the preparation of herbal medicines. To get the data on traditional uses of medicinal plants, 20 informants were interviewed. Quantitative ethnobotanical indices, i.e., use value (UV), relative frequencies of citation (RFC), informant consensus factor (Fic), fidelity level (FL), data matrix ranking (DMR), preference ranking (PR), and jaccard index (JI), were calculated for the recorded medicinal plants. A total of 50 medicinal plants belonging to 33 families used in 13 disease categories were documented. Leaves were the frequently used plant parts, and decoction was the commonly used method for herbal medicine. Plants with high use value were Berberis lycium (2.05), Impatiens glandulifera (1.95), Artemisia scoparia (1.75), Ageratum conozoides (1.75), and Achillea millefolium (1.7). The highest RFC value was calculated for Berberis lycium (0.75), Cynoglossum lanceolatum (0.65), and Impatiens glandulifera and Achillea millefolium (0.60 each). The maximum informant consensus factor was for urinary system, cardiac diseases, baldness, and abortion and miscarriage (1.00). Berberis lyceum (95%) used in jaundice, hepatitis, typhoid, fever, and tuberculosis disorders. Plants with maximum fidelity level (FL) were Berberis lycium (95%) followed by Dioscorea bulbifera, Impatiens glandulifera, and Artemisia vulgaris (90%). Olea ferruginea was the most multipurpose plant and exports (21.2%) was the leading threat in the area. The pearson correlation coefficient (0.500) showed a positive correlation between the use value and relative frequency of citation. The present study provides useful information about traditional uses of medicinal plants used by local communities in different ailments. The plants with the highest use values could be employed in pharmacological research and biotechnological approaches in order to achieve adequate revenue. Some of the plants in the study area are facing high threats of becoming rare, and conservation initiatives are needed to conserve them for sustainable management in the region.

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Ethnopharmacological studies of indigenous plants in Kel village, Neelum Valley, Azad Kashmir, Pakistan.

Restriction in nutrient acquisition is one of the primary causes for reduced growth and yield in water deficient soils. Sulfur (S) is an important secondary macronutrient that interacts with several stress metabolites to improve performance of food crops under various environmental stresses including drought. Increased S supply influences uptake and distribution of essential nutrients to confer nutritional homeostasis in plants exposed to limited water conditions. The regulation of S metabolism in plants, resulting in synthesis of numerous S-containing compounds, is crucial to the acclimation response to drought stress. Two different experiments were laid out in semi-controlled conditions to investigate the effects of different S sources on physiological and biochemical mechanisms of maize (Zea mays L. cv. P1574). Initially, the rate of S application in maize was optimized in terms of improved biomass and nutrient uptake. The maize seedlings were grown in sandy loam soil fertigated with various doses (0, 15, 30 and 45 kg ha−1) of different S fertilizers viz. K2SO4, FeSO4, CuSO4 and Na2SO4. The optimized S dose of each fertilizer was later tested in second experiment to determine its role in improving drought tolerance of maize plants. A marked effect of S fertilization was observed on biomass accumulation and nutrients uptake in maize. In addition, the optimized doses significantly increased the gas exchange characteristics and activity of antioxidant enzymes to improve yield of maize. Among various S sources, application of K2SO4 resulted in maximum photosynthetic rate (43%), stomatal conductance (98%), transpiration rate (61%) and sub-stomatal conductance (127%) compared to no S supply. Moreover, it also increased catalase, guaiacol peroxidase and superoxide dismutase activities by 55, 87 and 65%, respectively that ultimately improved maize yield by 33% with respect to control under water deficit conditions. These results highlight the importance of S fertilizers that would likely be helpful for farmers to get better yield in water deficient soils.

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Sulfate-mediated Drought Tolerance in Maize Involves Regulation at Physiological and Biochemical Levels

Investigation and documentation of the status of medicinal plants and associated knowledge was conducted in village Dawarian, Neelum valley AJ&K. A total of 59 plant species were used for furteen (14) different categories of diseases. The medicinal plants were economically used in treating a certain ailments, such as skin diseases (10spp., 14.49%) followed by headache & fever, cough & flu (8spp., 11.59% each), stomach problems & asthma (7spp., 10.14% each), jaundice & dysentery (5spp., 7.25% each), bronchitis (4spp., 5.80%), diabetics, rheumatic pain, bone fracture & wound healing (3spp., 4.35%), ulcer (2spp., 5.10% each) and dandruff (1spp., 1.45% ). The highest value of Informant consensus factor (ICF) is 0.71 for diabetics and lowest value is for bronchitis 0.21% whereas, Berberis lycium and Ajuga bracteosa has the highest fidelity level (FL: 100%) being used to cure diabetic patients. Direct Matrix Ranking (DMR) results showed that Juglan regia stands first in being the most multipurpose medicinal plant, followed by Morus alba whereas, Aconitum heterophyllum was found most threatened plant in the study area. Timber mafia/export was the leading threat followed by construction, fuel, grazing and urbanization respectively. Medicinal flora such as, Berberis lyceum, Ajuga bracteosa, Aconitum heterophyllum, Bistorta amplexicaule, Saussurea lapa and Jurinea dolomiaea are on the edge of extinction due to over exploitation.

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Khawaja Shafique Ahmad

Papers

Green synthesis of silver nanoparticles and their applications as an alternative antibacterial and antioxidant agents.

Ethnopharmacological studies of indigenous plants in Kel village, Neelum Valley, Azad Kashmir, Pakistan.

Sulfate-mediated Drought Tolerance in Maize Involves Regulation at Physiological and Biochemical Levels

Indigenous Knowledge of Some Medicinal Plants of Himalaya Region, Dawarian Village, Neelum Valley, Azad Jammu and Kashmir, Pakistan

Conservation assessment and medicinal importance of some plants resources from Sharda, Neelum Valley, Azad Jammu and Kashmir, Pakistan.