Tea, a beverage produced by steeping processed top leaves and buds of the tea plant in freshly boiled water, originated in China 2700 BC, but its medicinal properties were know much before that. China was the first country to cultivate tea. In Japan the cultivation began about 200 AD. The use of tea later spread to the other Asian countries. Tea cultivation in India was suggested as early as 17...

Black Seed The date and location of domestication of Nigella sativa is not clearly established, but the plant was certainly under wide cultivation more than 3000 years ago, when it was placed in the tomb of Egyptian King Tutankhamun. Historical evidence also shows contemporaneous, or earlier, black seed cultivation in Jordan and Iraq. In addition, wild types of Nigella sativa grow in Turkey, Sy...

Plant medicine becomes more popular thought the world in these days probably of its latest toxicity. Ayurveda that leads in plant medicine preserves the natural form of herbs maximum, in various pharmaceutical preparations. Isolation of active principles has not proved much fruitful. However, the need of hour is cultivation of more medicinal plants along with popularization of their use traditi...

Plant-microbe interactions-whether pathogenic or symbiotic-exert major influences on plant physiology and productivity. Analysis of such interactions represents a particular challenge to metabolomic approaches due to the intimate association between the interacting partners coupled with a general commonality of metabolites. We here describe an approach based on co-cultivation of Arabidopsis cel...

Introduction: Although Ecballium elaterium (L.) A. Rich., is considered as a minor crop in the Cucurbitaceae family. However, its medicinal virtues (3, 8) and its resistance to pests and diseases (6, 7), have made the plant a suitable candidate to improve crop quality in Cucurbitaceae species. Cultivation studies were aimed at assessing the growth of the plant and the variation of cucurbitacins...