The cultivation of higher plants occupies an essential role within bio-regenerative life support systems. It contributes to all major functional aspects by closing the different loops in a habitat like food production, CO2 reduction, O2 production, waste recycling and water management. Fresh crops are also expected to have a positive impact on crew psychological health. Plant material was first...

Transgenic plants are promising alternatives for the production of recombinant pharmaceutical proteins (plant molecular farming). Plants as higher eukaryotes perform posttranslational modifications similar to those of mammalian cell lines. Low-cost cultivation and safe pathogenfree production are further advantages. However, field cultivation of transgenic plants raises social, environmental an...

Large scale microalgae cultivation actually represents a potential new source of renewable energy in the form of biofuel. Microalgae are individual plant cells which have the ability to photosynthesize and therefore utilize CO2, micronutrients and solar light to multiply and produce carbohydrates, lipids and proteins. Microalgae cultivation has several advantages over land grown crops. The majo...

At present, much effort is put into increasing the efficiency of cultivation systems for greenhouse vegetables. There are many options to manage plant growth factors in a greenhouse. For example, supplemental light can be given, even directed at specific plant parts. Functional-structural modelling is expected to help exploring different cultivation and plant manipulation regimes in order to op...

in order to study the effect of sowing dates and cultivation methods on yield and other characteristics of two cultivars of common bean (phaseolus vulgaris l.) an experiment based on split plot design was carried out with three replications in 2007 at khorramdarreh region of zanjan province. treatments consisted of three sowing dates (may 21, june 4&19), two cultivation methods (furrow and basi...

Cylindrocarpon destructans is an ascomycete soil-borne pathogen that causes ginseng root rot. To identify effective biocontrol agents, we isolated several bacteria from ginseng cultivation soil and evaluated their antifungal activity. Among the isolated bacteria, one isolate (named JH7) was selected for its high antibiotic activity and was further examined for antagonism against fungal pathogen...

A novel form of hydroponic culture was employed to explore the physiological function of roots of a tea plant (Camellia sinensis). The pH of the nutrient solution with an actively growing tea plant decreased during cultivation. Furthermore, no oxalic acid, tartaric acid, malic acid or citric acid, all possible factors in acidification, was detected in the nutrient solution of a growing plant. A...

Resent studies investigating aeroponic cultivation of medicinal plants have provided encouraging results for increasing yields, shortening time to maturity, and improving consistency and overall quality of produce over field production. The goal of the current study was to determine the applicability of aeroponic technology for the cultivation of the traditionally field grown herbaceous medicin...