Rama Shankar

The paper deals with the review on the nutraceutical details of the rhizome of the plant Nelumbo having two species worldwide from which N. lutea is confined to North America and Canada to an altitudinal range beyond 2400 m a.s.l. whereas the other species N. nucifera is distributed throughout the World in the tropical parts up to 1400 m a.s.l. having good nutritional and medicinal properties. The rhizome is considered to be used for the sake of presence of starch, minerals and vitamins particularly vitamin B6, helpful in the mental and physical growth amongst fetus. Very little is known on the traditional use of rhizome of N. lutea and its chemical and pharmacological attributes as well as its toxicity needs to be studied in detail as it is not available before inclusion in nutritional diet especially for diabetic and cardiac patients as well as women bearing fetus.

Bundelkhand is located Central part of India with an unique type of climatic condition having stony sandy and rocky soil deficient in water. Gradual climatic change due to acute pressure on land for various developmental activities are regularly increasing the degradation of  biodiversity which is affecting the potential of medicinal plants and invite  needs for the conservation of biodiversity of medicinal plants in the region. During the course of various studies authors have identified the medicinal plants of high value, used in top medical prescriptions and traditional medical practices viz. Acacia catechu (Khadira), Asparagus racemosus (Shatawari), Boswellia serrata (Shalaki), Desmodium gangeticum(Shalaparni), Gymnema sylvestre.(Retz.) R. Br. ex Sm.( Gudmaar), Hemidesmus indicus R.Br.(Anantmoola),Oroxylum indicum (L.) Kurz, Pluchia lanceolata(Rasana),Tribulus terrestris (Gokshuru), Uraria picta (Prishniparni), Withania somnifera (Ashwagandha), Writia tinctoriaetc. Efforts are needed in acclimatizing the medicinal plants in the garden land, nurseries, development of strategy of protection of natural habitat of the medicinal plants of region, developing ago-technical protocols for cultivation of medicinal plants suitable for farmers to enrich their economy as well as biodiversity under Government control is need of the day ensuring effective conservation of these valuable medicinal resources of the country. Cultivation of Cymbopogon flexuosus (Pootika),Saccharum munja (Munja), and Chrysopogon zizanioides (Ushir) is also the need of time for enriching the biodiversity through conserving the medicinal plants. Keywords: Bundelkhand, Agro-geoclimatic conditions, Conservation, Pharmaceuticals, Secondary metabolites.

Organic farming is a form of agriculture that relies on techniques such as crop rotation, green manure, compost, and biological pest control. Depending on which the definition of organic farming  is described for the  use of fertilizers and pesticides covering herbicides, insecticides and fungicides having natural origin for examplebone meal from animals or pyrethrin from flowers, but it excludes or strictly limits the use of various methods (including synthetic petrochemical fertilizers and pesticides; plant growth regulators such as hormones; antibiotic use in livestock; genetically modified organisms human sewage sludge; and nanomaterials. for reasons including sustainability, openness, independence, health, and safety. When we go on ancient Ayurvedic literatures on Vrikshayurveda it is found that during ancient period when synthesis of inorganic fertilizers, hormones antibiotics etc were not described for use on crop or other plants use of crop rotation, animal flesh, bones belonging to different animals and plant parts and Ayurvedic medicines like Triphala, Manjishtha, Ashwagandha, neem, tila along  with other ayurvedic formulations or single drugs from about 135 medicinal plants with holistic approach and the plant health were well maintained. Ancient Ayurvedic literatures also describe the creation of mango fruits on banana plants. Use of fish powder or extracts of plants to induce flowering and fruiting are used as tool under Vrikshayurveda. Fumigation from time to time for the control of several diseases is also a part of Vrikshayurveda for the maintenance of plant health which is now being popularized by Homa Therapy and Organic farming even for the maintaining human health. Seeking out all above aspects for creating linkage between organic farming and ancient Ayurvedic literature authors have conducted experiment on pea and gram crops by the use of Neem, Karanj, Behaya and Swet Kutaj just to compare effects of each drug on said crops.