Advanced Botany

  Vitamin D is essential for maintaining healthy bones and teeth. It also has several other important functions in the body such as regulating the absorption of calcium and phosphorus and facilitating normal immune function. According to a study, vitamin D deficiency (serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D] < 50 nmol/L or 20 ng/ml) is associated with fractures and bone loss. Severe vitamin D deficiency with a 25(OH)D concentration below <30 nmol/L (or 12 ng/ml) increases the risk of excess mortality, infections, and many other diseases. Poor vitamin D status is a global health problem. Approximately one billion people worldwide suffer from vitamin D insufficiency because most foods including plants contain little vitamin D. Sources of vitamin D Fish have the highest natural content of vitamin D (salmon contains 30 μg/100 g and tuna 2.9 μg/100 g). Other sources of vitamin D 3  are meat (~0.6 μg/100), egg (~1.75 μg/100) and milk products (~0.1 μg/100). Vitamin D 3  ha...

  Sun is the ultimate source of energy for the earth. Plants convert light energy from the sun into  chemical energy  (food) by the process of photosynthesis. All living beings depend on plants for food and oxygen. Animals would disappear from the Earth if photosynthesizing plants were to disappear, since animals require for their nutrition the complex organic compounds that can be synthesized only by plants. The animal excretions and the animal body after death are also converted by a process of decay to simple products that can be re-utilized only by plants. Green plants require carbon dioxide, water, mineral salts, and sunlight for the formation of carbohydrates. Not only carbohydrates, but plants also synthesize amino acids, proteins, lipids, pigments, and other organic components during photosynthesis. Instead of energy, plants also need chemical compounds to interact with their neighbors, to attract animals for pollination and to defend themselves from animals that ...

  Natural photosynthesis is the process where plants convert CO 2 into carbohydrate and water is oxidized to molecular oxygen using solar energy.  Chlorophyll inside the plant cells absorbs energy from blue- and red-light waves, and reflects green-light waves, making the plant appear green.  In artificial photosynthesis photocatalyst or photocatalytic system is used for conversion of solar energy into hydrogen via water-splitting process without the requirement of any external bias.  Photocatalytic system can be divided into three main classes:  (i) suspended nanopowder photocatalysts,  (ii) photoelectrochemical cells (PECs), and  (iii) photovoltaic cell-driven electrolysers.   In natural photosynthesis, plants use light-harvesting complexes to collect incident photons, move them over large distances and direct them to a site where the process takes place. The light-harvesting complex is a highly organized array of chlorophyll molecules. Man...

  Most of the Universe consists of matter and energy . Energy is the capacity to do work. Matter has mass and occupies space. All matter is composed of basic elements that cannot be broken down to substances with different chemical or physical properties. Elements are substances consisting of one type of atom, for example Carbon atoms make up diamond, and also graphite. Atoms are the smallest particle into which an element can be divided. Center of the atom (nucleus) is occupied by proton. Each atom has at least one proton. Protons have a charge of +1, and a mass of approximately 1 atomic mass unit (amu). Elements differ from each other in the number of protons they have, e.g. Hydrogen has 1 proton; Helium has 2. The neutron is also located in the atomic nucleus (except in Hydrogen). The neutron has no charge, and a mass of slightly over 1 amu. The electron is a very small particle located outside the nucleus. Because they move at speeds near the speed of light the pr...

  Turmeric is a spice and has been used as a medicine for centuries. It is a major source of polyphenol curcumin that aids in the management of oxidative and inflammatory conditions, metabolic syndrome arthritis anxiety, and hyperlipidemia. Curcuma is well known for its anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties. Major active ingredients of turmeric include three curcuminoids: curcumin, the primary constituent responsible for yellow color of turmeric, demethoxycurcumin and bisdemethoxycurcumin. In addition, volatile oils (tumerone, atlantone and zingiberene) also have pharmacological activity. Turmeric also helps in the management of exercise-induced inflammation and muscle soreness. Even though, turmeric has been used as a medicine for centuries but modern research showed that curcumin, the main constituent in turmeric by itself does not lead to the associated health benefits due to its poor bioavailability because of poor absorption, rapid metabolism and also rapid eliminatio...

  The nif genes are genes encoding enzymes involved in the fixation of atmospheric nitrogen into a form of nitrogen available to living organisms. They are found in nitrogen-fixing bacteria.  They occur as an operon (a segment of DNA containing adjacent genes including structural genes, an operator gene and a regulatory gene; thus a functional unit of transcription and genetic regulation) in free-living anaerobic nitrogen-fixing bacteria such as  Klebsiella pneumoniae ,  Rhodospirillum rubrum , and  Rhodobacter capsulatus . These genes may also be found on plasmids in symbiotic bacteria, such as in Rhizobium inhabiting the roots of leguminous plants.  Functions nif genes encode an important enzyme, nitrogenase complex which is in charge of converting atmospheric nitrogen (N2 ) to usable form of nitrogen such as ammonia. Nitrogen fixation is important because many living organisms are unable to metabolize directly the atmospheric nitrogen and...