Economic Botany of Fennel plant

-

Economic Botany of Fennel plant (Morphology, Cultivation and Processing)

Fennel

Botanical name: Foeniculum vulgare           Family: Apiaceae            Common name:  Saunf

Foeniculum vulgare commonly called fennel, used in traditional medicine for wide range of ailments related to digestive, endocrine, reproductive, and respiratory systems. Phytochemical studies have shown the presence of numerous valuable compounds-volatile compounds, flavonoids, phenolic compounds, fatty acids, and amino acids.

Origin: The fennel plant originated in the southern Mediterranean region and through naturalization and cultivation it grows wild throughout the Northern, Eastern, and Western hemispheres, specifically in Asia, North America, and Europe. It is cultivated in fields and also grows wild. The herb was well-known to the ancient Egyptians, Romans, Indians, and Chinese. The Romans grew it for its aromatic seeds and the edible fleshy shoots are still a very common vegetable in southern Italy.

Plant Morphology:

It is a hardy, perennial, upright branching umbelliferous herb with yellow flowers and feathery foliage. Stem is erect, shiny, green and hollow.

Leaves are pinnate, finely compound, with the ultimate segments filament-like, with sheathing leaf base.

The flowers are produced terminally in compound umbels

The fruits are oblong-oval or elliptical, greenish or yellowish brown with a long pedicel

and a short stylopodium (a nectar-secreting, disclike enlargement at the base of the style. The two mericarps (one seeded sections) are attached to a divided carpophore (a modified extension of the pedicel). The pericarp usually contains four dorsal and two vittae- oil tubes.

Cultivation and Processing:


Fennel grows best in cool and dry climate.

Sown in September to October by line sowing.

Seed exhibit poor crop stand due to slow germination, dormancy (Mainly shown by apiacae family)

They obtained maximum grain yield in the crop when it is irrigated at 10 days interval.

Time of harvesting depends upon the type of the products marketed. For green saunf used for chewing purpose, umbels are harvested about 30-40 days after flowering when these are still green. Since not all the fruits mature at a time, therefore harvesting of umbels has to be done 4-5 times when they become ready. Umbels plucked when fruits have changed their colour from green to yellow and are fully mature.

Harvested umbels should be dried in shade under well aerated conditions particularly for green fennel. Umbels should never be piled as it may deteriorate the quality.

The dried umbels separated and cleaned by winnowing to remove dirt and dust. The moisture content of seed has to be maintained at 9%, as higher moisture content leads to the development of fungal growth on surface of the seeds. The dried seeds are packed in gunny bags lined with eco- friendly plastic films.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Extraction, analysis and quantification of plant hormones

-
Image
Plant Hormone extraction, analysis, and quantitation * Hormone extraction and identification has been made possible due to advances in chemical analysis, chromatographic techniques, and mass spectrometry. * It is difficult to extract and identify plant hormone from plant extract as the extract contains major metabolites, such as sucrose, also hormones concentrations in plant tissues are low up to more than ten times compared to other material in plant tissue. * Another thing that effects identification and extraction is the complexity in structure of plant hormones. * Chemical properties of phytohormone also effect hormone analysis, quantification and extraction. * Wide range of chemical properties, many hormones (e.g., gibberellic acid and brassinosteroids) are quite hydrophobic, while hormones like auxins and cytokinins are more hydrophilic. * Keeping the diversity of solubility, Structure and chemical nature in view, tissue homogenates are subjected to “clean up” or enrichment met
Read more

Cryopreservation

-
Image
Cryopreservation is a conservation method that allows the long-term storage of samples at low temperature up-to -196C making sure that it does not affects cell's viability. It is an important and efficient method for preservation of world's genetic resources. It allows long term conservation of biological material Its simplicity and applicability make it an efficient method. The plant material stored can be- Seed, Shoot tip, Zygotic embryo, somatic embryo, Pollens, different types of plant cells, tissue and organs. Various means for storage at low temperature: At -79°C over solid CO2 At-80 °C in Deep Freezers  At -150 °C in Vapor phase At -196 °C in Liquid Nitrogen These varying temperatures are also called as Sub-Zero temperature. PRINCIPLE The Sub-Zero temperature (below0 °C) makes the cells suspended due to slow down of biological reactions including metabolism, cellular transport, division etc. The cells remain in this suspended state until the temperature is restored. This
Read more

Economic Botany of Datura plant

-
Image
Economic Botany- Morphology, Cultivation and Uses of D atura stramonium  Botanical Name: Datura stramonium Family: Solanaceae Part used: Leaves, flowers, roots and seeds. The genus name Datura is derived from dhatura, the Bengali name for the plant. Datura species, also called thornapple, devil’s apple, angel’s trumpet (in a broad sense) or devil’s trumpet, have their main center of origin in Mexico and the southwest United States (US). It is an aggressive invasive weed in temperate climates and tropical climates across the world. Botanical Description : Dhatura is an annual plant and the length of Dhatura plant, tall and has a pungent odor thus Datura stramonium is a bushy, smooth, annual. The branching stem is spreading and leafy Root: cylindrical, brown, rough-splintered, with lateral branches. Stem: Cylindrical, dichotomously branched, blackish-purple to dark purple in colour, with a very short internode. Leaf: alternately arranged, with a pointed border. Leaves a
Read more