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Introduction: Medicinal plants are found throughout the world but most are considered weeds. They are – directly or indirectly – the major source of medicines in pharmaceutical and herbal industries. Formulations used to prepare medicines or the method of use for these plants are mainly based on folk or traditional knowledge. This folk knowledge is not documented in many areas and needs to be explored.

Introduction: Medicinal plants are the natural source of medicines used in treatment of many diseases among local communities of various countries. It is also the raw material for the pharmaceutical industry. Pakistan is a country with a variety of medicinal plants, comprehensively studied in some areas, while others still need more studies of their flora.

Background: Fenugreek is an important winter leafy vegetable in Pakistan with high nutritional values. Its seeds are used as spices and whole plant is used in many home remedies and medicine throughout the world. Its foliage and seed productivity is much low in the region. Plant growth regulators (PGRs) and vitamins (riboflavin) can be useful for the enhancement of plant productivity. Methods: Treatments of indole acetic acid (IAA), gibberellic acid (GA3) and riboflavin (50 mmol L-1 each) were applied as foliar spray after 14 days of sowing on fenugreek variety Kasuri Methi. Experiment was arranged in a completely randomized design (CRD) with six replicates. Result: Result showed that GA3 and IAA has significantly enhanced the root and shoot development, foliage growth and ions concentrations, peroxidase (POD) and catalases (CAT) activities. PGRs also increased the pod and seed yield of fenugreek. Riboflavin did not show any significant effect on fenugreek except increased the antioxidant activities at seedling stage. GA3 was more effective as compared to IAA for the enhancement biomass production, yield and biochemical attributes of fenugreek. It was determined that IAA and GA3 can be used to enhance the foliage biomass production and yield but GA3 is superior over IAA in fenugreek. These outcomes can be useful for economic benefits with high production of this leafy vegetable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Pea is the most important crop and vegetable in the world but it has low yield. There is a need to find the ways for the improvement of crop productivity. Plant growth regulators (PGRs) are extensively used in many crops for enhancement of yield and quality. This study was designed to find the influence of PGRs on growth, yield and quality of pea cultivars grown in Pakistan. Methods: Pot experiments were conducted to evaluate the effect of various plant growth regulators (IAA, NAA and GA3) on pea during 2018-19. Four cultivars of pea i.e. Meteor, Green cross, Sultan and Dollar were used in these experiments. There were 0, 100 and 200 mmolL-1 levels for each hormone that were applied as foliar spray after 14 days of germination. Experiment was laid down in completely randomized design (CRD) with three replicates. Result: Morphological, biochemical and yield attributes significantly increased in four cultivars of pea except variety Sultan for few parameters. Cultivar Meteor showed highly positive increasing effects on growth and yield attributes as compared to other treatments. Catalases (CAT) activities were increased and peroxidase dismutase (POD) activities were reduced. It can be concluded that reduction in POD activities helped to increase the defense mechanism of plants and high CAT activities caused better balance in plant metabolism as a result growth, yield and quality of pea were increased. All the variables including shoot length, shoot biomass, number of fruits, total seed yield, carbohydrates and protein had positive correlation with phytohormones. These outcomes might be good indicators to predict the best pea cultivars that can have positive promising response for growth, yield and quality traits under plant growth regulators (PGR). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of the present research was to determine the trace metal accumulations in Brassica campestris irrigated with three different water regimes (groundwater, canal water, and sugar mill water). The analysis was conducted by Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer to evaluate the concentration of minerals in the soil and in vegetables. The heavy metals investigated in this study were Cd, Cu, Cr, Fe, Zn, Ni, and Mn. Trace metal concentrations in soil samples ranged from 0.30 to 0.39, 0.14 to 0.30, 0.25 to 0.39, 1.47 to 3.98, 0.37 to 0.41, 0.8 to 8.78 and 0.36 to 0.36 mg/kg for Cd, Cr, Cu, Fe, Ni, Zn and Mn, respectively. Among the three treatments, the mean concentrations of Fe and Zn were higher than other metal accumulations for all treatments. The contents of Cd, Cr, Cu, Fe, Ni, Zn and Mn in Brassica campestris ranged from 0.35 to 0.44, 0.32 to 0.89, 0.09 to 0.73, 1.93 to 3.02, 1.11 to 1.82, 0.36 to 0.43 and 0.37 to 0.40 mg/kg, respectively. Statistical analyses showed that the treatments have a non-significant effect (p>0.05) on concentrations of metals in Brassica campestris collected from three sites for Cd, Cr, Cu and Mn and significant effect on Fe, Zn, and Ni. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wastewater irrigation causes possible contamination of soil and crops and is responsible for health hazards to consumers. Current research was undertaken to observe the extent of contamination in wheat irrigated with wastewater and its possible consequences on humans. A pot experiment was performed in this regard to assess the concentration of metals in soil, water and grain samples. The level of heavy metals (mg kg-1) in wheat grains ranged from 1.18 to 1.64 for Cd, 0.07 to 0.20 for Pb, 0.74 to 1.28 for Cu, 0.44 to 0.60 for Cr, and 0.02 to 0.22 for Co. The values of all heavy metals were within the permissible limit of 0.3 mg kg-1 for Pb, 73.3 mg kg-1 for Cu, 2.3 mg kg-1 for Cr, and 50 mg kg-1for Co, while the Cd content in wheat surpassed the tolerable limit of 0.2 mg kg-1 indicating its mobility. A significant and positive correlation was obtained for Cd, Pb Cu, and Co (0.90, 0.85, 0.79, 0.89; p<0.01) while Cr showed non-significant correlation (0.52; p>0.05) between soil and wheat grains. The values of health risk index for all heavy metals were below 1 except for Cd. Regular monitoring of wheat crop is suggested in light of these findings to minimize the health risks in humans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wastewater sources contain enormous amounts of nutrients for plant growth. This study aimed to define the metal accumulation in the goosefoot plant (Chenopodium album L.) of wastewater use in agricultural irrigation and to evaluate the risks of this accumulation to human health. The present research was performed in field conditions in Khushab, Pakistan. The Cd, Cu, Cr, Fe, Zn, Ni, and Mn concentrations were determined with the analysis performed using Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer-AAS. Heavy metal concentrations in goosefoot samples irrigated with groundwater (GWI), canal water (CWI) and sugar mill water (MWI) ranged from 0.84 to 1.08, 0.55 to 0.78, 0.23 to 0.70, 2.09 to 5.56, 2.84 to 13.53, 0.53 to 1.13 and 0.32 to 0.39 mg/kg for Cd, Cr, Cu, Fe, Ni, Zn, and Mn, respectively. According to the statistical analyses, wastewater applications had a non-significant effect on Cr, Cu, and Zn concentrations in C. album samples collected from three sites, and a significant effect on Cd, Fe, Mn, and Ni concentrations (p>0.05). The results also showed that the health risk index value of cadmium was higher than 1. According to these results, long-term consumption of C. album samples grown in the study area may cause an accumulation of Cd in the human body and diseases in many tissues and organs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Graphite flakes were divided into two equal parts Part A and Part B. Part A was thermally shocked at 800oC under inert atmosphere of argon for two min before exfoliation under sonic tip while Part B was exfoliated as such using acetonitrile (ACN) as exfoliating media in both cases at 15-20oC. The concentration of the graphene as a result of exfoliation and centrifugation at 500 rpm for 45 min in both cases were determined. After ten hours of sonication the concentration of graphene in Part A is >12mg/ml with few layered thickness while that of Part B was <5mg/ml consisting of more layers than Part A. UV spectroscopy, Raman, Transmission Electron Microscopy and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) were used for the study of these nanoflakes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]