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Fenugreek is a legume plant used as spices in throughout the world. Fenugreek, scientifically known as Trigonella Foenum-graecum L., is a versatile legume crop with extensive cultivation in India. It holds significant value as an herb, spice, and traditional medicinal plant in the region.Fenugreek, scientifically known as Trigonella Foenum-graecum L., has a rich history of utilization in various traditional and medicinal practices. Its leaves and seeds have been employed extensively for therapeutic purposes, making it an ancient and valued herb. This review intends to provide an exhaustive examination of the scientific literature concerning fenugreek. This encompasses its botanical characteristics and chemical composition. The primary focus of this review centres around fenugreek's medicinal properties, which have been extensively studied and validated through in-vitro, in-vivo, and clinical research. The herb exhibits inclusive beneficial effects, such as anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, antimicrobial, gastroprotective actions, anticancer, and anti-analgesic activity. Various bioactive compounds present in fenugreek, including alkaloids, flavonoids, saponins, and steroidal sapogenins, contribute to its therapeutic potential. Fenugreek, has demonstrated significant antidiabetic properties in both animal studies and human trials. These effects have primarily been associated with the presence of saponins and its rich fiber content, rather than its main alkaloid component, trigonelline. Notably, fenugreek consumption has been linked to the elevation of plasma insulin levels within living organisms. Additionally, one of its key free amino acids, 4-hydroxyisoleucine, has shown the ability to stimulate insulin secretion when tested on isolated pancreas samples in vitro. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores how the health parameters have changed over time and identify what explains the most differences in child health between slum and non-slum areas in 8 major cities in India. We use the latest two rounds, i.e., NFHS-3 (2005–06) and NFHS-4 (2015–16), of the national family health survey (NFHS) dataset. We find that children living in slums have a lower height for age, lower weight for age, higher stunting, underweight, body mass index, and anemic incidence. In addition, we see an improvement in all the health indicators from 2006 to 2016 in both slum and non-slum children's health. Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition results show that all the differences in child health outcomes between slums and non-slum are explained by our set of covariates included in the regression model. Most of the explained differences in child health, i.e., height for age (haz) and weight for age (waz), are attributed to the mother's education (explains 43–48 percent of the difference). On the other hand, ownership of mobile phones explains roughly 26 percent. In comparison, wealth attainment explains approximately 25 to 34 percent of the explained part of the gap between slum and non-slum child health indicators. Furthermore, the age of the household head (being older) explains approximately 7 percent of the differences in child health outcomes, and socioeconomics background variables explain a small share of the gap. Hence, awareness and health strategies, including the importance of nutrition and supplementation programs, should be carried out at both ante-natal and post-natal clinics to reduce the prevalence of anemia, especially for the vulnerable section of society living in slums areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the impact of non‐farm income on farm investment using a nationally representative dataset of 35,200 farm households in rural India. We find a heterogeneous effect of non‐farm participation on farm investment. Unconditional Quantile Regression (UQR) method has been applied to check whether farm investment differs between households with and without access to non‐farm incomes at diverse levels of farm investment quantiles. We found that non‐farm income has a positive and statistically significant impact on farm investment throughout all quantiles except the lowest quantile (0.25th quantile). Besides, we also found consistently rational results for our control variables. The results highlight the important role of non‐farm income in improving farm investment. Therefore, improvement in rural households' access to non‐farm employment opportunities could offer an effective mechanism to expedite productivity‐ augmenting investment to the farm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the relationship between caste, land ownership and agricultural productivity in India, utilising data from a large-scale survey of farm households. Access to resources like information, technology, inputs, markets, and support institutions are important for sustainable and inclusive growth of agriculture. The results indicate that socially disadvantaged households (Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes) have lower access to land and also other resources, but they produce more output per unit of land because they are more diversified towards high-value crops that generate more returns and are labour intensive. This calls for policy emphasis on crop diversification in the agricultural sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]