What is Soil pH and Why is it important in farming? - Chemosmart

                 Plant  Resources

              Any material may be termed as a 'Resource' provided that an appropriate technology is available to transform that into more valuable goods. From human standpoint, a resource is anything obtained from the environment to meet human needs and wants. Examples: Food, Water, Shelter, Manufactured goods, etc. 

Plant resources and their products:

A) Food :

                Many plants or plant parts are utilized as food. They contain essential nutrients such as Carbohydrates, Fats, Minerals, Calcium, Protein, Amino acids, Vitamins etc. There are around 2,000 plant species which are cultivated for food. 

              Plants provide food in the form of root vegetables (potatoes and carrots) bulbs (onion), leaf vegetables (spinach and lettuce), inflorescence vegetables (cabbage and broccoli), different edible fruits (Lemon, Apple, Guava), seeds(cereals, legumes, nuts) etc. 

Spinach:

               Spinach is an edible flowering plant from the family Amaranthaceae. It is an annual plant, which grows to a height of up to 30 cm. The leaves are alternate, simple, and very variable in size with larger leaves at the base of the plant and small leaves higher on the flowering stem. 

            The flowers are inconspicuous, maturing into a small, hard, dry, lumpy fruit cluster containing several seeds. 

B) Fodder:

              In agriculture, fodder or animal feed is any foodstuff that is used specifically to feed domesticated livestock such as cattle, goats, sheep, horses, chickens and pigs. It includes hay, straw, silage, compressed and pelleted feeds, oils and mixed rations, and also sprouted grains and legumes. 

Alfalfa:  

               It is a flowering plant belongs to family Fabaceae, cultivated as an important forage crop. It is known as Lecerne grass in India. 

              The plant grows upto 1 metre. It has purple flowers. Like other legumes, it's root nodules contain bacteria, Sinorhizobium meliloti, with the ability to fix nitrogen. 

C) Fiber:

                  It is a class of materials that are continuous filaments or are in discrete elongated pieces, similar to lengths of thread. They are very important in the biology of both plants and animals for holding tissues together. It is a soft, staple fiber that grows around the seeds of the cotton plant. 

                 The fiber consists of nearly pure cellulose, a natural polymer. The cellulose is arranged in a way that gives cotton fibers a high degree of strength, durability, and absorbency. Each fiber is made up of twenty to thirty layers of cellulose coiled in a neat series of natural springs. 

Cotton:

           Cotton is used to make a number of textile products. These include terrycloth, used to make highly absorbent bath towels and robes; demin, mattresses, etc. In addition to the textile industry, cotton is used in fishnets, coffee filters, tents, gunpowder, cotton paper, and in bookbinding. 

 

D) Medicinal Plants:

            Plants that contain the secondary metabolites which can be considered as the active principles for therapeutic uses. 

           Plant is native to India and belongs to Family Euphorbiaceae. It is a perennial, deciduous tree; grow upto 10-15 meter. The branches bear two regular rows of simple, stipulate leaves; pinnately compound with numerous leaflets. The fruit is green at first changing to light yellow or brick red in colour. There is great variation in great variation in size and taste of the raw fruit. 

Amla:

            The pulpy portion  fruit, dried and free from the nuts contains: Gallic acid, Tannin, sugar, gum, albumin, crude cellulose, mineral matter and moisture. Its uses include as laxative, eye wash, appetite stimulant, restorative tonic and to treat anorexia, indigestion, diarrhea, anemia and jaundice. It is also used in the preparation of Chyawanprash. 

E) Timber:

          It is a genus of tropical hardwood trees from the family Verbenaceae. They are large trees, growing to 30-40 meter tall, deciduous in the dry season, leaves elliptic or obovate. Inflorescence very large, panicle, long; flowers-small, white; fruit-hard nut. 

Nature of Wood:   Moderately hard, strongly and characteristically scented containing oil which is the preservative, sap wood white usually small, heart wood dark golden-yellow turning dark brown to black with age; annual rings marked by one or more lines of regularly arranged pores. In the rest of the pores are scattered and scanty; medullary rays slightly broad, numerous giving a nice silver grain of elongated plates; pith is large and quadrangular. 

Teak:

              Teak is very durable and hence it is an important timber of the topics. This is due to the outstanding quantity of the seasoned teak timber which does not shrink, crack or alter it's shape. The wood takes fine polish and does not corrode in contact with metals. 

                 It is used for a variety of uses as for example ship building, boats, in the construction of houses, bridges, for the interior construction of railway compartment, railway sleepers, and for the construction of agricultural implements like ploughs etc. Teak is easily worked and has natural oils that make it suitable for use in exposed locations, where it is durable even when not treated with oil or varnish. 

F) Gum:

              Gum Arabic, a natural gum is the hardened sap taken from two species of the Acacia tree, Acacia senegal and Acacia seyal. Gum Arabic is a complex mixture of saccharides and glycoproteins, which gives it its most useful property i.e. perfectly edible.

 

                It is a tree from family Leguminoseae-Mimoseae, 5-20m high with a dense spheric crown, stems and branches usually dark gum. The tree has thin, straight, light, grey spines in axillary pairs, usually in 3-12 pairs, mature trees commonly without thorns. The leaves are bipinnate, with 3-6 pairs of pinnulae and 10-30 pairs of leaflets each. Flowers in globose heads, bright golden-yellow colour. Pods are strongly constricted, hairy, white-grey, thick and softly tomentose. 

Acacia-arabica:

             It is used preliminary in the food industry as a stabilizer, also used as viscosity control in inks. Used for printing, paint production, glue, and industrial applications, used as an ingredient in foodstuffs. 

               It is an important ingredient in soft drink syrups, chocolate candies and chewing gums. Used as binder in watercolor paint and in photography for gum printing. It is an important ingredient in shoe polish. Often used as a lickable adhesive on postage stamps and cigarette papers. It reduces the surface tension of liquids, which leads to increased fizzing in carbonated beverages.