Bhavya Bhargava

• Sr. Scientist at Institute of Himalayan Bioresource Technology

Zephyranthes grandiflora Lindl. (Pink Rain Lily) is a cultivated bulbous ornamental plant from the Amaryllidaceae family, known for its medicinal potential, especially as a natural source of galantamine (GAL), an anti-Alzheimer drug. This study aimed to develop an efficient clonal propagation system for Z. grandiflora using mature bulbs as explants...

Gerbera (Gerbera jamesonii L.) is one of the most economically significant ornamental crops, ranking among the top five cut flowers globally. However, its low stem strength often limits its commercial quality and post-harvest vase life. The application of nanotechnology in floriculture is increasingly recognized for its potential to extend post-har...

Key message Everlastin1 and Everlastin2, potent inhibitors of EPH1, were identified through a wheat cell-free chemical-screening system. This innovative platform enables the development of small molecules that target 'undruggable' transcription factors. By specifically targeting the EPH1 pathway, these inhibitors delay petal senescence, extending t...

Solid waste management in the Indian Himalayan Region (IHR) is a growing challenge, intensified by increasing population and tourism, which strain non-sanitary landfills. This study investigates microbial diversity and functional capabilities within these landfills using a high-throughput shotgun metagenomic approach. Physicochemical analysis revea...

Wild ornamental plants offer a rich reservoir of genetic resources, essential for developing new, improved cultivars. Domestication of wild ornamental plant species transforms them into distinct cultivars with enhanced attributes, imperative for enhancing the diversity, adaptability of cultivated plants and addressing the evolving demands of the fl...

Wild ornamental plants offer a rich reservoir of genetic resources, essential for developing new, improved cultivars. Domestication of wild ornamental plant species transforms them into distinct cultivars with enhanced attributes, imperative for enhancing the diversity, adaptability of cultivated plants and addressing the evolving demands of the fl...

In the continuously developing ornamental sector, it is imperative to create and introduce innovative cultivars with improved characteristics. The main objective of floriculture is the development of new ornamental plants with enhanced floral qualities which increases the aesthetic appeal of plants. Traditional breeding along with molecular breedin...

With growing awareness of how dependent humans are on nature and how ecosystems can address societal issues at all scales, the concept of “Nature-based Solutions” (NbS) has emerged. NbS is viewed as a more promising strategy for increasing city sustainability and resilience over typical gray solutions globally. There are numerous spatial scales and...

The field of floriculture encompasses the cultivation and trade of several types of flowers, including loose flowers, cut flowers, and cut greens. Flowers exhibit climacteric behavior, rendering them vulnerable to significant postharvest losses. In order to minimize postharvest losses and enhance the longevity of crops, it is crucial to implement m...

Nanotechnology uses atomic-scale particles with a diameter of 1–100 nm. This technology is frequently employed in agriculture due to its ability to penetrate and move throughout plant cells. The floriculture industry is economically governed by the postharvest life of the floriculture plants. The postharvest life is greatly hampered by the petal ab...

An increasing number of ornamental plants are being cultivated using soilless culture, particularly to produce commercially important floriculture. Soilless farming, which includes cultivation systems such as hydroponics, aeroponics, and aquaponics systems, has several advantages over traditional soil crops, including faster development times, year...

This book has combined information on the most recent agricultural practices and breeding methods for ornamental crops. The applications and benefits of hydroponics systems over traditional soil culture growing systems are also discussed. The role of current breeding tactics, such as gene editing tools like CRISPR Cas9, in the development of orname...

Climate change is causing unpredictable seasonal variations globally. Due to the continuously increasing earth’s surface temperature, the rate of water evaporation is enhanced, conceiving a problem of soil salinization, especially in arid and semi-arid regions. The accumulation of salt degrades soil quality, impairs plant growth, and reduces agricu...

Geophytes are herbaceous plants that grow anew from underground buds and are excellent models to study storage organ formation. However, molecular studies involving geophytes are constrained due to the presence of a wide spectrum of polysaccharides and polyphenols that contaminate the genomic DNA. At present, several protocols exist for the extract...

In soil-less agriculture, hydroponic is considered a potential farming system for the production of uniform quality plant material in significantly less time. Therefore, for the first time, the current investigation corroborates the effect of different cultivation conditions (open-field, poly-house, and hydroponic) on morpho-physiological traits, p...

With a basis in human appreciation of beauty and aesthetic values, the new era of ornamental crops is based on implementing innovative technologies and transforming symbols into tangible assets. Recent advances in plant biotechnology have attracted considerable scientific and industrial interest, particularly in terms of modifying desired plant tra...

In recent years, air pollution has become one of the major environmental concerns that threaten health of the living organisms and its surroundings. Increasing urbanization, industrialization, and other anthropogenic activities impaired the air quality of indoor and outdoor environment. However, global organizations are focusing on ecological and b...

The design of novel and functional foods is a major driver of innovation in the food industry, which strives to meet consumer's rising demand and expectations for healthy foods. In recent years, microgreens have received popularity as functional foods due to their high-density nutrients and bioactive or secondary metabolite content. The morphology...

High-altitude climates are characterized by intense solar and UV (ultraviolet) stress, long periods of sunlight, low temperatures, and a significant temperature differential between day and night. These traits affect high-altitude plants’ physical structure and physiological and metabolic functions. Abiotic stress responses are critical for underst...

Rare Earth Elements (REEs) that includes 15 lanthanides, scandium and yttrium, are a special class of elements due to their remarkable qualities such as magnetism, corrosion resistance, luminescence, and electroconductivity. Over the last few decades, the implication of REEs in agriculture has increased substantially, which was driven by Rare Earth...

Calla lily (Zantedeschia aethiopica (L.) Spreng.) is an important ornamental crop used in garden landscapes, floral arrangements, and medicinal applications. Gibberellic acid (GA3) is actively involved in cell elongation, growth, physiology, and flowering. In addition, it is an environmentally-friendly compound which can be applied to plants to inc...

Two major future challenges are an increase in global earth temperature and a growing world population, which threaten agricultural productivity and nutritional food security. Underutilized crops have the potential to become future climate crops due to their high climate-resilience and nutritional quality. In this context, C4 pseudocereals such as...

Plants, microbes, and their mutualistic associations are well known for degrading or removing harmful pollutants by various modes of remediation mechanisms in both the phyllosphere and the rhizosphere. When a specific plant species and microorganisms are introduced into a pollutant-rich environment, the associated microbes assist the plant to thriv...

Environmental pollution, especially indoor air pollution, has become a global issue and affects nearly all domains of life. Being both natural and anthropogenic substances, indoor air pollutants lead to the deterioration of the ecosystem and have a negative impact on human health. Cost-effective plant-based approaches can help to improve indoor air...

Gladiolus (Gladiolus grandiflorus Andrews) is a high-valued bulbous cut flower. However, the shorter postharvest life of the gladiolus, limits its marketing and commercial value. In the present investigation, the effect of lemon grass (LG) essential oil as an antimicrobial agent was studied towards increasing the vase life of gladiolus. The results...

The acceptance of new crop varieties by consumers is contingent on the presence of consumer-preferred traits, which include sensory attributes, nutritional value, industrial products and bioactive compounds production. Recent developments in genome editing technologies provide novel insight to identify gene functions and improve the various qualita...

Some hypersaline ecosystems exist in the form of halite, the salt deposits formed due to the evaporation of salt water. Over a period of time, the salt-saturated hypersaline lakes or seas get dried up, leading to the deposition of halite and other significant minerals. The ancient halite deposits may contain halophiles from the same era as the surr...

Floriculture crops hold an important economic place in the horticulture industry. However, abiotic stresses (e.g. salt, drought, temperature) cause huge quality and quantity losses in these crops. A series of adaptive mechanisms are triggered at the physiological, biochemical and molecular levels to overcome stress and enhance survival. For instanc...

Biotic stresses are one of the major problems for ornamental crop loss worldwide. In general, the spreading of biotic stresses is controlled by the spray of chemicals or by other means. But the residue of some chemical is retained in the soil and hence cause groundwater contaminations. Also, the chemicals used for disease control adversely affect p...

Dutch iris is a commercially important bulbous ornamental crop. Its high demand in global floriculture market necessitates the production of its high-quality planting material. In the present investigation, an efficient in vitro propagation system has been developed for Iris × hollandica Tub. cv. Professor Blaauw (Dutch iris) using meta-Topolin (mT...

The bird of paradise (Strelitzia reginae L.) is one of the important tropical cut flowers. Generally, flowers like bird of paradise (BOP) grown for the commercial ornamental market must be of high pre and postharvest quality. Thus, to improve the postharvest longevity and increase marketability, the relative efficacy of two different biologically s...

The bird of paradise (Strelitzia reginae L.) is one of the important tropical cut flowers. Generally, flowers like bird of paradise (BOP) grown for the commercial ornamental market must be of high pre and postharvest quality. Thus, to improve the postharvest longevity and increase marketability, the relative efficacy of two different biologically s...

The transition of plants from water to land is considered one of the most significant events in the evolution of life on Earth. The colonization of land by plants, accompanied by their morphological, physiological and developmental changes, resulted in plant biodiversity. Besides significantly influencing oxygen levels in the air and on land, plant...

Lilies are spectacular bulbous plants grown worldwide for cut flower and pot plant production. There are more than 110 species of Lilium which are divided into seven sections, and since species belonging to the same section have relatively high interspecific crossing abilities, interspecific hybridization is the prime method of lily breeding. The i...

Tulips are the most popular bulbous ornamentals worldwide. The unique flower shapes, various colors, forms, and size have made them popular in cut flower and landscape industry. This bulbous geophyte is currently occupying the third position in most traded flowers in the world. Modern cultivars (predominantly Tulipa gesneriana) are grown for bulb p...

The trend of cut flower industry is gradually shifting from conventional cultivation to extended cropping seasons and off-season production. Alteration of flower time is highly desirable in cut flower industry to get high-quality yield at targeted times viz., festivities and marriages. This is crucial in balancing the trade by reducing entry of sur...

Dutch Iris is a commercially important bulbous ornamental crop. Its high demand in global floriculture market necessitates the production of high-quality planting material. In the present investigation, the significance of meta-topolin (mT), a novel aromatic cytokinin, was studied on in vitro morphogenesis of Iris × hollandica Tub. cv. Professor Bl...

As sessile species and without the possibility of escape, plants constantly face numerous environmental stresses. To adapt in the external environmental cues, plants adjust themselves against such stresses by regulating their physiological, metabolic and developmental responses to external environmental cues. Certain environmental stresses rarely o...

Orchids are one of the most fascinating plant families amongst the flowering plants. Amongst the various orchid genus Cymbidiums figure out prominently. The present study focuses on the development of an efficient in vitro regeneration protocol for Cymbidium aloifolium, an epiphytic orchid with high commercial value. It also aims at analysing the i...

Demand for more attractive and high quality food is growing every day. The increasing interest in functional foods and nutraceuticals has exaggerated exploration into new foods that have positive effects on human wellbeing. Even more we see edible flowers as a new way of nutritional health. Edible flowers are non-poisonous, giving any dish new colo...

Jasminum parkeri Dunn is a narrowly endemic, critically endangered woody ornamental shrub confined to sub-temperate zone of Western Himalayas, and rediscovered from its type locality after a lapse of about 100 years. In the present study, a propagation technique of J. parkeri, using stem cuttings, was established for the first time through applicat...

Deterioration of indoor air quality (IAQ) has become a serious concern as people spend lots of time indoors and prolonged pollution exposure can result in adverse health outcomes. Indoor plants can phytoremediate a wide variety of indoor contaminants. Nonetheless, few experiments have demonstrated their efficacy in real-time environments. Therefore...