scholarly journals Multinutrient Biofortification of Maize (Zea mays L) in Africa: Current Status, Opportunities and Limitations

Nutrients ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 1039
Author(s):  
Nakai Goredema-Matongera ◽  
Thokozile Ndhlela ◽  
Cosmos Magorokosho ◽  
Casper N. Kamutando ◽  
Angeline van Biljon ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Nutrient Deficiency ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
Essential Amino Acids ◽  
Provitamin A ◽  
Current Status ◽  
Micronutrient Deficiencies ◽  
Nutrient Deficiencies ◽  
Subsaharan Africa ◽  
Intervention Measures ◽  
Low Concentrations

Macro and micronutrient deficiencies pose serious health challenges globally, with the largest impact in developing regions such as subSaharan Africa (SSA), Latin America and South Asia. Maize is a good source of calories but contains low concentrations of essential nutrients. Major limiting nutrients in maize-based diets are essential amino acids such as lysine and tryptophan, and micronutrients such as vitamin A, zinc (Zn) and iron (Fe). Responding to these challenges, separate maize biofortification programs have been designed worldwide, resulting in several cultivars with high levels of provitamin A, lysine, tryptophan, Zn and Fe being commercialized. This strategy of developing single-nutrient biofortified cultivars does not address the nutrient deficiency challenges in SSA in an integrated manner. Hence, development of maize with multinutritional attributes can be a sustainable and cost-effective strategy for addressing the problem of nutrient deficiencies in SSA. This review provides a synopsis of the health challenges associated with Zn, provitamin A and tryptophan deficiencies and link these to vulnerable societies; a synthesis of past and present intervention measures for addressing nutrient deficiencies in SSA; and a discussion on the possibility of developing maize with multinutritional quality attributes, but also with adaptation to stress conditions in SSA.

scholarly journals Biofortified Crops for Combating Hidden Hunger in South Africa: Availability, Acceptability, Micronutrient Retention and Bioavailability

Foods ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (6) ◽  
pp. 815
Author(s):  
Muthulisi Siwela ◽  
Kirthee Pillay ◽  
Laurencia Govender ◽  
Shenelle Lottering ◽  
Fhatuwani N. Mudau ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Vitamin A ◽  
Nutrition Education ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Genetic Manipulation ◽  
Target Population ◽  
Provitamin A ◽  
Zn Deficiency ◽  
Micronutrient Deficiencies ◽  
Nutrient Deficiencies

In many poorer parts of the world, biofortification is a strategy that increases the concentration of target nutrients in staple food crops, mainly by genetic manipulation, to alleviate prevalent nutrient deficiencies. We reviewed the (i) prevalence of vitamin A, iron (Fe) and zinc (Zn) deficiencies; (ii) availability of vitamin A, iron and Zn biofortified crops, and their acceptability in South Africa. The incidence of vitamin A and iron deficiency among children below five years old is 43.6% and 11%, respectively, while the risk of Zn deficiency is 45.3% among children aged 1 to 9 years. Despite several strategies being implemented to address the problem, including supplementation and commercial fortification, the prevalence of micronutrient deficiencies is still high. Biofortification has resulted in the large-scale availability of βcarotene-rich orange-fleshed sweet potatoes (OFSP), while provitamin A biofortified maize and Zn and/or iron biofortified common beans are at development stages. Agronomic biofortification is being investigated to enhance yields and concentrations of target nutrients in crops grown in agriculturally marginal environments. The consumer acceptability of OFSP and provitamin A biofortified maize were higher among children compared to adults. Accelerating the development of other biofortified staple crops to increase their availability, especially to the target population groups, is essential. Nutrition education should be integrated with community health programmes to improve the consumption of the biofortified crops, coupled with further research to develop suitable recipes/formulations for biofortified foods.

scholarly journals Micronutrient supplementation in pregnancy: Who, what and how much?

2018 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-13 ◽  
Author(s):  
F Parisi ◽  
I di Bartolo ◽  
VM Savasi ◽  
I Cetin
Keyword(s):  
Low Income ◽  
Maternal Nutrition ◽  
Nutritional Assessment ◽  
Obstetric Care ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
Low Income Countries ◽  
Micronutrient Deficiencies ◽  
Nutrient Deficiencies ◽  
Nutritional Needs ◽  
In Pregnancy

Pregnancy represents a period of major physiological and metabolic change, aiming to ensure proper fetal growth and development, as well as maternal preservation. This review focuses on maternal nutrition, and particularly on micronutrient deficiencies and supplementation during pregnancy. Nutrient deficiencies and consequences in pregnant women are presented, with an overview of current recommendations for dietary supplementation in pregnancy, even considering the risk of micronutrient overload. Appropriate universal supplementation and prophylaxis/treatment of nutritional needs currently appear to be the most cost-effective goal in low-income countries, thus ensuring adequate intake of key elements including folate, iron, calcium, vitamin D and A. In high-income countries, a proper nutritional assessment and counselling should be mandatory in obstetric care in order to normalize pregestational body mass index, choose a healthy dietary pattern and evaluate the risk of deficiencies.

scholarly journals Customized Fertilizers- All in One a Review

2020 ◽  
pp. 27-39
Author(s):  
S. K. Choudhary ◽  
Rajesh Kumar ◽  
Arun Kumar ◽  
Rakesh Deo Ranjan
Keyword(s):  
Crop Yields ◽  
Nutrient Use Efficiency ◽  
Soil Health ◽  
Micronutrient Deficiencies ◽  
Nutrient Deficiencies ◽  
Eligibility Criteria ◽  
Long Run ◽  
Nutrient Use ◽  
Fertilizer Recommendations ◽  
Use Efficiency

Blanket fertilizer recommendations for different crops have caused poor nutrient supply, low nutrient use efficiency and limited crop response. Customized fertilizers may help to sustain soil health by ensuring appropriate fertilization. Hence, specific customized fertilizers should be promoted to counteract the problem of expanding multi-nutrient deficiencies in soils. In India, among the nutrients, NPK remain the major ones for increased and sustained productivity. However, the development of high yielding systems will likely exacerbate the problem of secondary and micronutrient deficiencies, not only because larger amounts are removed, but also because the application of large amounts of N, P and K to achieve higher yield targets, as a result in the intensive systems there is every possibility to build up of negative balance and deficiency of secondary and micronutrients. To attain high future targets, customized fertilizers will play a very important role. The development of site and crop specific readymade customized fertilizers based on scientific principles may prove to be more effective to meet the plant requirement and enhance nutrient use efficiency. Such an approach is also likely to boost crop yields and arrest soil fertility decline in a long-run. Thus, this article discusses the manufacturing methodologies, eligibility criteria, success in Indian fertilizer industry, adoption of fertilizer recommendations and problems in marketing of customized fertilizer.

scholarly journals Belt and Road Initiative: Interim Results and Challenges During Pandemic

2021 ◽  
Vol 65 (3) ◽  
pp. 42-51
Author(s):  
N. Pyzhikov ◽  
E. Gushchin
Keyword(s):  
Selection Process ◽  
Foreign Debt ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Current Status ◽  
Belt And Road Initiative ◽  
Middle Income ◽  
Chinese Investment ◽  
The World ◽  
Belt And Road

The article analyses the current status of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), its key achievements and challenges, including those related to the COVID 19 pandemic. In the 2010s China has become one of world’s largest investors and BRI is one of the most important tools of Chinese investment policy. Due to its flexible structure, BRI has been able to adjust and develop in the context of the U.S. – China trade war and the growing anti-Chinese sentiment in the world that included the concerns over so called China’s debt diplomacy. But this lack of rigidity is also a challenge to those who study BRI because there is no official list of projects (estimations vary between 118 and 374) and countries participating in BRI (up to 138). China’s key BRI partner is Pakistan. The total value of projects implemented by China in Pakistan as part of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor was initially estimated at $46 billion but now exceeds $70 billion (new projects were signed even during the pandemic). BRI is increasing the number of its participants. In March 2019 Italy became the first G7 country to sign a BRI MoU with China. While implementing BRI China has faced such challenges as rising concerns of “China’s debt trap”, as well as ecological and political issues. In 2020 BRI is facing a new challenge with the COVID-19 pandemic. Some BRI projects were postponed because of the pandemic, but in some cases they were unaffected. There are 64 out of 138 countries participating in BRI that come from low and lower-middle income groups according to the World Bank classification. Their average ratio of foreign debt to GDP was 54% in 2018–2019. It is most likely that these countries will be hit hard by the coronacrisis. Thus the pandemic will encourage China to tighten the selection process for BRI projects with a focus on the most strategically important and cost effective ones. From the point of view of China’s BRI partners, the effect can be two-fold: the most unstable economies will increase their dependence on China, while with the economically strong countries China will be more willing to make concessions and offer more favorable conditions for cooperation.

scholarly journals A Study of Factors Influencing Plant Growth by WSN Approach and Plant Nutrient Deficiency Classification in Tomato Using SVM

2021 ◽  
Vol 23 (06) ◽  
pp. 36-46
Author(s):  
Vrunda Kusanur ◽  
◽  
Veena S Chakravarthi ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Machine Learning ◽  
Plant Growth ◽  
Nutrient Deficiency ◽  
Learning Model ◽  
Plant Nutrients ◽  
Polynomial Kernel ◽  
Second Phase ◽  
Nutrient Deficiencies ◽  
Deficiency Symptoms ◽  
Machine Learning Model

Soil temperature and humidity straight away influence plant growth and the availability of plant nutrients. In this work, we carried out experiments to identify the relationship between climatic parameters and plant nutrients. When the relative humidity was very high, deficiency symptoms were shown on plant leaves and fruits. But, recognizing and managing these plant nutrients manually would become difficult. However, no much research has been done in this field. The main objective of this research was to propose a machine learning model to manage nutrient deficiencies in the plant. There were two main phases in the proposed research. In the first phase, the humidity, temperature, and soil moisture in the greenhouse environment were collected using WSN and the influence of these parameters on the growth of plants was studied. During experimentation, it was investigated that the transpiration rate decreased significantly and the macronutrient contents in the plant leave decreased when the humidity was 95%. In the second phase, a machine learning model was developed to identify and classify nutrient deficiency symptoms in a tomato plant. A total of 880 images were collected from Bingo images to form a dataset. Among all these images, 80% (704 images) of the dataset were used to train the machine learning model and 20% (176 images) of the dataset were used for testing the model performance. In this study, we selected K-means Clustering for key points detection and SVM for classification and prediction of nutrient stress in the plant. SVM using linear kernel performed better with the accuracy rates of 89.77 % as compared to SVM using a polynomial kernel.

scholarly journals The Management of Iron Chelation Therapy: Preliminary Data from a National Registry of Thalassaemic Patients

Anemia ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 2011 ◽  
pp. 1-7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adriana Ceci ◽  
Laura Mangiarini ◽  
Mariagrazia Felisi ◽  
Franco Bartoloni ◽  
Angela Ciancio ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Preliminary Data ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Iron Chelation ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
National Registry ◽  
Therapeutic Interventions ◽  
Current Status ◽  
Mediterranean Countries ◽  
Important Health ◽  
Definition Of

Thalassaemia and other haemoglobinopathies constitute an important health problem in Mediterranean countries, placing a tremendous emotional, psychological, and economic burden on their National Health systems. The development of new chelators in the most recent years had a major impact on the treatment of thalassaemia and on the quality of life of thalassaemic patients. A new initiative was promoted by the Italian Ministry of Health, establishing a Registry for thalassaemic patients to serve as a tool for the development of cost-effective diagnostic and therapeutic approaches and for the definition of guidelines supporting the most appropriate management of the iron-chelating therapy and a correct use of the available iron-chelating agents. This study represents the analysis of the preliminary data collected for the evaluation of current status of the iron chelation practice in the Italian thalassaemic population and describes how therapeutic interventions can widely differ in the different patients' age groups.

Biological and medicinal application of Cucumis sativus Linn. – review of current status with future possibilities

2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Anayatullah Khan ◽  
Anuradha Mishra ◽  
Syed Misbahul Hasan ◽  
Afreen Usmani ◽  
Mohd Ubaid ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Cucumis Sativus ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
Pharmacological Action ◽  
Modern Medicine ◽  
Current Status ◽  
Synthetic Drugs ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Increasing Demand ◽  
Calcium Iron ◽  
Whole Plants

Abstract Objectives The increasing demand for herbal drugs for the human application is causing a growing demand for the cultivation of Medicinal Plants. This demand has developed because of cost-effective, plant-derived products rather than commercially available synthetic drugs. Cucumis sativus Linn. (Ver. Kheera) is a vegetable climber, species belongs to family Cucurbitaceae This species has a wide range of medicinal and biological applications thanks to its richness in carbohydrate, proteins, minerals (calcium, iron, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, zinc) and secondary metabolites like alkaloids, tannins, flavonoids, saponins, and phenolic compounds These phytoconstituents may be responsible for allied therapeutic application. So, C. sativus possess wider applications for preventing certain ailments. Content The literature in various national and international journals and reports pertaining to the medicinal and nutritional uses were reviewed. The result revealed the current therapeutic applications of C. sativus whole plants other than the nutritional value. C. sativus pharmacological action includes antioxidant, anti-diabetic, UV protectant, hepatoprotective, gastroprotective, anti-helminthic, wound healing, antimicrobial, and anticancer. So, it could be useful for both preventive and additive therapy along with modern medicine for the better management of certain disorders. Summary and Outlook This review furnishes updated information about the phytoconstituents and their medicinal applications so that it can pose a path for the young researchers to do future findings.

scholarly journals A DNA-modified hydrogel for simultaneous purification, concentration and detection of targeted cfDNA in human serum

RSC Advances ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (6) ◽  
pp. 3407-3415 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xinglu Jiang ◽  
Chenggui Zhao ◽  
Xiaobo Fan ◽  
Wei Xu ◽  
Rui Zhang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Human Serum ◽  
High Specificity ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
Polyacrylamide Hydrogel ◽  
Low Concentrations ◽  
Modified Polyacrylamide

A cost-effective device based on DNA-modified polyacrylamide hydrogel was designed to simultaneously catch, purify, concentrate, and detect targeted cfDNA by electrophoresis at low concentrations with high specificity and selectivity.

scholarly journals Loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) : A rapid molecular diagnosis technique for detection of human pathogens

2017 ◽  
Vol 07 (03) ◽  
pp. 042-048
Author(s):  
Gunimala Chakraborty ◽  
Indrani Karunasagar ◽  
Anirban Chakraborty
Keyword(s):  
Treatment Strategies ◽  
Lamp Assay ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
Isothermal Amplification ◽  
Current Status ◽  
Molecular Diagnostic ◽  
Diagnostic Tools ◽  
Human Pathogens ◽  
Quality Healthcare ◽  
Loop Mediated Isothermal Amplification

AbstractDelivery of quality healthcare in case of an infectious disease depends on how efficiently and how quickly the responsible pathogens are detected from the samples. Molecular methods can detect the presence of pathogens in a rapid and sensitive manner. Over the years, a number of such assays have been developed. However, these methods, although highly reliable and efficient, require use of expensive equipment, reagents, and trained personnel. Therefore, development of molecular assays that are simple, rapid, cost-effective, yet sensitive, is highly warranted to ensure efficient management or treatment strategies. Loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP), a technique invented in the year 2000, is a novel method that amplifies DNA at isothermal conditions. Since its invention, this technique has been one of the most extensively used molecular diagnostic tools in the field of diagnostics offering rapid, accurate and cost-effective diagnosis of infectious diseases. Using the LAMP principle, many commercial kits have been developed in the last decade for a variety of human pathogens including bacteria, viruses and parasites. Currently LAMP assay is being considered as an effective diagnostic tool for use in developing countries because of its simple working protocol, allowing even an onsite application. The focus of this review is to describe the salient features of this technique the current status of development of LAMP assays with an emphasis on the pathogens of clinical significance.

scholarly journals Importance of Mineral Nutrition for Mitigating Aluminum Toxicity in Plants on Acidic Soils: Current Status and Opportunities

2018 ◽  
Vol 19 (10) ◽  
pp. 3073 ◽  
Author(s):  
Md. Rahman ◽  
Sang-Hoon Lee ◽  
Hee Ji ◽  
Ahmad Kabir ◽  
Chris Jones ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Plant Growth ◽  
Mineral Nutrition ◽  
Aluminum Toxicity ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Acid Soils ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
Al Toxicity ◽  
Current Status ◽  
Root Tips ◽  
Acidic Soils

Aluminum (Al) toxicity is one of the major limitations that inhibit plant growth and development in acidic soils. In acidic soils (pH < 5.0), phototoxic-aluminum (Al3+) rapidly inhibits root growth, and subsequently affects water and nutrient uptake in plants. This review updates the existing knowledge concerning the role of mineral nutrition for alleviating Al toxicity in plants to acid soils. Here, we explored phosphorus (P) is more beneficial in plants under P-deficient, and Al toxic conditions. Exogenous P addition increased root respiration, plant growth, chlorophyll content, and dry matter yield. Calcium (Ca) amendment (liming) is effective for correcting soil acidity, and for alleviating Al toxicity. Magnesium (Mg) is able to prevent Al migration through the cytosolic plasma membrane in root tips. Sulfur (S) is recognized as a versatile element that alleviates several metals toxicity including Al. Moreover, silicon (Si), and other components such as industrial byproducts, hormones, organic acids, polyamines, biofertilizers, and biochars played promising roles for mitigating Al toxicity in plants. Furthermore, this review provides a comprehensive understanding of several new methods and low-cost effective strategies relevant to the exogenous application of mineral nutrition on Al toxicity mitigation. This information would be effective for further improvement of crop plants in acid soils.

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