Crop-Ecology and Post-harvest distillation method: The key regulators for yield and composition of essential oil of Valeriana jatamansi

Valeriana jatamansi is an important temperate herb, which is used for pharmaceutical and essential oil industries. In India, this species is now at the verge of extinction due to the over-exploitation of its rhizomes from its natural habitat. It is hypothesized that the variations in bioactive compounds in its essential oil are very high among the wild populations as well as cultivated sources. Thus, the study was conducted to evaluate the chemical profiling of essential oil of four wild populations (Rupena, Kugti, Garola, Khani) and two cultivated sources (CSIR-IHBT, Saloonie), which were distilled at three consecutive days. The variation in oil concentration in root/rhizome was found significant (P ≤ 0.05), and the maximum value (0.35%) was registered with the population collected from Kugti and Khani. In essential oil, irrespective of population and distillation day, patchouli alcohol was the major compound, which ranged from 19 to 63.1%. The maximum value (63.1%) was recorded with the essential oil obtained from Garola's population and distilled on the first day. The percentage of seychellene was abruptly increased with subsequent days of extraction in all the populations. The multivariate analysis revealed that the essential oil profiles of Rupena, Kugti, Garola, and CSIR-IHBT populations were found similar during the first day of distillation. However, during the second day Rupena, Kugti, Khani, and CSIR-IHBT come under the same ellipse of 0.95% coefficient. The results suggest that the population of Kugti is superior in terms of oil concentration (0.35%) with a higher proportion of patchouli alcohol (63% on the first day). Thus, repeated distillation is recommended for higher recovery of essential oil. Moreover, repeated distillation can be used to attain V. jatamansi essential oil with differential and perhaps targeted definite chemical profile.

Mathematical modelling of surface irrigation for field crops in Jordan based on soil hydrological-physical properties

Jordan suffers from drought and depletion of water resources. In-field crop management, the issue of irrigation scheduling is important and influential. In this research note, a simple method was developed for scheduling surface irrigation of field crops based on inputs of crop ecology, effective root depth, soil texture, soil hydrology, and logical mathematics. It was concluded that the science of mathematics has succeeded to meet academic irrigation scheduling in terms of surface irrigation for field crops based on both soil hydrological and physical traits. Extension scholar has a decision to choose mathematical irrigation model depends on the traditional inputs or updating the model by searching for renewable inputs such as different varieties root depths, optimum row spacing of each crop, drip irrigation mathematical modelling, and digital sensing. In both cases, the input related to the effective root depth is a major and basic factor in mathematical irrigation scheduling. It is, therefore, recommendable that extension research-based systems should focus on basic mathematics to capacitate the complementary role of academics, research, and extension in irrigation modelling, and rural development.

Food globalisation in prehistory: The agrarian foundations of an interconnected continent

This article explores grain crop movement across prehistoric Eurasia. It draws on evidence from archaeobotany, stable isotope studies, and archaeogenetics to date and map the process of food globalisation, and relate it to human consumption, culinary practice and crop ecology. It reviews the findings of a project funded by the European Research Council, Food Globalization in Prehistory, placed in the context of the expansion of research across Eurasia over the last two decades. This major episode of food globalisation has discernible roots in the third millennium BC, which during the second millennium BC fully crystallises into a contiguous network following foothills and mountain corridors with the Himalayan uplift at its heart. We infer a significant bottom-up component to the establishment of this pattern, which serves as a prelude for the top-down valley-bottom agrarian systems that recur from the second millennium BC onwards.