Momentum of Ajwa Dates towards Cardiovascular Diseases Momentum of Ajwa Dates towards Cardiovascular Diseases

Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) are the top most cause of morality around the world.  It is predicted that the number casualties from CVDs will increase to more than 24 million till 2030 people. Medicinal plants provide the major raw materials for medicine preparations. They are gaining high consideration due to their effectiveness and increasing cost of modern medicines. Many successful drugs are plant based, including aspirin from the willow bark, morphine from opium poppy, quinine from the cinchona bark, and digoxin from the foxglove. According to World Health Organization (WTO), ~70% to 80% of people around the world rely on herbal sources for the treatment of their disease. Plant sources are endorsed due to the fact that they contain an optimal amount of  antioxidants and phytochemicals that help to avoid and treat many diseases. Phoenix dactylifera L. Particularly Ajwa variety, is the most rich in phytonutrientsthat can benefit to control many cardiovascular diseases. It contains6 vitamins (vitamin A, C, B1, B2, B3 &riboflavin), high amount of fibers, Potassium, Magnesium and 23 amino acids which play a healthy role towards hypertension, muscular contractions, and blood pressure control. It has been studied that Niacin (B3) helps to control cholesterol and low density lipoprotein levels (LDL), as high cholesterol is the one of the main cause of cardiovascular diseases so, Ajwa could be a vital regulatory source. According to the findings of Sabbah M. Et al, Ajwa extracts significantly improved the DNA integrity and also reduced the cardiomyocytes congestion, edema and the cellular stress wielded on cardiac muscles resulting the restoration of cardiomyocytes architecture in Doxorubicin (DOX) induced cardiotoxicity in rats. Research done by Alqarni et al, proves that Ajwa extracts has successfully decreased the LDL‐C, VLDL‐C, and triglycerides concentration. Additionally, treatment with ajwa pulp also improved the HDL‐C level and antioxidant enzymes activity. In another invivo study, Ajwa preparation has successfullydecreased the diclofenac-induced pulmonary and hepatic instabilities. Vitamin-K play important role in blood coagulation, and in case of anticoagulant therapy, activity of vitamin-K controlled by drugs (warfarin) that sometimes causes serious side effects. According to the reported data, Salicylic acid is the vitamin-K antagonist and has capability to block the action of vitamin K during the coagulation pathway. Dates contain ~3.75 to 4.50 mg/100 g of salicylic acid. Thus, providing anticoagulation effect too. So, the limelight of the reported data provides an enough reason that plants can be used as primary source of drug designing for the cardiovascular disease. They hold true momentum to address the increasing healthdiseases, which cannot be lost to distraction or apathy. Fight against the burden of CDVs, is affecting all countries and specially, under developing and the poor countries.

Soil Water Dynamics and Water Use Efficiency in Maize under Different Irrigation Practices

Field experiments were conducted to study the soil water dynamics and water use efficiency in maize under different irrigation practices. Spring and Summer maize crops were sown for two years. In first experiment, five treatments (flood irrigated flat, furrow irrigated ridge, furrow irrigated raised bed, furrow irrigated raised bed with plastic mulch and sprinkler irrigated flat sowing practices) were used. The results showed that evapotranspiration, grain yield, biological yield, water use efficiency (WUE),(Irrigation water use efficiency (WUEi) and harvest index depended on moisture content under different irrigation practices in both growing seasons. Flood irrigated flat treatment gave the highest evapotranspiration, leaf area index (LAI), crop cover and biological yield, but it did not produce the highest grain yield and gave relatively low WUE and WUEi. Furrow irrigated raised bed treatment significantly improved grain yield, WUE, WUEi and harvest index. The results further showed that IMANSYS model predicted strong correlation between measured and estimated net irrigation requirement and evapotranspiration with r2 values 0.99, 0.99, 0.98 and 0.9) in Spring and Summer sown maize, respectively. Second experiment was conducted to study the deficit irrigation effect on evapotranspiration, WUE and maize yield under different irrigation techniques. Spring and Summer maize crops were sown for two years. Four treatments (furrow irrigated ridge, furrow irrigated raised bed, furrow irrigated raised bed with plastic mulch and sprinkler irrigated flat sowing practices) were used along with 100, 80 and 60 % field capacity (FC). Furrow irrigated ridge (100 % FC) gave the highest evapotranspiration (436.6 and 420 mm), but did not produce the highest grain yield (5.98 and 5.86 Mg ha-1) and gave relatively low WUE (12.2 and 12.9 kg ha-1 mm-1) and WUEi (13.4 and 13.9 kg ha-1 mm-1), respectively for spring 2011 and 2012. Furrow irrigated raised bed along with plastic mulch treatment produced maximum harvest index (0.41 and 0.39) at 80 % FC. Water use efficiency (14.6 and 20.4 kg ha-1 mm-1) and irrigation water use efficiency (17.5 and 21.2 kg ha-1 mm-1) were noted under furrow irrigated raised bed along with plastic mulch and sprinkler irrigated flat treatment at 80 % FC, respectively during spring 2011 and 2012. Results further showed that IMANSYS model predicted strong correlation between measured and estimated net irrigation requirement with r2 values 0.99, 0.99 and 0.9) in Spring and Summer sown maize, respectively. Prediction of soil water contents by HYDRUS was in good agreement with in situ measured data.