Magnolia sirindhorniae NOOT. & CHALERMGLIN produces fragrant flowers. The volatile oil secretary cells, quantity and quality as well as antioxidant and antimicrobial activities of the oils extracted from buds and flowers, have been investigated. The distribution of essential oil secretory cell in bud and flower revealed that the density and size of the oil cells were significantly higher in flowers compared to buds. In different floral parts, carpel has a higher oil cell density followed by gynophore and tepal. The histochemical analysis revealed the essential oil is synthesized in oil secretory cells. The volatile oil yield was 0.25 % in the buds and 0.50 % in flowers. GC/FID and GC/MS analysis identified 33 compounds contributing 83.2-83.5 % of the total essential oil composition. Linalool is the main constituent contributing 58.9 % and 51.0 % in the buds and flowers oils, respectively. The essential oil extracted from the flowers showed higher antimicrobial efficacy against Klebsiella pneumoniae and Staphylococcus aureus. Similarly, the essential oil isolated from the flowers depicts higher free radical scavenging, and antioxidant activity compared to buds' oil.

Wild Himalayan fig is an underutilized wild fruit with various nutritional components. The fruit was evaluated for different parameters like crude fibre value (18.90 - 16.38 %), total phenols (72.6 – 65.4 mg/100g) and the energy value (99.84 Kcal). The shelf life of this fruit was enhanced by converting it into value added product like jam. To standardize the technology for jam preparation, different treatments were designed by varying the concentration of pectin and citric acid. Among these treatments, T3C1 containing 0.7 percent pectin and 0.3 percent citric acid was found best with higher titratable acidity (12.02%) as citric acid, ascorbic acid content (1.24mg/100g), total sugar (66.42 %) and reducing sugar (58.85%), total phenol (39.8 mg/100g), anthocyanin 17.05 mg/100 g). Further, on the basis of sensory evaluation, the standardized product had high overall acceptability along with higher score for colour, flavor etc. The FTIR analysis of prepared jam and fig pulp clearly revealed that there was no alteration in physicochemical properties of fig pulp after its processing. Hence, the results from the present investigation clearly revealed that development of jam from wild fig can also be one of the alternative for the utilization of this nutritional rich underutilized crop for commercial purposes