Maize (Zea mays L.) plays a significant role in human nutrition and animal feed. After the discovery of opaque-2 mutants in maize, that produces with enhanced levels of lysine and tryptophan. Quality protein maize (QPM) holds superior nutritional value and is essentially exchangeable with normal maize. The increasing use of maize as feed, increasing interest of the consumers in nutritionally enriched products and rising demand for maize seed are the core driving forces behind emerging importance of maize crop in India. Protein malnutrition is a serious global issue demanding huge resources on healthcare. The problem can be addressed to a considerable extent by shifting to quality protein maize diet. The development of QPM hybrids through advanced breeding approach like molecular marker-assisted breeding was adopted. It could solve the issue related to protein deficiency in developing countries.

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Hot peppers are good source of bioactive compounds particularly phytochemicals, capsaicin, oleoresins, and rich organic micronutrients with potential health benefits. It plays an important role in diets and possesses micronutrients. Micronutrient dietary deficiency remains a massive problem in the world which may cause several chronic health diseases. More than 2 billion individuals are facing micronutrient deficiencies, viz., zinc, iodine, and iron, followed by vitamins. Among various approaches to overcome human nutrition deficiencies, a diet with fruits and vegetables that are rich in micronutrients is considered as the best solution. Hot pepper consumption worldwide is well known for its high nutritional content which in turn reduces human micronutrient deficiencies. Thus sufficient amounts of micronutrients can be provided by incorporating the nutrient-rich pepper in diet that could beneficially help in combating nutrient deficiencies. Thus, in the present chapter, an overview of the micronutrient deficiency is described, and the nutrition status of hot pepper that utilized in eradicating human micronutrient dietary deficiencies is also discussed.

Aim: This study evaluated efficient culture media for the regeneration of elite material through somatic embryogenesis from oil palm zygotic embryos. Methodology: For callus induction, zygotic embryos of four elite genotypes (G1-264T, G2-238DX17P, G3-37DX17P and G4-237T) were cultured on three basal media (Y3, MS and N6) with different auxin 2 mg l-1 (Picloram, 2,4-D and Dicamba) combinations. Subculture was made every month for three passages. It evaluated various callus characters. The embryogenic calli from callus induction media were transferred to the embryo maturation medium and subcultured until the polyembryoids formed. For shoot and root formation, somatic embryo clumps were transferred into regeneration media. In-vitro plantlets with well-grown roots were hardened in pots for six weeks and assessed clonal fidelity using polymorphic SSR primers. Results: Among the treatments, calli from N6+2,4-D, Y3+2,4-D and N6+Picloram showed the highest embryogenic callus potential. G4-237T induced more embryogenic calli (32.982) among genotypes, which was on par with G1-264T (24.196). Embryogenic calli grown on N6 media with Dicamba showed the highest proliferation rate (1.141). After 60 days of culture on regeneration media, the highest number of plantlets per somatic embryogenic clump was obtained from G1-264T on N6 media supplemented with Dicamba. Interpretation: Culture media salt concentration showed a significant difference among media by causing perturbations of auxin flow during somatic embryogenesis affecting callus induction, proliferation and plantlet regeneration. This may be useful for standardizing the genotype-specific regeneration media in oil palm.