Plant derived substances have recently become of great interest owing to their versatile applications. Medicinal plants are the richest bioresource of drugs of traditional systems of medicine, modern medicines, nutraceuticals, food supplements, folk medicines, pharmaceutical intermediates and chemical entities for synthetic drugs. The beneficial medicinal effects of plant materials typically result from the combinations of secondary products present in the plant. The medicinal actions of plants are unique to particular plant species or groups are consistent with this concept as the combinations of secondary products in a particular plant are often taxonomically distinct. Ecological function of secondary products may have some bearing on potential medicinal effects for humans and the secondary products involved in plant defense through cytotoxicity toward microbial pathogens could prove useful as antimicrobial medicines in humans, if not too toxic. In contrast to synthetic pharmaceuticals based upon single chemicals, many phytomedicines exert their beneficial effects through the additive or synergistic action of several chemical compounds acting at single or multiple target sites associated with a physiological process. The present review is focused on phytochemistry and pharmacological importance of medicinal plants.

Electrolyzed water (EW) is a new technology that emerged recently with potential application in agriculture, medicine and food industries, mainly in microbiological aspects. This unconventional or 'green' technology has the purpose to decrease the use of natural resources like water with minimal generation of chemical/toxic residues. EW possesses strong bactericidal and virucidal and moderate fungicidal properties. EW treatment may be used as an effective method for reducing microbial contamination on seed. Acidic Electrolyzed Water (AEW) shows wide ranging fungicidal activity, which may facilitate its use as a contact fungicide on aerial plant surfaces. More studies are necessary in relation to this technology and its possible applications in seed technology. The use of EW is an emerging technology and the door is open to further research and development.

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The field experiment was carried out to study the effect of growth regulators spray on onion cv. CO (On) 5 seed production. The studies on the influence of foliar spray with growth regulators viz., benzylaminopurine at 60 and 90 ppm, mepiquat chloride at 500 and 750 ppm and brassinosteroid at 0.5 and 1 ppm spray were evaluated for restricting the late formed umbels. The growth regulators were sprayed at the time of flower stalk initiation (35 DAS) and 10 days after first spray. Among the growth regulators, brassinosteroid (1.0 ppm) was found to be effective in restricting the umbel orders at the optimum level of eight and reduced the duration for physiological maturity by 7 days when compared to control and enhanced the yield contributing characters viz., umbel diameter by 7.4%, number of capsules umbel -1 by 28.0%, number of filled capsules umbel -1 by 51.7%, seed set (%) by 11% and seed yield plant -1 by 4.7% over control and reduced the number of ill filled capsules umbel -1 by 7.2% and number of under sized seeds umbel -1 by 26.7% over control. It also improved the seed germination, drymatter production and vigour index by 3.4, 3.6 and 6.8% respectively over control. Hence, foliar spray with brassinosteroid at 1 ppm was found to be effective in restricting umbels orders and improving the seed yield and seed quality in onion.

The laboratory experiment was conducted to study the storage potential of onion seeds under ambient and carbon dioxide (CO2) conditions. The onion seeds were given with different treatments such as T1-Control, T2-Seed coating formulation-I (SCF-I)-10g/kg, T3-Seed coating formulation-II (SCF-II)-10g/kg and stored in cloth bag under ambient condition and plastic container under CO2 condition (30% CO2) for six months. The seed samples were drawn at monthly intervals and evaluated for the seed and seedling quality parameters. The result revealed that, seeds coated with SCF-II and stored under CO2 condition recorded the highest germination rate and seedling vigour; dehydrogenase, α-amylase, catalase and peroxidase activity; protein and oil content; lowest electrical conductivity and pathogen infection after six months of storage compared to other treatments and ambient storage. It can be used effectively to enhance the seed quality and particularly beneficial in the absence of cold storage facility and in addition it can be used for maintaining seed quality for long period.