describe the flori cultural crops...... in brief
Answers
✳️Floricultural Crops:
i) Dry flowers and pot pourri: Dry flowers are becomingmore popular due to their longer indoor life and non-perishability. The two easiest and least expensivemethods to dry flowers are sand drying and air-drying.Another product, pot pourri is a mixture of dried, sweetscented plant parts including flowers, leaves, seeds,stems and roots. These are rich in aromatic oils, whichare not confined to the flower only. These are used in
naturo-therapy for common ailments (aromatherapy).Fixatives such as salt, gum benzoin etc., are added tomake the scent to last longer.
ii) Essential oils, flavours and fragrances: Floral extracts like essential oils,alkaloids, pigments, dyes etc., have tremendous demand in both domestic andinternational markets. In order to producethe highest quality extracts, highly
sophisticated extraction methods such as
those based on high pressure extractionand super critical fluid extraction are used.Such methods produce very high purityflavour and spice extracts, fragrantchemicals as well as pharmaceuticalsubstances. Compressed gases like CO2combine the advantages of both gas and
liquid solvents. They have the density ofa liquid but diffuse as a gas and therefore, function like a solvent. This enables the extraction of sensitive raw materials at gentle temperatures. The resultingextracts are further purified by fractionation and separation procedures.
iii) Pharmaceutical and neutraceutical products: Plants produce pharmacologicallyvaluable compounds, which are used in medicine and as dietary supplements.Such compounds include pigments, oils and alkaloids.
iv) Pigments and natural dyes : The anthocyanins, flavanols, carotenoids andxanthophylls are common plant pigments that are responsible for a variety ofhues we normally observe. These valuable pigments can be isolated and used
for varied applications including pharmaceuticals.
v) Gulkand, rose water, vanilla products etc.: Gulkand is prepared by mixingrose petals and sugar in the ratio of 1:2 followed by mashing and drying themixture in sun. It is a laxative and used for flavouring and sweetening pan. It isgood for memory, eyesight and blood purification. Rose water is prepared byboiling the rose flowers in water and condensing the steam. It is used as sherbet,eye lotion and eye drops.
vi) Insecticidal and nematicidal compounds: Natural plant products (secondarymetabolites) are insecticides and nematicides. They act as fly and mosquitorepellents, kill insects and may be toxic to bees, aphids, caterpillars etc.