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Kusum
''Schleichera'' is a monotypic genus of plants in the soapberry family, Sapindaceae. There is only one species, ''Schleichera oleosa'', a tree that occurs in the Indian Subcontinent and Southeast Asia. Species ''Schleichera oleosa'', kusum tree, Ceylon oak, lac tree, gum lac tree. It is a large deciduous (nearly evergreen) tree with a comparatively short fluted trunk and a shade spreading crown. It is frost and drought hardy and is subject to damage by grazing. It produces root-suckers freely, and it has good cropping power. The wood is very hard and reddish brown. This tree is noted for its growth of new leaves that are bright red. In India the growth of these bright red leaves happens around March. The leaves are pinnate, with each leaf having 2-4 leaflets. The tree is host to Kusumi Lac (Kerria lacca), a lac insect which is native to India. Its seeds are the source of Kusum oil. Flowers: The flowers are tiny and hardly noticeable, occurring in short dense yellow clusters. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kusum Oil
Kusum oil is a type of oil extracted from the seed of the Kusum tree (''Schleichera oleosa''). The plant, which is also commonly known as Ceylon oak, lac tree, or Macassar oiltree, belongs to the family Sapindaceae. The sapindaceae family is named after J. C. Schleicher, a Swiss botanist, and the species name means "oily" or "rich in oil." The tree is native to South Asia, but is also found in some parts of Southeast Asia. Collection of seeds The bunches of fruit are plucked by climbing the ''Schleichera oleosa'' trees. The fruit pulp is removed by rubbing the fruits in water, and letting them dry. Oil The oil contains oleic acid (2-3%), stearic acid (2-6%), gadoleic acid, and arachidic acid as well as cyanogenic compounds, which must be removed for human consumption. Kusum oil is unusual, with just 37% of common glycerol esters. The oil also contains linoleic acid (43-50%), palmitic acid (5-8%), and hydrocyanic acid, which is poisonous and must also be removed prior to cons ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Schleichera Oleosa Bark
''Schleichera'' is a monotypic genus of plants in the soapberry family, Sapindaceae. There is only one species, ''Schleichera oleosa'', a tree that occurs in the Indian Subcontinent and Southeast Asia. Species ''Schleichera oleosa'', kusum tree, Ceylon oak, lac tree, gum lac tree. It is a large deciduous (nearly evergreen) tree with a comparatively short fluted trunk and a shade spreading crown. It is frost and drought hardy and is subject to damage by grazing. It produces root-suckers freely, and it has good cropping power. The wood is very hard and reddish brown. This tree is noted for its growth of new leaves that are bright red. In India the growth of these bright red leaves happens around March. The leaves are pinnate, with each leaf having 2-4 leaflets. The tree is host to Kusumi Lac (Kerria lacca), a lac insect which is native to India. Its seeds are the source of Kusum oil. Flowers: The flowers are tiny and hardly noticeable, occurring in short dense yellow clusters. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kerria Lacca
''Kerria lacca'' is a species of insect in the family Kerriidae, the lac insects. These are in the superfamily Coccoidea, the scale insects. This species is perhaps the most commercially important lac insect, being a main source of lac, a resin which can be refined into shellac and other products.Raman, A. (2014)Discovery of ''Kerria lacca'' (Insecta: Hemiptera: Coccoidea), the lac insect, in India in the late 18th century.''Current Science'' 106(6), 886. This insect is native to Asia.Ahmad, A., et al. (2012)Mouthparts and stylet penetration of the lac insect ''Kerria lacca'' (Kerr) (Hemiptera: Tachardiidae).''Arthropod Structure & Development'' 41, 435-441. Biology ''Kerria lacca'' produces a dye and a wax as natural secretions. The life cycle of this scale insect proceeds with the first instar of the larval stages, which are known as "crawlers". Larvae in this stage crawl along the branches of their host plants and feed on the phloem. As they pierce the branches to reach the phl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
João De Loureiro
João de Loureiro (1717, Lisbon – 18 October 1791) was a Portuguese Jesuit missionary and botanist. Biography After receiving admission to the Jesuit Order, João de Loureiro served as a missionary in Goa, capital of Portuguese India (3 years) and Macau (4 years). In 1742 he traveled to Cochinchina, remaining there for 35 years. Here he worked as a mathematician and naturalist for the king of Cochinchina, acquiring knowledge on the properties and uses of native medicinal plants. In 1777, he journeyed to Canton, in Bengal, returning to Lisbon four years later. During this period, the Captain Thomas Riddel gave Loureiro the books ''Systema Naturae'', ''Genera Plantarum'' and ''Philosophia Botanica'' by Carl Linnaeus, which greatly influenced the Portuguese botanist. The first 40 years he stayed in Vietnam, João de Loureiro was inventorying indigenous herbal remedies. His local garden contained 1,000 unique herbal species, making him one of the greatest botanist collectors o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Deciduous Forests
In the fields of horticulture and Botany, the term ''deciduous'' () means "falling off at maturity" and "tending to fall off", in reference to trees and shrubs that seasonally shed leaves, usually in the autumn; to the shedding of petals, after flowering; and to the shedding of ripe fruit. The antonym of ''deciduous'' in the botanical sense is evergreen. Generally, the term "deciduous" means "the dropping of a part that is no longer needed or useful" and the "falling away after its purpose is finished". In plants, it is the result of natural processes. "Deciduous" has a similar meaning when referring to animal parts, such as deciduous antlers in deer, deciduous teeth (baby teeth) in some mammals (including humans); or decidua, the uterine lining that sheds off after birth. Botany In botany and horticulture, deciduous plants, including trees, shrubs and herbaceous perennials, are those that lose all of their leaves for part of the year. This process is called abscission. I ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and borders fourteen countries by land, the most of any country in the world, tied with Russia. Covering an area of approximately , it is the world's third largest country by total land area. The country consists of 22 provinces, five autonomous regions, four municipalities, and two Special Administrative Regions (Hong Kong and Macau). The national capital is Beijing, and the most populous city and financial center is Shanghai. Modern Chinese trace their origins to a cradle of civilization in the fertile basin of the Yellow River in the North China Plain. The semi-legendary Xia dynasty in the 21st century BCE and the well-attested Shang and Zhou dynasties developed a bureaucratic political system to serve hereditary monarchies, or dyna ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bihar
Bihar (; ) is a state in eastern India. It is the 2nd largest state by population in 2019, 12th largest by area of , and 14th largest by GDP in 2021. Bihar borders Uttar Pradesh to its west, Nepal to the north, the northern part of West Bengal to the east, and with Jharkhand to the south. The Bihar plain is split by the river Ganges, which flows from west to east. On 15 November 2000, southern Bihar was ceded to form the new state of Jharkhand. Only 20% of the population of Bihar lives in urban areas as of 2021. Additionally, almost 58% of Biharis are below the age of 25, giving Bihar the highest proportion of young people of any Indian state. The official languages are Hindi and Urdu, although other languages are common, including Maithili, Magahi, Bhojpuri and other Languages of Bihar. In Ancient and Classical India, the area that is now Bihar was considered the centre of political and cultural power and as a haven of learning. From Magadha arose India's first empire, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the southwest, and the Bay of Bengal on the southeast, it shares land borders with Pakistan to the west; China, Nepal, and Bhutan to the north; and Bangladesh and Myanmar to the east. In the Indian Ocean, India is in the vicinity of Sri Lanka and the Maldives; its Andaman and Nicobar Islands share a maritime border with Thailand, Myanmar, and Indonesia. Modern humans arrived on the Indian subcontinent from Africa no later than 55,000 years ago., "Y-Chromosome and Mt-DNA data support the colonization of South Asia by modern humans originating in Africa. ... Coalescence dates for most non-European populations average to between 73–55 ka.", "Modern human beings—''Homo sapiens''—originated in Africa. Then, int ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Acidic Soil
Soil pH is a measure of the acidity or basicity (alkalinity) of a soil. Soil pH is a key characteristic that can be used to make informative analysis both qualitative and quantitatively regarding soil characteristics. pH is defined as the negative logarithm (base 10) of the activity of hydronium ions ( or, more precisely, ) in a solution. In soils, it is measured in a slurry of soil mixed with water (or a salt solution, such as ), and normally falls between 3 and 10, with 7 being neutral. Acid soils have a pH below 7 and alkaline soils have a pH above 7. Ultra-acidic soils (pH 9) are rare. Soil pH is considered a master variable in soils as it affects many chemical processes. It specifically affects plant nutrient availability by controlling the chemical forms of the different nutrients and influencing the chemical reactions they undergo. The optimum pH range for most plants is between 5.5 and 7.5; however, many plants have adapted to thrive at pH values out ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Deccan Plateau
The large Deccan Plateau in southern India is located between the Western Ghats and the Eastern Ghats, and is loosely defined as the peninsular region between these ranges that is south of the Narmada river. To the north, it is bounded by the Satpura and Vindhya Ranges. A rocky terrain marked by boulders, its elevation ranges between , with an average of about .Editors of Encyclopedia Britannica (2014), ''Deccan plateau India''Encyclopaedia Britannica/ref> It is sloping generally eastward. Thus, its principal rivers—the Godavari, Krishna, and Kaveri (Cauvery)—flow eastward from the Western Ghats to the Bay of Bengal. The plateau is drier than the coastal region of southern India and is arid in places. It produced some of the major dynasties in Indian history, including the Pallavas, Satavahana, Vakataka, Chalukya, and Rashtrakuta dynasties, also the Western Chalukya Empire, the Kadambas, the Yadava dynasty, the Kakatiya Empire, the Musunuri Nayakas regime, the Vijayana ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thailand
Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is bordered to the north by Myanmar and Laos, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the west by the Andaman Sea and the extremity of Myanmar. Thailand also shares maritime borders with Vietnam to the southeast, and Indonesia and India to the southwest. Bangkok is the nation's capital and largest city. Tai peoples migrated from southwestern China to mainland Southeast Asia from the 11th century. Indianised kingdoms such as the Mon, Khmer Empire and Malay states ruled the region, competing with Thai states such as the Kingdoms of Ngoenyang, Sukhothai, Lan Na and Ayutthaya, which also rivalled each other. European contact began in 1511 with a Portuguese diplomatic mission to Ayutthaya, w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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