Importance of Pest and Pathogen Control System With Special Emphasis on Coriander Crop on the Indian Subcontinent

Introduction

Coriander of commerce is the dried ripe fruits of Coriandrum sativum (L.), also known as cilantro or Chinese parsley. It is one of the first spices to be used by humankind, having been identified as early as 5,000 B.C. The plant is an important member of the family Umbelliferae (Apiaceae) along with other 200 genera and 2900 species. The plant is indigenous to the Mediterranean region, extensively in India, Morocco, Russia, Hungary, Poland, Rumania, Czechoslovakia, Guatemala, Mexico, Turkey, and Argentina (Coskuner and Karababa, 2007). It is a small aromatic annual herb, attaining a height of 0.3-1 meters. The lower leaves are broad with crenate-lobed Margins, and the upper one is finely cut with linear lobes. The flowers are white or pinkish arranged in compound terminal umbels (Burdock and Carabin, 2009). The fruit is a nearly globular, yellow-brown schizocarp. The plant requires a warm, dry summer with short, rainy winters and is cultivated as a cold-weather crop in northern India, mainly in Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, and Uttrakhand. The chemical composition of coriander seeds varies depending upon the country of its origin, agro-climatic, harvesting, and storage conditions. On average, seeds contain moisture (6.3%), protein (1.3%), fat (19.6%), carbohydrates (24%), mineral matter (5.3%), crude fiber (31.5%), and few traces of vitamin. Seeds are a good source of volatile and crude oil, tannins, saponins, cellulose, pentosans, and pigments. The seed oil is colorless or sometimes a pale yellow with a characteristic odor and taste. Indian coriander contains 45-70% coriander oil, which possesses a sweet and pleasant odor (Axel Diederichsen et al., 1996). The main components of the essential oil include linalool, linalyl acetate, geranial, camphor, limonene, geranyl acetate, γ-terpinene, etc. Linalool is the bioactive compound found to occur at high concentrations (70%) in the extract. It is used as an additive for processed foods, beverages, and as a fragrance ingredient in cosmetics and household detergent. It is the main compound responsible for its anti-microbial and anti-diabetic effects of cilantro seeds. As a medicinal plant, coriander has been used as an antifungal (Basilico and Basilico, 1999), antioxidant (Chithra and Leelamma, 1999), hypolipidemic (Chithra and Leelamma, 2000), antimicrobial (Singh, 2002), hypocholesterolemic (Chithra and Leelamma, 1997), and anticonvulsant substance (Hossein and Mohammad, 2000). In the traditional medicinal system, the leaves and fruits of the plant have been used to treat skin disease, and its paste is applied by mixing in water to wash the face and forehead. Also, it has been used as a carminative, stimulating, diuretic, tonic, stomachic agent by the people to get rid of the bad breath and mouth diseases. The leaves have been reported to treat convulsion, insomnia and anxiety and used to improve appetite (Heider, 1992) and much more, as shown in Figure 1.

The present review gives an overview of the better growth conditions required by plants so that it can be protected from pests and pathogensa. Pests belong to the phylum arthropods, which can harm the standing crop that has been listed here with preventive measures required, and the farmers must follow control strategies. In a nut-shell, the present review can be proven helpful for betterment for marginal and small farmers.

Figure 1.

Importance of Coriander sativum (L.) for the treatment of various diseases