Question

How can we use knowledge of plants and their properties to improve human health?

Answer 1

The plant based food species that are being consumed for the purpose of human nutrition are not fulfilling the requisite demand for nutrients. With the help of agricultural practices only a marginal increase in nutritional values can be obtained. A deeper knowledge of the plant processes can be used to engineer crops with higher nutritional content such as higher amount of minerals, greater amino acid levels and better fatty acid composition. It is also of great importance that the plant based foods are palatable as it will lead to improvement in the diet. Plants act as the source of many medicines known to mankind. With the help of modification in the biosynthetic pathway of the plants, they can be used as units for the synthesis of pharmaceuticals.