A B S T R A C TNowadays, use of alternative and complementary therapies with mainstream medicine has gained the momentum. Aromatherapy is one of the complementary therapies which use essential oils as the major therapeutic agents to treat several diseases. The essential or volatile oils are extracted from the flowers, barks, stem, leaves, roots, fruits and other parts of the plant by various methods. It came into existence after the scientists deciphered the antiseptic and skin permeability properties of essential oils. Inhalation, local application and baths are the major methods used in aromatherapy that utilize these oils to penetrate the human skin surface with marked aura. Once the oils are in the system, they remodulate themselves and work in a friendly manner at the site of malfunction or at the affected area. This type of therapy utilizes various permutation and combinations to get relief from numerous ailments like depression, indigestion, headache, insomnia, muscular pain, respiratory problems, skin ailments, swollen joints, urine associated complications etc. The essential oils are found to be more beneficial when other aspects of life and diet are given due consideration. This review explores the information available in the literature regarding therapeutic, medical, cosmetic, psychological, olfactory, massage aromatherapy, safety issues and different plants used in aromatherapy.

Since introduction of functional foods, commercialization of the traditionally used probiotics has ushered in more followers into the new fraternity of sophisticated, health-conscious consumers. In 1995, this was followed by the first introduction of prebiotics. Prebiotics are defined as "a non-digestible feed supplement, beneficially affecting the host by selectively stimulating growth and/or activity in one or a limited number of bacteria in the colon." The number of new product introductions with prebiotics has steeply increased over the last few years. Paradoxically, probiotics have limited applications as these cannot be used in wide range of food products because of their viability issue. Fortunately, prebiotics do not suffer from any such constraint and can be used in a wide range of food products. Probiotics do not have a long shelf life in their active form. In most cases, refrigeration is required to maintain the shelf life. While probiotics are predominantly used in fermented dairy products, the use of prebiotics has expanded into other food categories. Prebiotics have successfully been incorporated in a wide variety of human food products such as baked goods, sweeteners, yoghurts, nutrition bars, and meal replacement shakes. For instance, the introduction of galacto-oligosaccharides (GOS) into baby foods has been very successful. GOS, which are identical to the human milk oligosaccharides, has emerged with strong clinical support for both digestive and immune health. Various aspects related to GOS such as types and functions of functional food constituents with special reference to GOS, their role as prebiotics, and enhanced industrial production through microbial intervention are dealt in this review.

In this study 98 rhizospheric actinomycetes were isolated from different wheat and tomato fields, Punjab, Pakistan. The isolates were characterized morphologically, biochemically, and genetically and were subjected to a comprehensive in vitro screening for various plant growth promoting (PGP) traits. About 30% of the isolates screened were found to be the promising PGP rhizobacteria (PGPRs), which exhibited maximum genetic similarity (up to 98–99%) with different species of the genus Streptomyces by using16S rRNA gene sequencing. The most active indole acetic acid (IAA) producer Streptomyces nobilis WA-3, Streptomyces Kunmingenesis WC-3, and Streptomyces enissocaesilis TA-3 produce 79.5, 79.23, and 69.26 μg/ml IAA respectively at 500 μg/ml L-tryptophan. The highest concentration of soluble phosphate was produced by Streptomyces sp. WA-1 (72.13 mg/100 ml) and S. djakartensis TB-4 (70.36 mg/100 ml). All rhizobacterial isolates were positive for siderophore, ammonia, and hydrogen cyanide production. Strain S. mutabilis WD-3 showed highest concentration of ACC-deaminase (1.9 mmol /l). For in-vivo screening, seed germination, and plant growth experiment were conducted by inoculating wheat (Triticum aestivum) seeds with the six selected isolates. Significant increases in shoot length was observed with S. nobilis WA-3 (65%), increased root length was recorded in case of S. nobilis WA-3 (81%) as compared to water treated control plants. Maximum increases in plant fresh weight were recorded with S. nobilis WA-3 (84%), increased plant dry weight was recorded in case of S. nobilis WA-3 (85%) as compared to water treated control plants. In case of number of leaves, significant increase was recorded with S. nobilis WA-3 (27%) and significant increase in case of number of roots were recorded in case of strain S. nobilis WA-3 (30%) as compared to control plants. Over all the study revealed that these rhizospheric PGP Streptomyces are good candidates to be developed as bioferlizers for growth promotion and yield enhancement in wheat crop and can be exploited for the commercial production of different agro-active compounds.

Aims:  The aim of this study was to investigate the potential of bacterial strains of Bacillus, Pseudomonas, Escherichia, Micrococcus and Staphylococcus genera associated with wild herbaceous flora to enhance endogenous indole‐3‐acetic acid (IAA) content and growth of Triticum aestivum var. Inqalab‐91. Methods and Results:  Gas chromatography and mass spectrometric (GC–MS) analysis revealed that bacterial strains produced 0·6–8·22 μg IAA ml−1 in the presence of L‐tryptophan. Plant microbe experiments showed a significant positive correlation between auxin production by bacterial strains and endogenous IAA content of T. aestivum for GC–MS (r = 0·618; P = 0.05) and colorimetric analysis (r = 0·693; P = 0.01). Similarly, highly significant positive correlation for shoot length (r = 0·627; P = 0.01) and shoot fresh weight (r = 0·626; P = 0.01) was observed with auxin production under axenic conditions. Bacterial inoculations also enhanced shoot length (up to 29·16%), number of tillers (up to 97·35%), spike length (up to 25·20%) and seed weight (up to 13·70%) at final harvest. Conclusions:  Bacterial strains have the ability to increase the endogenous IAA content and growth of T. aestivum var. Inqalab‐91. Significance and Impact of the Study:  Microbial strains of wild herbaceous flora can be effectively used to enhance the growth and yield of agronomically important crops.

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