Flax

Botanical name: Linum usitatissimum

Family: Linaceae

Parts used: Fibres are formed in the pricycle which are aggregates of many long pointed cells with very thick cellulose walls.

Economic importance

1. Flax is superior to cotton in quality and yields a finer fabric suck as cambrics, damasks and sheetings, laces for apparel and household furnishing and linen threads. Garments made from flax ar e among the coolest of all fabrics as they conduct heat from body much more rapidly than cotton.

2. Coarser grades are used for canvas, towelling, bagging and industrial sewing threads (for book binding threads, in making fishing lines and nets and for sewing shoes).

3. Coarse fibres are used in the manufacture of cigarette paper, the fines writing paper and insulating material.

4. Short and tangled fibres called 'Tow ' is used n coarser and cheaper fabric and for stuffing purposes.

5. Flax is also grown for its seed, which is used in medicine and as the source of linseed oil.

Coir

Botanical name: Cocos nucifera

Family: Palmae

Parts used: Coarse rough short fibre is obtained from husk of fruit of coconut (mesocarp)

Economic Importance

1. Coir is used for making roped which are used in agriculture, transportation, shipping and general hauling of different products.

2. Making of mats and mattings.

3. Stuffing of rail and bus seats, cushions and allied products.

4. Coir is used for brushes and door mats.

5. The coir fibre is valued for its lightness, elasticity, high resistance to mechanical wear and dampness (particularly in sea water) and its sound insulating quality.

Jute

Botanical name: Corchorus cpsularis

Family: Tilliaceae

Parts used: Jute fibre is produced from secondary phloem (bast)

Economic Importance

1. Jute is used mainly for rough weaving and for making gunny, wool and potato sacs and the covers of cotton bales.

2. The fibre is used for making twine, carpets, curtains and coarse cloth.

3. Short fibres are used to some extent in paper making.

4. Jute fibres are least expensive but most important in bast fibres. These fibres are not very strong and deteriorate rapidly when wet but are valued for being cheap and have easy spinning qualities.

5. Oil from the jute seed is used for cooking purposes and in the manufacture of soaps.

6. Young shoots and leavers are eaten as food in Egypt, Greece and Sudan.

Cotton

Botanical name: Gossypium species

Family: Malvaceae

Parts used: Surface hair of cotton seed called lint

Economic Importance

1. Cotton is greatly used in textile industry due to two qualities i.e. it is soft and supple. It is used alone or mixed with other fibres to make a wide range of clothings.

2. Many cellulose  industries use pure cellulose (absorbent cotton) as basic raw material.

3. It is used in the manufacture of rubber tyre fabrics, carpeting and cordage, machinery belts due to resistance to permanent change in its length and width.

4. It resists abrasion or friction with other materials and has a good weaving quality and launderability.

5. Due to high tensile strength, it can withstand any type of tearing or breaking when under stress.

6. Unspun cotton is used for stuffing purpose.

7. Cotton seed oil is an important semi-drying oil and is used for cooking purpose and soap making.

8. The seed cake left after the extraction of oil is used by cattle or is used as stock feed.

9. Seed cake is also an important nitrogen fertilizer.

10 The fuzz or tinters are used in stuffing pads, pillows, cushions and mattresses. They also yield cellulose absorbent cotton and low grade yarn.

11. the low grade yarn is used to manufacture twine, rope and carpets etc.

12. The stalks of cotton plant are used as fuel.

13. The fibre obtained from stalk is also used in paper industry.

14. The cotton seed cake hull is a very good stock feed. It is also a good fertilizer.

15. Leaves of cotton plant are used as fodder.

16. From the bark of the roots of cotton plant ergot like drugs are extracted.

17. Cotton can be chemically modified for use in different forms.

18. Cotton is a major cash crop.

19. Cotton fibre is very tensile so its application in the manufacture of currency paper is worldwide.

Hemlock

Botanical name: Tsuga canadensis

Family: Pinadeae

Parts used: Wood

Economic Importance

1. It is used for building rafters, sheathings laths and other types of rough construction.

2. Hemlock wood is also used to prepare boxed and planks.

3. The wood is coarse grained but is very strong, tough, stiff and easily worked.

4. The bark of this timber tree is used as a tanning material.

5. This timber tree is the most important source of pulp world.

Deodar (Cedar)

Deodar (Cedar)

Botanical name: Cedrus deodara

Family: Pinaceae

Parts used: Wood

Economic Importance

1. Deodar is the most important and strongest of Indian soft woods.

2. The timber is very durable and is rarely attacked by white ants and fungi.

3. Deodar wood is straight grained, having a moderately fine and uniform texture.

4. The deodar is an easy wood to season and it can be sawn easily and worked to a smooth finish.

5. Primary uses of deodar is for railway sleepers.

6. It is used for beams, posts, doors and window frames, bridge construction, carriage and wagon building.

7. Deodar is also used for furniture, carging, packing cases, brush backs etc.

8. This wood is not good for interior fittings as the oil discolours the finishing.

9. The wood is not suitable for veneers because of presence of knots.

10. This timber is of outstanding merit of structural and building works.

11. The timber can be easily seasoned in air or klin.

Sal

Botanical name: Shorea robusta

Family: Dipterocarpaceae

Parts used: Wood (Secondary xylem)

Economic Importance:

1. The heartwood of sal is very hard, heavy and extremely tough, being one of the most durable timbers.

2. Wood is mainly suitable for sleepers.

3. This wood is not seasoned well and therefore , splits on further drying.

4. It can easily take moisture from environment and so takes very long time.

5. It is extensively used for making doors, windows and beams.

6. It is also used for cart making.

7. It is also used for making boats in India (Assam).

8. Sal wood has a long life in exposed situations and even under water.

9. Sal tree gives out an oleoresin called Bengal dammar on tapping which is used in the making of varnish.

Sisso (Shisham)

Sisso (Shisham)

Botanical name: Dalbergia sisso
Family: Leguminosae
Parts used: Wood (Secondary xylem)

Economic Importance

1. Sisso is a high class furniture and cabinet wood.

2. It is used as a constructional and general purpo
timber used for railway sleepers, musical instruments, shoe heels, hammer handles, tobacco pipes etc.

3. Sisso is good for charcoal making.

4. This wood is used for making of commercial plywood and ornamental veneers.

5. Sisso wood is used for air craft construction.

6. It is durable and heavy wood.

Teak

Teak (Burma, Rangoon Teak, Sagwan)

Botanical name: Tectona grandis
Family: Verbenaceae
Parts used: Wood (Secondary xylem)

Economic Importance

1. It is one of the most famous timbers in the world, being very stable and changing little with fluctuations in temperature and humidity.

2. Teak is extremely durable and hard.

3. It resists decay even when unprotected by paints etc.

4. The characteristic fragrance of the wood is retained for a long period and is the diagnostic feature of this wood.

5. Teak wood is not liable to shrinking, cracking, splitting and it takes a good polish due to presence of resinous matter in pores which resists the action of water.

6. Teak wood is used in making of buildings, furniture, sleepers and many other industrial uses.

7. It is the main railway carriage and wagon wood of India.

8. Teak is used in ship building also.

Potato

Botanical name: Solanum tuberosum

Family: Solanaceae

Parts used: Stem tuber

Economic Importance

1. Potato is one of the important foods of many countries. In India, it is used as the main vegetable throughout the year.

2. Potato is  one of the cheapest source of starchy food. A raw tuber contains 70-80% water, 10-30% carbohydrates (starch), 1-3% proteins, 2-3% fibres, 0.1% fats and small amounts of minerals like potassium, phosphorum, iron and magnesium and vitamin C.

3. Potatoes can be used in many ways directly after boiling, steaming, frying, baking and roasting. It can also be used after processing and products formed are potatoe chips, crisps, potato flour, canned potatoes, dehydrated mashed potatoes.

4. In European countries a large portion of potatoes is fed to livestock.

5. Potatoes are a good substrate for the growth of micro-organisms. Potato broth, which is a liquor obtained from boiled potatoes is a very important nutrient medium for micro organisms.

6. Potatoes are also used in large scale in many industries and processed into starch, alcohols, glucose, lactic acid etc. Starch of potato is used mainly for sizing cloth and paper and for giving finishing to fine cotton products. Dextrins and adhesives are produced from acidified starch.

7. Fresh potatoes are an important source of vitamin B and C.

Sugarcane

Botanical name: Saccharum officinarum

Family: Gramineae (=Poaceae)

Parts used: Stem or canes

Economic Importance

1. Sugar is one of the most valuable products of the plant world obtained from Saccharum species.

2. It is a necessary food for man as it is a perfect food and produces energy.

3. A lot of sugar is used in the manufacture of alcoholic beverages, soft drinks, ice-creams, chocolates, confectionary and canning industry.

4. Molasses is an important byproduct of sugarcane industry which is used as livestock feed and for the preparation of rum, industrial alcohol, vinegar, glycerol, lactic acid, citric acid and monosodium glutamate (fluring).

5. Thick noble canes which are soft and have high juice and sugar content and low fibre are chewed throughout the tropics.

6. The molasses is used in cooking, manure and candy making.

8. Bagasse is used as a fuel in sugar mills. It is also used for paper making and as an ingredient of fibre board.

Gram

Gram (Chick-Pea, Bengal gram)

Botanical name: Cicer arietinumFamily: LeguminosaeSub Family: Papilionatae
Parts used: Seeds

Economic Importance

1. Gram is extensively used as a nutritious pulse crop in India.

2. The seeds may be eaten raw, roasted, parched or boiled in split form (daal).

3. Tender leaves are used as leafy vegetable.

4. Gram flour (baisin) along with ghee and sugar us used to make  Indian confectionery.

5. Dry stems and leaves, after threshing, are used as a cattle-feed.

6. Germinated seeds are advised to prevent scurvy.

7. Kabuli grams, which has smooth, white, bigger seeds which are slightly sweetish in taste, is cultivated in North India.

Arhar

Arhar (Cajan Peas or Pigeon Pea)

Botanical name: Cajanus cajan (C. indicus)
Family: Leguminosae
Sub Family: Papilionatae
Parts used: Seeds

Economic Importance: 

1. Arhar is extensively used in the form of split pulse or daal.

2. It is an important food in south India where rice is the staple food grain. The nutritional deficiencies of rice are made upto some extent by the inclusion of pegion pea in the diet. It provides proteins, Vitamin B, Calcium and phosphorus.

3. Sometimes soft, tender and green pods are used as a vegetable.

4. Dried husks and broken pieces of seeds constitute a valuable feed for dairy cattle.

5. The green leaves and top of plants provide excellent fodder and are used as a green manure.

6. Arhar is also grown as a cover crop in plantation.

7. Dried stalks are used as fuel, for making baskits or as a thatching material.

Moong (Green Gram)

Botanical Name: Phaseolus aureus

Family: Leguminosae

Sub Family: Papilionatae

Parts used: Seeds

Economic Importance

1. Moong is an important pulse crop in India and is consumed either whole or split, after decortication.

2. The pulse is easily digestible and is free from heaviness.

3. The young pods and green shelled beans are eaten as vegetable.

4. Bean sprouts are an important nutritious food item. They are eaten either raw or as salad or boiled.

5. In India, the split and dehusked green gram fried in a little oil, after salting is a good snack.

6. The haulms are used as a fodder and the husk and the broken pieces of seeds constitute a useful livestock feed.

7. Parched beans, after the removal of seed coat, are ground into flour which is used in many dishes.

8. Moong is used as a green manure or a restorative crop (being a leguminous crop).

Rice

Botanical name Oryza sativa
Family Gramineae(Poaceae)
Parts used: Grains (Caryopsis)

Economic Importance

1. The main use of rice is as a food. It is directly consumed after boiling. Since it has insufficient protein, so rice is supplemented with legumes or some other food rich in legumes, is the diet of millions of natives of Asia. Rice grains may be glutenous or non-glutenous.  Glutenous grains are sticky when cooked due to the presence of dextrins and non-glutenous are hard and flinty. Majority of rice varieties are non-glutenous . In India people prefer large rice grains. In Japan and Taiwan mostly small grains are grown., which are sticky when cooked.. Poorer section of society consume beaten rice.

2. In India there are many rice preparations these are kheer, firni, pulao. 

3. In south India, fermented rice preparations are dosa, idli and utpam.

4. Rice flour is used in confectionery, ice-creams, pudding and pastry.

5. Rice starch, apart from being food, is used for giving starch to clothes.

6. The husk and rice polish are good for stock feeding due to high silicon content.

7. Rice flavour is used in cosmetic industry and as a thicker in calico printing.

8. Refined bran oil is used as salad oil.

9. Alcoholic drinks suck as sake in Japan and Wang-tsin in China are made from rice through fungal fermentation.

10. Hulls of rice are used as a fuel, as breeding for poultry, for packing and insulation.

11. In China and Japan, a very fine type of paper is made from rice straw.

12. Rice straw is also used for thatching, making hats, mats, sacks, ropes and baskets.

13. Bran oil is used in textiles, leather treatment, as lubricant in wrist watches and in soap manufacture.

14. Rice is of great significance in many ancient customs and religious rituals in the East and is still associated with many ceremonies.

Maize

Botanical name Zea mays
Family Gramineae (Poaceae)
Parts used: Grains (Caryopsis)

Economic Importance: 

1. Maize is a very cereal in India but new world maize lack gluten hence not suitable for making bread. In Bihar and UP, maize flour is used to make breads.

2. Green and dry plants are used as fodder and is suitable for stock feed.

3. roasted grains of ear are eaten by people.

4. The grains are also used for making certain alcoholic beverages.

5. Important preparations of maize grains are pop corns and corn flakes.

6. Corn starch and corn sugar and corn oil are very useful products of maize grains.

7. Corn sugar and corn syrup are important in the manufacture of confectionery, jams and jellies.

8. Corn starch is used as a substitute for talc in bath powder and is also used for starching clothes. Starch is also used in manufacture of asbestos, ceramics, dyes, plastics, oil cloth and linoleum.

9. Corn syrup is used in shoe polish, rayon and tobacco industry.

10. Maize cobs, when cooked under pressure with acids, produce furfural a compound used in the production of adiponitrile (nylon), in the refining of diesel, vegetable and lubricant oils and in manufacture of plastics. Furfural derivatives are used as antiseptics.

11. Zein, a special kind of protein in maize, is spun into a soft, durable artificial fibre. Zein is also employed a s a foaming agent in fire extinguishers, and ingredient of linoelum and oil cloth, a sizing for textiles, a binding material for composition of cork, manufacture and as an adhesive to bind paper, glass and wood.

12. Maize cobs are used for production of pipe, chemicals, plastics, furfural and also as a livestock feed. 

13. The leaves are used as cigrette wrapper.

14. The cob husks are used for making matting, hats and filling for mattresses.

15. The stalks and leaves are used for making paper, paper board and wall board.

Wheat

Botanical name: Triticum aestivum

Family Gramineae: (Poaceae)

Parts used: Grains (Caryopsis)

Wheat is a type of grass which is cultivated all over the world. After maize and rice, wheat is the third most cultivated crop in the world. In India, Ludhiana dist. in Punjab is known as the number one wheat producer in the world. Wheat is also known as a golden crop.

Large production of wheat due to modern agriculture practises, use of chemical fertilizers, pesticides, threshing machines, tractors and use of good varieties led to green revolution in Punjab. In Punjab, wheat-harvesting season starts in April. Most of the farmer harvest their crop till 14^th of April and sell it in market. The day of 14^th April is celebrated as Baisakhi (Visakhi) in Punjab. On this day, the farmers are very happy, they have sold and encashed their wheat crop. Baisakhi symbolises prosperity and happiness for farmers. 

Wheat cultivation was initially started in Fertile Crescent in Western Asia. It is believed that mankind is cultivating wheat for over 10,000 years.

Economic Importance:

1) Wheat flour is used for making chapatis, bread due two binding proteins: glutenin and gliaden. The wheat with high percentage of these proteins resulting in stickier of more tenacious dough is a stronger wheat.

2) Wheat flour is also used for the preparation fo biscuits, wafers, karah prasad, rolls, cakes, cookies etc.

3) It is used for preparation of bear and other alcoholic drinks.

4) Wheat straw is used as fodder.

5) Wheat bran is a nutritious animal feed with 14-18% proteins and vitamins.

6) Wheat straw is used to make straw carpets hats and baskets.

7. Dry wheat straw is used for packing and stuffing and as livestock feed stuff and as compost.

8. 85-90% of wheat flour is used in the form of chapaties.

9. Small amount of wheat are converted into breakfast food like wheat flakes, puffed wheat and shredded wheat.

10. It is also used for the manufacture of starch, gluten and malt.

11. Wheat starch (mawa) is used to give final finishing to some

clothes like turbans etc.

12. Some wheat straw is used for making corrugated paper.

13. Wheat flour is used to make breakfast cereal, pasta, juice and atta noodles.

14. Wheat is also used to make muffins, pastries, cakes, pizza, momos, bulgar, pancakes, porridge, Muesli, pies, cupcakes, rolls, doughnuts and gravy.

15. Although wheat is one of the main sources of dietary protein, 0.5 to 1% of the population of world has celiac disease, a disorder due to response of body's immune system to wheat protein gluten.

100-gram wheat contains

Proteins: 12.6 gram

Fat: 1.5 gram

Carbohydrate(mostly starch): 71 gram

Fibre: 12.2 gram

Iron: 3.2 gram