An in vitro protocol has been developed for rapid multiplication of mature flowering plant of E. foetidum. The nodal and scape explants derived from 10-12 day old inflorescence explant were cultured on Murashige and Skoog’s (MS) medium supplementing with different concentrations and combinations of BAP and Kinetin. Both the explant types produced direct adventitious shoots varying in their number. Each adventitious shoot possessed a rosette of leaves with apical or axillary inflorescence or both inflorescence with well-developed rooting system. The entire process of adventitious shoot formation and mature plantlet development occurred within 3-4 weeks of culture. The well-organized shoots were individually excised and potted in the soil. Up to 95% of the plants survived under field conditions.

Proximate, nutritive and anti-nutritive analyses of some new varieties of oilseeds were determined. Oilseeds studied include Sunflower (Helianthus annuuus L.) variety LSF-11 & LSF-8, Safflower (Carthamus tinctorius L.) variety PBNS-12 & PBNS-40 and Groundnut (Arachis hypogaea L.) variety JL-24. The proximate parameter such as moisture, crude fibre, total lipid, crude protein, carbohydrate, ash calcium phosphorus and energy ranged from 3.627-7.393, 0.488-3.411, 25.699-46.224, 15.91-25.20, 21.26-48.93, 2.577-4.866, 0.087-0.150, 0.15-0.41 and 490.651-601.856 g/100g respectively. The predominant fatty acid was found to be Linoleic acid. The protein solubilizations at different pH ranging from 0.5 to 13.5, the maximum seed proteins were extracted at pH 12. The amino acid analysis reveled that the oilseeds were superior with respect to glutamic, arginine, methionine and proline. The anti-nutritional factors like cyanogenic glucoside, tannin, oxalate and hemagglutinin activity contents ranged from 3.458-4.818, 0.412-0.651, 0.079-0.180 and 1:16-1:8 g/100g respectively. Trypsin inhibitor was not found in these varieties. The nutritive values were determined for feed utilization, nitrogen utilization, protein efficiency ratio and feed efficiency ratio ranged between 5.260-6.552g, 0.232-0.296g, 1.368-1.509 and 0.345-0.365 respectively. Results from these studies have revealed that the potential for use of sunflower, safflower and groundnut for enhancement of these nutrients/chemical constituents.