The motivation to conduct further research on the potential of plants to address public health issues and consumer demands has arisen from the efforts of government, industry, and research institutes. This is due to the promise of Marker Assisted Selection to expedite the development of crop varieties with desirable traits. Progress has been made in mapping and tagging many horticulturally important genes with morphological, biochemical, and molecular markers, which form the foundation for marker assisted selection in crops. These methods offer great potential for improving the efficiency of conventional plant breeding by allowing selection to be carried out on molecular markers linked to the trait of interest rather than the trait itself. The potential of plant cell and callus culture systems as a bio processing and production method for useful metabolites of nutraceutical importance has been advanced through bioreactor technology.

The rapidly developing field of functional foods and nutraceuticals requires research and development to meet the needs of producers, processors, and consumers. Producers seek new opportunities to increase farm income, while processors seek value-added food products, health ingredients, and new uses for agricultural production, by-products, and new products for new and existing markets. Consumers worldwide want increased assurance of the safety and quality of the food system and enhanced environmental performance of the agriculture and agri-food sector. Provinces and communities are seeking economic development opportunities for horticulture. This book will be useful in better understanding, utilization of crop diversity, underutilized crops, and their residues, as well as improvement in post-harvest technology and development of new functional foods with greater use of bioactive compounds and other quality traits.

1.    Nutritional Value of Underutilized Fruits 2.    An Overview of Plant Biodiversity of Horticultural Crops in Arid Region 3.    Nutraceutical Potential of Pomegranate, Jamun and Other Arid Zone Fruits 4.    Improvement in Underutilized Fruit Crops Rich in Bioactive Compounds and their Economic Cultivation 5.    Ethnobotanical Importance of Flora of Hot Arid Regions of India 6.    Antioxidant Profile of Selected Asian Vegetables 7.    Improvement of Tomato for Lycopene Content 8.    Perspectives of Germplasm Collection of Fruits and Vegetables for Nutraceuticals 9.    Safe Conservation Technologies for Elite Plant Germplasm 10.    Vegetable-derived Nutraceuticals: Value Chain and Nutrition Security 11.    Bioactive Compound Based Antioxidants: An Overview 12.    Oxidative Damage in Living Systems and Use of Phytochemicals 13.    Medicinal Plants for Diabetes Mellitus 14.    Dietary Fiber: Importance, Types and Dietary Sources 15.    Phytosterols as Functional Food 16.    Nutraceuticals in Fruits and Vegetables: Used and Availability 17.    Bioactive Compounds Profile of Khejri 18.    Cactus Pear for Nutraceutical and Functional Food 19.    Nutraceutical Value of Arid Fruits and Vegetables 20.    Functional Food Quality of Onion and Garlic 21.    Scientific Validations of Herbal Plants of Arid Zone 22.    Antioxidant Rich Beverages from Under-utilized Temperate Horticultural Crops 23.    Nano-technological Applications in Agriculture and Food 24.    Enhancement of Bioactive Compounds in Ziziphus Through in vitro Technique 25.    in vitro Production of Secondary Metabolites 26.    Opportunities, Challenges and Strategies to Develop  Functional Foods and Phytomedicines 27.    Extraction, Analysis and Quality Control of Nutraceuticals and Other Bioactive Natural Products 28.    Quality Control on Industrial Processing of Antioxidants 29.    Encapsulation of Nutraceutical Compounds for Functional Foods 30.    Packaging Technology for Processed Products