Roots are positively geotropic in nature.
dicotyledonous plants
Example: Bean, Mango, Neem.
monocotyledonous plants.
Example: Grass, Paddy, Maize.
The aerial part of the plant body above the ground is known as
the shoot system.
The part of the stem between two successive nodes is called
internode
The green colour of the leaf is due to the presence of green
coloured pigment called chlorophyll.
On the lower side of the leaf there are tiny pores or openings
known as stomata
Victoria amazonica, the leaves of this plant grow up to 3 metres
across. A mature Victoria leaf can support an evenly distributed
Load of 45 Kilograms or apparently young person
• Nile is the longest river in the world. It is 6650 Km long.
The Longest river in India is Ganges River. It is 2525 Km long.
Marine plants perform about 40% of all photosynthesis that
occurs on the planet. Example: Marine Algae, Sea grasses,
Marsh grass, Phytoplanktons.
Rivers, lakes, ponds and pools are the fresh water habitat. Water
hyacinth, water lily and lotus are seen in the fresh water habitat
The first land plants appeared around 470 million years ago.
They were mosses and liverworts
Thar Desert, also called Great Indian Desert,
It is located partly in Rajasthan state, north-western India, and
partly in Punjab and Sindh (Sind) provinces, eastern Pakistan
World habitat day is observed on 1st Monday of October.
In Jurong Birds Park, Singapore, Penguins are kept.
In Tamil Nadu Bird Sanctuaries are located at Vedanthangal,
Kodiyakkarai and Koondhankulam
Spending winters in a dormant condition is called Hibernation.
eg. Turtle )
On the other hand, spending the hot and dry period in an
inactive state is known as Aestivation. eg. Snail
Kangaroo rat does not drink water at all. Whatever food it eats
and oxygen it gets from air combine together to form water
inside the body
The sources of proteins are pulses, eggs, fish, milk, chicken,
soya bean, nut, grams etc, Proteins are body building foods
Vitamins are required for carrying out various biochemical
reactions in our body. Fruits, vegetables, grains, meat products
are good sources of vitamins.
Vitamins are called as protective food. There are six major
vitamins A, B, C, D, E and K. Vitamins B and Vitamins C are
water soluble, Vitamins A, D, E and K are fat soluble
Sun screen lotion reduces your skin's ability to produce Vitamin
D by up to 95% which may lead to Vitamin D deficiency.
Gooseberries contains nearly 20 times the vitamin C than
Orange.
Green leafy vegetables like spinach, pulses, eggs, milk, fish and
fruits are important sources of minerals in our diet. Minerals are
also a protective foods.
80% of the world production of Moringa Leaves is in India.
The Major countries which import Moringa Leaves are China,
US, Germany, Canada, South Korea and European countries.
The diseases that are caused due to lack of Nutrients in the diet
are called Deficiency Diseases.
India has the second highest number of obese children in the
world after China,
Benjamin Franklin
Early to bed and early to rise make a man healthy, wealthy and
wise”
Oral Rehydration Solution – ORS
All animals are consumers as they cannot produce their own
food. Consumers are also called heterotrophs.
Animals that eat plants are primary consumers. Animals that eat
primary consumers are called secondary consumers.Animals
that eat the secondary consumers (mostly predators) are the
tertiary consumers
Every day 532 million kilos of solid waste is generated in India.
India is the second largest producer of fruits and vegetables in
the world
In India, Jute crop is grown in seven states – West Bengal,
Assam, Odisha, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Tripura and Meghalaya.
West Bengal alone accounts for over 50% of raw jute
production.
The process of making yarn from Fibres is called Spinning.
Plants which are grown for aesthetic reasons are called as
ornamental plants.
Producing flowers from floral plant is the important section of
horticulture. eg: Jasmine, Rose, Chrysanthemum, Carnation,
Jerbara etc
Osteo arthritis is a joint disease affecting joints and knee of any
age people.
Currently Indian scientists at CDRI (Central Drug Research
Institute – Lucknow) have made a nano formulation from the
Palak (Pala spinach) to cure this disease
Discovery of the cell- Robet Hooke
The branch of science that deals with the study of cells is called
‘Cell Biology’
The size of the bacterial cell ranges from 0.01 micrometer to 0.5
micro meter.
On the other hand the largest cell is the egg of an ostrich with
170 millimeter width
Approximate number of cells in the human body is 3.7 X10^13
Prokaryotic cell .It has No true nucleus consisting of no nuclear
membrane. Another one is Eukaryotic cell.
It has True nucleus consisting of nuclear membrane.
The unicelluar organisms like Bacteria has Prokaryotic cells.
A group of flowers arranged together is called inflorescence.
Tridax procumbens, looks like a single flower, but is an
inflorescence
The process by which pollen grains reach stigma is called as
pollination.
Male gamete fuses with the female gamete to form zygote. This
process is knows as fertilization.
Orchids have the smallest seeds in the plant kingdom
The world’s largest and heaviest seed is the double coconut
Spirogyra produces so many young ones and this process is
known as fragmentation
A root growing from a location other than the underground,
such as from a stem or leaf is called as adventitious root
numerous pores through which air circulates are called breathing
roots, or pneumatophores.
Vanda is an epiphytic plant, which grows on trees. The velamen
tissue present in the epiphytic root, absorbs moisture, to perform
photosynthesis
Nepenthes, the leaves are modified into a flask like structure,
which is used to attract insects and other tiny animals
The male reproductive organ of a flower is androecium and the
female reproductive organ of a flower is gynoecium.
Each cell is interconnected with its neighboring cells through
openings called Plasmodesmata.
mitochondrion is known as “the Power House” of the cell.
Chloroplast is a type of plastid. which are present only in plant
cells. Plastids are mainly of two types - chromoplasts (coloured)
and leucoplast
Chromoplast impart colour to flower and fruits.
Lysosome- “Suicidal Bag”.
“The system of arranging taxonomic categories in a descending
order based on their relationships with other group of organism
is called hierarchy of categories”.
This system was introduced by Linnaeus and is called Linnaean
hierarchy. There are seven main categories of hierarchies
namely, Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus and
Species.
Species is the basic unit of classification.
The five kingdom classification was proposed by R.H.
Whittaker in 1969
Gaspard Bauhin in 1623, introduced naming of organisms with
two names which is known as Binomial nomenclature,
it was implemented by Carolus Linnaeas in 1753. He is known
as ‘Father of Modern Taxonomy’
As per this system, each organism has two names – the first is
the Genus name and the second is the Species name.
Genus name begins with a capital letter and Species name
begins with a small letter.
Invertebrates are classified into nine phyla
Vertebrates are classified into five classes
The first rayon factory in India was established in Kerala in
1946
The cultivation and production of silk is known as
Sericulture.An adult female silk moth lays about 500 eggs.
India is the world’s second largest silk producing country.
Kancheepuram, Thirubhuvanam and Arani are famous places
for silk production in Tamil Nadu.
Anthrax is caused by Bacillus anthracis
Study of breeding of animals and their maintenance is called
Animal Husbandary
The study of virus is called ‘virology’. Viruses are 10,000 times
smaller than bacteria
The study of Bacteria is called Bacteriology. The size of bacteria
range from 1µm to 5µm
The study of fungi is called mycology.
There are around 70,000 species of fungi, living in the world
The study of protozoa is called Protozoology
The antibiotic Penicillin was obtained from the fungi
Penicillium chrysogenum.
It is used to treat diseases such as tetanus, diphtheria.
Antibiotic Streptomycin is obtained from Streptomyces bacteria
to cure various bacterial infections eg. Plague.
Scientists discovered a new antibiotic pseudouridimycin
Edward Jenner was the first person to discover small pox
vaccine. He coined the term vaccination
BCG (Bacille Calmette Guerin) vaccine for Tuberculosis.
Lactobacillus acidophilus that lives in the human intestine helps
in digestion of food and fight against harmful disease causing
organisms. • E.coli bacteria in human intestine help in
synthesizing vitamin K and vitamin B complex
Lactobacillus acidophilus are acid-loving bacteria. They convert
sugar and carbohydrates into lactic acid, and hence are called
“lactic acid bacteria.”
African sleeping sickness, which is spread by the bite of the
tsetse fly, is caused by the flagellate protozoan Trypanosoma
Bifidobacterium breve, is useful in the treatment of childhood
constipation.
The word prion is derived from “protinaceous infectious
particle”
Taxonomy is the branch of biology that deals with the study of
identification, classification, description and nomenclature of
living organisms
The word ‘Taxonomy’ was first coined by Augustin-Pyramus de
Candolle.
Bentham and Hooker published their Natural system of
Classification in their book named Genera Plantarum in 3
volumes.
The system of naming the plants on scientific basis is known as
Botanical nomenclature.
Binomial name was first introduced by Gaspard Bauhin in the
year of 1623.
Largest Herbarium of India is in Kolkata, which has more than
10,00,000 (one million) species of herbarium specimens.
ICBN (International Code of Botanical Nomenclature) now it is
known as ICN (International Code of Nomenclature)
Iodine is obtained from brown algae like Laminaria
The plant body of fungus consists of filament like structures
called as hyphae.
Several hyphae arranged in the form of network called
mycelium
Cell wall of fungi is made up of a chemical substance called
chitin
Aspergillus species cause allergy to children while
Cladosporium protects against allergy
Sphagnam can absorb large amount of water. Hence, it is used
by the gardeners in nursery.
Lycopodium, is known as club moss.
Equisetum is known as horse tail
Woods of many conifers are used in the paper industries. e.g.
Pinus, Agathis
Turpentine is an essential oil used for paint preparation
extracted from the resin of Pinus. It is also used medicinally to
get relief from pain and bronchitis etc.
Ephedrine is an alkaloid extracted from Ephedra. It cures asthma
and respiratory problems.
Araucaria bidwillii is an ornamental plant.
– Mangifera indica (Mango)
Acalypha indica (Kuppaimeni)
The paste obtained from the leaves of this plant is used to cure
the burns on the skin.
Aegle marmelos (Vilvam)
It is used to cure chronic, diarrhoea and dysentery
Solanum trilobatum (Thoodhuvalai)
It is widely used in the treatment of tuberculosis and bronchial
asthma
Phyllanthus amarus (Keezhanelli)
The entire plant is used for the treatment of jaundice.
It gives additional strength to human liver and used to treat other
liver disorders.
Aloe vera (Sothu Katrazhai)
Leaves of this plant is used to cure piles and inflammations on
the skin. It also cures peptic ulcer.
Parasites have special roots called haustoria.
Pteridophytes are the first true land plants.
Our country is the largest producer of bananas and mangoes in
the world. It is also the second largest producer of wheat and
rice
Agriculture activities alone utilize 70% of the available fresh
water resources
There are over 30000 species of weeds around the world.
Food Corporation of India (FCI) was set up on 14th January
1965 at Chennai
plants have the ability to fix atmospheric nitrogen in their roots
with the help of these bacteria. The fruits of this plant are called
legumes.
Acharya Jagadish Chandra Bose Indian Botanic Garden located
in Kolkatta was earlier called Royal Botanic Garden .
The area of this garden spreads over 109 hectares.
ICAR (Indian Council of Agricultural Research)
Indian Agricultural Research Institute(IARI)
the green revolution in India was started during 1970s.
The first KVK (Krishi Vigyon Kendra) was established in 1974
in Pondicherry
The efficiency of nutrients uptake is considered to be 8-9 folds
higher when nutrients are applied to the leaves, when compared
with nutrients applied to soil
Kharif, Rabi and Zaid are the main crops cultivated in our
country.
The word ‘Chipko’ means ‘to stick’ or ‘to hug’.
Sunderlal Bahuguna was the founder of this movement. It was
started in 1970s
Siberian crane can travel average of 200 miles on a single day
Amazon forest is the largest rain forest in the world, located in
Brazil. It covers 6000000 square km
The term social forestry was first used in 1976 by the then
National Commission on Agriculture, Government of India
Wangari Maathai founded the Green Belt Movement in Kenya
in the year 1977
Each year, 22nd May is celebrated as World Biodiversity Day
Yeoman Butterfly has been declared state butterfly of Tamil
Nadu.
Project Tiger is a wildlife conservation project initiated in India
in 1972 to protect the Bengal Tiger.
It was launched on 1st April 1973
Corbett National Park was the first National Park in India to be
covered under project Tiger.
IUCN was founded in 1964
World Wildlife Day is observed on March 3rd every year.
India became a State Member of IUCN in 1969, through the
Ministry of environment, Forest and Climate Change
(MoEFCC).
The IUCN India Country Office was established in 2007 in New
Delhi
India, there are about 73 national parks, 416 sanctuaries and 12
biosphere reserves.
The oldest zoo is Schoenbrunn Zoo in Vienna, established in the
year 1759. In India the first Zoo was established in Barrachpur
in the year 1800.
DDT (Dichloro Diphenyl Trichloro ethane
Blue Cross is a registered animal welfare charity in the United
Kingdom, founded in 1897 as ‘Our Dumb Friends League
Captain V. Sundaram founded the Blue Cross of India, the
largest animal welfare organization of Asia in Chennai in the
year 1959
CPCSEA stands for ‘The Committee for the Purpose of Control
and Supervision of Experiments on Animals’.
It is a statutory committee set up under the Preservation of
Cruelty to Animals Act, 1960.
The first systematic approach to the classification of living
organisms was made by a Swedish botanist, Carolus Linnaeus.
Organisms with two germ layers, the ectoderm and the
endoderm are called
diploblastic animals. e.g Hydra.
Organisms with three germ layers, ectoderm, mesoderm and
endoderm are called triploblastic animals. e.g Rabbit
Cartilaginous fi shes, with skeleton made of cartilages e.g.
Sharks, Skates.
Bony fi shes with skeleton made of bones e.g. Carps, Mullets.
Th e smallest vertebrate, Philippine goby/dwarf pygmy goby is a
tropical species fish found in brackish water
it measuring only 10 mm in length
Th e Chinese g i a n t salamander Andrias davidians is the
largest amphibian in the world.
Its is found in Central and South China.
Th e gigantic Blue whale which is 35 meters long and 120 tons
in weight is the biggest vertebrate animal
In potato, parenchyma vacuoles are filled with starch.
In apple, parenchyma stores sugar
The study of tissues is known as Histology.
Epithelial tissue in the skin functions as a water-proof
membrane.
Adipose Tissue:
They act as shock absorbers around the kidneys and eye balls.
They also regulate the body temperature by acting as insulator
Sprain is caused by excessive pulling (stretching) of ligaments.
Blood contains corpuscles which are red blood cells
(erythrocytes), white blood cells (leucocytes) and platelets.
Lymph is a colourless fluid filtered out of the blood capillaries.
It consists of plasma and white blood cells.
It mainly helps in the exchange of materials between blood and
tissue fluids.
Muscular tissues are made of muscle cells and form the major
part of contractile tissue. They are composed of numerous
myofibrils.
Each neuron consists of a cell body or cyton with nucleus and
cytoplasm.
Skin cells- about every 2 weeks.
Bone cells- about every 10 years.
Liver cells- about every 300 – 500 days.
Red blood cells last for about 120 days and are replaced
Nerve cells do not undergo cell division due to the absence of
centrioles, but they are developed from glial cells by
neurogenesis
Mitosis was first discovered by Fleming in 1879.
The term meiosis was coined by Farmer in 1905
Mimosa pudica (touch-me-not plant)
Helianthus annuus (sunflower)
Movement of a part of a plant in response to light.
e.g.Taraxacum officinale
Non-directional, response of a plant part to stimulus is called
nastic movement
The process of nutrition begins with intake of food, called
ingestion
The salivary glands secrete a viscous fluid called saliva,
approximately 1.5 liters per day.
It digests starch by the action of the enzyme ptyalin (amylase) in
the saliva which converts starch (polysaccharide) into maltose
(disaccharide).
Saliva also contain an antibacterial enzyme called lysozyme.
Inactive pepsinogen is converted to active pepsin which acts on
the proteins in the ingested food
Rennin: Causes curdling of milk protein caesin and increases
digestion of proteins.
Renin: Converts angiotensinogen to angiotensin and regulate the
absorption of water and Na+ from glomerular filtrate.
The small intestine is the longest part of the alimentary canal,
which is a long coiled tube measuring about 5 – 7 m.
William Beaumont was a surgeon who was known as the
‘Father of Gastric Physiology
It has bile salts (sodium glycolate and sodium tauraglycolate)
bile pigments (bilirubin and biliviridin
Pancreas acts both as an exocrine gland and as an endocrine
gland.
The islets of Langerhans secretes hormones in which α (alpha)
cells secrete glucagon and β (beta) cells secrete insulin.
The intestinal glands secrete intestinal juice called succus
entericus w
The amino acids are utilized to synthesize different proteins
required for the bod
The small intestine is about 5 m long. The large intestine is a
thicker tube, but is about 1.5 m long
The undigested or unassimilated portion of the ingested food
material is thrown out from the body through the anal aperture
as faecal matter. This is known as egestion or defaecation
Each kidney is about 11 cm long, 5 cm wide and 3 cm thick
The renal corpuscle consists of a cup-shaped structure called
Bowman’s capsule
Two healthy kidneys contain a total of about 2 million nephrons,
which filter about 1700-1800 litres of blood.
The kidneys reabsorb and redistribute 99% of the blood volume
and only 1% of the blood filtered becomes urine.
the process of purifying blood by an artificial kidney is called
haemodialysis.
In 1954, Joseph E.Murray and his colleagues at Peter Bent
Brigham Hospital in Boston, USA performed first succesful
kidney transplant
A normal male produces more than 500 billion sperm cells in
his life time. The process of formation of sperms is known as
spermatogenesis
An ovum is the largest human cell. The process of formation of
ova is known as oogenesis.
The five stages of nutrition process include ingestion, digestion,
absorption, assimilation and egestion.
The first account of internal structure of plants was published by
English Physician Nehemiah Grew. He is known as Father of
Plant Anatomy.
Chloroplast - green coloured plastids
Chromoplast - yellow, red, orange coloured plastids
Leucoplast - colourless plastids
Photosynthetic pigments absorb the light energy and convert it
into chemical energy ATP and NADPH2.
Light dependent photosynthesis (Hill reaction \ Light
reaction)
This was discovered by Robin Hill (1939). This
reaction takes place in the presence of light energy in thylakoid
membranes
The energy released from glucose is used to make ATP
Melvin Calvin, an American biochemist, discovered chemical
pathway for photosynthesis. The cycle is named as Calvin cycle.
Indian scientist C.N.R. Rao who was conferred the Bharat Ratna
(2013) for working on similar technology of artificial
photosynthesis to produce - Hydrogen fuel
Glycolysis (Glucose splitting): It is the breakdown of one
molecule of glucose (6 carbon) into two molecules of pyruvic
acid (3 carbon). Glycolysis takes place in cytoplasm of the cell
Respiratory quotient (R.Q)
Respiratory quotient is the ratio of volume of carbon dioxide
liberated and the volume of oxygen consumed during
respiration. It is expressed as RQ = Volume of CO2
liberated/Volume of O2 consumed
The scientific name of the common rabbit is Oryctolagus
cuniculus.
Leeches prevent blood clotting by secreting a protein called
hirudin
Blood letting is a technique of bleeding in a patient to remove
toxic impurities from the body.
Leeches are effective in increasing blood circulation and
breaking up blood clots.
It is surprising that they can be used to treat cardiovascular
diseases. Biochemical substances derived from leech saliva are
used for preparation of pharmaceutical drugs that can treat
hypertension.
The gap between the incisors and premolar is called diastema. I
Each lung is enclosed by a double membranous called pleura.
The nervous system in rabbit is formed of the central nervous
system (CNS), peripheral nervous system (PNS) and autonomic
nervous system (ANS).
CNS consists of brain and spinal cord. PNS is formed of 12
pairs of cranial nerves and 37 pairs of spinal nerves. ANS
comprises sympathetic and parasympathetic nerves.
The right and left cerebral hemispheres are connected by
transverse band of nerve tissue called corpus callosum
Leech is a hermaphrodite.
Osmosis is the movement of solvent or water molecules from
the region of higher concentration to the region of lower
concentration through a semi-permeable membrane
Plasmolysis
It occurs when water moves out of the cell and resulting
in the shrinkage of cell membrane away from the cell wall.
Transpiration is the evaporation of water in plants through
stomata in the leaves.
Cohesion: The force of attraction between molecules of water is
called cohesion.
Adhesion: The force of attraction between molecules of
different substances is called adhesion
when the climate is humid and excess of water is present in the
plants, the excess water is exudated in the form of liquid. This is
due to root pressure .This phenomenon is called Guttation
Guttation takes place through specialized cells called
Hydathodes.
Plasma: It is slightly alkaline, containing non-cellular substance
which constitutes about 55% of the blood.
Neutrophils They are large in size and have a 2 - 7 lobed
nucleus.
These corpuscles form 60% - 65% of the total leucocytes
Eosinophils It has a bilobed nucleus and constitute 2% - 3% of
the total leucocytes
Basophils have lobed nucleus. They form 0.5-1.0% of the total
leucocytes
Lymphocytes These are about 20-25% of the total leucocytes.
Monocytes They are the largest of the leucocytes and are
amoeboid in shape. These cells form 5 - 6 % of the total
leucocytes.
Blood platellets are about 2,50,000 – 4,00,000 platelets / cubic
mm of blood. Life span of platelets is 8–10 days. They play an
important role in clotting of blood
Closed circulatory system was discovered by William Harvey
(1628) who is regarded the Father of Modern Physiology.
Atrioventricular bundle was discovered by His (1893). So is
called Bundle of His.
Normal pulse rate ranges from 70 – 90 / min.
Each cardiac cycle lasts about 0.8 second.
systolic and diastolic blood pressure is expressed as 120mm /
80mm Hg
The concept of blood grouping was developed by Karl
Landsteiner (1900). He identified blood groups A, B and O.
AB blood group was recognized by Decastello and Steini (1902)
When an individual receives a mismatched blood group from
the donor agglutination (clumping) of blood occurs in the body
which leads to death
Persons with ‘AB’ blood group are called ‘Universal Recipient’
as they can receive blood from persons with any blood group.
Persons with ‘O’ blood group are called ‘Universal Donor’ as
they can donate blood to persons with any blood group.
Rh factor was discovered by Landsteiner and Wiener in 1940 in
Rhesus monkey
Lymphocytes in the lymph defend the body from infections.
