6 REASONS YOU SHOULD EAT WATERMELON IN SUMMERS

Summer Watermelon

Watermelons (Citrullus lanatus) are for the most part around 92 percent water; it is a dense nutrient food that provides us with the pack of nourishment, that is gives a high measure of vitamins, minerals and antioxidants for a low measure of calories. A variety of health benefits are present in this delicious water melon.

Soothes Sore Muscles:

An amino acid L-Citrulline is richly present in watermelons that help in improving blood circulation by relaxing the blood vessels.  On the off chance drinking the squeeze of watermelon before a hard workout will aid in lessening athletes’ heart rate and muscle soreness.

Keeps Heart Healthy:

A study has been conducted on watermelon which indicates that water melon contains such supplements which can help in assuaging hypertension in hefty (obese), middle aged grown-ups. These supplements keep the heart fit and keep you away from heart strokes also.

A Natural Viagra:

Watermelon, for sure, is a characteristic and natural Viagra that also enhances blood flow. Improved blood circulation can advantage more than just the heart.

Rich in Vitamins and Minerals:

Loaded with vitamin A and C, watermelon modest Watermelon is rich in vitamin A and C and a modest measure of potassium can likewise be found in this delicious natural product. As this fruit is low in calories, it doesn't make you fat by any means.

Helps in Combating Cancer:

As watermelon is rich in antioxidants, an antioxidant Lycopene is found in it which is associated with both treatment and prevention of cancer.

Refreshes you in Summers:

Watermelon is the fruit of summer. It contains a reviving quality and sweet tang that refreshes you in moments no matter how hot the weather is. It is a very good fighter toward heat. In addition, it is a virtuous, low calorie dessert for children and grown-ups alike to enjoy particularly in summers' picnics.

Nutritional Facts:

Amount Per 1 melon (15" long x 7-1/2" dia) (4,518g)

Calories	1371
	%Daily Value*
Total Fat	7g (10%)
Saturated Fat	0.7g (3%)
Polyunsaturated Fat	2.3g
Monounsaturated Fat	1.7g
Cholesterol	0
Sodium	45mg (1%)
Potassium	5060mg (144%)
Total Carbohydrate	341g (113%)
Dietary Fiber	18g (72%)
Sugar	280g
Protein	28g (56%)
Vitamin A	514%
Vitamin C	610%
Vitamin D	0%
Vitamin B-6	100%
Calcium	31%
Iron	60%
Magnesium	113%

*Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet. Your diet values may be higher or lower depending on your calorie need.

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BRIEF INTRODUCTION ON MOVEMENT AND SUPPORT

The act of changing position from one place to another is called as movement. In biology, we differ between locomotion and movement. Locomotion is actual type of movement in which an organism fully moves from one place to another in search for food, etc while movement refers to moving one limb or branch of leaves or any other thing towards or away from stimulus. In biology, movement can occur at:

• Cell level, for example cytoplasmic streaming and swimming of gametes:
• Organ level, such as heartbeat and movement of a limb;
• The level of the organism

Movement of the whole organism from place to place is termed locomotion. Plants show cell and often organ movement, but they do not show locomotion, that is moving from one place to any other place in search of food or water. Movements are induced by external stimuli and fall into two main categories: Tropisms (tropic movements) and Taxes (tactic movements). A few animals can survive successfully by remaining attached to one place (sessile), the vast majority have locomotory systems which presumably evolved to enable them to search for and acquire food. However, even sessile animals exhibit a great degree of mobility of their bodily parts. Locomotion is used for:

• Finding food 
• Avoiding capture by predators 
• Finding new and favorable habitats 
• Bringing together individuals for reproductive activity.

Locomotion involves coordination between the nervous, muscular and skeletal systems.

Muscle tissue is composed of long excitable cells capable of considerable contraction. Arranged in parallel within the cytoplasm of muscle cells are large in number of microfilaments made of the contractile proteins actin and myosin. Consistent with a high priority on movement, muscle is the most abundant tissure in most animals, and muscle contraction accounts for much of the energy consuming cellular work in an active animal.

Skeletal Muscle

In vertebrate body, there are three types of muscle tissues: skeletal muscle, cardiac muscle, and smooth muscle. Attached to bones by tendons, skeletal muscles are generally responsible for the voluntary movements of the body. Adults have a fixed number of muscle cells; weight lifting and other methods of building muscle do not increase the number of cells but simply enlarge those already present. Skeletal muscles are also called striated muscles because the arrangement of overlapping filaments gives the cells a striped i.e. striated appearance under the microscope.

Cardiac Muscle

Cardiac muscles are present in the heart and form the contractile wall of the heart. It is striated like skeletal muscle, but cardiac muscle cells are branched and the ends of the cells are joined by structures called intercalated discs, which relay signals from cell to cell during a heartbeat.

Smooth Muscle

Smooth muscles, so named because it lacks cross-striations, are found in the walls of the digestive tract, bladder, and other internal organs. The cells are spindle-shaped. They contract more slowly than skeletal muscles, but they can remain contracted longer. Skeletal and smooth muscles are controlled by different kinds of nerves. Skeletal muscles are often called voluntary because an animal can generally contract them at will. Smooth muscles are often involuntary; they are not generally subject to conscious control. You can decide to raise your hand, but you are usually unaware when smooth muscle churn your stomach or constrict your arteries. 

BRIEF ACCOUNT ON EXCRETION IN PLANTS AND ANIMALS

EXCRETION:

The removal of nitrogenous wastes from the body is called excretion or the elimination of wasteful metabolites, mainly of the nitrogenous nature is called as excretion.

Excretory Products in Plants:

In plants, the mechanism of excretion is different from animals. Plants in their autotrophic mode of life produce oxygen and in metabolism produce CO₂ and H₂O as the excretory products. Plants also produce several organic and inorganic compounds which are stored for various purposes and are also removed when necessary.

Excretion in Plants:

In plants, oxygen could be a waste product of as a result of photosynthesis; carbon dioxide a waste product of respiration and water as the waste product of both.

Mechanisms of Excretion in Plants:

Following are the mechanisms adopted by plants for excretion:

Transpiration:

Water is lost through transpiration or just used for maintaining the turgidity in the cells.

Vacuoles:

Plant cells have large vacuoles; these can be used for either storage of useful compounds, or the storage of waste substances. These may accumulate at the concentrations that lead to crystal formation in the vacuoles.

Leaves:

Rotten Leaf

Plants produce certain wastes of inorganic and organic nature, which are stored in the organs. The leaves are the prominent organs for this purpose. These leaves are destined to fall off, as is the case of autumn leaves in the plants or die off as happens in the leaves and stalk of certain bulb e.g. bluebell leaving the bulb underground. This is the reason gardener find rotten autumn leaves a good source of minerals. The falling of yellow leaves in autumn is the seasonal time for the plants to get rid of the accumulated wastes and because of this reason leaves are said to be excretophore.

According to an explanation the change in the color in these leaves is not due to removal of chlorophyll as the microscopic examination of autumn leaves shows that leaves are loaded with pigmented compounds prior to falling off and many toxic materials like heavy metals increase sharply as the yellowing proceeds.

Branches and Trunks:

Some trees deposit strange chemicals in their branches and trunks, especially in old xylem which is no longer used for water transport. This takes place in Ebony (common name of a flowering plant) which produces very black wood in the centre. These are considered to be waste materials by plant physiologists.

Release of Wastes into Soil:

Some plants will actively secrete waste compounds into the soil, occasionally using them as chemical weapons against other competing plants e.g. conifers.

Excretion in Animals:

Among the assimilated nutrients in animals, carbohydrates and lipids are metabolized to CO₂ and H₂O. Metabolism of proteins and nucleoproteins produce waste nitrogen in various forms (ammonia, urea or uric acid) in different animals. The waste nitrogen proves toxic if it is concentrated in the cell, therefore, must be removed from the body.

Keeping in view the definition of excretion, several products may be included in the list of excretory products.

Main Types of Excretory Products in Animals:

Following are the main types of excretory products in animals:

Water:

Water due to its removal in hyperosmotic environment is labeled as an excretory product in these specific conditions.

Salts:

Salts removed by animals of hypertonic environment are the excretory products for these animals.

Nitrogenous Wastes:

Nitrogenous waste metabolites constitute the major excretory products. Primarily, in the catabolism of amino acids, the amino group (NH₂) is released (deamination) or transferred to another molecule for removal or reuse. Amino group which is not reused for recycling of amino acids is essentially dissolved in water and excreted to avoid toxic rise in the plasma. Elevated levels of these wastes can cause conv ulsions, coma and eventually death. Mostly excess nitrogen is excreted by animals as ammonia, urea or uric acid. Lower quantities of nitrogen are excreted in the form of other compounds such as creatinine, creatine or trimethylamine oxide and in very small quantities as amino acids, purine and pyrimidine. Metabolism of purine and pyrimidine bases produces significant amount of nitrogenous wastes of hypoxanthine, xanthine, uric acid, allantoin, urea and ammonia.

Structure of Amino Acid, Ammonia, Urea and Uric Acid

Following is the comparison between different types of excretory products:

Waste	Advantages	Disadvantages	Habitat	Excreted by
Ammonia	Produced with little energy	Toxic in concentrated solution. Excretion took place in lot of water	Water	Marine and fresh water invertebrates, bony fishes, amphibian
Urea	Less toxic than ammonia. Less water is needed to excrete it	Requires little more energy to produce it	Land, Sea	Adult amphibians, turtles, mammals and bony fishes
Uric Acid	Very little water is used for its excretion	Requires considerable energy to produce it	Land	Reptiles, birds, insects, land, gastropods
Guanine	Relatively non toxic. Less water is used to excrete	More energy is needed	Arid Habitat	Scorpions, Spiders

EVENTS HAPPENING DURING OPENING AND CLOSING OF STOMATA

EVENTS DURING OPENING AND CLOSING OF STOMATA:

There is some changing in the chemistry of Stomata which results in the opening and closing of stomata. Following are the events which occur resulting the opening and closing of stomata.

• While opening of stomata, Hydrogen ions (H⁺) which are present in the guard cells are pumped out of the guard cells resulting in the lowering of positive charge and accumulation of negative charge in the guard cells.

• Due to this lowering of positive charge in guard cells, Potassium ions (K⁺) enter the guard cells.

• Due to this, Osmotic pressure in the guard cells is lowered, which attracts the water to enter into the cell.

• Starch in the chloroplast is converted into Malate ions.

Closed and Open Stomata

Closing:

Opposite of all above points results in closure of stomata cells.

BY WHICH MEANS GASEOUS EXCHANGE OCCURS IN PLANTS

Gaseous Exchange in Plants

GASEOUS EXCHANGE IN PLANTS:

Plants also get their energy from respiration. No special organ or system is present in plants for gaseous exchange. Each and every cell of every part of plant carries out exchange of gases according to its needs. The transport system of plants which includes large conducting vessels i.e. xylem and phloem are not involved in the diffusion of gases to the plants.

Air spaces:

In most cells of Mesophyll (the inner tissue (parenchyma) of a leaf, containing many chloroplasts) are specialized for photosynthesis. There are present large air sacs. These air spaces are directly involved in gaseous exchange.

Stomata:

Stomata are main sites of exchange of gases in plants. Largely stomata are present in the leaves but these are also present in the young stem. Chief function of stomata is gaseous exchange.

Structure of Stomata

Also Read>> Events Happening During Opening and Closing of Stomata

Lenticels:

In the older parts of the plant i.e. both stems and roots, cork tissues are present. Cork tissues are formed of dead cells just below the epidermis. The cork tissue has special pores called lenticels which are involved in gaseous exchange.

Procurement of Oxygen by Land Plants:

Land plants get their oxygen directly from air which enters the leaves through stomata. A large number of stomata are present on the surface of leaves. They are more abundant on lower side of the leaf than upper side. It is .estimated that there are 12000 stomata per square centimeter of leaf surface in tobacco plant. These stomata lead to the empty spaces (Air spaces) between Mesophyll cells. The air spaces may comprise up to 40% of total volume of the leaf. In the air spaces the exchange of gases from the moist surface of Mesophyll cells takes place at once. In this way gaseous exchange took place in plants.

The roots of the land plants get their oxygen from the air existing in the spaces between the soil particles.