Digital Image Analysis of Spices and Condiments for Plant Taxonomic Studies

To address the contemporary demand of the world in the 21st century with the development of virtual technology, and to make the smart way of action with more eciency, the department of Crop Botany, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Agricultural University (BSMRAU) have taken a step to launch a web-based computerized version of Digital Herbarium and Herbarium Museum of crop plants. This digital herbarium holds a large body of collections of images of special crops such as spices and condiments for improving academic and research capability which can be accessed anytime from anywhere in the world. Images can easily mirror and elucidate the characters that can be described theoretically. Photographic specimens can provide an important complement to herbarium collections by providing teaching and identify resources that are easily accessible to the community with digital herbarium. Digital image also guarantees instant access and increased user interaction as multiple people can work on a single model simultaneously and easily access information on descriptive details, published work, microscopic preparations, and nomenclature. The launched Digital Herbarium intends to make maximum use of primary research material to connect the research community and general public, including school children, and take care of public interest and enthusiasm for teaching spices and condiments.


Introduction
The oriental and occidental trade of the world is prominently in uenced by spices and condiments.
Diversi ed choice of people around the world necessitated a wide range of spices. Among the wide range, the most important spices and condiments are ginger, turmeric, cinnamon, clove, saffron, coriander, dill, fennel, pepper, black pepper, cumin, chili, vanilla, star anise, mace, mustard, cardamom, fenugreek, nutmeg, basil etc. They are being used in preparing many kinds of cuisine, sweets and value add as well (Dubey, 2017).
Spices have been playing a very crucial role as avouring agents, preservatives and medicines for centuries. Over the past few decades, researchers have explored their health bene ts signi cantly, as most spices are well-known to possess properties related to reducing the probability of developing chronic diseases (Vázquez-Fresno et al., 2019). Due to the presence of aroma, the essential oil spices are esteemed, therefore plant product used as a condiment or for avouring food (Gadegbeku et al., 2014; Agize 2014). Combination of clove, black pepper, cinnamon and cardamom is used mostly in special meat curries and rice preparations (Ribeiro-Santos et al., 2017). They are also used in preparing many kinds of cookery and sweets, and some spices like black pepper, ginger, long pepper, clove, peppermint, ajowan, fenugreek are used in traditional and folk medicine (Opara and Chohan, 2014). Therefore, it's important to identify the spices for their traditional and proper use and application (Dubey, 2017).
At present the information technologies are impressively accelerating scienti c research with simple, easy and exible approach of accessing data, compiled from all the world including herbarium collections (Sousa-Baena et al., 2014). Multiple applications of digitized herbarium have been developed since the 1990s. Some provide tools for entering specimen records into databases and publishing them on the internet. The number of databases is continually increasing (Kislov et al., 2017;Seregin and Stepanova, 2020).
This change in scope explanation toward a presentation of information through electronic revenue has created a demand for high-quality images (Kala et al., 2016;Vilar et al., 2015). Students and academicians have come to look forward to instant access for getting information. Portable electronic devices such as handheld video players, video-enabled mp3 players, cellular phones capable of delivering images, and notebook computers have become more sophisticated and more widely available at the present as well as storing and delivering information cost has reduced (Soltis, 2017). These conveniences are great opportunities for education and research (Barbedo, 2013). The digital herbarium is an effective web application of detail information regarding plants which provides an ease to manage well with lots of plants electronically in a pleasant manner and having a user-friendly interface with amazing photos and details such as plant taxonomy, plant general morphological appraisal along with other botanic information . Images itself re ect and illustrate the characters that described theoretically (Besnard et al., 2018). These photographic specimens can provide as important supplements to herbarium collections by providing teaching and identi cation resources that are easily accessible to the public (Beaman and Cellinese, 2012 With the scienti c advancement over time, and to make the action more user responsive, accessible and e cient in use, the hardworking academicians of the department of Crop Botany, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahaman Agricultural University (BSMRAU) came forwarded to launch an online web version of Digital Herbarium and Herbarium Museum of crop plants. This Digital herbarium hold numerous images of special crops such as spices and condiment for improving academic and research capability which can be accessed anytime from anywhere in the world. The intent is to connect the research community and the general public including school children to make greater use of primary research material and to take care of the public interest and excitement in the learning of spices and condiments. Concerning to image analysis of spices and condiments the current project has been undertaken to convert the morphological characteristics and taxonomically important features of the spices and condiments by using digital images of herbarium into digital information for plant identi cation and for inspiring the public with the aims and methods of botanical science to get back the information in the network environment, ensure the development of lesson plans and developed research by using primary research materials from the herbarium and to establish cooperation between the different institutions and the development of an interactive BSMRAU with a Web-based portal.

Materials And Method
Although the idea of digital herbarium is a relatively new domain which is becoming very popular over the last 30 year (Seregin and Stepanova, 2020). For the development of digital herbarium in relation to spice and condiments, meticulous and collaborated efforts were made in cooperation of the project personnel, different universities and research organizations. It is a computerized program where image and plant parameters of different plant species are accessible on a compiled database, and unknown plant species could be identi ed from that database. This technique will enhance the knowledge on the image analysis of plants, and will give a boost to the application of information technology in plant sciences. This work included tasks from sample collection, taxonomic classi cation, photo shoot, literature preparation and uploading the whole formatted data to the website. The layout was sketched considering the content and the user group, and it was prepared to provide interactive experience between the users and the database contents.
Then website was designed and developed considering the layout. The design and layout of web app of digital herbarium has been completed and ready for inspection ( Figure 2). Information regarding crop sciences has been published with necessary formatting, image editing and upload. For effective implementation of the study materials, the project also involves the development of an e-learning portal that will engage students from inside and outside the campus. Different interfaces were connected to continue smooth ow of information for the development of website and e-learning system, and Although sets of digital images can serve some of the same functions as physical specimens, it is available towards more people at a time. Large plant image collections have been assembled by absorbing smaller image collections as a result of coordinated contributions from many individuals.
Because the images come from multiple sources, their quality and the data associated with them is not uniform. Ornamental and photogenic species are over-represented. Hence species are not that charismatic or are di cult to identify, are under or unrepresented. Often photographs of some features, such as bark or twigs, are not included. In other cases, several features may be combined in a single image. Image quality varies, and images may not be available at high resolution. The systematic collection of standardized digital images will address most of these problems. Standardized, systematic representation of features will allow comparison among taxa, and presentation of the variation among and within individuals. The capability to easily observe this variation allows users to recognize the plants in a visually natural way (Kirchoff, 2008). The system realized electronic management and retrieval of local plant information. The presence of many detailed images from the same individual also allows veri cation of the taxonomic identity, resulting in the production of a reliable collection of images. Occurrence data associated with these image sets adds to the distribution database for the species. Sets of digital images would complement, but not replace, traditional physical specimens in herbaria (Dillen et al., 2019). We should consider collecting images systematically as we do with physical specimens. Systematic collection would facilitate using the images in ways that take advantage of our remarkable abilities to process visual information.
Digital image have important roles in assisting in plant identi cation, and teaching taxon recognition (Cope et al., 2012). Set of digital image can supplement herbarium collection. To maintain appropriate manner in time image collection are more effective. Image of spices and condiments have been collected over a long period of time and recorded. This record provides historical and ecologically important data, but because it provides information useful in the identi cation of unusual specimens. A single image from time to time represents all of the features of a plant. If enough features are photographed, a set of images can adequately represent the gross morphology of a species. As aids of identi cation, sets of images are probably superior to herbarium specimens. Color and habit are better represented in images as is the living form of the plant. A set of photographs including pictures of the ower, leaves, stem and the whole plant is much more likely to allow learners to make correct identi cations (Seregin, 2020). With regard to their use in learning, images may also be superior to herbarium specimens. Images depict the three-dimensional orientation of features more accurately than do pressed specimens. They represent features that are di cult or impossible to preserve in specimens, they also more accurately represent color. Although a single image cannot capture all of this variation, a set of images can. As records of occurrence, digital images can be as good as physical specimens, assuming that they capture su cient information to allow unambiguous identi cation. If any features of the plant that are not photographed at the time of collection cannot be recorded at a later time, the photographer is able and willing to collect a physical specimen from the same plant, and if a reference to that physical specimen is included in the metadata associated with the image. Thinking of image sets as specimens can in uence the way that we collect and organize images, which may increase their value as tools for education and research.

Results And Discussion
The key works of image analysis of spices and condiments included family, genus, morphological characteristics, and habitat and so on.

Imaging of live plants
High quality of images require on the move toward to presentation of information through electronic way. Digital cameras is the most effective way and affordable to produce these images. As a result, the number of images available to students and faculty is much higher than at any time in the past. As the internet set in motion to develop, photographers quickly realized that slide images and specimens could be shared more widely when they were digitized and made electronically available. Digital images over represent the most photogenic species, and present few features of each plant. These photographic specimens can serve as important supplements to herbarium collections by providing teaching and identi cation resources that are easily accessible to the public. In order to establish a feature search space, a set of feasible characteristics such as shape, morphology, texture and color are extracted from plant species (Ghasab et al.,2015). Using a computer-aided imaging analysis has been capable to identify of the seed morphometric variation as well as detect differences in seed morphology, both within and among populations. Morpho-colorimetric analysis clearly identi ed seeds from different populations and discriminated (Santo et al., 2015). Generally, cultivar identi cation is done on the basis of distinctive traits, such as shape, size, colour of the testa and ornamentations. Therefore, it is important, from both technical and economical points of view, to have a quick, reliable, repeatable, and nondestructive method to be able to identify and classify seeds objectively (Seregin and Stepanova, 2020). In order to promote computerised image analysis as a tool to aid visual inspection in the discrimination of different seeds, this technique was applied to analyze and identify seeds of varieties (Soltis, 2017). The assessment of some seed aspects such as colour, size and shape is important in grading system as well as to characterize accessions of core collections (Iva e al., 2013). Morphocolorimetric quantitative variables describing seed size, shape, colour and texture were analyzed using image analysis techniques (Bianco et al., 2015). Human perception of plant leaf and ower colour can in uence species management. Colour and colour contrast may in uence the detectability of invasive or rare species during surveys. For measuring plant leaf and ower colour traits using images taken with digital cameras. The analysis of digital images taken with digital cameras is a practicable method for identifying in the eld or lab (Kendal et al., 2013). Plant species classi cation using leaf samples is a challenging and important problem to solve. This motivates a separate processing of three feature types: shape, texture, and margin; combined using a probabilistic framework (Mallah et al., 2013). Colour, size and shape of seeds are very important in the grading system for many crops. Image analysis system for spices and condiments seeds was able to highlight differences among varieties and different stability of variety (Smykalova et al., 2011). The steps of image analysis done in some image processing focusing on agriculture application and also the details analysis of parallel and distributed image processing (Nasir et al., 2012).
Adopting features and orientations allows alongside comparison of images and the creation of standard displays for the identi cation of closely related species. Since the set of images from a given individual is intended to be a photographic specimen, the image set must contain enough images to allow the plant to be de nitely identi ed at the species level (Walter et al., 2015). To make this possible, as complete a set of primary features as is practical should be taken from the same individual plant. The locality of each individual should also be recorded.

Recommendations
Images photographed can be used for a variety of purposes, including taxon identi cation, comparison of similar taxa while learning taxon recognition, and presentation in print publications or posters. Such uses require high quality images present the subject in a method that does not detract from the feature being presented. If the educational promise of digital plant images is to be ful lled, many high quality images must be collected and made available. To accomplish these goals and this level of quality, the following recommendations are suggested: 1. Photographic standards should be developed for taxa other than plants. 3. Digital image specimen collections should in due lessons take account of multiple individuals of each species. This would bless users to consider the range of variation among individuals in a speci ed area, and across the species' geographic range.
4. Progression should be developed to let for appearance of distance scales beside the images, without disrupting the images themselves. Because the images should be tting for presentation in learning environments and print applications, people in the actual image is not recommended. 5. The images necessitate being permanently archived consent to resource developers to locate and access the originals. This can be accomplished by acclimatized biodiversity collections software to create suitable databases, or archiving the images in an on-line image repository.
6. A minimum image resolution of 6.0 megapixels will discuss images suitable for most print applications, and for enlargement to allow assessment of details here in the image.
7. The use of ash for seal images bring into being maximum depth of eld, reduces blurring from camera motion, and minimizes distracting background. Flash photography allows for rapid, high quality photography even under the poor lighting conditions common in forests, and on cloudy days.

Conclusion And Future Of Live-plant Images
The contemporary speedy advance of powerful electronic, software, and network tools and the installation of determined projects reveal the huge potential of the web to deliver image enhanced education. The use of more and more widespread image based resources such as handheld video players and the wireless internet provide an unparallel opportunity to produce image based content and deliver it to a large addressees. However, this opportunity will be unrealized without high quality images required in order prepare the content. A large collection of publicly available digital live-plant images need to the hard work of nding, identifying, and photographing plants in the eld. This reality has two important implications that is unlikely labor-intensive work will be redone in the future if it is strong-minded that some features or quality is lacking in the existing images. Secondly, locating and identifying the plants themselves is a challenge collective with the compilation of physical specimens. This challenge can only be meet successfully with the cooperation of herbaria and the professionals associated with them.
Identi cation of specimens can best be skillful at the time of imaging if the photographer is an expert, or if the photographer goes together with an expert into the eld. Many of the goals and challenges concerned in creating new image-based plant educational resources are collective with those of traditional herbaria. Consequently these challenges can be best met through collaboration with the existing networks of herbaria. I understand that the text and any pictures or videos published in the article will be freely available on the internet and may be seen by the general public. The pictures, videos and text may also appear on other websites or in print, may be translated into other languages or used for commercial purposes.

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Figure 1
Sketch of the tasks involved for content preparation and layout of the web app of digital herbarium