The concept of plant intelligence first captured my interest through Charles Darwin’s pioneering research on plant behavior. In the late 19th century, Darwin—alongside his son Francis—authored “The Power of Movement in Plants” (1880), a groundbreaking work that proposed plants are far more dynamic and purposeful than previously thought.

South Asians have been observed to have a higher susceptibility to cardiometabolic diseases since the 1950s, with early research in Singapore identifying elevated coronary heart disease mortality rates in this group. The trend gained more attention in the 1980s–1990s, particularly with increased South Asian migration to Western countries, prompting ethnicity-based health studies to improve diagnosis and care. Recent data highlights that South Asians are 4–5 times more likely to develop type 2 diabetes and face a 1.7-fold greater risk of coronary heart disease compared to White populations in the US and UK.