Contents: Indian medicinal plants. Indexes: 1. Local names. 2. Chemical constituents. 3. Biological activities. 4. Chemical structures.
Scope: "This compendium has been designed as a companion volume to the Glossary of Indian Medicinal Plants by Chopra, Nayar & Chopra (hereinafter referred to as glossary). All the plants have been listed in alphabetical order and reference to the glossary has been given for those plants which are included therein; in the case of new plants, not listed in the glossary, their local name and distribution has also been included, wherever known, in keeping with the pattern of the glossary. The distributional range of such plants has been confined to the present political boundary of India. Bhutan and Nepal have also been included because these countries fall within the unbroken chain of the Himalayas and some of the Himalayan species occur in contiguous territories in India, Bhutan and Nepal. Certain plants, although not found in India, are included either because these were listed in the glossary or are sold in the indigenous drug market in India.
"The literature cited is on the basis of complete screening of chemical abstracts and biological abstracts and covers the five-year period from 1985 to 1989. It has been aimed to make the compendium exhaustive by including research done anywhere in the world on the taxa found in India, whether indigenous or introduced."
Botanical nomenclature: "Since the nomenclature of many plants has undergone revision in the preceding decades, the names of plants, including those given in the glossary and in the cited references, have been updated as far as possible to provide currently accepted names. In cases of change of name, the obsolete names have been given as synonyms according to the following order : the currently accepted name is followed by the name given in the glossary and then by the corresponding name listed in Hooker's Flora of British India or other subsequent relevant literature as addition to Indian flora (if it is different from the name listed in the glossary), and finally by the title name of the plant given in the reference cited, if it is different from the earlier mentioned names. Similarly, the names of the natural orders (families) have also been revised wherever required according to the currently accepted pattern.
"There is divergence of opinion among Indian botanists on the merits of maintaining or splitting of a few large genera like Bauhinia, Euphorbia and Pylygonum. In this compendium, therefore, their existing generic status has been maintained."
