From the preface: "Plants, as extracts and in various other forms, are being used for centuries in different traditional systems of medicine for the treatment of human ailments, particularly those caused by pathogenic bacteria, fungi as well as viruses. Their use against plant pathogens, though a relatively recent practice, has gained momentum due to the well-known problems associated with the use of synthetic pesticides for the purpose. Use of plant products for the control of human and plant diseases has certain advantages, for instance, the plants are generally readily available, production costs are low and, above all, the products are biodegradable. The effective plant constituents can combat human and plant pathogenic bacteria, fungi and viruses without toxic side effects and environmental hazards. It is because of these reasons that search for plant products having anti microbial properties has intensified in recent years. As there is no standard and systematic compilation of literatures on plants showing anti microbial properties, investigators often face difficulty in collecting pertinent information about a particular plant species and its potential for anti microbial activities. It was, therefore, felt desirable to compile available information on the antibacterial, anti fungal and antiviral activities of different plants in the form of a glossary to facilitate the investigators in this area. Based primarily on MAPA (Medicinal and Aromatic Plant Abstracts) and online databases from Pub Med, the glossary presents brief abstracts of work done in this area with complete references in a chronological order against each plant, arranged alphabetically. It covers literature for the last 25 years, though some old references have also been included. Older references were considered to be of little relevance because plants, that were shown to have some efficacy, were reinvestigated later by different workers as will be evident from the examples of Allium sativum, Azadirachta indica, Camelia sinensis, Hypericum perforatum, to mention a few."