Medicinal and Aromatic Plants : Traditional and Commercial Uses Agrotechniques Biodiversity Conservation

Contents: Preface. I. 1. Introduction and history of plant explorations. 2. Therapies used in different curing systems. 3. Aromatic plants and essential oils. 4. Identification and nomenclature of drug plants. 5. Traditional medicinal plants: a. Traditional medicines and medicinal plants in rural folklore and tribal society. b. Medicinal Plants collected from forest as a product and as weeds from wild/wastelands: trees and shrubs. c. Herbaceous plants used as drugs from wastelands, weeds of croplands and forest understorey. II. 6. Potential drug plants, quality control assessment, commercial exploitation and biodiversity conservation. 7. Environmental considerations: farming of aromatic and medicinal plants. 8. Zonal concept and ecological evaluation of the habitat of drug plants. 9. Cultivation and multiplication of drug and aromatic oil plants. 10. Agrotechniques for the cultivation of drug plants. Index.

"India is a veritable emporium of medicinal and aromatic plants growing up to 75 percent of the vegetable drugs mentioned in the pharmacopoeias of different countries. In addition to the medicinal herbs, aromatic and essential oil-bearing plants constitute an important group of Indian flora and a large number of them are used in the indigenous systems of medicine including some traditional drugs used by the rural population and the tribals. This book gives a thorough and complete description of the medicinal and aromatic plants grown in the Indian region.

A new section in this book has been added providing agrotechniques for the profitable cultivation of these plants, which can be adopted by the farmers and others interested in improving their yields from such farms.

The standardization of crude drugs as per the ISO standards is an important aspect that needs priority and has been discussed in the book. Different aspects of biodiversity conservation and the efforts to be made for systematic collection of the germplasm of the plants have also been discussed.

This volume aims to serve as a compendium for the detailed information on the subject and resource book for the scientists, drug farmers, export agencies and conservation managers to further explore the development of agrotechniques for the greater benefit of the Indian society."