Medicinal and Aromatic Plants: Utilization and Conservation Techniques

Medicinal and aromatic plants (MAPs) are invaluable natural resources of use to human race, without which the survival of human/ animal race is incredible. There is an enormous diversity of plants which are put into medicinal, beauty care and culinary purposes. Cultivation of commercially important medicinal plants is in high demand as the global community is growing towards a green and herbal oriented approach. India as a country has thousands of years old traditional medicinal systems which rely solely on medicinal plants. There is a gradual loss of medicinal plants with the increasing demand of plant derived drugs. Majority of medicinal plants are still collected from the wild. This doesnt meet the demand and thereby pave ways to adulterants. The over extraction and ignorant activities cause biodiversity loss. Farm production of MAPs in these days is extremely vulnerable to underlying climate risk. Sustainable management of these resources requires urgent attention for environmental stability and improvement of livelihood. New income generating opportunities are opening up for rural populations and in particular for small-scale farmers as well as marginal farmers through MAPs cultivation. New generation are not well aware of the various uses of many plants to which it was put before. Thus there is an urgent need to spread the knowledge and conserve the wild populations of medicinal plant diversity in various forest areas of India. Considering the importance of the MAPs, an attempt was taken in this edited book to understand and highlight the role of MAPs in livelihood improvement and income generation through cultivation, conservation and utilisation. Most of the chapters in this book dealt with individual medicinal plants in detail. Two chapters have also been included on pests and diseases management of MAPs. Nowadays, IPR issues are more important. One chapter has been included on IPR issues on medicinal plants. A chapter also devoted on value addition of the medicinal plant products.

Table of Contents:
1. Vedic Medicine: A Trail on History, Origin and Development - D.A. Patil 2. Utilization of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants Past, Present and Future Prospects - Prasenjit Mitra, Tanaya Ghosh, Prasanta Kumar Mitra 3. Mind-Altering Plants in Maharashtra (India): Biodiversity and Origin - D.A. Patil 4. Stevia (Stevia rebaudiana Bert.) A Promising Drug for the Future - Abha Manohar K, Biplov C. Sarkar, Aakanksha Pandey, Vineeta Subrata Das, Gopal Shukla, Hossain Ali Mondal, Sumit Chakravarty 5. Agarwood (Aquilaria malaccensis Lam.): A Promising Agroforestry Species Being Exploited for Ethno-Medicinal Uses in Northeast India - Pradip Kumar Sarkar, Pranati Sarkar, Mendup Tamang , Roman Chettri and Nazir A Pala 6. Nutritional, Therapeutic and Medicinal Properties of Moringa oleifera An Overview of Promising Healer - Amit Kumar Pal, Chandan Sengupta 7. Medicinal and Nutritional Uses of Rice - Bidhan Roy, Surje Dinesh Tulshiram, Swarnajit Debbarma Monish Roy, Gadge Sushant Sundarrao, Pallabi Saha, Priyanka Sharma 8. Education and Research on Medicinal Plants in Bangladesh Present Status and Future Strategies - Md. Azizul Hoque 9. Medicinal Properties of Pummelo [Citrus maxima (Burm.) Merr.] - Nilesh Bhowmick, Bidyarani Devi Senjam, MP Devi 10. Quantitative Ethnobotanical Study of the Medicinal Plant Geophila repens (L.) I.M. Johnst. (Rubiaceae) Used by the Karbi Indigenous Group in Assam India - Puranjoy Mipun, Y. Kumar 11. Medicinal Properties of Jackfruit (Artocarpus heterophyllus Lam.) - Polu Parameshwar, Ashok Chhetri, Nilesh Bhowmick 12. Ethnobotany, Phytochemistry and Sustainable Conservation Status of Few Cultivated and Wild Dioscorea Species of North East India - Nilofer Sheikh, Nazir Ahmad Bhat, Yogendra Kumarand Mautushi Das 13. Valeriana (Valeriana jatamansi Jones) An Endangered Medicinal Plant of Himalayan Region - Soumendra Chakraborty 14. Conservation of Ethno-Medicine in Rarh Region of South-west Bengal - Debabrata Das, Pampi Ghosh, Atmaja Avirupa Das 15. Common Paddy Field Weeds: An Evaluation of Their Ethnomedicinal Potential among the Indigenous Apatanis of Ziro Valley, Arunachal Pradesh - Kuntal Narayan Chaudhuri 16. A Novel Avenue for Quality Planting Material Production of an Endangered Medicinal Plant, Valeriana Jatamansi - Siddhartha Shankar Sharma, Pratik Saha, Bablu Paul, Abha Manohar K, Gopal Shukla and Hossain Ali Mondal 17. Potential of Cucurbitaceous Vegetable Crops as Herbal Medicine - Ranjit Chatterjee and Ankita Debnath 18. Value Addition in Medicinal Plants - Soumen Maitra, Gopal Shukla, LC De 19. Intellectual Property Rights with Special Reference to Medicinal Plants - Bidhan Roy, Priyanka Sharma, Monish Roy, Gadge Sushant Sundarrao Pallabi Saha 20. Pest Management in Some Commercially Important Medicinal Plants in India An Appraisal - Suprakash Pal, Umesh Das, Debabrata Sarkar 21. Diseases of Chirata (Swertia Chirayita) and Their Management Practices - Sibdas Baskey 22. Ethnomedicine for Women Problems - Manjula, R.R., Sandhya Sri B., Suneetha J., Seetharami Reddi T.V.V. 23. Ethnobotanical Survey of Wild Edible Plants Used By the Indigenous People of East Khasi Hills District of Meghalaya North East India - Nazir Ahmad Bhat, Balasara War, Chester J Nongkynrih Puranjoy Mipun, Nilofer Sheikh, Yogendra Kumar 24. An Insight on Ethnomedicinal Study in North East India - Snigdha Saikia, Bordoloi MJ, Dipanwita Banik