Medicinal And Nutraceutical Plants From The Himalayas

Book excerpt: In the backdrop of remarkable strength and achievements of modern medical science, an overwhelmingly large proportion of world population still depends upon varying indigenous systems for meeting its health care needs. These systems, exemplified by Ayurveda, Unani and Siddha, rely on traditional knowledge of indigenous communities about health-imparting and curative properties of plants. Such plants of health promoting and curative value are currently collected from the wild in large amounts and face threat of loss of diversity and extinction. Because of this reason, and the imperative of improving them genetically for productivity and the desired trait quality, it becomes imperative that the needed demands for them are met from organised cultivation and not by extraction from natural stands. Meeting complex demands of the above mentioned kind will require collation and presentation of detailed information about the targeted plant species. The book is an attempt to meet this requirement for nine important plant species, viz., Panax Ginseng, Polygonatum spp., Picrorhiza kurroa, Dactylorhiza hatagirea, Crepedium acuminatum, Tribulus terrestris, Ephedra spp. Crataegus rhipidophylla and Ginkgo biloba. Each chapter provides information on different plants on aspects such as, reproductive biology, medicinal, chemical and pharmacological aspects, threats and conservation, cultivation, commercial status, future directions for research, value addition, patents and literature cited. The book will be of interest to a very wide and diverse audience, which includes academics and researchers, interest groups of drug industry, administrators and policy makers.