Identification of Common Indian Medicinal Plants

Book excerpt: The book provides a scientific background needed for the identification of medicinal plants commonly occurring in India. It explains scientific terms for description of plant parts. It explains the method for identification of plants employing scientific terms. Any unknown medicinal plants can be identified to its family, genus and ultimately to the species. More than 610 species of Indian Medicinal Plants, including those 365 mentioned in the CCIM approved University syllabus of Ayurvedic medicine are listed. An exhaustive list of above plant species provides correct and up-todate scientific name together with names in English, Sanskrit, Marathi and Hindi languages and plant parts used in medicine. It also provides about 88 line drawings of plants parts and 125 coloured photographs for confirmation of identified plants. With the help of this book, one will be able to identify 610 species of Medicinal Plants. This will help in pinpointing the genuine drug and its parts by way of comparison. It may also help in detection of genuine as well as adulterated plant species and their parts. Thus, it is hoped that, the book will be useful to Agriculturists, Ayurvedic practitioners, Pharmacicsts in addition to the students of Ayurved, botany as well as a common person interested in knowing common Indian Medicinal Plants.