Compendium of Indian Medicinal Plants, 1990-1994 (Vol. 5)

This detailed treatise is written for botanists, chemists and biologists as companion volume to "Glossary of Indian Medicinal Plants" by Chopra, Nayar & Chopra. Volumes 1 and 2 each covering a ten year period (1960-69 and 1970-79) were published in February, 1990 and April, 1991 respectively. The reprint editions of these volumes which came out in 1993 and later on, contained a new index of chemical structures. Succeeding volumes pertain to five year periods. Vol. 3 (1980-84) was published in May, 1993 and has been reprinted in 1995. Vol. 4 was printed in July, 1995. The present Vol. 5 covers the period 1990-94. All these volumes now have four indexes. The format followed for Vol. 5 is similar to that of vols. 1,2,3 and 4 i.e. the write-up on each plant also includes new type of data/information, viz. chemical structures of new compounds isolated and the biological work on pure constituents isolated from a plant. The first part of Vol. 5, like preceding volumes, presents the logistics of the write-up in an "Explanatory introduction", which is followed by the description of 1668 plants in 916 pages. Finally, four indexes (144 pages) comprising local names, chemical constituents, biological activities and chemical structures have been provided. These volumes will be welcomed by all those working on medicinal plants/natural products who will appreciate that such a wealth of information has been assembled in a classified manner in a single volume.