Indian Medicinal and Aromatic Plants Facing Genetic Erosion

The book presents a plant-wise account including for each its botanical name and family, common and trade names, a brief botanical description, flowering and fruiting times, the distribution of the plant in the country on the basis of literature and herbarium collections and the distribution in other countries. The distribution of each plant species in India has also been depicted in a map. Based on a literature survey of the chemical and biological activities related to the species, only the major chemical constituents responsible for various actions and activities have been included. The therapeutics of the plant drug have been described under two headings : indications, and preparations and uses. The therapeutic usefulness of each drug has been indicated alongwith its preparation and dosage schedule wherever available, especially keeping in view the utility of the drug in the Ayurveda and Unani indigenous systems of medicine. The idea of giving information on dose and preparation is not to give encouragement for self medication but for giving an insight for utility and application in the health management programmes. A species has been classified as threatened, endangered, vulnerable or rare and endemic based on the information in the published literature. The economic significance and conservation strategies (if any) alongwith method of propagation have been delineated based on the present knowledge. We hope that this publication will help the concerned in the identification of the endemic and threatened medicinal and aromatic plants requiring immediate steps for their conservation. It will provide information about the distribution, botany and pharmaceutical importance of some selected plants.