Indian Ethnobotany: Emerging Trends

Currently ethnobotany has been a subject of wide interest for research in developing and developed countries. It has also been incorporated as a part of undergraduate and postgraduate teaching programmes in several universities in India and several other countries. Many Indian scientific organizations/funding agencies have recognized ethnobiology as an important thrust area under their R&D programmes. Being a tribal dominated country, the scope of this subject becomes much more in India. A large number of ethnobiological aspects have been studied in India during the last five decades, including the inventories of a large number of medicinal plants, phytochemical analyses of a good number of species, traditional conservational methods etc. In spite of various studied aspects, still a lacuna was felt regarding emerging and new trends which could provide some new directions to researchers in this subject.

Contents: Foreword. Preface. 1. Ethnobotany, Ethnobiology, Ethnopharmacology, Bioprospecting of Traditional Knowledge and Evolution of Benefit Sharing/P. Pushpangadan, V. George, T.P. Ijinu and S. Rajasekharan. 2. Role of Ethnobotany in search of newer Drug Plants and in Conservation of Biological Diversity: Some concerns and issues/R. R. Rao. 3. Promising Ethnobotanical Plants and Prospects of Plant based Cottage Industries in Tribal areas of Odisha, India/Harish Singh. 4. Folklore Driven Osteogenic Compounds for Modern Therapeutics from Fracture Healing Plants of Uttarakhand Himalaya/K. R. Arya and Chetan Sharma. 5. Restoration Ethnobotany: Applying Traditional Ecological Knowledge/Veena Chandra. 6. Wild Edible Plants used by the Dimasa tribe of Barak Valley (Assam)/Madhumita Nath, BK Dutta and PK Hajra.7. Edible Plants of Ladakh used in Ethnic Food/D.P. Nagar and Ashok K. Jain. 8. Bark Drugs as Indian Ethnomedicine – Modern Therapeutics and Future Prospects/Sayyada Khatoon and Saba Irshad. 9. Ethnobotanical Studies in North East India: A Review/A. A. Mao and D.K. Roy. 10. Unique Floral Diversity and its Cultural Intricacy with Tribals of Rajasthan/Anita Jain and Satish Kumar Sharma. 11. Ethno-conservation of Threatened Plants of Western Himalaya – Traditional Practices and Current Scenario/S.K. Srivastava and Prashant K. Pusalkar. 12. Floristic and Ethnobotanical Studies in Residuary Andhra Pradesh/T. Pullaiah, S. Sandhya Rani, K. Sri Rama Murthy and S. Karuppusamy. 13. The Saga of Indian Sacred Plants/R.L.S. Sikarwar. 14. Popular Sacred Plants in Prabha`t Samgiita/Vartika Jain. 15. Ethnolichenological Studies in India: Future Prospects/D. K. Upreti, Rajesh Bajpai, S. Nayaka and B. N. Singh. 16. Changing Trends and Emerging Challenges in Plant Taxonomy with Particular Reference to India/R.R. Rao. 17. A Revisit to the Taxonomy of Indian Citrus L. (Rutaceae)/K N Nair and Susheel Kumar. 18. Ethno-veterinary Practices in India: A Review/Sushmita Shrivastava and Ashok K. Jain. 19. Golden leaves from the Life of Dr S.K. Jain: Who Nurtured ethnobotany for over half a Century/Sudhir Chandra. 20. Botanical Survey of India: The Epicenter of Ethnobotanical Studies of Dr. S.K. Jain/A. K. Sahoo. 21. Institute of Ethnobiology: A Treasure of Ethnobotanical Knowledge/Ashok K. Jain. 22. Personal Glimpses with Dr. S. K. Jain.