Introduction N.I.Vavilov proposed in 1975, eight centres of origin and diversity of crop plants. In 1975, Zeven and Zhukavsky, suggested 12 mega- biodiversity centres in the world. Meyers, Mithremier et al. (2000) identified 25 global hot spots as areas with exceptional concentration of endemic species. Two of these hot spots are the Indo -Myanmar and Western Ghats/Sri Lanka regions. India is primary centre of diversity of various crop plants, such as smooth gourd, ridge gourd, pointed gourd, jack fruit, banana, mango, jamun, large cardamom, black pepper and several medicinal plants like Rauvolfia serpentina and Sausslerea lappa. Important diversity is found in brinjal, rice bean, cucumber, bitter gourd, bottle gourd, snake gourd, citrus, taro, yams, ginger, turmeric and yams. The horticulture based food basket is limited to less than 100 crops, ornamentals, medicinal and aromatic plants. In India alone, there are around 36,000 species of plants including microorganisms, of which 17,500 species are higher plants. India possesses 11.9% of the world flora with 5725 endemic species belonging to 141 endemic genera and 47 families of higher plants. Among the domesticated species, about 166 crop species originated and diversified in this part of the world. The species of horticultural importance include 54 in vegetables, 104 in fruits and 27 in spices.   The population of India is to touch 1.6 billion by 2050, exceeding China. By 2012, India requires 200 million tonnes of vegetables, 150 million tonnes of fruits and manifold quantity of spices, plantation crops and medicinal and aromatic plants. According to the Hindu-CNN-IBN state of the Nation Survey August 1 to August 6, 2006, 31.5% of Indians and 21% of families are vegetarians. The survey indicated that 35% of people surveyed experienced hunger atleast once during 2005, they or someone in their family could not have two square meals a day. Seven per cent of people surveyed vouched that this happened often. Eleven per cent of adivasis faced hunger often and 39% sometimes. Fresco and Baudorin (2002) of World Bank reported that about 815 million people suffer from hunger and malnutrition, mostly in developing world. Need to focus underutilized and under exploited horticultural crops was felt as an urgent measure. There are also misconceptions in the use of certain fruits and vegetables considering presence of antinutritional factors. These myths are to be corrected by scientific information.

Tripura is situated between 22º 56’to 240 32’ N latitude and 91010’ to 92021’E longitude with tropic of cancer passing through it. The total geographical area of state is about 10,491 km2 of which 57.98 % area is under forest cover.  Agriculture is an important sector in the state, which contributes 26 % of the State GDP of which the major contribution is from horticultural crops like fruits (pineapple, litchi and oranges), vegetables (potato TPS), plantation crops (cashew nut, coconut, rubber and tea) and spices (ginger, turmeric and black pepper). More than 75 % of the population either directly or indirectly depends on agriculture. The small and marginal farmers constitute about 90 % of total farming community and the average size of land holding is 0.97 ha (1990-91) in comparison to 1.25 ha (1976-77), which is the lowest among the seven other North Eastern states.

The term arrowroot is commonly applied to many starch producing plants belonging to different species whose economic part is the rhizome, eaten fresh or made into flour. The term applies both to flour and the plant. All the plants of the arrowroot group have underground rhizomes or tubers from which arise reed like erect stems. The word ‘arrowroot’ is derived from the pointed shape of the rhizome or its known ability to cure arrow injuries. The word itself is derived from the carib word araruta meaning mealy roots. The arawak, a people native to the Caribbean islands, considered arrowroot a dietary staple. They called it aru-aru meaning meal of meals.

Coleus, commonly known as Chinese potato, is a minor tuber crop of the tropical regions of India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Sri Lanka and Africa. It is considered as a native of India , where its cultivation is mostly confined to the southern states. In Kerala, it is commonly known as koorka or cheevakizhangu. In Malaysia it is called ubi kemili, kentang kechil, kembili and kumbili java. It is also known as hausa potato, Sudan-potato, country potato, fra-fra potato, fra-fra-salanga, ratala, pomme de terre du Soudan, hausakartoffel, innala, saluga, tumuku and fabirama.  Nutritive status The nutritive status of this crop compares favourably with many of the major tuber crops.  Coleus tuber, with its characteristic  flavour has a special preference among consumers. Compared to other tuber crops, it fetches premium price in the market, although it is known as poor man’s potato. The tubers are used for the preparation of various delicious side dishes. Reliable data on area and production of this crop are not available. Despite the high market price and consumer preference, it is not available throughout the year.

Dioscorea alata is commonly called greater yam or larger yam or water yam.  This is the most widely distributed species of yam. This species originated in South East Asia, probably in Burma. From there, it first spread to India, Malaysia, Indonesia and the eastern portion of South East Asia.  Later it served as food for voyagers and thereby spread to other parts of the tropics.  Immigrants from India and Malaysia introduced it to Madagascar, from where it was partially introduced into East Africa and Portuguese and Spanish voyager traders of the 16th century probably introduced it into West Africa and later to West Indies.

Lesser yam, Lesser Asiaticyam (Dioscorea esculenta) is among the most ancient species of the genus and its centre of origin is stated by various authorities as India, Vietnam or Papua New Guinea and the Philippines. It is domesticated as a staple food in Southern China from 2nd and 3rd centuries. Today, it is widely distributed throughout the tropics, but is little used except in South East Asia, where it is grown to such an extent that it ranks third in production and utilization of yams after D. rotundata,D. cayenensis and D. alata. Wild types of D. esculenta also exist in Malaysia, New Guinea and Philippines.  The wild types have more leaves, large roots, longer stolons, more fibrous tuber flesh and more thorny roots and shoots. Classification The wild types of D. esculenta (Family: Dioscoreaceae) exist in Malaysia, New guinea and Philippines. Wild types have more vigorous foliage, larger leaves, longer stolons, more fibrous tuber flesh and more thorny roots and shoots.  On the basis of thorniness, the cultivated types are distinguished into two botanical varieties.

Edible legumes are excellent sources of dietary protein and oils. Winged bean, otherwise known as Goa bean, Manila bean, princess pea, asparagus pea or four angled bean is becoming popular as a tropical legume vegetable. It is a multivitamin and multimineral packed legume. This wonder vegetable was considered as the vegetable of the twentieth century. It is also known as ‘soya’s rival’ or ‘God sent vegetable’. All parts of the plant are edible namely leaves, flowers, immature pods, immature seeds, mature seeds and tubers. It is also named as ‘a supermarket on a stalk’ because the plant combines the desirable characteristics of common bean, pea, spinach, mushroom, soya bean and potato. Its vernacular names are:  Bengali, Chara-koni-sem or lakar-sem; Tamil, Morisuavarai; Kannada, Shambe kayi; Malayalam, Chaturapayar or irachipayar and Marathi, Chavdhari ghevda.

Yam bean(Pachyrrhizus erosus), a leguminous crop, native of North America is cultivated for its edible tubers. Though six species of Pachyrrhizus are grown for tuberous roots, P. erosus, P. tuberosus and P. aphipa are important. While P. erosus(L.) Urban(2n = 22) has pods of 7.5-13 cm long, P. tuberosus has longer pods of 13-30 cm. P. aphipa is a non climbing plant with fusiform tubers and this species is mainly cultivated in Bolivia.  Synonyms for P. erosus are P. angulatus, P. bulbosus and Dolichus erosus.  P. erosus is the species commercially cultivated in India. Wild forms of yam bean are seen in Mexico and northern parts of Central America, where its cultivation is reported during pre-Coloumbus period.  Yam bean is believed to have spread from Mexico to Philippines, Amboina before 17th century.  Now, yam bean is cultivated in China, Thailand, Singapore, India and Hawaii. In India, it is grown in Bihar, West Bengal and Orissa.  In Hindi, it is called as “Miskri kand” and in Bihar as “Kesaru”.

The Indian region is one of the world’s eight centres of crop plant origin and diversity, distinguished by Russian Scientist N.I. Vavilov. The region is home to a rich endemic assemblage of plants. Scrub jungles, grasslands, dry and moist deciduous forests, semi-evergreen and evergreen forests are the variety of vegetations along the Ghats. The complex terrain and heavy rainfall have helped to preserve flora and fauna in this region. The Western Ghats are an area of exceptional biological diversity and conservation interest, and are “one of the major Tropical Evergreen Forest Regions in India”.  This region is extremely rich in floristic diversity and most of the species are not exploited so far. There are many underutilized endemic flowering plants found in Western Ghats having ornamental value.  Flora of Western Ghats  The Western Ghats cover only 5% of India’s total geographical area but contains more than 27% (4000 species) of  country’s total plant species (Nayar, 1996). The Western Ghats, also known as the Sahyadris, extend about 1600 km. starting in North from Tapti river and going down to Kannyakumari in the South. These ranges run parallel to West coast hardly 40 kilometres away on an average from shoreline. The Western Ghats run through states of Maharastra, Goa, Karnataka, Tamilnadu and Kerala. Elevation of Western Ghats is in  900 – 1500 m and in some places goes beyond 2000 m. The Western Ghats form major watershed in Peninsular India and  58 major Peninsular Indian rivers originate from them.

In literal sense a species is called underutilized whose potential has not been properly realized. These underutilized crops (referred to also by other terms such as minor, orphan, neglected, underutilized, underexploited, underdeveloped, lost, new, novel, promising, alternative, local, traditional, niche crops) have been included in world-wide plans of action after having successfully raised the interest of decision makers. Wealth of plant genetic diversity currently available holds vast potential. We use only small number of crop plants for our basic requirements. Many thousands of wild plants have great economic and cultural importance and tremendous market potential for vast numbers of people throughout the world. But the majority are still unknown to science. Plant genetic resources have gained global attention in  recent past by agricultural and environmental institutions. Conservation and use of genetic resources attracted  considerable attention. Value of biological diversity in economic terms is very important for human society.

India is one of the 17 mega biodiversity hot spot of the world contributing to the worlds largest plant resource,from the long stretches of the Eastern Ghats on the east, the greater Himalayan range on the northern planes and Western Ghats on the west. The Eastern Ghats range is unique on its own way to host many valuable flora from time immemorial. The Eastern Ghats are spread over four states from the north east to south east. Among the four states Orissa is one of them consisting of diversified floral resource. Orchids, more than any other plants, exert a mysterious fascination for most people. All the wild Orchids of tropical regions are highly puzzling and peculiar. These largest spectacular plants of monocot belongs to family Orchidaceae  consisting of more than 17,000 known wild species including 750 genera in the world and the present figure of hybrids among these touches around 80,000 (Rao, T.A., 1998). This family is cosmopolitan in nature having more species in tropics than the temperate regions. This family of monocotyledonous plants has evolved from prototypes of the lily and amaryllis family and is note worthy for the wide variety of its highly specialized and curiously modified forms.

Barleria L. (Acanthaceae) is a pantropical genus of herbs and shrubs comprising about 300 species, occurring mainly in Africa and Asia. In India, the genus is represented by about 32 species of which 24 are endemic to India.  About 80 % of the species are found in Peninsular India. Many species of Barleria are of ornamental value and can be grown for their foliage and showy colorful flowers. There are certain indigenous species which show good growth performance in cultivation and have economic importance as ornamentals. Moreover, some species fall under IUCN categories of threatened plants which need immediate attention for their conservation. Considering the horticultural importance especially in landscape gardening and rarity of Barlerias, various species found in India are collected and cultivated through various methods in the Botanical Garden of Shivaji University, Kolhapur.

Exacum bicolor, Roxb. commonly known as country kreat is  endemic to Peninsular India. It is a herbaceous perennial with attractive flowers and posseses medicinal properties. Plant is endangered today due to large scale habitat destruction.  Non- lodging nature of plant, attractive bi-colored flower bunches with a long flowering period and good field life offer great future for this plant to be domesticated as an attractive garden flower. Its ornamental value and medicinal properties are yet to be fully exploited. India is bestowed with a wide array of flowering plants. It represents two of the 18 hotspots of biodiversity in the world; one being the Western ghats and other the North Eastern Himalayas. Nature has also blessed our India with  uniqueness of endemism. Of the 17000 flowering herbs distributed in nine phyto geographical regions of the country, 5700 are endemic. Exacum  bicolor Roxb. is one of the endemic species to Peninsular India. Plant is popularly known as Bharachirata and Habshi chirata in Hindi, Kannamthali in Malayalam, Dodda  chirayuta in Kannada and ceti in Tamil.

At present, approximately 1.4 million of the world’s species are described, but  majority are still unknown to science. Plant genetic resources have gained global attention in  recent past by agricultural and environmental institutions. Conservation and use of genetic resources attracted considerable attention. Value of biological diversity in economic terms is very important for human society. India is one of the major centers of diversity in world. A small part of plant and their culture is considered as floriculture. India is bestowed with varied types of agro-climatic conditions conductive for growing a wide variety of ornamentals including flowers. India has a rich heritage of ornamental floriculture. In rural and hilly areas there are different types of colourful flowers and foliage at different seasons round the year. All these colourful flowers and foliage are wasted under natural process. In spite of aesthetic beauty, all these natural resources are totally unutilized due to unawareness of their use. All these flowers are available in wide range of colours but mostly dominated by yellow. The entire seasonal colourful vegetations can be converted into value added products by using simple dehydration technique developed at National Botanical Research Institute, Lucknow. The technique is  suitable for dehydration of flowers and foliage. Present chapter will highlight how dehydration techniques can be utilized for preparation of value added products from seasonal unutilized floral vegetation of rural India.

In ancient days spices and herbs were valued as basic ingredients of incense, embalming preservatives, ointments, perfumes, antidotes against poisons, cosmetics and medicines and were used less in culinary preparations. A notable use of spices and herbs in ancient and medieval times were for the treatment of a variety of illnesses. Subsequently spices and herbs had come to be used to flavour food and beverages. In the course of time spices and herbs were shown to be useful not only for making the food lasting and palatable, but also in retarding or preventing rancidity and spoilage. This knowledge acted as a catalyst for the use of spices in a variety of processed foods. Based on the uses, herbs and spices are classified in to culinary, cosmetic and pharmaceutical. In the modern world spices have wide affiliation in the culinary art of people around the world, and are used in food industry for flavouring and seasoning, as well as in pharmaceutical preparations in the traditional systems of medicine and in beauty care. Spices and herbs are useful because of the chemical constituents contained in the form of essential oil, oleoresin, oleogum and resins, which impart flavour, pungency and colour to prepared dishes.

Major cucurbits grown in India are cucumber, watermelon, muskmelon, ash gourd, pumpkin and squashes, snake gourd, ridge gourd, smooth gourd, bottle gourd, round gourd, bitter gourd, pointed gourd, ivy gourd,pointed gourd and oriental pickling melon. After independence,a lot of breeding work were done in these crops at many research institutes in the country which  resulted in  release of several high yielding/disease resistant varieties/hybrids. Being warm season crops, cucurbits are tropical in origin, mostly in Africa, Tropical America and Asia. Flowering in cucurbits normally start in 40 to 45 days after sowing depending on weather conditions. Sequence of flowering follows a set pattern, namely the first 4 to 6 flowering nodes would bear staminate flowers and later pistillate flowers appear. Many sex forms are seen in cucurbits viz., monoecious, dioecious, gynoecious,trimonoecious, gynomonoecious and andromonoecious. Sex modification is also possible in cucurbits by exogenous application of plant growth regulators. GA3 and AgNO3 are used for inducing male flowers in gynoecious lines. Conversely,ethrel and TIBA  are used to promote greater number of female flowers. This kind of sex modification is more useful and practicable in  cucumber and bottle gourd where continuous and simultaneous flowering, fruit set and fruit picking take place.

Basella (Basella alba syn Basella rubra) is also known as Poi, Ceylon spinach, Malabar spinach, Indian spinach or vine spinach. It is a popular leaf vegetable grown in almost all parts of India and widely grown in North-East and South India. Besides India, it is widely cultivated in tropical Asia and Africa. It is a climbing perennial plant, but is sometimes cultivated as an annual vegetable. The plant is succulent with tender leaves. It is a fast growing, productive leaf vegetable for home gardens and market growers.  Composition Young shoots and leaves of Basella are a rich source of calcium, iron, and Vitamins A and C. Uses Fresh tender leaves and stems are consumed as leaf vegetable after cooking. It is preferable to cook the leaves in soups and stews as half of soluble solids may be lost by boiling in water. Red cultivars contain a colouring matter in leaves, stems and ripe fruits reported as a dye for colouring food. Because of its mucilaginous nature of leaves and stems, it is used as poultice. Juice of leaves is prescribed against constipation, especially for children and pregnant women (Burkill, 1935).

Chow-Chow [Sechium edule (Jacq.) Swartz] is used in many parts of Latin America, humid tropical regions of Central America and Southern Mexico. It is cultivated in South East Asia (India, Malaysia, Indonesia and Phillipines), Central and Western Africa, Central and South America (Brazil) and other tropical regions. (Dutta 1994). In India, local cultivars are commonly grown in coastal and low-hills (1000-2000m) of Maharashtra, Karnataka, and Tamilnadu. In Tamil, it is called “Seeme Kattrikkai” (Bailey, 1947). It is an important part of dietary system of tribals of  North East Regions. It is found in kitchen gardens of every tribal. It is found in almost all states and regions but maximum variability is found in Sikkim, Mizoram and Meghalaya (Yadav et al., 2005). Its variable fruits and roots, are important elements in diet of people. Chow-Chow is widespread and is an important export crop for  Latin American countries, much still need to be learned  about this crop (Rafael Lira Saade,1996). Chow-Chow is a single seeded fruit of  Cucurbitaceous family (MacGillivray, 1953). It is a perennial rooted vine that bears edible fruits (Thompson and Kelly, 1957). In subtropical and tropical regions, it produces large edible tuberous roots. It thrives under moderate temperature in  tropical or semi-tropical environment, though it can also be successfully grown under high temperature near sea level. Chow-Chow is a herbaceous perennial creeper (Choudhury, 1967) and is a robust grower in warmer months of year and during  cold weather of July and August  plant dies back temporarily. It has a viviparous type of germination (Patnaik, 1967). S.edule is called chayote, probably from  Greek ‘Sekos’ to  fatten in a fold because it was fed to hogs ( Bailey, 1963).

Syn.cordifolia Cogn.,C.indica Wight and Arn,Bryonia grandisL. Family.Cucurbitaceae) is an aggressively climbing vine that  spreads quickly over trees, shrubs, fences or other supports. It is also called  scarlet fruited gourd or little gourd. The name is derived from the Latin coccineus, meaning scarlet,in reference to fruit colour (Wagner et al.,1999). Vernacular names are kundru (hindi), kovakka, kova (malayalam), kovakkai, kovai(tamil), thondakayi (kannada), dondakaya (telugu). Coccinia shoot is a good source of calcium, iron, and fiber and has good texture (Anon., 2002). It is grown mostly in homestead farms for tender fruits in almost all regions of the country. It bears fruits almost through out the year where mild winter prevails. In regions where severe winter occurs, it bears fruit for 8-9 months. Although this is considered as a an under utilized vegetable, it is grown extensively in Chattisgarh, West Bengal, Bihar and Karnataka on a commercial scale and giving remunerative returns to  farmers. Availability of better cultivars and knowledge of  many other preparations and uses of this crop can propel its evolution from an under utilized species to an important horticultural crop in Indian Agriculture.

Clasping stemmed Solena or diversely leaved Melothria or creeping cucumber (Solena amplexicaulis Lam. Syn. Bryonia amplexicaulis (Lam), Melothria heterophylla (Lour), Melothria angulata Chakrav) is an indigenous cucurbit vegetable occuring in nature nearby cultivated areas on hedges or in open fields In Greek Solen means’ a tube,pipe’ refering to the nature of its flowers. The vernacular names are Bon-kundari, kudari, makal, mahakal (bengali), gometti (marati), kanduri, kuduri (bundelkhand), bankakra (champa), gometi (gujarati, anatmul, mahakal, taarali, kaduri (hindi),makirla (chattirgarh), kaage mari balli (kanarese) etc. This is a perennial vine, dioecious in nature. Tender fruits are used as salad, curry and  fried vegetable. It has significant medicinal value also.  In tribal regions of Orissa, fruits of Melothria are considered as delicacy. Visualizing the delicate nature of its fruits, it has great potential as a salad crop in  future.

Spine gourd or teasle gourd (Momordica dioica : Roxb Syn.Momordica roxburghii G. Don, M. wallichi, M J Roem) is a rhizomatous, perennial and distinctly dioecious species of family Cucurbitaceae and  grows widely in many parts of India, mostly confined to  Eastern and South Eastern states. Vernacular names are kartoli,kakrol,meethakarela, padora, bhatt karela, palupagal, tumba, tumpai, golkandra, kankad, kankera, bara-karela, kankoda, kankodan, kantola and phalguni. In India it is mainly grown in Orissa, Bihar, and West Bengal .It is  found in nature in the Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Kerala and Maharashtra especially in areas with the least human interference. This is  a delicacy for its typical taste, attributed to high seed protein content. It also contains high amount of carotene (162 µg/100 g of edible portion) (Gopalan et al., 1982) and its tuberous roots have medicinal value too. It is a cheap source of vitamins and minerals (Bhuiya et al., 1977). This vegetable is gaining popularity  because of its high demand in  market. Certain limitations like lack of awareness among  farmers, non-availability of quality planting materials of standard varieties, unpredictable sex ratio in seedling progenies are arresting the expected spread of this nutritious vegetable (Ali et al., 1991).

Mango is the choicest fruit of tropical world. Originated in Indo-Malayan region (Mukherjee, 1985), more than one thousand varieties are under commercial cultivation in India (Mukherjee 1949). South Indian varieties of mango are distinct (Yadav and Singh, 1985).  Naik and Gangolly (1950)  described 135 South Indian varieties, taking fruit character as the main criteria. North Kerala experiencing humid tropical climate is an important zone of variability of mango (Kannan, 1982). Polyembryonic mango cultivars like ‘Vellaikolamban’, ‘Kurukkan’ and ‘Bappakkai’ are traditionally grown here. Over the years, there is erosion in  gene pool of rich varietal wealth due to deforestation, urbanisation and large scale rubber cultivation in Kerala. Establishment of field gene bank is an important ex situ conservation strategy. Systematic attempts to conserve  genepool  resulted  in collection of  more than 1266 varieties in various field gene banks in our country (Chadha, 1976). Field Gene Bank (FGB) has the advantage of being continuously evaluated and desired accessions can immediately be utilized directly or in breeding programmes. Field gene bank very often represents only a fraction of variability of the gene pool and  enrichment of the collection is always required for capturing  available diversity.

Morinda citrifolia L is a unique horticultural plant belonging to Rubiaceae family. It has a tremendous demand because of its high medicinal value. Increase in demand has led to commercial farming of the tree. Noni is an ideal plant for mixed farming with other horticultural plantations. There is concurrent efforts to select early bearing plants with big size and fruits.  Noni can be grown in any type of soil under adverse climatic conditions.  Crop Improvement, nutritional requirement, water requirement, pest and disease management are the research priorities in Morinda citrifolia. Indian Noni (Morinda citrifolia) is popularly known as Indian mulberry belongs to Rubiaceae family.  It is also called great Morinda, Cheese fruit, Mouse’s Pine Apple, Nono, Jumbie bread fruit, Hog apple. Noni was one of the most widely used medicinal plants in Polynesia prior to European contact, and continues popular among modern population. Noni is commonly known as canary wood in Australia, Kura in Fijii, mora de la India in spanish, nono in Tahiti and Nin in Marshall Island. Medicinal values of Noni were known to man many centuries ago. Uses of Noni were mentioned in Indian ethnopharmacology and ayurvedic medicines. Noni is grown as medicinal plant in most of  South Indian temples as sacred plant like basil (Tulasi). In India, it is called by several names in different  regional languages like nuna, manjanathi, manjanuna in Tamil,  molugu, mogal, bundamaddi in Telugu, kakaiplam, kattapitalavam, mannanatti in Malayalam, tagatemara, haladipavete in Kannada, Ach Al in Hindi, Paphan, Achchhulca in Sanskrit, Aseti, Nagkura, Mundari solidaru in Marathi.

Karonda is an indigenous, under utilized fruit of India. It is a hardy multipurpose horticultural bush flourishing well without much care in arid and semi-arid areas. At present ,emphasis is being laid on protection and  production value of karonda plant. It is grown as hedge for beautification which  serves as one of the best bio-fencing materials because of  thorny  nature. It is also grown as an ornamental plant due to its beautiful cherry like fruits. Karonda plants are useful in many ways as detailed  below:   Fruit: Karonda fruit is a rich source of iron and contains a fair amount of vitamin C, and therefore very useful for curing of anaemia and has antiscorbutic properties. Enthomedically,  fruits are used as an astringent, antisorbutic and as a remedy for biliousness. Mature fruit contains high amount of pectin  and therefore, besides being used for making pickles and chutney, it can be exploited  for making jelly. Raw fruit can be used for making chatney. Leaf: Karonda leaves are palatable and contain a fair amount of nutrient which are browsed by sheep, goats and camels in arid and semi arid areas.If fruits fall on ground, enrich soil by adding organic carbon and other mineral nutrients. It reduces evaporation  from  soil underneath due to dense foliage. Leaves  are used for feeding silk worm.  Leaf decoction is used against intermittent fever, diarrhoea, oral inflammation and ear ache.

Tamarind (Tamarindus indica) or Imli is also called  Indian Date. It is a large broad leaved, tropical tree found in India and many parts of Asia.  Tamarind is native to tropical Africa and grows wild throughout  Sudan. It was introduced to India so long ago that it is now reported as indigenous. Sometimes during  sixteenth century, it was introduced into America and today it is widely grown in Mexico.   There are large areas of marginal and waste lands, which are not suitable for cultivation of fruits like banana, citrus, sapota, litchi, mango, pomegranate etc., either due to poor quality of soil or lack of water resources. Such lands are suitable for  cultivation of underutilized fruit crops like tamarind which is not so popular among  farmers due to following reasons:

Plants yielding oilseeds are economically important in India next only to food crops and play an important role for sustainability of  cropping systems and soil health. Oilseeds scenario in the country underwent a sea change in  last fifteen years. India changed from net importer in  1980s to a net exporter  during  early 1990s. Again, it is back to net importer importing more than 40 % of its annual edible oil needs. Country’s demand for edible oils is  rising to double  the current level of 4% (as against productivity growth of 2% in 1986-2001) in  next 12 years (Hegde 2004). To meet  challenges of oilseeds production, there is  need to adopt multi-pronged strategy which involves enhancing production through area expansion and productivity improvement through improved technologies and value addition . As a progressive step in this direction of self sufficiency, there is  need to identify alternative oilseed trees/plants which can be grown in wastelands. There are more than 300 different kinds of tree species which bear seeds  rich in oil and  introduction of simarouba is an important step in this direction. National Oilseeds and Vegetable Oil Development (NOVOD) Board under Ministry of Agriculture  identified simarouba as a potential Tree Bearing Oilseed (TBO) for popularization in India and placed it in  first place in their list of importance.

Aonla or Indian Gooseberry (Emhlica officinalis Gaertn. syn. Phyllanthus embfica L.). belonging to family Euphorbiaceae. is an indigenous fruittree to Indian sub continent. It is one of the most important commercial crops suitable for marginal soils and various kinds of waste lands particularly salt affected lands. A lot of genetic variability is available in India with respect to growth and fruit quality characteristics of aonla. Almost all the budded varieties of aonla were selected from naturally occurring superior chance seedlings having in view their earliness, lateness, hardiness to adverse conditions, yield and superior fruit quality. 1-or successful aonla orchards, it is utmost necessary to have basic knowledge of various cultivars suitable for a particular set of environmental and soil conditions.