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Preface
Plant systems are the primary source of food and medicine directly contribute to the development of new drugs in addition to agrochemicals, fragrance, flavour, cosmetics, fine chemicals and nutraceuticals. Earth is a repository of 2,97,326 plant species distributed on every continent except Antarctica, and of these 21,000 species listed by World Health Organization (WHO) is medicinal plants. It is of record that only one-third of medicinal plants discovered across the globe are studied for their chemical composition and medicinal application for product development. According to WHO 25% prescribed drugs considered essential for human survival and animal health care is obtained from plants.
As we enter the new decades of twenty-first century, research on plants and their application for human health care is once again assuming a prominent position. This book deals with the commercial valuable plant species and ongoing R&D to highlight their importance in current scenerio. To understand the biodiversity across the earth requires understanding the importance of usages and environmental role of plants. It is the objective of the present book to provide this understanding to industries and pharma companies for discovery of new drugs and medicines. Renewed emphasis on developing medicinal and aromatic products from native plants has encouraged new botanical endeavors. Efforts to feed the growing populations in the most developing countries have positioned biological scientists at the cutting edge of genetic engineering with the creation of transgenic plants and chemical researchers for development of botanical medicine by using herbs for therapeutic values. Major pharmaceutical companies are currently conducting extensive research on plant materials collected from high altitude forests of himalayan regions and other geographic locations for their potential medicinal, aromatic and nutraceutical values. Substances obtained from the plants and microbes remain the basis for a large proportion of the commercial medications used today for the treatment of chronic illness such as heart disease, high blood pressure, pain, asthma and other associated human problems.
As plants and fermented microbes are rich source of novel drugs that form the ingredients in traditional system of medicine, and approximately 90% raw botanicals used in the manufacture of Ayurveda, Amchi (Tibetan medicine), Homoeopathy, Siddha and Unani systems of medicine is largely prepared by using plants from wild and captive cultivated source from agriculture at farms and gardens. The usages of plants for human food and medicine is an age-old tradition of civilization, and there is a strong well proved belief that plants keep the mind in tune with nature and maintains proper balance. The use and the search for medicine and nutrients supplements derived from plants have accelerated the discovery in recent years, and well established example is nobel prize winner, Professor Youyou Tu in 2015 for key contribution to the discovery of artimisinin from a plant called Artemisia annua for treating malaria. Discovery of artimisinin has saved millions of lives and represent one of the significant contribution of China to global health.
Botanists, natural product chemists, pharmacologists and microbiologists were from plants combing their research investigation for phytochemicals that could be developed for treatment of chronic illness of human kind. Interest in various natural products obtained from plants for diverse useful is attributed to their different bioactivities, low toxicity and environmental sustainability. Today's, folklore herbals, drugs, food supplements, nutraceuticals, pharmaceutical intermediates, bioactive natural products and lead compounds from synthetic drugs are of high demand. Biotech plants have emerged amazingly fast as a boon for science and society. Genetic engineerings are playing a significant role in modern agriculture, pharmaceutical and environmental sectors, to meet the increasing demands of food, fuels, fibers, perfumes, cosmetics, minerals, vitamins, antibiotics, narcotics and other health-related drugs and fine chemicals. It is mentioned in literatures that the people of earlier civilization distinguishes plants suitable for nutritional purpose from others with a definitive pharmacological action observed by applying plants in their daily use. This relationship has grown between plants and humans, and many new plants have come to be used as drugs and nutraceutical.
Himalayas, Indo-Myanmar (former Indo-Burma) and Western Ghats of India is a repository of unique medicinal and aromatic plant species. Interactions between the advance science and understading of natural ecosystem helped lots in maintaining the richness of species and genetic materials for discovery and for sustainance to man-kind. Different human societies use plants according to their beliefs, knowledge, and earlier experiences gathered from their ancestor. Their knowledge about the usages of the plants is not known to scientists, unless and until, such records dessiminated through publications or any other permanent records. These hidden sacreds need to be explored in future for planning and new discoveries in science. Biotechnological intervention, molecular investigation and new science analysis on the usefulness of plants in recent decades have resulted in portrayals of relationship that have impacted understanding and interpretations of origin and diversification of commercial valuable plants. Therefore, it has been challenging issues to keep track of all new developments especially that deals with value addition and product formulations. It has been relevance for the scientists and the researchers for asking and being able to answer the significant scientific questions related to discovery and future strategies on commercial values and societal benefits. Content of this book attempts to fill this need of the hours.
I, on behalf of all authors, confident that this particular book will be a useful tool for academia and industries. The present issue, therefore, builds upon the excellent research articles given by fifty nine scientists of fourteen topmost research organizations and institutes of India. This book, therefore, is a coherent statement of the current status and title ‘Plants of Commercial Values’, and goes beyond the papers presented here in different chapters for globalization. This book starts with first chapter on medicinal-cum-nutraceutical mushroom, Morchella esculenta, which is one of the richest sources of proteins, fibers, vitamins, amino acids and calories, because of its nutrient composition, mycologist called it as the costliest and the superior mushroom. This chapter is followed by medicinal usages of Woodfordia fructicosa in curing peptic ulcer of human- being and Tinospora cordifolia as multifaceted elixer plant in Arurvedic system of medicine. Modelling and conservation status of one of the rare plant of Himalaya, Magnolia campbellii is discussed in the fourth chapter of this book. Bunium persicum is yet an important plant of temperate regions and its seeds used as carminative substances in various food recipes, is presented in chapter fifth of this publication. It was then followed by Dysoxylum binectariferum, one of the threatened and important lead molecule plants of Northeastern India and Western Ghats of South India, and, biochemical analysis of hemiparasitic taxa at mitigator of pollutants in chapter six and chapter eight, respectively. Recently a tissue culture raised variety of banana was first time introduced by CSIR-IIIM Jammu for commercial cultivation with aim to double the income of the farmers and chapter nine discussed the importance of tissue culture banana as commercial scale in this book. Chapter nine discussed about the commercial value of the husk derived from seeds of Plantago ovata, an important medicine herb, used as emollient and laxative in the treatment of dysentery and diarrhoea, and dried seeds contain over 30% mucilage.
Nobel prized plant Artemisia annua is known for the content of anti-malarial drug called as artemisinin is presented in chapter ten. This plant species is widely distributed in the subtropical and temperate zones worldwide and also known for its usages in traditional system of medicine for the treatment of various ailments associated with mankind and animal health care. Threatened subsistence of Spinifex littoreus, value of plant growth promoting bacteria, systematics of starch grains, techniques for improvement of commercially valuable plants, sustainability of Mucuna pruriens and phytochemical screening of Eulaliopsis binata are also explained by different authors in chapter eleven to sixteen of this book. Rhododendrons are one of the most important multiferous flowering plants of Himalayas, and commonly known as Burans. Flowers and leaves of Rhododendron exhibits many nutritional, medicinal, and aromatic properties and has a number of uses in folklore medicine. Chapter seventeen presented in this book provide information on the checklist of Indian rhododendrons, their traditional usages, phytochemistry and potentials for value addition in near future. Chapter eighteen and nineteen deals with Cyperus pangorei and biosynthesis of nanoparticles using leaf extacts of three medicinal plants (Spondias mombin, Stachytarpheta jamaicensis, Syzygium samarangensis) as commercial plants for rural prosperity and pollution indicator. An important technique required for biotechnological intervention is plant tissue culture techniques, and is presented in chapter twenty with special reference to commercial crop improvement. Aromatic plants are valued for their aromas, tastes and their applications in treatment of various illness, and mostly prefered in cosmatics, perfumes, confectionery foods and medicines. Chapter twenty- one deals with aromatic wealth of Himalaya, potential of value addition and product development from essential oils. Before, all these twenty one chapters, this book starts with introduction section where importance of plants, their value addition, and future perspectives are discussed as editor choice.
We are sure that this book will serve as a stimulus for continued research in biological sciences, chemical sciences, pharmacological and clinical studies on plants and microbes which will add and contribute to value addition in the form of medicine discovery and products development. In addition to research suggestions contained within each of the chapters, an introduction section emphasizes particular research avenues for attention. One of the most challenging is how to deal effectively with endangered and commercial viable plants presented in this book such as Morels, Giloy, Woodfordia, Panax, Bunium, Magnolia, Plantago, Cyperus, Dysoxylum, Mucuna, Rhododendron, high yielding variety Banana, Artemisia, Spondius, Stachytarpheta, Syzygium and others. Detail studies presented in different chapters on biology, chemistry, pharmacolgy and commercial aspects will help more precisely test biogeographic theory and chemical hypothesis. Examining chemical constituents of particular species will also be more feasible by studying this book.
We have tried to convey a maximum of knowledge through this book regarding potential plants for medicine and product values in a minimum of words, and believe that there is always scope for improvement. Readers are the best panel of judges to evaluate the content of this particular book. I, on behalf of all team members, hoping and believe that the readers have a moral obligation to convey suggestions on this book entitled “Plants of Commercial Values’ in near future for improvement. It would be of greatest pleasure for me if this book could attract students of botany, ecology, chemistry, pharmacology, zoology and strategies planners like forest departments, tourists and industries, who have something in their mind in relation to drug discovery, value addition and product development. This book will have a way of providing a new level of future perspectives in understanding different areas of sciences. Research should be continually encouraged to successfully achieve such objectives so that we can take maximum advantage of what could be offered in a sustainable way that will be beneficial in and of itself. Without contributions from fifty nine authorities, it would have been hard for me to imagine a more thorough explanation on the content and prosperity of this renouned publication.
Preface
Plant systems are the primary source of food and medicine directly contribute to the development of new drugs in addition to agrochemicals, fragrance, flavour, cosmetics, fine chemicals and nutraceuticals. Earth is a repository of 2,97,326 plant species distributed on every continent except Antarctica, and of these 21,000 species listed by World Health Organization (WHO) is medicinal plants. It is of record that only one-third of medicinal plants discovered across the globe are studied for their chemical composition and medicinal application for product development. According to WHO 25% prescribed drugs considered essential for human survival and animal health care is obtained from plants.
As we enter the new decades of twenty-first century, research on plants and their application for human health care is once again assuming a prominent position. This book deals with the commercial valuable plant species and ongoing R&D to highlight their importance in current scenerio. To understand the biodiversity across the earth requires understanding the importance of usages and environmental role of plants. It is the objective of the present book to provide this understanding to industries and pharma companies for discovery of new drugs and medicines. Renewed emphasis on developing medicinal and aromatic products from native plants has encouraged new botanical endeavors. Efforts to feed the growing populations in the most developing countries have positioned biological scientists at the cutting edge of genetic engineering with the creation of transgenic plants and chemical researchers for development of botanical medicine by using herbs for therapeutic values. Major pharmaceutical companies are currently conducting extensive research on plant materials collected from high altitude forests of himalayan regions and other geographic locations for their potential medicinal, aromatic and nutraceutical values. Substances obtained from the plants and microbes remain the basis for a large proportion of the commercial medications used today for the treatment of chronic illness such as heart disease, high blood pressure, pain, asthma and other associated human problems.
As plants and fermented microbes are rich source of novel drugs that form the ingredients in traditional system of medicine, and approximately 90% raw botanicals used in the manufacture of Ayurveda, Amchi (Tibetan medicine), Homoeopathy, Siddha and Unani systems of medicine is largely prepared by using plants from wild and captive cultivated source from agriculture at farms and gardens. The usages of plants for human food and medicine is an age-old tradition of civilization, and there is a strong well proved belief that plants keep the mind in tune with nature and maintains proper balance. The use and the search for medicine and nutrients supplements derived from plants have accelerated the discovery in recent years, and well established example is nobel prize winner, Professor Youyou Tu in 2015 for key contribution to the discovery of artimisinin from a plant called Artemisia annua for treating malaria. Discovery of artimisinin has saved millions of lives and represent one of the significant contribution of China to global health.
Botanists, natural product chemists, pharmacologists and microbiologists were from plants combing their research investigation for phytochemicals that could be developed for treatment of chronic illness of human kind. Interest in various natural products obtained from plants for diverse useful is attributed to their different bioactivities, low toxicity and environmental sustainability. Today's, folklore herbals, drugs, food supplements, nutraceuticals, pharmaceutical intermediates, bioactive natural products and lead compounds from synthetic drugs are of high demand. Biotech plants have emerged amazingly fast as a boon for science and society. Genetic engineerings are playing a significant role in modern agriculture, pharmaceutical and environmental sectors, to meet the increasing demands of food, fuels, fibers, perfumes, cosmetics, minerals, vitamins, antibiotics, narcotics and other health-related drugs and fine chemicals. It is mentioned in literatures that the people of earlier civilization distinguishes plants suitable for nutritional purpose from others with a definitive pharmacological action observed by applying plants in their daily use. This relationship has grown between plants and humans, and many new plants have come to be used as drugs and nutraceutical.
Himalayas, Indo-Myanmar (former Indo-Burma) and Western Ghats of India is a repository of unique medicinal and aromatic plant species. Interactions between the advance science and understading of natural ecosystem helped lots in maintaining the richness of species and genetic materials for discovery and for sustainance to man-kind. Different human societies use plants according to their beliefs, knowledge, and earlier experiences gathered from their ancestor. Their knowledge about the usages of the plants is not known to scientists, unless and until, such records dessiminated through publications or any other permanent records. These hidden sacreds need to be explored in future for planning and new discoveries in science. Biotechnological intervention, molecular investigation and new science analysis on the usefulness of plants in recent decades have resulted in portrayals of relationship that have impacted understanding and interpretations of origin and diversification of commercial valuable plants. Therefore, it has been challenging issues to keep track of all new developments especially that deals with value addition and product formulations. It has been relevance for the scientists and the researchers for asking and being able to answer the significant scientific questions related to discovery and future strategies on commercial values and societal benefits. Content of this book attempts to fill this need of the hours.
I, on behalf of all authors, confident that this particular book will be a useful tool for academia and industries. The present issue, therefore, builds upon the excellent research articles given by fifty nine scientists of fourteen topmost research organizations and institutes of India. This book, therefore, is a coherent statement of the current status and title ‘Plants of Commercial Values’, and goes beyond the papers presented here in different chapters for globalization. This book starts with first chapter on medicinal-cum-nutraceutical mushroom, Morchella esculenta, which is one of the richest sources of proteins, fibers, vitamins, amino acids and calories, because of its nutrient composition, mycologist called it as the costliest and the superior mushroom. This chapter is followed by medicinal usages of Woodfordia fructicosa in curing peptic ulcer of human- being and Tinospora cordifolia as multifaceted elixer plant in Arurvedic system of medicine. Modelling and conservation status of one of the rare plant of Himalaya, Magnolia campbellii is discussed in the fourth chapter of this book. Bunium persicum is yet an important plant of temperate regions and its seeds used as carminative substances in various food recipes, is presented in chapter fifth of this publication. It was then followed by Dysoxylum binectariferum, one of the threatened and important lead molecule plants of Northeastern India and Western Ghats of South India, and, biochemical analysis of hemiparasitic taxa at mitigator of pollutants in chapter six and chapter eight, respectively. Recently a tissue culture raised variety of banana was first time introduced by CSIR-IIIM Jammu for commercial cultivation with aim to double the income of the farmers and chapter nine discussed the importance of tissue culture banana as commercial scale in this book. Chapter nine discussed about the commercial value of the husk derived from seeds of Plantago ovata, an important medicine herb, used as emollient and laxative in the treatment of dysentery and diarrhoea, and dried seeds contain over 30% mucilage.
Nobel prized plant Artemisia annua is known for the content of anti-malarial drug called as artemisinin is presented in chapter ten. This plant species is widely distributed in the subtropical and temperate zones worldwide and also known for its usages in traditional system of medicine for the treatment of various ailments associated with mankind and animal health care. Threatened subsistence of Spinifex littoreus, value of plant growth promoting bacteria, systematics of starch grains, techniques for improvement of commercially valuable plants, sustainability of Mucuna pruriens and phytochemical screening of Eulaliopsis binata are also explained by different authors in chapter eleven to sixteen of this book. Rhododendrons are one of the most important multiferous flowering plants of Himalayas, and commonly known as Burans. Flowers and leaves of Rhododendron exhibits many nutritional, medicinal, and aromatic properties and has a number of uses in folklore medicine. Chapter seventeen presented in this book provide information on the checklist of Indian rhododendrons, their traditional usages, phytochemistry and potentials for value addition in near future. Chapter eighteen and nineteen deals with Cyperus pangorei and biosynthesis of nanoparticles using leaf extacts of three medicinal plants (Spondias mombin, Stachytarpheta jamaicensis, Syzygium samarangensis) as commercial plants for rural prosperity and pollution indicator. An important technique required for biotechnological intervention is plant tissue culture techniques, and is presented in chapter twenty with special reference to commercial crop improvement. Aromatic plants are valued for their aromas, tastes and their applications in treatment of various illness, and mostly prefered in cosmatics, perfumes, confectionery foods and medicines. Chapter twenty- one deals with aromatic wealth of Himalaya, potential of value addition and product development from essential oils. Before, all these twenty one chapters, this book starts with introduction section where importance of plants, their value addition, and future perspectives are discussed as editor choice.
We are sure that this book will serve as a stimulus for continued research in biological sciences, chemical sciences, pharmacological and clinical studies on plants and microbes which will add and contribute to value addition in the form of medicine discovery and products development. In addition to research suggestions contained within each of the chapters, an introduction section emphasizes particular research avenues for attention. One of the most challenging is how to deal effectively with endangered and commercial viable plants presented in this book such as Morels, Giloy, Woodfordia, Panax, Bunium, Magnolia, Plantago, Cyperus, Dysoxylum, Mucuna, Rhododendron, high yielding variety Banana, Artemisia, Spondius, Stachytarpheta, Syzygium and others. Detail studies presented in different chapters on biology, chemistry, pharmacolgy and commercial aspects will help more precisely test biogeographic theory and chemical hypothesis. Examining chemical constituents of particular species will also be more feasible by studying this book.
We have tried to convey a maximum of knowledge through this book regarding potential plants for medicine and product values in a minimum of words, and believe that there is always scope for improvement. Readers are the best panel of judges to evaluate the content of this particular book. I, on behalf of all team members, hoping and believe that the readers have a moral obligation to convey suggestions on this book entitled “Plants of Commercial Values’ in near future for improvement. It would be of greatest pleasure for me if this book could attract students of botany, ecology, chemistry, pharmacology, zoology and strategies planners like forest departments, tourists and industries, who have something in their mind in relation to drug discovery, value addition and product development. This book will have a way of providing a new level of future perspectives in understanding different areas of sciences. Research should be continually encouraged to successfully achieve such objectives so that we can take maximum advantage of what could be offered in a sustainable way that will be beneficial in and of itself. Without contributions from fifty nine authorities, it would have been hard for me to imagine a more thorough explanation on the content and prosperity of this renouned publication.