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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.

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.

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).

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).

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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”.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Introduction

Plantation crops are high value commercial crops which are broadly classified as estate crops consisting of crops like tea, coffee and rubber and small holders plantation crops like coconut, cashew, arecanut, cocoa etc. Spices especially black pepper, cardamom, vanilla, tree spices like clove, nutmeg, cinnamon and allspice are generally grown as mixed crops in perennial cropping systems. In India, plantation crops including spices are grown in an area of three million hectares and generate an annual income of more than Rs, 5,53,630 million. They are valued for multifarious uses to meet the human needs such as food, oil, industrial raw materials, beverages and confectionary items. Pests and diseases are the major limiting factors in increasing the productivity of these crops. Among the pests, nematodes have got a major role in devastating the pepper plantations by the involvement in slow wilt disease, nematode diseases of cardamom nurseries, root-knot nematode infestation in ginger, turmeric, clove, nutmeg, allspice, lesion nematode infestation in tea, coffee, etc.