About the book

Medicinal and aromatic plants occupy an important position in the sociocultural, health care and spiritual arena of rural people of India. Medicinal plants contributed significantly to the rural livelihoods. Globally, medicinal and aromatic plants (MAPs) constitute one of the integral parts of the biodiversity, ecosystem and biological heritage. Wide varieties of aromatic and medicinal crops have been identified and explored for their essential oils nowadays. Essential oils are defined as complex volatile compounds synthesized naturally from plant parts during the process of secondary metabolism. It has a great strength in the field of biomedicine as they effectively control a wide range of viral, bacterial, and fungal pathogens due to presence of different types of aldehydes, terpenes, phenolic, and other antimicrobial compounds. A major limitation in the wide scale planting of potentially high economics value crops such as medicinal and aromatic plants is the issue of the land availability.

Contents:

Introduction,

Cultivation Practices of Medicinal Plants,

Culinary Herbs and Aromatic Plants,

Medicinal and Aromatic Plant Industries,

Medicinal Plants and Phytomedicines,

Economically Important Aromatic Plants,

Medicinal Plants and Aromatic Herbs: Genomics and Biosynthetic Pathways,

Ethnobotanical Approach to Drug Discovery