A detailed discussion of the need to conserve medicinal plants and their environments.

This contributed volume provides a comprehensive, in-depth and subject-based reviews on the current status of active ingredients, sustainable use, biodiversity and conservation of certain endangered medicinal plants. The book also explores conventional and non-conventional biotechnological interventions for their biodiversity conservation. Medicinal plants have been used in worldwide as a major source of raw material for the traditional herbal healthcare practices as well as for drug discovery and development in pharmaceutical industry. The cumulative consequences of various human activities and environmental factors cause decline in the biodiversity of medicinal plants at an unprecedented rate worldwide. Thus, the overall understanding of ecology, species and genetic diversity along with assessment of the status of different threats and their impact on medicinal plants is crucial to sustain existing biodiversity, its utilization and conservation. All the latest advancements in the biotechnological approaches for the conservation research of endangered medicinal plants and the future perspectives have been described. This book provides comprehensive reviews spreading over about 25 chapters divided in three sections. The chapters of this book are written by recognized scientists in their respective fields which are useful to students, academicians, researchers, botanists, biotechnologists, policy makers, conservationists and industries interested in biodiversity conservation and medicinal plant research for the production of secondary metabolites.

This volume is a collection of papers by experts in medicinal plants, presented to help clarify the many policy and technical issues associated with the conservation, use, production and trade of medicinal plants. The publication draws attention to the huge contribution of medicinal plants to traditional and modern health care system. It also alerts readers on the many problems and challenges facing their sustainable development. Subjects covered include assessment and management of the medicinal plant resource base; best harvesting and processing practices; trade issues; and intellectual property rights regarding traditional medicines of indigenous peoples. This documents will help raise awareness of medicinal plants as an important forest resource and will help ensure that medicinal plants are adequately included in forest conservation and utilization programmes. Contents Chapter 1: Introduction by G C Bodeker; Part I: General Articles covering Global Issues; Forest based medicines in traditional and cosmopolitan health care by A P Van Seters, Enthnobotanical research and traditional health care in developing countries by M Balick and P A Cox, Between a rock and a hard place: Indigenous peoples, nation states and the multinationals by G Dutfield, Industrial utilisation of medicinal plants in developing countries by T de Silva, Trade in Medicinal Plants by S E Kuipers, Medicinal plant information database by K K S Bhat; Part II: Articles on Regional Aspects of Medicinal Plants Use; Biodiversity-People Interface in Nepal by N Bhattarai, Beyond the Biodiversity convention-the challenges facing the bio-cultural heritage of india s medicinal plants by D Shankar and B Majumdar, A biocultural medicinal plants conservation project in Sri Lanka by L de Alwis, utilisation and conservation of medicinal plants in China with special reference to Atractylides lancea by S-A He and N Sheng, An Africa-wide overview of medicinial plant harvesting, conservation and health care by A B Cunningham, Biodiversity conservation and the application of Amazonian medicinal plants in the control of malaria by W Milliken, Bulgarian model for regulating the trade in plant material for medicinal and other purposes by D Lange and M Mladenova, Phytomedicinal forest harvest in the United States by J A Duke.

In-depth cultivation of 20 rare species of medicinal herbs from North America. Seed planting, care of seedlings, nursery and field production, usage, technical statistics, ranges, zones and marketing.

The complex and important relationship between public expenditure and economic performance has been the subject of numerous econometric studies. But the studies remain inconclusivesome results have shown positive relationships, while others are negative. Thus there is no conventional wisdom backed by statistical evidence on this relationship, nor is there any sort of clear theoretical underpinning that explains how the aggregate of government spending acts on the growth of total output. This book studies the role of public expenditures in a noneconometric way by examining a number of specific instances of these expenditures and their direct effect on economic performance. Specifically, the authors presents scenarios from Botswana, Ghana, Guinea, Kenya, and Zambia and ask a series of questions to identify and illuminate the impact of these instances of public expenditure on a number of variables that help measure economic performance. These examples are then used to make generalizations about the relationship between public spending and economic performance.

Medicinal plants are globally valuable sources of herbal products. Plant-based remedies have been used for centuries and have had no alternative in the western medicine repertoire, while others and their bioactive derivatives are in high demand and have been the central focus of biomedical research. As Medicinal plants move from fringe to mainstream with a greater number of individuals seeking treatments free of side effects, considerable attention has been paid to utilize plant-based products for the prevention and cure of human diseases. An unintended consequence of this increased demand, however, is that the existence of many medicinal plants is now threatened, due to their small population size, narrow distribution area, habitat specificity, and destructive mode of harvesting. In addition, climate change, habitat loss and genetic drift have further endangered these unique species. Although extensive research has been carried out on medicinal and aromatic plants, there is relatively little information available on their global distribution patterns, conservation and the associated laws prevailing. This book reviews the current status of threatened medicinal plants in light of increased surge in the demand for herbal medicine. It brings together chapters on both wild (non-cultivated) and domestic (cultivated) species having therapeutic values. Thematically, conventional and contemporary approaches to conservation of such threatened medicinal plants with commercial feasibility are presented. The topics of interest include, but not limited to, biotechnology, sustainable development, in situ and ex situ conservation, and even the relevance of IPR on threatened medicinal plants. We believe this book is useful to horticulturists, botanists, policy makers, conservationists, NGOs and researchers in the academia and the industry sectors.