"The aim of the Economic botany data collection standard is to provide a system whereby uses of plants in their cultural context can be described, using standardised descriptors and terms, and attached to taxonomic data sets. Studes on the uses of plants are becoming increasingly important and the standardisation of terms and a unified system to describe uses would be of enormous benefit to gatherers of information..."--Page 1.

The strength of this book is that it is written by someone who has spent a lifetime devoted to the science of economic botany. The author has brought together his vast experience in the field in Africa with his studies of arid land plants at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. The result is an informative and reliable text that covers a vast range of topics. It is also firmly based upon the author's research and interest in plant taxonomy and therefore fully acknowledges the importance of correct naming and classification in the field of science of economic botany. The coverage is of economic botany in its broadest sense. I was delighted to find such topics as ecophysiology, plant breeding, the environment and conservation are included in the text. This gives the book a much more comprehensive coverage than most other texts on the subject. I was also glad to see that the book covers the use of various organisms that are no longer considered part of the plant kingdom such as various species of fungi and algae. It is indeed a broad ranging book that will be of use to many people interested in the uses of plants and fungi. Economic botany is once again being given more prominence as a discipline because of its enormous relevance to both conservation and sustainable development. Those people involved in those topics shOUld find this a most useful resource.

Ethnopharmacology is a component of Encyclopedia of Biological, Physiological and Health Sciences in the global Encyclopedia of Life Support Systems (EOLSS), which is an integrated compendium of twenty one Encyclopedias. Ethnopharmacology is the scientific study correlating ethnic groups, their health, and how it relates to their physical habits and methodology in creating and using medicines. This Theme on Ethnopharmacology presents the field as an amalgam of perspectives, primarily those of pharmacology, pharmacognosy, anthropology, and botany. It highlights the uniquely biocultural perspective on ethnopharmacology offered by medical anthropology, which underscores that health and healing are culturally constructed and socially negotiated. The definition of ethnopharmacology that frames this volume is: the study of indigenous medical systems that connects the ethnography of health and healing with the physiological relevance of its medical practices. The history of botanical medicines is traced from primate self-medication to contributions to biomedicine. The methods of ethnopharmacologic inquiry are presented from pharmacologic, ecological, ethnographic, data management, and ethical perspectives. Chapters are devoted to plants used in the treatment of specific disorders: cancer, parasitic infection, AIDS, inflammation, diabetes, and cardiovascular and neurodegenerative disorders. The important role that plant medicines play in the developing world is revealed in discussion of ritual and ceremony, safety issues, health care, and biodiversity. These two volumes are aimed at the following a wide spectrum of audiences from the merely curious to those seeking in-depth knowledge: University and College students Educators, Professional practitioners, Research personnel and Policy analysts, managers, and decision makers and NGOs.

The third part of the Digital Plant Atlas presents illustrations of subfossil remains of plants with economic value. These plant remains mainly derive from excavations in the Old World (Europe, Western Asia and North Africa) that the Deutsches Archäologisches Institut (DAI, Berlin) and the Groningen Institute of Archaeology (GIA) have conducted or participated in. Plant material is usually very perishable, but can nevertheless be preserved in archaeological sites if the biological decay of the material is blocked. Many plant remains are discovered during excavations in carbonized form, where despite having been in contact with fire, they have not been completely reduced to ash. Extremely dry climatic conditions, like those in Egypt, can also preserve plant material in a completely dessicated condition. Most of the economically valuable plants illustrated here have been carbonized or desiccated. So this atlas links up very well with the Digital Atlas of Economic Plants.Like the other atlasses, this atlas is a combination of a book and a website.The Book: Just as in part two of the series, this part will not only include illustrations of seeds and fruits, but also of other plant parts. The resulting variety in seed and fruit forms will be illustrated by examples from different excavations. To support their identification and determination, also pictures of recent plants and relevant plant parts have been included.The Website: To supplement the photographs, the website will also include morphometric measurements of the subfossil seeds and fruits. These measurements can be compared with own measurements of the plant taxa in question.Summary: Plant families: 56 Plant species (Taxa): 191 Photographs: 773 photographs of subfossil plant parts, 1137 photographs of recent plants and plant parts Languages: English and 15 indices (scientific plant name, pharmaceutical plant name, English, German, French, Dutch, Spanish, Arab, Arab in transliteration, Turkish, Chinese, Pinyin (Chinese in transliteration), Hindi, Sanskrit, and Malayalam) Purchase of the book grants access to the protected parts of the websites of the project.

This collection provides a comprehensive overview of the dynamics of contemporary natural resource based livelihoods and implications for their sustainability in the context of the Kalahari environment of southern Africa, a region subject to marked spatial and temporal natural variability. Each chapter is written by an active Kalahari researcher and addresses, from an environmental or a social perspective, the implications of different policies for rural livelihoods and coping strategies.

Crop wild relatives (CWR) are species closely related to crop plants which can contribute beneficial traits such as pest or disease resistance and yield improvement. Through an examination of national, regional and global context of CWR, this text presents methodologies and case studies that provide recommendations for global conservation and use.