Indigenous Medicinal Plants Including Microbes and Fungi

Contents: I. Pharmaceutical Microbiology Section: 1. Studies on the suitability of prunus salicina (Plum) for vinegar fermentation/H.K. Tewari, H.S. Grewal, S.S. Marwaha and Rakesh Kumar. 2. Biological suppression of microbes by microbial metabolites/B.N. Johir and N.P. Melkania. 3. Status of biotechnological studies of Ergot and Ergot Alkaloids in India/K.S.M. Sastry. 4. Control of phomopsis fruit rots by leaf extracts of certain medicinal plants/Arun Arya. 5. Antiviral effect of the essential oils from Lemon grass (Cymbopogon flexuosus), mentha (Mentha arvensis) and vetiver (Vetiveria zizanoides)/M.P. Pandey, J. Prasad and L.P. Awasthi. 6. Fungal colonization of desmostachya bipinnata (Linn). Stapf. Litter in grassland of Kurukshetra/K.R. Aneja and Ranana Bhan. 7. Arbuscular mycorrhizae associated with medicinal halophytes in Saline areas of Indian Thar Desert/Nishi Mathur, Joginder Singh, Sachendra Bohra, Avinash Bohra, Rahul Solanki and Anil Vyas. 8. Medicinal and antibacterial properties of lichens of Lansdowne (Garhwal)/S.K. Katiyar and Rachna Katiyar. 9. Antimicrobial and immunomodulating activities of mushrooms/Vikram Chauhan and S. Kaur. 10. In vitro antibacterial activity of ten medicinal plants of Jodhpur Region/Sharad Bissa, Dimple Songara, Avinash Bohra and A. Bohra. 11. Antibacterial potential of medicinal plants/P. Kaushik and Pankaj Goyal. 12. Hypoglycaemic activity of Salvadora oleoides and Salvadora persica/J.P. Yadav and Sushila Saini. 13. The concepts and prospects of probiotics, proebiotics and synbotics : an appraisal/Monica Puniya, Aarti Bhatnagar and K.P.S. Sangu. II. Pteridophytes section: 1. Ethnobotanical importance of the ferns of Rajasthan/M.S. Vyas and B.D. Sharma. 2. Ethnobotanical Euphony in some pteridophytes/Satish Padala. 3. Medicinal and other attributes of pteridophytes/S.P. Khullar. III. Tissue culture and cultivation section: 1. Asymbiotic germination of therapeutically important orchids : genus habenaria willd., a study in vitro/S.P. Vij, Madhu Sharma and Navdeep Shekhar. 2. Tissue culture of ochrosia : a plant with antineoplastic alkaloids/K.G. Ramawat, J.C. Chenieux and M. Rideau. 3. Induction of Callus and embryoids from the anthers of Solanum Khasianum/E. Ramnath. 4. Biotechnological approaches for conservation of commiphora wightii : an endangered medicinal plants/Vineet Soni, Vibha Tyagi and L.K. Pareek. 5. Standing crop of ‘Kukkuradru’ Blumea Wightiana Dc in relation to age/V.K. Upadhyay, A.K. Gupta and H.R. Sant. 6. Germination studies of some high altitude medicinal plant species/M.C. Nautiyal. 7. Cultivation prospects of medicinal plants in Haryana/P.K. Verma, M.S. Punia and G.D. Sharma. 8. Prospects of introduction of plants of Ayurvedic and Siddah Medicine in agriculture/Rajendra Gupta. IV. Herbal cosmetics section: 1. Indian herbs as cosmetics/Vinod P. Upadhyay and Ashish K. Misra. 2. Herbal cosmetics : the shampoos and conditioners/M.P. Sharma and Poonam Sharma. V. Ethnobotany and conservation section: 1. Ethnomedicinal plants and Bharia Tribe of Patalkot Valley, Chhindwara District, M.P/J.K. Maheshwari and R.P. Dwivedi. 2. Folk medicines of Arakot Valley in District Uttarkashi : an ethnobotanical study/M.S. Bist, K.C. Bhatt and R.D. Gaur. 3. Conservation and utilization of medicinal plants by Kudubi tribals in Western Ghats-Karnataka/Balakrishna Gowda, G. Boraiah and A.A. Farooqi. 4. Conservation of germplasm of endangered plants of medicinal and ethnobotanical importance/C.A. Ninan and S. Geethamma. 5. The need for alpine gardens to conserve and multiply rare medicinal herbs in the Central Himalaya/G.S. Rawat and A.N. Purohit. 6. Ethnobotanical study of medicinal plants of Himachal Pradesh/Narain Singh Chauhan. 7.  Endangered Ayurvedic pharmacopoeial plant resources of Himachal Pradesh/Narain Singh Chauhan. 8. Plants of Karnataka of medical and cosmetic properties - their uses and distribution/G.P. Sathyavathi and M.D. Rajanna. 9. Assessment and conservation of medicinal plants of Bhubaneswar and its neighbourhood/B.P. Choudhury. 10. Ethnomedicinal plans used by tribals living in the Amirgadh range Forest of Banaskantha District, in the Aravalli Hills of North Gujarat/K.M. Patel. 11. Some important plants of Charaka Samhita/Anil Kumar Dhiman. 12. Some adulterant and substitute raw plant drugs/Anil Kumar Dhiman. 13. Adult education cum extension and cultivation and conservation of medicinal and other useful plants of ethnobotanical importance prospects for productive symbiosis/Shantha Krishnan. V. Phytochemistry section: 1. D-Limonene in the essential oil of an aromatic herb limnophila repens/T. Rudrappa. 2. Isolation of steroid from crataeva nurvala Buch-Ham/Vandna Sharma, K. Ramesh and M.A. Padhya. 3. The lectins and their applications/Purshotam Kaushik.

“The volume is the revised 2nd edition of proceedings of a National Seminar Sponsored by CSIR and ICAR, New Delhi, held at Gurukul Kangri University, Hardwar. The book has been divided into six sections.

The first section covers an informative icon on alcoholic preparations in Charka Samhita, on bacterial endotoxin test also called LAL test, production of vinegar biological suppression of microbes by microbial metabolites, ergot and ergot alkaloids, control of  phomopsis fruit rots by leaf extracts of certain medicinal plants, antiviral effect of essential oils, fungal colonization of Desmostachya, mycorrhizal fungi of some medicinal plants of the Thar desert, antibacterial activity of lichens, mushrooms and plants and hypoglycaemic activity of Salvadora. The concept of probiotics, prebiotics and synbiotics has been provided.

In the second section almost all important medicinal pteridophyts of India have been covered. The 3rd section covers asymbiotic germination and micropropagation of medicinal orchids, ochrosia with antineoplastic alkaloids, anther culture of solanum khasianum, and biotechnological methods for propagation of Indian Bdellium. Germination of seeds of high altitude medicinal plants and cultivation in plains have been given. The 4th section on herbal cosmetics provides remarkable information. The 5th section covers ethnobotanical information gathered from tribal areas of this vast country. Some important medicinal plants of Charka Samhita and adultesants are also given. The last 6th section gives information on essential oils, isolation of steroids and lectins.

The book will be useful for the researchers, teachers and students of microbiology biotechnology, botany and pharmaceutical sciences. It will be of equal interest to agricultural scientists, medical men and pharmaceutical industries and policy makers.” (jacket)