Fern Flora and Fern Allies of Southern Assam : Ethno-Medicobotanical Studies and Certain Conservation Aspects

Contents: 1. Introductory account: i. Preface. ii. Introduction. iii. Geographical feature and climate of the area under investigation. 2. Material and methods. 3. Enumeration of Fern Flora and Fern Allies with reference to ethno-medicinal utility. 4. In vitro propagation of some endangered ferns species: i. Introduction. ii. Materials and methods. iii. Experimental findings. iv. Discussion. 5. General discussion. 6. Summary. 7. Conclusion. Some selected herbarium. Bibliography.

“This book embodies the medicinal aspects of Ferns and Fern Allies available in Southern Assam. It also deals with in-vitro propagation methods for conservation of some threatened ferns.

Whenever the question of medicinal plants comes, people generally think of Angiosperms. The whole group Pteridophyta remains neglected. As such the record of medicinal Pteridophyta is less commonly available. Dixit (1974, 1976) thus rightly designated the ferns as a “much neglected group of medicinal plants” and here lies the uniqueness of the book.

The book reports a total 108 species of Ferns and Fern Allies from Southern Assam of which 70 species have been reported as medicinal based on traditional utilization.

New techniques for in-vitro propagation of Bolbitis Costata and Helminthostachys zeylanica are also reported in the book.” (jacket)