Contents Preface. Acknowledgements. 1. Arthritis and its management/Irfan Ali Khan and Atiya Khanum. 2. Plant diversity in Shymgiri P 3 area in Panna Forest Division/Sheshmani Gautam J.L. Shrivastava S.K. Masih and U. Homkar. 3. Origins of modern medicines in historical perspective/D.A. Patil. 4. Immunotoxicology/R. Jeyachandran A. Mahesh G. Krithika and L. Cindrella. 5. Medicinal plants of Bhadrachalam Forest Division of Andhra Pradesh/V.C. Gupta and P.V. Goud. Man depended on bioresources of his survival and sustenance since immemorial time. Obviously in the earliest times the primitive man acquired knowledge since he was very close to the nature. He was equipped with deep and discerning acquaintance with the ambient plant world. This acquaintance led him to unavoidable experimentation through which was channelized his knowledge of properties of several plant species beneficial or even harmful in nature. This knowledge gradually became in later periods an integral part of his culture which has been passed from generation to generation with certain modifications improvements or even deletions. Our ancestors had a wide range of medicinal herbs at their disposal and that they likewise have in depth understanding of medicinal herbs. Even until the last century every community village or hamlets had a wealth of herbal folklore of common health problems. They used them in the form of certain recipes like lotions teas poultices ointment etc. On the advent of waves of modernization and acculturation the golden lore of our ancestors was on the wane.

Contents: Preface. 1. Plants as source of traditional and modern drug for cancer/R. Perumal Samy and M. Sarumathi. 2. Antimalarials of plant origin/ Keshetty Srisilam and Ciddi Veeresham. 3. Antidiabetic drugs from plants/ Keshetty Srisilam and Ciddi Veeresham. 4. In Vitro studies on some plants used in ayurvedic system of medicine for madhumeya (diabetes)/Usha Mukundan, Menka Sharda, Madhura Shrotri, Sucheta Golwalkar and Rahul Gavhane. 5. Rheumatism and the role of medicinal plants/Madhavi Adhav. 6. Genetics of ageing/S.S. Mandal, S.P. Singh, P. Kumar, H.K. Mandal and S.A. Akhtar. 7. Application of Rol genes for enhanced production of bioactive compounds from medicinal plants/R. Thimmaraju and N. Bhagyalakshmi. 8. Cryopreservation of medicinal and aromatic flora/S.S. Mandal and D.K. Choudhary. 9. Molecular mechanisms of flower senescence/Kushal Singh and Parminder Singh. 10. Poisonous plants/G. Baskar Rajan, N. Chezhiyan, Irfan Ali Khan and Atiya Khanum. 11. Allergitic plants/G. Baskar Rajan, N. Chezhiyan, Irfan Ali Khan and Atiya Khanum. 12. Aromatherapy with reference to unani system of medicine/Sharique Zafar and Sakina S. Zafar. "Every year millions of people in developing world die owing to infectious diseases which can be prevented. To our rescue, medicinal and aromatic plants have provided a rich storehouse of traditional medicine to cure all ailments of mankind. Such medicines are widely used as therapeutic agents for different ailments such as hypertension, mental illness, cancer, malaria, diabetes, rheumatism and skin disorders. Sensing the importance

Contents: Preface. 1. Futuristic approach for the treatment of dreaded diseases: AIDS/Amla Batra, Sandhya Goyal, Poonam Khanna and Madan Mohan Sharma. 2. Herbal resources available for commonest disease - diabetes/ Bimal S. Desai and Yogesh T. Jasrai. 3. Standardised phytomedicines for diabetes/A. Subramoniam and V. Babu. 4. Plant vaccines/G. Malathi, G. Baskar Rajan and N. Chezhiyan. 5. Therapeutic potential of plants of Amaranthaceae/M. Jegadeesan and T. Vetrichelvan. 6. Spices medicine/G. Baskar Rajan, N. Chezhiyan, Irfan Ali Khan and Atiya Khanum. 7. Role of medicinal plants for heart and respiratory systems/G. Baskar Rajan, N. Chezhiyan, Irfan Ali Khan and Atiya Khanum. 8. Steroidal alkaloids in vegetable crops/G. Baskar Rajan, N. Chezhiyan, Irfan Ali Khan and Atiya Khanum. 9. Emerging plant drugs in India/T.S. Prabhakaran, G. Baskar Rajan and N. Chezhiyan. 10. Human metabolism and medicinal plants/G. Baskar Rajan, N. Chezhiyan, Irfan Ali Khan and Atiya Khanum. "The plank kingdom has provided man with his therapeutic needs over many millennia. Indeed the vegetal kingdom has been the therapeutic arsenal of all the documented traditional systems of medicine which made possible the modern discipline of ethnomedicine, i.e., those beliefs and practices relating to diseases which are products of indigenous cultural development and are not explicitly derived from the conceptual frame work of modern medicine. " The World Health Organisation estimated that perhaps 80% of the world's population rely on traditional medicines for their primary health care.

Contents: Preface. 1. Role of diet in prevention and cure of cancer/Shaik Imam and S.J. Jussain. 2.Cancer and plant based anticancer drugs/A. Lakshmi Prabha, V. Nandagopalan and V. Kannan. 3. Plant biotechnology in modelling of biopharmaceuticals for cancer/S.S. Mandal, S.A. Akhtar, A. Pandey, D.K. Verma and N.K. Sinha. 4. Fruit therapy/G. Baskar Rajan, N. Chezhiyan, Irfan Ali Khan and Atiya Khanum. 5. Plant volatiles/G. Baskar Rajan, P.T. Ramesh, R. Sagaya Alfred, Irfan Ali Khan and Atiya Khanum. 6. Phytotherapy in dermatology/G. Baskar Rajan, N. Chezhiyan, Irfan Ali Khan and Atiya Khanum. 7. Spices medicines and its improvement through biotechnology/S.S. Mandal, K.R. Maurya and R. Singh. 8. Pharmaceuticals plant biotechnology/S.A. Akhtar, S.S. Mandal, S.P. Singh and R. Prasad. 9. Psychoactive plants/G. Baskar Rajan, N. Chezhiyan, Irfan Ali Khan and Atiya Khanum. "The hills and oceans of India contain a variety of medicinal plants which have been used traditionally for treatment of various diseases. Most of these plants are known to the local tribes and remains scientifically unexplored. Medicinal uses of quite a number of plants have been mentioned in Vedas, Puranas and Susruta. From time immemorial, human beings have learned about plants/herbs for curative treatment of diseases. Sensing the importance and antidisease properties of the medicinal and aromatic plants, articles of this book have been compiled to give a clear idea of the subject and also help the medical practitioners to keep abreast of the latest developments." No. 29794

Contents Preface. Acknowledgements. Editors. Contributors. 1. Java programming/D.P. Bhavani Shekar Azra Sultana and Irfan Ali Khan. 2. Networking concepts/D.P. Bhavani Shekar Azra Sultana and Irfan Ali Khan. 3. Introducing internet to biologist/D. Kandavel C. Aiyavu and S. Senthilkumar. 4. Bioinformatics a prophet of plenty/Shyam S. Mandal H.K. Mandal I. Priya D.K. Choudhary and C. Ray. 5. Databases some background information/R. Aparna and S. Senthilkumar. 6. DNA chip database of gene expression/Shyam S. Mandal. 7. Pathway databases an introduction/C. Aiyavu D. Kandavel and S. Senthilkumar. 8. Finding a sequence record for a gene/R. Aparna and S. Senthilkumar. 9. Sequence alignment/R. Aparna and S. Senthilkumar. 10. Protein engineering orchestrating future biosciences/D. Kandavel C. Aiyavu and S. Senthilkumar. 11. Remote sensing a tool of agroinformatics/Shyam S. Mandal H.K. Mandal R. Kumar and D.K. Choudhary. 12. Using blast for similarity searching/R. Aparna and S. Senthilkumar. 13. Aspects of advanced protein engineering/C. Aiyavu S. Senthilkumar D. Kandavel and S. John Britto. 14. An encyclopedia or bioinformatics web resource part I/C. Aiyavu D. Kandavel and S. Senthil Kumar. 15. An encyclopedia of bioinformatics web resource part II/C. Aiyavu D. Kandavel and S. Senthil Kumar. 16. Electronic information resources and bibliographic management/K. Sudhakaran G. Baskar Rajan Irfan Ali Khan and Atiya Khanum. 17. Tracing the development of various important molecular visualization techniques/C. Aiyavu D. Kandavel S. Senthilkumar and Y. Hariharan. The development of bioinformatics started with the networking of computers and accumulation of data on genes and proteins in biotechnology. This discipline is still young and may be traced back to the 1970s when augmented DNA and protein sequencing became possible and biotechnologists started generating large amount of data on various parameters of genes and proteins. The discipline developed further during mid 1980s when use of computers became very popular for data storage and access by users locally or remotely. It was this period when various tools to store manage and access the information through computers were developed. The use of computers in biomedical sciences grew exponentially after this period when researches started relying on them for experimental data recording analyzing storing brewing technical literature and modeling of proteins and genes. This discipline helps us to collect compile analyze process and represent the information in order to understand processes of life health disease status and find new processes or better drugs delivery system for genes drugs and other genetic components for life improvement and to educate oneself.

Contents Vol. X Preface. Acknowledgement. 1. Cancer hornest nest of medical sciences/Amla Batra Shilpa Rajore Manisha Sharma and Dinesh Jalootharia. 2. Plants and anticancer compounds/G. Baskar Rajan Irfan Ali Khan and Atiya Khanum. 3. Biotechnological approaches on medicinally important species of Tylophora Indica/S. Prakash R. Elangomathavan K. Kathiravan S. Seshadri and S. Ignacimuthu. 4. Biotechnological interventions in bioproduction of L Dopa an antiparkinson drug/R. Elangomathavan S. Prakash K. Kathiravan S. Seshadri and S. Ignacimuthu. 5. Role of micropropagation in the conservation of some important medicinal plants/K. Kathiravan S. Prakash R. Elangomathavan S. Seshadri and S. Ignacimuthu. 6. Tissue culture and genetic improvement a case study in caladium bicolour/A. Mujib. 7. In vitro propagation of Eryngium caeruleum (L.) Bieb S. Rachappaji and T.C. Shivashankara Murthy. 8. Micropropagation of Pisonia Alba (L.) Spanoghe (Lettuce tree) a threatened medicinal tree species/Rachappaji S. and Sivashankara Murthy T.C. 9. Production of Ephedrines from cell cultures of Ephedra/Bhagyalakshmi N. Bopanna K. and Thimmaraju. 10. Biotechnological strategies for Panama disease resistance in banana/Yoges T. Jasrai Bhavisha B. Wala and Samir G. Ajmeri. 11. Plant vaccines an overview/G. Baskar Rajan Irfan Ali Khan and Atiya Khanum. 12. Fruit therapy an overview/G. Baskar Rajan Irfan Ali Khan and Atiya Khanum. 13. Orchids a potential source of secondary metabolites/S. Senthil Kumar T. Francis Xavier and S. Kala. 14. Effects of aroma oils on the human energy field as shown by Pip Energy field imaging/Sharique Zafar Thornton W.J.A. Streeter John R. Rogerson and Sakina S. Zafar. 15. The concept and management of ageing in unani medicine Part II/Sharique Zafar Sakina S. Zafar and Shaikh Samina. Indian has one of the oldest richest and most diverse cultural traditions associated with the use of medicinal plants. We also have a vast and inexhaustible resource of drugs of plant origin as nature has provided us with a rich storehouse of herbal remedies to cure all mankind's ailments. Some of them are widely cultivated and others are found in plenty. Medicinal plants have their values in various chemical compounds available in various parts such as leaves stems roots seeds bark wood etc. These have been determined by their pharmacological action of active principles which produce specific physiological action in human body. The more important of these substances are alkaloids glycosides essential and fatty oils resins gums mucilage tannins etc. In addition the natural wealth of flora is increasingly threatened by the pressures of population explosion commercial exploitation expanding cultivation of agricultural crops developmental projects of urbanization etc.

Contents Preface. 1. A panorama of ethnobotany/Shaukat Saeed Khan and Mohammad Neyametullah Khan. 2. Ethnomedicinal practices of Muthuvan tribes of Kerala/Johncy Manithottam M.S. Francis and Y.S. Rao. 3. Herbal remedies for treatment of gynaecological morbidity/Ravish Zamir. 4. Herbal remedies for liver diseases/J.C. Gogoi. 5. Plant medicines/R. Jeyachandran. 6. Ethnomedicinal plants of Indore district of Madhya Pradesh/Madhavi Adhav. 7. Ethnomedicine and ethnotherapeutics/R. Aparna and S. Senthilkumar. 8. Medical anthropology/R. Aparna and S. Senthilkumar. 9. Cultural aspects of conservation of medicinal and aromatic plants/Shyam S. Mandal H.K. Mandal P.N. Jha and N.K. Sinha. 10. Medicinal plants in India and their conservation an ethnobotanical approach/G.V. Gopal. 11. Quantitative observations on multipurpose wild plants for human welfare in Pench Tiger Reserve Seoni Madhya Pradesh/S.K. Masih and J.L. Shrivastava. 12. Strength and wealth of therapeutic medicinal plants in India/G. Baskar Rajan Irfan Ali Khan and Atiya Khanum. 13. Tribal medicines in the health care of inhabitants of Adilabad forests of A.P./S. Imam V.C. Gupta and S.J. Hussain. Man's interest in plants in mainly for food and medicines. The history of herbal medicine is as old as human civilization. In the past almost all the medicines were used from the plants the plant being man's only chemist for ages. Drugs are chemical substances which by interacting with biological systems change their behaviour which is used for the purpose of diagnosis prevention relief or cure of a disease in man or animals. Since his existence on this planet man has had to depend on nature for substance and survival. He used medicinal plants to keep himself healthy. According to the studies on ethnomedicine and folk medicine about 2000 species are newly identified as drug yielding plants and are well known for their use in about 4000 drug industries of various Indian system of medicine. Phytochemical examination of a number of them has been carried out and active ingredients isolated identified are being currently used as drugs. Drugs such as aspirin codeine pitocarpine quinine reserpine sceopolamine theophylline vinblastine and taxol are but a handful that had come from ethnobotanical findings. Chemical examination of hitherto unexplored medicinal plants will help in discovering new drugs.

Contents Vol. XI Preface. Acknowledgement. 1. Some important herbs used in the treatment of cancer Part I/Shaik Imam and S.J. Hussain. 2. Bioprospects of plant derived drugs/S. Senthil Kumar. 3. Screening plants for new drugs/S. Senthil Kumar. 4. Herbal remedies/S. Senthil Kumar. 5. Integrating indigenous knowledge on medicinal/S. Senthil Kumar. 6. Somatic embryogenesis in Catharanthus Roseus (L.) G. Don an anticancerous plant/A. Janaid Mukhtar Ahmad Bhat A. Mujib and M.P. Sharma. 7. Biotechnological studies to enhance the mass propagation of Solanum Nigrum L. an anti inflammatory herb/Mukhtar Ahmad Bhat A. Junaid A. Mujib and Mahmooduzzafar. 8. Phytochemical analysis of the Indian Sarsaparilla (Hemidesmus Indicus (L.) R.Br)/ G.V. Gopal and P. Arun. 9. Spices medicine Part I/G. Baskar Rajan Irfan Ali Khan and Atiya Khanum. 10. Spices medicine Part II/S.S. Mandal K.R. Maurya and R. Singh. 11. Medicinal plants for the prevention and cure of viral diseases/A. Subramoniam B.S. Shylesh and S. Ajikumaran Nair. 12. Hairy root culture and secondary metabolites production/Srinath Rao and Kaviraj C.P. 13. Edible vaccines an overview/G. Baskar Rajan Irfan Ali Khan and Atiya Khanum. 14. Some threatened medicinal plants of Tarai forest of Gorakhpur of Uttar Pradesh/A.K. Srivastava Jr. Medicine in several developing countries using local traditions and beliefs is still the mainstay of health care. Medicinal plants since times immemorial have been used in virtually all cultures as a source of medicine. The widespread use of herbal remedies and health care preparations as those described in ancient texts such as the Vedas and the Bible and obtained from commonly used traditional herbs and medicinal plants has been traced to the occurrence of natural products with medicinal properties. The use of traditional medicine and medicinal plants in most developing countries has been widely observed. Further more an increasing reliance on the use of medicinal plants in the industrialised societies has been traced to the extraction and development of several drugs and chemotherapeutics from these plants as well as from traditionally used rural herbal remedies. Moreover in these societies herbal remedies have become more popular in the treatment of minor ailments and also on account of the increasing costs of personal health maintenance

Contents Preface. 1. Ethnomedicine and human welfare/B.V.A. Rama Rao Naidu and T.V.V. Seetharami Reddi. 2. Ethnomedicine and human welfare/Farhath Khanum. 3. Ethnomedicinal wealth historical perspective resources an strategies/J.C. Dagar and H.S. Dagar. 4. Ethnomedicobotany and human welfare a graphic review and future directions/Gopal Dixit. 5. Ethnomedicinal description of some important medicinal plants of Hoshangabad district of M.P./Kirti Jain and Shashi Rai. 6. Medicinal flora and traditional health care in North Western Kashmir Himalayan Valley/Farooq A. Lone. 7. Native phytotherapy for urino genital afflictions in Maharashtra/D.A. Patil. 8. Medicinal plants used for the prevention and cure of viral diseases/A. Subramoniam B.S. Shylesh and S. Ajikumaran Nair. From time immemorial diseases have been a part of human life and they sometimes have threatened the existence of human race on the face of the earth. Consequently man has invented a host of devices through a trial and error method to control the vagaries of various diseases. It is realised that the traditional knowledge base system is gradually sparkling as a source of knowledge base for scientific endeavour to study and to make sustainable use of biodiversity which have an immense importance for biological science at present. Early men lived in harmony with their surrounding environment. This entailed the use of herbal medicine as healthcare and as medicinal treatment of various diseases. It is well known fact that rural areas particularly the areas inhabited by the tribal people and socio economically backward communities are the major source of traditional knowledge about the uses of various plants. A large number of plant species are used in ethnomedicine for different diseases.

Contents Preface. 1. Herbal remedies for diabetes/T.V.V. Seetharami Reddi B.V.A. Rama Rao Naidu and S. Prasanthi. 2. Enthnomedicinally important plants used in the treatment of skin afflictions by the tribals of Chhattisgarh of Madhya Pradesh/Amia Tirkey S.S. Khan and Fatima Khan. 3. Ethnomedicinal remedies against diabetes in India a systematic census/D.A. Patil M.V. Patil and Shubhangi Pawar. 4. Medicinally important plants growing in and Aroud Adilabad district of Andhra Pradesh used in the treatment of different ailments/Rizwana Mubeen Sadia Fatima Atiya Khanum Irfan Ali Khan and S.Y. Anwar. 5. Plants a potential resource for therapeutics/C. Aiyavu S. John Britto and S. Senthilkumar. 6. Cultivation conservation and export potentialities of medicinal plants/Shaik Imam S.J. Hussain and Mushtaq Ahmad. 7. Ethnomedicine a template of modern drug development/Shyam S. Mandal S. Faizi Ali Akhtar and Arti Sinha. 8. Ethnomedicine of weeds/Shyam S. Mandal K.R. Maurya and N.K. Sinha. 9. Aromatic plants used in Indian cuisine and their effects on health/Sharique Zafar Zeba S. Zafar Sakina S. Zafar Shadab Zafar and Asif Iqbal. Primitive people of all ages derived knowledge of medicinal plants from the very beginning through trial and error. From time immemorial diseases have been a part of human life and they sometimes have threatened the existence of human race on the face of the earth. It is realised that the traditional knowledge base system is gradually sparkling as a source of knowledge base for scientific endeavour to study and to make sustainable use of biodiversity which has an immense importance for biological science at present. This entailed the use of herbal medicine as healthcare and as medicinal treatment of various diseases. It is well known fact that rural areas particularly the areas inhabited by the tribal people and socio economically backward communities are the major sources of traditional knowledge about the uses of various plants. A large number of plant species are used in ethnomedicine for the treatment of different diseases.