Economic Botany and Ethnobotany

Ethnobotany is the study of how people of a particular culture and region make of use of indigenous plants. Ethnobotanists explore how plants are used for such things as food, shelter, medicine, clothing, hunting and religious ceremonies. Ethnobotany has its roots in botany, the study of plants. Botany, in turn, originated in part from an interest in finding plants to help fight illness. In fact, medicine and botany have always had close ties. The diminishing rain forests may well hold unknown keys to conquering devastating new diseases, and peoples native to those regions can often lead the way with their harbal knowledge. Considering the impact of plant use throughout history in the human social structures of economics, politics, religion, and science, this is a book that contributes immeasurably to our understanding of human history and the world today. The book is designed so that selected parts can be used for graduate and post-graduate courses. The book contains: Introduction to Ethnobotany - Economic Plants. - Economic Botany and Industrial Plants - Medicinal Plants - Economic Botany Resources - Plants used for Food . This book offers important new material for those who work in fields of science devoted to plants people, of both including anthropology, archaeology, botany, environmental conservation ethnopharmacology, geography, history, medicine, psychology, religion, and sociology.

John Gonsalves born on 25th December, 1964 in Trissur, Kerala. He has obtained his M.Sc. In 1989 from Mahatma Gandhi University and then joined M.Phil. from same University and completed it in 1991. He has made significant contributions in the broad area of gene expression in Escherichia coli and its phage lambda. His principal contributions involve the demonstration that the dispensable cAMP-receptor protein complex determines adaptation in bacteria by controlling the structure of cell wall. He has participated and presented his research papers in various national and international conferences.