Ethnic Knowledge and Perspectives of Medicinal Plants: A 2-Volume Set

This comprehensive 2-volume set aims to preserve and share ethnic and traditional knowledge of herbal medicine and treatments, highlighting the crucial link between biodiversity, human nutrition, and food security.

Volume 1: Traditional Use of Medicinal Plants for Disease Prevention and Treatment

Volume 1 delves into the traditional use of curative properties and treatment strategies of medicinal plants, exploring their benefits in disease prevention, treatment, and management. It discusses the efficacy of Ayurvedic and Chinese herbal medicine, Indian traditional medicine, and other ethnic herbal practices used by indigenous peoples of Azerbaijan, South America, Turkey, India, and more.

The volume examines the therapeutic potential of medicinal plants for addressing specific health issues, including cancer, liver conditions, COVID-19, and other human ailments. It also elaborates on the ethnomedicinal applications of over 100 wild mushrooms for their medicinal and healthcare purposes.

Volume 2: Medicinal Plant Use for Nutritional and Dietary Benefits

Volume 2 shifts focus to traditional medicinal plant use for their nutritional and dietary benefits, emphasizing the importance of preserving biodiversity for healthy and sustainable diets. The volume presents information on over 2200 vascular plant taxa from 127 families, as well as many taxa from leaf parts, fruits, underground parts, floral parts, seeds, and more that have potential use as edible food plants.

The authors explore the unique nutritional attributes of wild edible mushrooms (206 species belonging to 73 genera) in Southern India, and discuss various lichens as nutritional aids and medicine, as well as flavoring agents and spices. They also describe the benefits of fucoidans derived from seaweeds (and spirulina) for their antioxidant activity, nutritional and anti-aging properties, antiviral activities, anti-cancer properties, anti-diabetic properties, and more.

The volume examines how ethnicity affects healthcare and nutritive systems at different levels, influenced by various dynamics such as lower income, inability for services uptake, disputes among different ethnic groups, cultural attitudes, lack of socio-economic resources, and disease prevalence.

Promoting the Value of Biodiversity and Ethnic Knowledge

Together, these two volumes aim to preserve and disseminate the valuable ethnic knowledge of medicinal plants gained over thousands of years, and to promote the value of integrating and safeguarding biodiversity.

By presenting a comprehensive overview of ethnic and traditional knowledge of medicinal plants, this 2-volume set seeks to encourage efforts to protect biodiversity in regions rich with medicinal plants, and to promote the development of nutraceuticals based on ethnic knowledge.