About the Book
Medicinal plants are the local heritage with global importance. World is endowed with a rich wealth of medicinal plants. Herbs have always been the principal form of medicine in developing world though of later it is also becoming popular in the developed world as people strive to stay healthy in the face of chronic stress and pollution, and to treat illness with medicines that work in concert with the body’s own defences. Medicinal plants also play an important role in the lives of rural people, particularly in remote parts of developing countries with few health facilities. Medicinal plants have curative properties due to the presence of various complex chemical substances of different composition, which are found as secondary plant metabolites in one or more parts of these plants. These plant metabolites according to their composition are grouped as alkaloids, glycosides, corticosteroids, essential oils etc. The alkaloids form the largest groups which includes morphine and codein (poppy), strychnine and brucine (Nux vomica), quinine (cinchona), ergotamine (ergot) etc. The Present book will be highly useful for students, teachers and researchers of Plant Biochemistry, phytochemistry and person related to Pharmaceutical and biotechnological industries as well as biochemistry and molecular biologists.
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