Central Asia is a large and understudied region of varied geography, ranging from the high passes and mountains of Tian Shan, to the vast deserts of Kyzyl Kum, Taklamakan to the grassy treeles steppes. This region is faced with adverse conditions, as much of the land is too dry or rugged for farming. Additionally, the rich specific and intraspecific diversity of fruit trees and medicinal plants is threatened by overgrazing, oil and mineral extraction, and poaching. Countless species from the approximately 20 ecosystems and 6000 plant taxa are now rare and endangered. Traditional vegetation studies in this region are far from adequate to handle complex issues such as soil mass movement, soil sodicity and salinity, biodiversity conservation, and grazing management. However, data analysis using a Geographical Information System (GIS) tool provides new insights into the vegetation of this region and opens up new opportunities for long-term sustainable management. While vegetation planning can occur at a property scale, it is often necessary for certain factors, such as salinity, to be dealt with on a regional scale to ensure their effective management. GIS increases the effectiveness and accuracy of vegetation planning in a region. Such regional planning will also greatly increases biodiversity values. This book systematically explores these issues and discuses new applications and approaches for overcoming these issues, including the application of GIS techniques for sustainable management and planning. Professional researchers as well as students and teachers of agriculture and ecology will find this volume to be an integral resource for studying the vegetation of Central Asia.

Of the world’s seven continents, Asia is the largest. Its physical landscapes, political units, and ethnic groups are both wide-ranging and many. Southwest, South and Middle Asia are highly populated regions which, as a whole, cover an extremely large area of varied geography. In total, this domain is unique in its plant diversity and large vegetation zones with different communities and biomes. It is rich in endemics, with specific and intraspecific diversity of fruit trees and medicinal plants, including a number of rare, high value, species. At the same time, much of the land in the region is too dry or too rugged, with many geographical extremes. Overgrazing, oil and mineral extraction, and poaching are the major threats in the area. This two-volume project focuses on the dynamic biodiversity of the region with in-depth analysis on phytosociology, plants, animals and agroecology. There are also chapters that explore new applications as well as approaches to overcome problems associated with climate change. Much of the research and analysis are presented here for the first time. We believe this work is a valuable resource for professionals and researchers working in the fields of plant diversity and vegetation, animal diversity and animal populations, and geo-diversity and sustainable land use, among others. The first volume guides our readers to West Asia and the Caucasus region, while volume two focuses on issues unique to South and Middle Asia.

This book pertains solely to the family Chenopodiaceae, which plays a leading role in the formation of the vegetal cover of the deserts of Central Asia and represents one of the most abundant constituents of its flora. It is intended for botanists, geographers and soil scientists.

This new 2-volume set aims to share and preserve ethnic and traditional knowledge of herbal medicine and treatments, while also emphasizing the link between biodiversity, human nutrition, and food security. Ethnic Knowledge and Perspectives of Medicinal Plants is divided into two volumes, with volume 1 focusing on the traditional use of curative properties and treatment strategies of medicinal plants, and volume 2 addressing the varied nutritional and dietary benefits of medicinal plants and the practice of Ayurveda. Both volumes stress the importance of bioresources for human nutrition and nutraceuticals based on ethnic knowledge and the need for efforts to protect biodiversity in many regions rich with medicinal plants. Exploring the benefits of medicinal plants in disease prevention, treatment, and management, Volume 1 discusses the traditional use of medicinal plants as promising therapeutics for cancer, liver conditions, COVID-19, and other human ailments. It examines 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, etc. A variety of plants are discussed, and the ethnomedicinal applications of over 100 wild mushrooms for their medicinal and healthcare purposes are elaborated on. While volume 1 focuses primarily on natural plant resources for addressing specific health issues, volume 2 looks at traditional medicinal plant use for their nutritional and dietary benefits, while also encouraging the preservation of 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. Ethnic knowledge on the wild edible mushrooms is an emerging area, which is unique and is dependent on the folk knowledge of tribals; this volume discusses the unique nutritional attributes of wild edible mushrooms (206 species belonging to 73 genera) in Southern India. The authors look at various lichens as nutritional aids and medicine and as flavoring agents and spices. Fucoidans derived from the seaweeds (and spirulina) are described for their antioxidant activity, nutritional and anti-aging properties, antiviral activities, anti-cancer properties, anti-diabetic properties, and more. The authors also examine how ethnicity affects healthcare/nutritive systems at different levels through various dynamics such as lower income, inability for services uptake, disputes among different ethnic groups, cultural attitudes (some ethnic group are vegetarian), lack of socio-economic resources, and disease prevalence. Together, these two important 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.

The Silk Road, a complex network of trade routes linking China with the rest of the Eurasian continent by land and sea, fostered transformation of the ethnic, cultural, and religious identities of diverse peoples. In Natural Products of Silk Road Plants there is a treasury of plants, many indigenous to countries along the trading routes of the Silk Road, that yielded medicines, cereals, spices, beverages, dyes, and euphoric and exotic compounds previously unknown to the rest of the world. This entry in the Natural Products Chemistry of Global Plants series has been prepared for university students of chemistry and ethnobotany and for those wishing to broaden their knowledge. It opens a window on a vast region of Asia not well described for its flora and provides new and fresh insights on: Significant plants, some endangered Traditional and modern applications of extracts The biochemical and pharmacological properties of extracts Contains over 150 full colour figures The significance of the Silk Road is being revived today through immense investment by China and other eastern countries in major schemes of transport infrastructure.

Mulberry (Morus spp.) is widely distributed tree taxon found almost in every continent across the globe. Habitat of this plant species is very much diversified, as it is found across all climatic zones ranging from tropical, sub-tropical, temperate, tundra, semi-arid to desert (arid) conditions. It flourishes on all types of landforms; mountains, valleys, plateaus, forests, grasslands, hills, plains and arid lands. Successful utilization of mulberry leaf for silkworm rearing and production of quality cocoons has been studied at length. Now, mulberry is being recognized as a multipurpose plant by most of the countries across the globe. As mulberry is eco-friendly in nature, the propagation of mulberry needs to be done at large scale to address the ecological issues like conversion of arid lands to cultivable lands, eco-restoration of degraded lands, bioremediation of polluted land sites, conservation of water and soil, cleaning the air pollution in urban areas, utilization of mulberry in producing renewable energy in the form of biodiesel. Similarly, there is the need to produce the identified and highly commercially valued pharmaceutical compounds of mulberry under laboratory conditions through in vitro culture based secondary metabolite production through enhanced expression under the stress conditions or in presence of elicitors. Lately protocols have been developed for genetic transformation of mulberry through agrobacterium mediated and particle bombardment mediated gene transfer techniques. Biotechnology based molecular breeding techniques could also be utilized in raising the improved lines through marker assisted selection, soma clonal variations, mutational breeding, somatic hybridization, genome editing and other genetic engineering approaches. Apart from sericulture; mulberry should also be utilized and exploited in other sectors across the globe for additional revenue generation, for livestock maintenance, for environmental safety and in promoting human health. These diversified aspects of mulberry coupled with its economic importance in revenue generation through sericulture, animal husbandry and industrial products has prompted us to prepare this book. It will present a comprehensive account of mulberry plant under 9 chapter headings: introduction, botanical features, ecological features, ecophysiological aspects, interactions and development, molecular aspects, propagation and production, economic importance, and global perspectives as well as future approaches.

This unique book focuses on environmental degradation in Asian countries including land degradation and soil erosion. The land degradation covers assessing environmental degradation using geospatial technology, land use land cover mapping, environmental and anthropogenic degradation, assessment of land degradation vulnerability, evaluation of the impact of earthquake and the environmental control of the sand dunes. It also addresses the soil degradation and environmental pollution and presents several case studies such as tectonic activity and erosion, assessment of aircraft sound, soil degradation assessment for the arid territories, soil pollution, waste engine oil contamination, soil degradation, soil erosion modelling, land use and land cover change and its effect on soil erosion changes. Additionally, the book discusses the impact of climate change, and human activities including urban environmental quality, air pollution and the impact of armed conflict on the environment. Moreover, topics such as vegetation degradation including forest changes, hydrological and agricultural drought are presented. The book includes authors and scientists from Egypt, Iraq, Iran, India, Mongolia, United Arab Emirates, Uzbekistan, Republic of Kazakhstan, USA, Turkey, South Africa, Italy, China, Malaysia, Poland and Russia. Graduate students, researchers, engineers, policy planners, policymakers and stockholders could benefit from the information and the knowledge in this book.

The root and tuber are vital parts of medicinal plants providing mechanical support, producing critical growth regulators, and storing food. Bioactive compounds obtained from plant roots and tubers demonstrate health benefits presenting antioxidative, antimicrobial, hypoglycaemic, hypocholesterolaemic, and immunomodulatory properties. Roots of many medicinal plants have been used for the treatment of disease and formulation of drugs, and they are also known for their commercial value, being used as an ingredient in the pharmaceutical and cosmetic industries. Medicinal Roots and Tubers for Pharmaceutical and Commercial Applications provides information on the medicinal properties of roots and tubers and various phytochemicals derived from them. Features Presents exhaustive information on plant roots and tubers including Glycyrrhiza glabra, Curcuma longa, Beta vulgaris, Zingiber officinalis, Boesenbergia pandurata, Houttuynia cordata, Eutrema japonicum, and Withania somnifera Explains the roles of secondary metabolites isolated from roots and tubers and features information on their pharmaceutical and commercial applications Discusses opportunities for future prospects of different roots and tubers for their industrial applications A volume in the Exploring Medicinal Plants series, this book provides information on phytochemicals derived from medicinal plant roots and tubers. This is valuable information for scientists, researchers, and students working on medicinal plants, economic botany, chemistry, biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, and many other interdisciplinary subjects.

This book presents a taxonomic account of Central Asian families Liliaceae, Dioscoreaceae, Amaryllidaceae, Iridaceae, and Orchidaceae and all monocotyledonous plants. It covers 43 genera with 191 species of these families.

Salinity is one of the acute problems causing enormous yield loss in many regions of the world. This phenomenon is particularly pronounced in arid and semiarid regions. Halophytes can remove salt from various types of problematic soils due to their unique morphological, physiological and anatomical adaptations to these environments. Halophytes are also used for the treatment of certain diseases but scientific documentation in terms of current phytotherapic applications is deficient in this unique group of plants. Different ethnic groups around the world use medicinal halophytes according to their own beliefs and ancestor’s experiences. However, their knowledge about the use of salt tolerant medicinal plants is usually confined to their own community. There is thus a knowledge gap on halophytes which should be bridged and preserved. This book provides a comprehensive account on the distribution of halophytes, their ethnobotanical and medicinal aspects, economic importance, and chemical constituents along with scientific description. The book therefore serves as a valuable resource for professionals and researchers working in the fields of plant stress biology and ethnobotanical aspects.