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Halophytes for Food Security in Dry Lands addresses the concerns surrounding global food scarcity, especially focusing on those living in arid and dry lands The book touches on food crises in dry regions of the world and proposes halophytes as an alternate source of consumption for such areas. Halophytes, those plants that thrive in saline soil and provide either food source options themselves, or positively enhance an eco-system's ability to produce food, and are thus an important and increasingly recognized option for addressing the needs of the nearly 1/6 of the world's population that lives in these arid and semi-arid climates. Including presentations from the 2014 International Conferen...
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...
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 regi...
The environment in ecological systems includes both physical parameters and biotic attributes, and is a holocoenotic, dynamically interlinked system. Its investigation requires a dialectical approach which examines the different parts, but integrates the organism and the environment into a dynamic whole. Environment and ecology place emphasis on the real world. Many decisions that directly or indirectly affect the balance of our environment are based on individual, community, state, national and international decisions. Given that ecological systems now also involve the economy, ecology and its relationship with the environment are taking on an increasingly important role in today’s world....
Medicinal Plants, Volume 6 of the Genetic Resources, Chromosome Engineering, and Crop Improvement series summarizes landmark research and describes medicinal plants as nature's pharmacy. HighlightsExamines the use of molecular technology for maintaining authenticity and quality of plant-based productsDetails reports on individual medicinal plants i
The largest of the world's five Mediterranean-climate regions and one of the largest archipelagos in the world, the Mediterranean Basin is located at the intersection of two major landmasses, Eurasia and Africa, which contributes to its cultural and high biodiversity. Although much of the hotspot was once covered by a dense cover of forests, the Basin has experienced intensive human development and impact on its ecosystems for at least 8000 years, significantly longer than any other hotspot. The greatest impacts have been deforestation, habitat fragmentation, intensive grazing and fires, and infrastructure development, especially on the coast, which have distinctly altered the landscape. The...
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 toleran...
Early anthropological evidence for plant use as medicine is 60,000 years old as reported from the Neanderthal grave in Iraq. The importance of plants as medicine is further supported by archeological evidence from Asia and the Middle East. Today, around 1.4 billion people in South Asia alone have no access to modern health care, and rely instead on traditional medicine to alleviate various symptoms. On a global basis, approximately 50 to 80 thousand plant species are used either natively or as pharmaceutical derivatives for life-threatening conditions that include diabetes, hypertension and cancers. As the demand for plant-based medicine rises, there is an unmet need to investigate the quali...
The problems engendered by the conflicting imperatives of development and ecology show no sign of ending, and every day more locations are added to the list of landscapes poisoned by human activity. This vital book, featuring an international set of authors, is a key reference for researchers and environmental managers, as well as anyone involved in the mining industry or landscape remediation. The comprehensive coverage of current approaches to phytoremediation begins by examining the problem. It looks at natural and human-induced toxins, and their effects on natural vegetation as well as agricultural crops. Particular attention is paid to the two largest challenges to remediation – heavy metals, and the salt stress that is impeding agricultural productivity worldwide. The text moves on to focus on the efficacy of different plant species in removing toxic pollutants from the environment. Along with analysis of a number of case studies, this section includes new and updated information on the mechanism of toxin-tolerance in plants.
Following Volume I, released in 2002, this new volume adds to and complements data and information on salt desert ecosystems of numerous West and Central Asian countries, including many of which are located in the Arabian Peninsula. The comprehensive coverage assists the reader gaining a thorough understanding of sabkha geology, hydrology, geomorphology, zoology, botany, ecology and ecosystem functioning, as well as sabkha conservation, utilisation, and development.