Important Medicinal Plants of India : The taxonomy, therapeutic potential and associated ethical belief

India is a great repository of variety of medicinal plants. Presence of nearly 8000 species of medicinal plants has proved it one of the richest genetic resources of the world. Moreover, about 45000 plants species i.e. 12 % of global wealth of flowering plants are reported to occur in India, out of which nearly 33% are endemic. However, the use of plants as medicine is as old as human civilization and reported from 400-500 BC but, in the last couple of decades, global demand of herbal medicine has led to a quantum jump with 7% annual growth rate. However, several of them due to lack of scientific attention and acknowledgement are yet to be evaluated. Hence, an attempt is made in the present book to systematically compile the taxonomic, therapeutic and other detail of 52 important medicinal plants of India, so that they can be known, conserved, cropped and further researched for their maximum therapeutic utilization.