Fijian Medicinal Plants


Book Description

This comprehensive compilation presents the available reports on the medicinal use of Fijian plants in an attractive and readable form using 'everyday' terms as much as possible. The book covers the origin and dispersal of plants, literature, use of medicinal plants within traditional Fijian culture, diseases of Fiji, and medicinal chemicals from plants. Four hundred and fifty plant species are described.The entries for species are arranged by plant family, and give current botanical name, Fijian or local name, brief botanical notes, medicinal uses and chemistry. Separate indexes to plant species and Fijian names are provided, as well as a glossary of medicinal and botanical terms.This book may point the way to plants from which new and effective cures might be obtained.




Oilseeds


Book Description

The book serves as a major source of information on all the cultivated oilseeds and major tree borne and minor oilseeds grown globally. Composition, characteristics, properties and utility of different oilseeds and their constituents, namely, oil, protein, carbohydrates, minerals, vitamins and Phytochemical in food and non-food sectors including medicine has been covered in detail. The book also deals with post-harvest technology and processing of oilseeds to obtain good quality products like vegetable oil and oilcakes. The processing aspects like ghani, expeller, extrusion, solvent, and SC-CO2 extraction along with the refining of oils have been discussed. Oilseeds and their quality especially, the nutritional quality of oils, oilcakes, oleo-chemicals and preparation of edible products from groundnut, soybean sesame, sunflower, Niger and coconut have been discussed and presented in the book. Anti-nutrients, when present interfere with the digestion process as also the health of humans and animals. Hence methods of reduction/removal of anti-nutrients like phenolics, protease inhibitors, ricin, glucosinolates and aflatoxins etc. have also been covered in detail in the book. Evaluation of quality is important for understanding and utilization of any commodity. Keeping this aspect in view, methods of analysis of oil, protein, sugars, minerals, vitamins and anti-nutrients have been presented in the on procedures. This book is thus is a comprehensive coverage of all aspects of oilseeds and their quality. It will be highly useful to students, researchers, producers, processors and policy planners.










Uses and Abuses of Plant-Derived Smoke


Book Description

Plants provide the food, shelter, medicines, and biomass that underlie sustainable life. One of the earliest and often overlooked uses of plants is the production of smoke, dating to the time of early hominid species. Plant-derived smoke has had an enormous socio-economic impact throughout human history, being burned for medicinal and recreational purposes, magico-religious ceremonies, pest control, food preservation, and flavoring, perfumes, and incense. This illustrated global compendium documents and describes approximately 2,000 global uses for over 1,400 plant species. The Uses and Abuses of Plant-Derived Smoke is accessibly written and provides a wealth of information on human uses for smoke. Divided into nine main categories of use, the compendium lists plant-derived smoke's medicinal, historical, ceremonial, ritual and recreational uses. Plant use in the production of incense and to preserve and flavor foods and beverages is also included. Each entry includes full binomial names and family, an identification of the person who named the plant, as well as numerous references to other scholarly texts. Of particular interest will be plants such as Tobacco (Nicotiana tabaccum), Boswellia spp (frankincense), and Datura stramonium (smoked as a treatment for asthma all over the world), all of which are described in great detail.