Perspective of dietetic and antioxidant medicinal plants

173 Pages·2016·1.95 MB·English

by  Dilip De Sarker

PERSPECTIVE OF DIETETIC AND ANTIOXIDANT
MEDICINAL PLANTS
Dilip De Sarker
Manas Ranjan Saha
Subrata Saha
Notion Press
5 Muthu Kalathy Street, Triplicane,
Chennai - 600 005
First Published by Notion Press 2015
Copyright © Dilip De Sarker, 2015
All Rights Reserved.
ISBN: 978-93-84878-95-5
This book has been published in good faith that the work of the author is
original. All efforts have been taken to make the material error-free. However,
the author and the publisher disclaim the responsibility.
No Part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means,
electronic or mechanical including photocopying, recording, Xerox or by any
information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the
authors.
Contents
Title
Copyright
1. Foreword
2. Acknowledgements
3. Introduction
4. Abbreviations
5. A Note on Biodiversity and Endemism
6. Description of Plants A-Z
7. Bibliography
8. References Cited
9. About the Authors
10. Figures
11. Index to English names
12. Index to Vernacular names
University of Kalyani

FACULTY OF SCIENCE
Foreword
The cultural heritage of any country or society is imbibed in the food habit of the
people of that country or society. India with its diverse culture is no exception.
However, with the advent of global network of fastfood companies the great
heritage of diverse food habit is in stake. Our grandmothers used to prepare
tasteful food (‘Sak’ and ‘Sabji’) using local resources. Such traditional
preparations are our heritage and continued to so. These food in our regular
dishes contributed vitamin, minerals, proteins, carbohydrates, antioxidants and
immunomodulators that we know today. On the other side these herbs are
available in the wild state and uncultivated.
Notwithstanding the downfall of rich recipe heritage, the poorest of the poor
still collect, prepare and consume such food in the face of habitat destruction,
loss of plant species and environment degradation.
Dr. De Sarker, Associate Professor in Botany, Raiganj University has been
working in the field of Botany for last 35 years, whom I know from his
graduation days. This book is unique of its kind, bears the endevour of more than
20 years by his research group. This book entitled “Perspective of Dietetic and
antioxidant medicinal plants”, published by The Notion Press, an International
publisher, portrays the medicinal uses of more than 300 important plants, their
antioxidant potentiality and distribution status in the Upper Gangetic West
Bengal. Folk use of each plant has been beautifully written. Such publication is a
genuine contribution to our rich heritage. The book also describes the current
status of plant exploration and extinction pressure. I am sure that the book will
find an important place in dietetics, horticulture, medical botany and
pharmacology.
(S.C. Santra)
Acknowledgements
The Senior author likes to express his indebtedness to the following persons,
institutions, organizations, business houses, as the instances may, for their
invaluable help.
Staff of the AASM garden for medicinal plants, Raiganj, West Bengal, and Sri
Tanmoy Choudhury and Sri Manas Ranjan Saha for the basic work.
Late Smt. Renuka De Sarker, my mother, for sharing her expertise on
traditional knowledge.
United States Department of Agriculture data base for information related to
nutrition.
State Council for Science and Technology, Govt. of West Bengal, Bikash
Bhaban, Kolkata.
All the scientists whose tireless work and references were used in various
aspects of the book.
Microsoft Corporation, WA, USA for using the WINDOWS softwares.
Google Corporation, Mountain View, CA, USA. For internet Browser and G-
mail.
Dr. Sreejata De Sarker , my wife for her inspiration throughout the work.
Ms. Gracy Preety Gomes , the Project Manager & Mr. Naveen Valsakumar,
The Co-founder, and other staff members of Notion Press, Chennai for bringing
out this publication.
Prof. S.C. Santra, Kalyani University, West Bengal for writing the foreword.
Prof. S.C. Roy, Department of Botany, North Bengal University ,Kabiraj
Uttam Chakraborty, Sri Debjoy Bhattacharjee, Sri Alok Kumar Sarkar, Late Sri
Souren Nag for furnishing the traditional knowledge.
Library & Department of Botany, Raiganj University, West Bengal providing
the working place.
Introduction
The knowledge of curing various human ailments using available plants is
perhaps as old as to the dawn of human civilization. It cannot be denied that
human races survived through the ages overcoming various diseases and
ailments using useful plants and as such the knowledge gathered throughout the
thousands of years, is our present legacy. It is our duty and obligation too to
gather such knowledge if now still left undiscovered and disseminate them for
the present and future mankind to have a better peaceful life.
Rural India relies on local traditional medical practitioner for various
ailments. Such treatments are ill organized. Some of the local medical
practitioners called as “Kabiraj” /“Baidya”- who uses his experiences and
inherited knowledge of medicinal plants from several sources – mostly from
family knowledge. Tribal healers often use medical knowledge derived from
earlier generations – which is quite different from Āyurvedic medical
knowledge. Thus there is distinct knowledge - dichotomy between Āyurvedic
knowledge and knowledge of medicinal plants and their uses by tribals of
various catagories. Āyurveda means – the Knowledge (Veda) of the life span
(Ayus). It teaches how one may utilize the span of life apportion by nature. In
other terms Āyurveda, an ancient science of life is deeply rooted in Indian
culture. Most commonly Āyurveda has been applied related to medical matters
and thus it is justified to say it as medicine provided to the various ailments.
Meulenbeld(1990) observes, “The classical treatises on Āyurveda clearly states
that this science can be applied to all living organisms.
The Charak Samhita begins with the verse- athato dirghajiviyiyamadhyam
vyakhyasyamah//(Charak Samhita, Su,1.1)
“So then we shall explain the lesson about Longevity.” It transpires from this
verse and etymologically Āyurveda signifies the knowledge of longevity. The
Indian indigenous system of medical treatment has a long history of about 3000
yrs. Where “Vedic” peoples had expertise for utilizing local plants. The ancient
system of treatment could be distinctly divided into medicine (Charak Samhita-
1000 BC – 100 AD) and Surgery- (Sushrata Samhita- 800-700 BC). However,
this system of medical practice confronted with the arrival of colonial medicine.
Today’s medical treatments are almost the contribution of western medicine
knowledge. Ancient medicine was not solely based on empiricism and this is
evident from the fact that some medicinal plants which were used in ancient
times still have their place in modern therapy (Das and Mondal, 2012) . Herbal
medicine is still the mainstay of about 70-80% of the Indian population, and the
major part of the traditional therapy involves the use of plant extract and their
active constituents.(Akerele,1993).A large number of Wild Plants and their
purified extracts have shown beneficial therapeutic potentials due to the presence
of Antioxidant compounds, phenolics and flavonoids etc. There is extensive
evidence to implicate free radicals in the development of degenerative diseases.
Almost all organisms possess antioxidant defenses that protect against oxidative
damage and numerous damage removal and repair enzymes to remove or repair
damaged molecules.
However, the natural antioxidant mechanisms can be inefficient, hence dietary
intake of antioxidant compounds become important. Although, synthetic
antioxidants, such as butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA), butylated hydroxytoluene
(BHT) and tertiary butyl hydroquinone (TBHQ) have been widely applied in
food processing, they have been reassessed for their possible toxic and
carcinogenic components formed during degradation. In addition, it has been
suggested that there is an inverse relationship between dietary intake of
antioxidant rich foods and incidence of number of human diseases. Therefore,
search into the isolation of natural antioxidant sources is important. The survey
on naturally growing plants (eatable) and folk use of plants of minor food of this
district has been done so far and a preliminary analysis revels that there are
about 40 plants are in regular use as food adjunct by the local ethnic peoples.
Some of the plants are regularly used, some are moderately used and some are
occasionally used. These plants constitute a major food source for some poor
habitants. Most of the plants are regularly sold in local market and therefore a
source of income to the downtrodden. Better understanding of these plants will
throw light on conservation, utilization and nutrition aspects.
Food security exists when all people, at all times, have physical and economic
access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food that meets their dietary needs and
food preferences for an active and healthy life (World Food Summit, 1996).
India’s high economic growth rate in the past decade has not been fully reflected
in the health status of its people, with 22 per cent of its population
undernourished. According to the National Family Health Survey 2005-06, 40.4
per cent of children under the age of three are underweight, 33 per cent of
women in the age group of 15-49 have a body mass index below normal and
78.9 per cent of children in the age group of 6-35 months are anemic. Under the
above context an investigation has been made to find out applicability of wild
indigenous plants / plant parts as dietary supplement to have the food security
for the rural outreach people. The inspiration of writing this book starts here.
Several plant species have been recorded for dietary supplement showing good
nutritional value in the Northern part of Bengal, India. (De Sarker et al. 2013).
These wild plants are collected traditionally from native wild source and are
directly brought in the local market for sale. No systematic investigation relating
to the money generated from the sales and maintenance of the livelihood of the
poor peoples involved in such business. Mostly these wild vegetables are eaten
as boiled or fried vegetables alone or in association with other vegetables
commonly potato or brinjal. The dietetic value along with antioxidant value are
not well documented.
De Sarker (2013) presented a paper entitled : Evaluating edible wild plants to
improve food security: A study of their economic, medicinal and dietetic support
at the Global summit on Medicinal and Aromatic plants, Miri, Malaysia, Dec,10-
13,2013.
Some of the plants are well known medicinal plants, therefore , role of these
plants as medicinal source in regular diet is also unknown. How far these plants
are protective against several crucial ailments by the way of regular intake in the
diet is also unknown. Therefore, in depth research are awaiting for the role of
these plants in terms of dietary support as well as medicinal support in daily food
intake.
One of the most promising recent alternatives to classical antibiotic treatment
is the use of immunomodulators for enhancing host defence responses. Several
types of immunomodulators have been identified, including substances isolated
and purified from natural sources such as plants including microorganisms.
In West Bengal in the year 2014-15 alone there are about 2000+ reported case
in W.B., in U.P. there are about 1200+ reported case in Bihar there are about
1500+ cases , in Odisha also there are about 1300+ cases. In W.B. alone 265+
unfortunate death cases have been registered for this year(2014-15) ending in the