Economic Botany Research Articles

Economic Botany in the Tropics (ed. 2)

Economic Botany in the Tropics (ed. 2)

Observations on Folklore about Plants Used in Veterinary Medicine in Bengal, Orissa and Bihar

During the exploration of Bihar, Orissa and West Bengal ethnobotanical information was collected from the tribes of Kondh, Munda, Oraon, Santal and Lodha along with plants. It is found that 20 species under 19 genera and 16 families are used by them for veterinary medicine. It is further discovered that most of them are new to the present day knowledge. Hence an attempt has been made to enumerate all such folklore plants in the present work incorporating its botanical name, local name, locality, traditional uses with voucher specimens deposited in Economic Botany Section of Botanical Survey of India.

What Charles Darwin owed to Joseph Banks

History has remembered Joseph Banks as the explorer-botanist of the first voyage of James Cook. Yet, shortly after his return, he got elected president of the Royal Society and, for over 40years, he then played in Great Britain an eminent role in reorganizing natural sciences and advocating an "economic botany". He actively intervened in acclimatization and varietal selection of plants and animals in Great Britain as in the future English colonies. Thus he built an intellectual environment which will promote the emergence of Charles Darwin's thoughts.

Voltaire’s Breadfruit

The British Government-facilitated introduction of breadfruit trees (Artocarpus altilis) from the Pacific to the Caribbean during the late eighteenth century was a notable feat of economic botany, but the identities of the earliest originators of the idea remain unclear. Previous historical scholarship has focused mainly upon the role of Joseph Banks as the prime mover behind the scheme, while more investigative scholarship has identified one of Banks’s correspondents, Valentine Morris, as having made an early suggestion of the idea in writing. This focus on Banks and Morris, however, may have overlooked or understudied even earlier origins of the idea. After discussing several key individuals involved in the inception of the breadfruit project, this article then considers a series of passages on breadfruit in the writings of Voltaire and presents a hypothetical pathway by which those involved in the actual transfer of breadfruit from the Pacific to the Caribbean, including Banks via Morris, may have been influenced by the French philosopher.

Ecology, economic botany and conservation of Diploknema butyracea in Nepal

Diploknema butyracea (Roxb.) H. J. Lam, butter tree, locally known as Chiuri, is a medium to large-sized deciduous tree widely distributed on the south-facing slopes in the sub-Himalayan region from 200 m to 1500 m. This is an economically valuable, nutritionally important, ecologically slow-growing, and culturally integrated multipurpose tree species. The tree is culturally connected with an ethnic minority group, Chepang, in central Nepal. We systematically reviewed over 102 primary research studies, review papers, and grey literature, along with nine field visits, three each in western, central, and eastern Nepal to collect the population and ethnobotanical data of Chiuri. Additionally, government forest officials, forest user groups, and local communities of 62 districts were consulted to collect and verify the information on distribution, use, and conservation. The interrelationship of ecology and ethnobotany of Chiuri was found to be positively associated. This tree was reported to be grown in 58 districts, abundant in central and western Siwalik and mid-hills. The ethnobotanical use reports of Chiuri used by 26 ethnic groups were recorded from 22 districts. Among the groups, Chepang has intensive use reports and conserved this multipurpose tree since time immemorial. Ethnotaxonomically, four types of Diploknema species were reported by Chepang communities, whereas the national botanical records and molecular analyses have yet to confirm the types. As the species complements the livelihood, traditions, history, socio-culture, folklore, and household economy of Chepang people, we supported the argument that the D. butyracea is a cultural keystone tree species (CKTS) in Nepal for Chepang people. Further research on socio-cultural, ethno-ecological, and morpho-molecular attributes is urged for cultural integrity, biodiversity, and bioprospecting.

Diversity of edible plants traded in the East Jakarta traditional markets, Indonesia

Abstract. Afrianto WF, Hasanah LN, Metananda AA. 2023. Diversity of edible plants traded in the East Jakarta traditional markets, Indonesia. Biodiversitas 24: 6953-6968. Traditional markets provide limited assistance while facilitating transient or set-term direct retail interactions between buyers and sellers. Commodities traded in the traditional markets range from fresh produce, pantry, dairy, snacks, meat, fish, and wellness products. This study aimed to determine the ethnobotany of edible plant species in Indonesia's East Jakarta traditional markets. This study used an ethnobotanical approach qualitatively. The data were collected using purposive sampling, which included 157 sellers. This study found that 140 edible plant species (181 landraces) in the East Jakarta traditional markets belong to 50 plant families. Most plants were fruits (102 species), with herbs as the most dominant life form (90 species). Most edible plants must be cooked before consumption (40%) as vegetables (68 species). In addition, 166 species are cultivated, 8 are semi-cultivated, and 7 are wild-type plants. The edible plants observed in the traditional markets in this study are classified as highly available (79%) and can be found in all seasons (91%). The East Jakarta traditional markets have an essential role as a place of economic botany that can help balance the economy and conservation efforts. Consequently, traditional markets recreate an essential social-cultural function by combining cultural and biological diversity on a small scale.

The Doctor's Garden: Medicine, Science, and Horticulture in Britain

The Doctor's Garden: Medicine, Science, and Horticulture in Britain

Curating with Communities for Well-being: Exploring an Amgueddfa Cymru–National Museum Wales Biocultural Collection through Community Workshops

Biocultural collections include specimens of plant and animal origin, artefacts and documentation. They are important resources for the conservation of biological and cultural diversity, as well as for education and research. Curation of biocultural collections at Amgueddfa Cymru–National Museum Wales is underpinned by the unique legislative framework, the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act (2015). This article presents the findings of a series of six workshops with a range of community groups invited to discuss how the Amgueddfa Cymru Economic Botany Collection can build public understanding of biodiversity and fulfil its well-being duty. Findings indicate participant interest in the collection as a resource that can support learning about the multiple values of plants, the diverse cultural heritage linked to plants and the community connections the collection can support, including within and across cultures, practices and places.

Consider the Coconut: Scientific Agriculture and the Racialization of Risk in the American Colonial Philippines

This article invokes the “molecular intimacies of empire” to illuminate the links between the superfood status of coconut oil and plantation labor in the American colonial Philippines. Prior to the American occupation in 1898, coconuts were a local crop that offered small growers a degree of protection from capitalist agriculture. A mere two decades later, coconut plantations occupied more than two million acres of land; copra – the dried kernels from which oil is pressed – was the archipelago’s third major export industry; and the industry employed at least four million people along a commodity chain that included prisoners, landed planters, and oil refiners. Transimperial tropical research stations, economic botany, and penal farms propelled this change. US-run prison plantations in the southern Philippines served as living laboratories for the racial management of labor and the bioengineering of trees bearing fruit all year. Though the copra trade comprised production of modern extractive capitalism, American dairy farmers and vegetable oil producers racialized copra imports as a tropical threat to the white body politic during the global Great Depression. Yet this conflation of coconut oil and the imagined tropical primitive positioned coconut oil for its rerendering as an unrefined natural health food. By connecting the colonial planation to the coconut’s superfood status, the article shows how discourses of risk are racialized and consumed. Indeed, is not the body of the laborer who risks exposure to fertilizers and pesticides nor the loss of biodiversity that North American consumers consider when asked if coconuts are a health food.

Sacred weeds: common ritual plants from the urban botánicas of Miami-Dade County, Florida

Background: Practitioners of syncretic religions often incorporate plants into their sacred rituals, a unique practice that helps keep them connected to their cultural history. An important example of ritual plant use is found in the botánicas (religious stores that cater to practitioners of Afro-Caribbean diaspora religions) of Miami-Dade County, Florida (USA). Methods: We examined ritual plants sold in a sample of six botánicas in Miami-Dade County from November 2018 until April 2019. We addressed the following questions: 1) What is the ratio of native to non-native plant species found in the botánica stores; 2) What is the ratio of invasive exotic to non-invasive exotic plant species found in the botánica stores; and 3) What is the geographical origin of plant species found in the botánica stores? Results: Given the study’s location in South Florida, the frequency of local native flora sold as ritual plants was significantly smaller than initially predicted (27% vs. 65%). Likewise, actual frequency of invasive species was much higher than the expected frequency (32% vs. 19%). We also discovered that most of the taxa collected during the study were Neotropical (50%) and Asian (25%) in origin, while very few African taxa were documented (7 out of the 93 species identified). Conclusion: These botánicas highlight the reliance of Afro-Caribbean syncretic religions in Miami-Dade County on locally common plants, particularly those taxa from the Neotropics. Future studies should further investigate how these plants are being cultivated, traded, and used by the informal economy associated with urban botánicas. Keywords: African diaspora, economic botany, ethnobotany, medicinal plants, religious syncretis

Compounds Isolated from the Ethyl Acetate Fraction of Canna edulis Ker Gawl Rhizomes

Three compounds were isolated from the rhizome part of Canna edulis for the first time including liquiritigenin, methyl caffeate and uracil. Their structures were elucidated by spectroscopic methods as MS and NMR.
 Keywords
 Canna edulis Ker Gawl, liquiritigenin, methyl caffeate, uracil.
 References
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A global database of plant services for humankind.

Humanity faces the challenge of conserving the attributes of biodiversity that may be essential to secure human wellbeing. Among all the organisms that are beneficial to humans, plants stand out as the most important providers of natural resources. Therefore, identifying plant uses is critical to preserve the beneficial potential of biodiversity and to promote basic and applied research on the relationship between plants and humans. However, much of this information is often uncritical, contradictory, of dubious value or simply not readily accessible to the great majority of scientists and policy makers. Here, we compiled a genus-level dataset of plant-use records for all accepted vascular plant taxa (13489 genera) using the information gathered in the 4th Edition of Mabberley's plant-book, the most comprehensive global review of plant classification and their uses published to date. From 1974 to 2017 all the information was systematically gathered, evaluated, and synthesized by David Mabberley, who reviewed over 1000 botanical sources including modern Floras, monographs, periodicals, handbooks, and authoritative websites. Plant uses were arranged across 28 standard categories of use following the Economic Botany Data Collection Standard guidelines, which resulted in a binary classification of 9478 plant-use records pertaining human and animal nutrition, materials, fuels, medicine, poisons, social and environmental uses. Of all the taxa included in the dataset, 33% were assigned to at least one category of use, the most common being "ornamental" (26%), "medicine" (16%), "human food" (13%) and "timber" (8%). In addition to a readily available binary matrix for quantitative analyses, we provide a control text matrix that links the former to the description of the uses in Mabberley's plant-book. We hope this dataset will serve to establish synergies between scientists and policy makers interested in plant-human interactions and to move towards the complete compilation and classification of the nature's contributions to people upon which the wellbeing of future generations may depend.

Detecting seminal research contributions to the development of ethnobotany by reference publication year spectroscopy (RPYS)

This study aims to assess the growth in overall publication output in ethnobotany as well as provide a systematic examination of the history of ethnobotanical publications using reference publication year spectroscopy (RPYS). The study is based on 5201 papers published between 1974 and 2019 covering 290 006 non‐distinct cited references (CRs), indexed in science citation index‐expanded (SCI‐Expanded) of web of science (WoS). The regression analysis indicated a compound annual growth rate of approximately 11% globally in ethnobotanical publications and the volume of publications doubles every approximately six years. The reference publication period was divided into four sub‐periods in which a total of 31 peaks are clearly identifiable, including five peaks from the first period (earliest to 1800), ten from the second (1801–1900), nine from the third (1901–1950) and seven from the last period (1951–2000). A total 44 publications were found to have been especially influential and landmark. Out of them, 31 (70%) were books and 11 (25%) were articles. Out of the 11 articles, 5 (45%) were published in the same journal (Economic Botany). The first period had the lowest number of publications (5), including classic books like the Spanish translation of Dioscorides' Materia Medica and Carolus Linnaeus' Systema naturæ. Interestingly, about 30% of the studies that laid the foundation of ethnobotany and are discussed in this paper come from South Africa, pointing to the contribution of the African Continent to the foundation of the field of ethnobotany.

From ‘pure botany’ to ‘economic botany’ – changing ideas by exchanging plants: Spain and Italy in the late eighteenth and the early nineteenth century

ABSTRACT At the end of the eighteenth century and beginning of the 19th, Spain and the Italian States contributed to the development of European agricultural science and the improvement of manufacturing. They collaborated with each other and reworked the most advanced models of France, Central Europe and Great Britain. Despite their somewhat less prosperous economic status, they demonstrated great originality in research and experimentation. In this process, botanical knowledge served as a starting point for a new epistemological path. Through three case studies – the botanists Antonio José Cavanilles and Domenico Nocca, and the agriculturist Filippo Re – my article analyses how Spanish and Italian naturalists and learned individuals contributed to forming the concept of ‘economic botany’ through the exchange of seeds, plant specimens, books, journals, and – more in general – opinions, becoming germinal forces in a large transnational network.

Antimicrobial Activity of Necklace Orchids is Phylogenetically Clustered and can be Predicted With a Biological Response Method.

Necklace orchids (Coelogyninae, Epidendroideae) have been used in traditional medicine practices for centuries. Previous studies on a subset of unrelated orchid species utilized in these traditional practices revealed they possessed antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory, and anti-oxidant activity, providing experimental proof for their medicinal properties. To date however none of these species have been investigated ethno-botanically in a phylogenetic context. This study carried out comparative bioprospecting for a group of wild orchids using EBDCS (the Economic Botany Data Collection Standards) organ targeted and biological response methods. The traditional medicinal use of necklace orchids was recorded from books and journals published between 1984 and 2016. Two orchids, Coelogyne cristata and Coelogyne fimbriata, were selected, cultivated both indoors and outdoors, and the antimicrobial properties on extracts from their leaves and pseudobulbs tested against a selection of human pathogens. A molecular phylogeny of Coelogyninae based on nuclear ribosomal ITS and plastid matK DNA sequences obtained from 148 species was reconstructed with Maximum Likelihood (ML) using RAxML, Maximum Parsimony (MP) using PAUP and Bayesian Inference using MrBayes. Bioprospecting comparison of EBDCS and biological response was carried out using customized R scripts. Ethanolic extracts obtained from leaves of C. fimbriata inhibited growth of Bacillus cereus, Staphylococcus aureus, and Yersinia enterocolitica, confirming the antimicrobial properties of these extracts. Leaf extracts were found to have slightly stronger antimicrobial properties for plants cultivated outdoors than indoors. These differences were not found to be statistically significant though. Three hot nodes with high potency for antimicrobial activities were detected with the EBDCS organ targeted classification method, and eight hot nodes were detected with the biological response classification method. The biological response classification method is thus a more effective tool in finding hot nodes amongst clades of species with high medicinal potential.

Identification, Mapping and Ethnobotany of Plant Species in the Peruvian High Andean Wetlands: Stimulating Biodiversity Conservation Efforts towards Sustainability

The high Andean wetlands of Peru provide not only the well-known ecosystem services such as water storage, flood mitigation, erosion control, and purification of water, but are also a source of income for local economies (as fodder), have medicinal properties, are a source of food, contribute to the development of ecotourism among many other uses. Economic and population growth have already damaged many parts of the high Andean wetlands including their rich flora. In order to promote the conservation of its diversity and unique flora, this study conducted extensive botanical explorations to identify and map the floristic composition of the high Andean wetlands of La Libertad, Peru, as well as their influence on local communities. The authors conducted explorations taking taxonomic, biogeographic and ethno biological data of the flora species as well as their therapeutic and economic botany. The study identified 64 species of flora distributed in 46 genera and 27 families including Asteraceae (with 8 species), Juncaceae (with 7 species), Poaceae (with 6 species), Cyperaceae (with 5 species), Licopodiaceae and Rosaceae (with 4 species each), Apiaceae, Gentianaceae, Orobanchaceae and Sphagnaceae (with 3 species each) and Poligonaceae (with 2 species). With reference to economic botany, it was found that 32.8% of species constitute resources with a very good economic benefit. The study concludes that it is imperative to take actions to protect the high Andean wetlands as they are ecosystems with great biodiversity. This study contribution expects to raise concerns regarding the increasing impact of economic and population growth on the loss of not only natural habitats but species as well. Conservation efforts will help protect the heritage of the Andes wetlands for future generations.

Review: Just the Tonic: A Natural History of Tonic Water, by Kim Walker and Mark Nesbitt

The next time you sip your gin and tonic, spare a thought for Doña Francisca Henríques de Ribera, countess of Chinchón and wife of the viceroy of Peru. When the beautiful countess lay languishing and feverish on her deathbed sometime around 1630, she was given a dose of a local “fever bark” and, surprisingly, recovered. So thankful was she for this miraculous cure that, the story goes, she returned to Spain to dispense the bark to the suffering of Europe. It may all sound somewhat fanciful, but the story was enough for the Swedish botanist Linnaeus to name both the tree and the genus after the countess (although he managed to drop the first “h” in the process, so it became Cinchona). It is the bark of the cinchona tree, and the powerful antimalarial quinine compounds it contains, that is famously the bitter flavoring in tonic water. Of course this did not happen overnight; the history of the links between cinchona, quinine, malaria, tonic water, and gin are much more complex and more fascinating than one might suspect, as Just the Tonic shows.Like all the best books focusing on single foods or drinks, the fun is in the broader contextualization. Together, co-authors Kim Walker (student of the history of plant medicines) and Mark Nesbitt (curator of the Economic Botany Collection at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, London) open up a series of different worlds to introduce us to the history of tonic water. They explore the nature of malaria and the slow voyage of discovery that led to the understanding of its transmission. We are also treated to a natural history of the tree itself, which, from the seventeenth century, was in great demand in Europe for treating fevers of all sorts. Indeed, when the Parisian pharmacist Auguste Delondre first set eyes on a specimen in the Peruvian Andes, he remarked: “That magnificent tree. For so long I had seen it in my dreams and now it was before me” (p.11). Long before the nature and causation of malaria were understood (early in the twentieth century) and long before the workings of quinine in blocking the actions of the malaria-causing parasite in the blood were appreciated (even now not perfectly understood), cinchona and its derivative quinine were being taken as both “preservative” and treatment for malaria.Just the Tonic brings together three strands to tell a single story, mixing well-informed historical narrative and quirky anecdote. While the first part of the book focuses on quinine and its use against malaria, the second explores the cultural history of the most popular medium for administering the drug; that is, via carbonated water. In the process, we are treated to a (very) brief history of medicinal mineral waters, the rise of “aerated” or soda waters from the late eighteenth century, and the proliferation of “restorative” and “medicinal” tonic beverages—some highly alcoholic, others directed at the temperance movement—in the nineteenth century. These drinks were promoted, variously, as preventives, cures, and convalescent remedies; as stimulants either to the appetite (aperitifs) or to the digestion (digestives); and, eventually, as medicinal “tonics” and refreshing drinks in tropical climes.The third and final part recounts the history of gin, in particular in its combination with tonic. This is perhaps better known, but the authors nonetheless manage to relate some curious occurrences along the way, such as the technologies used in procuring the necessary ice in the pre-refrigeration age. Throughout, the authors have aimed for a “magazine” style of presentation, with short articles and even shorter text-boxes inserted at regular intervals. If the overall impression is on the erratic side, this approach does have the virtue of allowing them to cover a wide range of topics. The asides are distracting but frequently fascinating (in a frustrating sort of way). Just as one is coming to grips with the wide array of cinchona species that nineteenth-century naturalists had to grapple with, one’s attention is drawn by a small text-box on the accidental invention of the color mauve (on page 46, if you are curious). In any case, the book is beautifully produced. It abounds with magnificent and sometimes surprising illustrations, all carefully chosen, coming from the unparalleled collections of Kew Gardens and the Wellcome Collection, both in London.

Sixty Years with the Chrysobalanaceae

A review is given of the studies of Ghillean Prance and associates on the Chrysobalanaceae over the past sixty years. This has focussed on defining the generic boundaries in the family and on monographic work with a worldwide approach to this pantropical family. The importance of field studies for work on monographs and Floras is emphasized. Monographs are still the basis for much work on conservation, ecology and economic botany and are needed as a foundation for molecular studies. The importance of being open to experimenting with new techniques and as a result being willing to change the taxonomy in accordance with new findings is demonstrated and emphasized. The twelve genera of the Chrysobalanaceae at the beginning of this career-long study have now increased to twenty-eight in order to present a much better monophyletic and evolutionary arrangement based on recent molecular evidence. In particular it was necessary to divide and rearrange the originally large genera Parinari and Licania into a number of smaller segregate genera. All known species were included in a worldwide monograph published in 2003. A brief review of the economic use for the family is given.

Ethnobotany of Elaeis guineensis Jacq. and its importance in the household economy of the Ikale and Ilaje of Ondo State, Nigeria

Background: African oil palm (Elaeis guineensis Jacq.), a perennial crop that originated from Tropical rainforest of West Africa, is one of the most important economic oil crops in Nigeria providing income for rural and semi-urban folks. This study described the ethnobotany of the plant and evaluated the extent to which it contributes to the livelihood strategies of the Ikale and Ilaje speaking people of Ondo State, Nigeria. Methods: Interviews were conducted in the local language and questionnaires were administered to willing respondents. Photographs of tools/machines used in the production of palm oil and allied products were taken. Drawings of the tools were generated on site. Results: The plant is the principal source of palm oil. Major processing tools of palm oil include cracker, presser, digester, and boiling trough. Other products that are derived from oil palm parts are palm kernel oil, kernel meat (for livestock feed), kernel shells (for fuel), palm wine, broom, fish trap, and traditional soap. All these products are made using indigenous methods. They feature in medicinal preparations, traditional ceremonies and are important household commodities. Conclusions: The products derived from oil palm tree serve as means of livelihood in the study communities and are local resources used in everyday activities of the people. The indigenous production methods observed further emphasize the role these products play in the economy of oil palm product makers and sellers. Sustainable tapping of palm wine should be encouraged in order to derive maximum benefits from oil palm tree. Keywords: Ethnobotany, Economic Botany, African Oil Palm, Ondo State, Nigeria

Mudurnu’da Sürdürülebilir Turizm Gelişiminde Etnobotanik

Etnobotanik, yerel halk tarafından kullanılan, korunan ve yönetilen bitkilerin çalışmasıdır. Yerel halkın gastronomik, medikal, dinsel ve diğer amaçlarla bitkilerin kullanımına yoğunlaşmaktadır. Etnobotanik bir yandan, çeşitli bitkilerin potansiyel ekonomik değerini belirleyen diğer yandan da sürdürülebilir turizm pazarı ile bağı olan hızla büyüyen bilimsel bir alandır. Destinasyonlarda yerel halkın kültürü ve kültürel mirası, yerli ve yabancı turistler için önemli bir çekim öğesidir. Günümüzdeki ve yakın gelecekteki destinasyonların, mevcut bir gastronomik kültür taşıdığı varsayıldığından sürdürülebilir turizm olgusunda; yenilebilir bitki türlerinin ve geleneksel etnobotanik bilgisinin kullanılabileceği açıkça görülmektedir. Son yıllarda, sürdürülebilir turizm anlayışının ortaya çıkmasıyla, yenilebilir bitki türlerinin geleneksel kullanımı ile gastronomi sunumları arasındaki ilişkiyle ilgili olabildiğince çok bilgi toplanması için farklı bilimsel çalışmalar yapılmıştır. Bu çalışmada, Mudurnu’da sürdürülebilir turizm faaliyetleri için özel ilgi gören geleneksel besin ve yerel bitki kaynakları incelenmiş ve özellikle köylerde yaşayan kişilerle ve yöre halkıyla görüşmeler yapılmıştır. Bu çalışma için Mudurnu, ekoturizm arzının ana öğeleri olan doğal, tarihsel ve kültürel kaynaklarının zenginliği nedeniyle tercih edilmiştir. Ayrıca, yöresel gastronomi alanında geleneksel etnobotanik bilgisinin kullanımına ve bunun sürdürülebilir turizm gelişimine olan etkisine özellikle dikkat edilmiştir.