Economic Botany Research Articles

How can the well be dry when it is filled with water?

A review of the text of lectures presented by colleagues previously honored as the Distinguished Economic Botanist, reveals that several different approaches seem to have been taken. Some have given an account of new and as yet unpublished personal research. Others selected important aspects of their published research and presented them in a concise review. This led me to do some soulsearching to identify what my research efforts related to economic botany have produced over the past 25 or more years. Certainly, in terms of sheer weight of paper, the work of my group has been most productive in the area of isolation, identification or structure-elucidation of cytotoxic and/or antitumor agents from plants. We have isolated hundreds of compounds from plants, determined about 200 novel structures and found about 150 of them to be biologically active. This does not leave me much to talk about since these studies can be found in readily available journals. I might describe our efforts to locate biologically-active compounds in plants, other than those in the antitumor area, but since central nervous system stimulants have not contributed much to our total effort, I would run the risk of sedating the audience. Such a risk most likely would be statistically significant at the P < 0.001 level.

Donovan Stewart Correll, 1908–1983

Donovan Stewart Correll who died on 28 March 1983, after some months of illness, will be missed by family, friends, and many former colleagues scattered all over the world. He was born in Wilson, North Carolina on 13 April 1908, and spent most of his early years in that state. However, before entering college at Duke University, he spent a year at various jobs in Florida and two years taking voice lessons and singing solos at church and on radio. He received the A.B. degree from Duke in 1934, the A.M. in 1936, and the Ph.D. in 1939. Some of the work for the Ph.D. was done at Harvard University (with assistance from the Anna C. Ames Memorial Scholarship), under the supervision of Professor Oakes Ames, known internationally for his work on orchids, and by whom Correll was introduced to the study of Economic Botany. This interest continued throughout his professional career and became the main focus of most of his work for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, 1944, 1947-1956. From 1939 to 1943 Correll was a Research Associate at the Botanical Museum of Harvard University. Also in 1943, he participated as botanist with the Alaska Highway Botanical-Geological Survey, part of the Joint Economic Committees, Canada-United States. From 1944-1946 he served as a gunnery officer in the U.S. Navy, returning to Harvard as a recipient of a post-service Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship, 1946-1947, to complete research he had underway. From Cambridge he returned to the USDA, where he served from 1947-1956 in various capacities in the Specialty Crop Introductions Group, Division of Plant Exploration and Introduction, Bureau of Plant Industry, Soils, and Agricultural Engineering, and carried on studies and/or field exploration for potatoes, yams, and other steroidcontaining plants. He also led various projects involving exploration by other staff members for plants that might become useful crops for U.S. farmers to cultivate, or might provide needed food or pharmaceutical products. My acquaintance with Don Correll, which had begun at Harvard, grew at Beltsville, Maryland, after I went there to become a member of the working group he led. My efforts in that group were devoted to two projects, one concerned with taxonomic studies on various species of Dioscorea (the true yams) and the other with cooperative studies on alkaloid-bearing plants. Both these projects had much broader overall aspects involving cooperation with other governmental agencies and the testing and evaluation of the plants and plant parts under study from many points of view. These Correll administered with skill and dispatch; at the same time pursuing research on potatoes and other useful plants. Concurrently, he continued, in his spare time, studies on orchids and ferns, made many collecting trips, and with his wife raised a family of four children. His very significant Orchids of North America, North of Mexico was published in 1950; and with Professor Ames, the Orchids of Guatemala in 1952-1953. In 1956, Correll became head of the Botany Department of the Texas Research

The society for economic botany

The society for economic botany

Annual meeting, Society for Economic Botany

Annual meeting, Society for Economic Botany

Joint Meeting of The American Society of Pharmacognosy and Society for Economic Botany

Joint Meeting of The American Society of Pharmacognosy and Society for Economic Botany

To Plough or Not To Plough? A Newar Dilemma

Pacific ViewpointVolume 22, Issue 2 p. 99-131 ArticleFree Access To Plough or Not To Plough? A Newar Dilemma Taboo And Technology in Kathmandu Valley, Nepal* Peter Webster, Peter WebsterSearch for more papers by this author Peter Webster, Peter WebsterSearch for more papers by this author First published: 01 May 1981 https://doi.org/10.1111/apv.222001Citations: 1 † * This article is a revised and lengthened version of a paper given on 19 October 1978 to a seminar at the Institute of Nepalese and Asian Studies, Tribhuvan University, Kathmandu, Nepal by kind invitation of the Director, Professor Dor Bahadur Bista. The paper generated some very helpful discussion, and I am indebted to many of the participants, some of them Newars, for their most constructive criticism and suggestions. Another draft was read to the Department of Sociology and Anthropology while on a brief visit to the University of Kent in February 1979 and I am grateful to Professor Paul Stirling for arranging this. I must also thank the History Department, Victoria University of Wellington, for a lively seminar with participants from a number of disciplines shortly before the paper was submitted for publication. The fieldwork was carried out in the Kathmandu Valley, Nepal. One complete agricultural year was spent in the valley: six months in 1972/73, and six months in 1978, on Refresher Leave from Victoria University of Wellington with grants from the Internal Research Committee. AboutSectionsPDF ToolsExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditWechat References 1Bista, Dor Bahadur, 1967, People of Nepal, Kathmandu, Ratna Pustak Bhandar. 2Bhatt, D.D., 1970, Natural history and economic botany of Nepal, Kathmandu, H.M.G. Press. 3Brook-Northey, W. and Morris, C.G., 1928, The Gurkhas, their manners, customs and country, London, The Bodley Head. 4Campbell, A., 1834, The agriculture and rural economy of the Valley of Nepal, Transactions of the agricultural and horticultural society of India, 4, 59– 175. 5Chattopadhyay, K.P., 1923, An essay on the history of Newar culture, Journal and Proceedings of the Asiatic society of Bengal, 19, 465– 560. 6Diener, P. and Robkin, E.L., 1978, Ecology, evolution and the search for cultural origins: the question of Islamic pig prohibition, C.A., 19, 493– 540. 7Dumont, L.1972, Homo Hierarchicus, London, Paladin Books. 8Hamilton, R.D., 1818, An account of the kingdom of Nepal, Edinburgh. 9Harris, Marvin, 1966, The cultural ecology of India’s sacred cattle, Current Anthropology, 7, 51– 66. 10Harris, Marvin, 1977, Cows, Pigs, Wars and Witches, London, Fontane. 11Harris, Marvin, 1978, Cannibals and Kings: the Origins of Cultures, New York, Vintage Books. 12Harris, Marvin, 1979, Cultural Materialism, New York, Random House. 13Hosken, Fran, P., 1974, The Kathmandu Valley Towns, New York, Weatherhill. 14Hunter, WW., 1896, Life of Brian Houghton Hodgson — British Resident at the Court of Nepal, London, John Murray. 15Kirkpatrick, Col., 1811, An Account of the Kingdom of Nepal, London. 16Lévi Strauss, Claude, 1968, Structural Anthropology, London, Allen Lane. 17Malla, U.M., 1972, Agricultural conditions in the Kathmandu Valley for the last 150 years, Himalayan Review, 5, 61– 72. 18Malla, U.M., 1971, Geomorphology of the Kathmandu Valley, Himalayan Review, 4, 61– 76. 19Miles, Douglas, 1979, The Finger knife and Oskham’s razor: a problem in Asian culture history and economic anthropology, American Ethnologist. 20Nepali, Gopal Singh, 1965, The Newars — an Ethno-Sociological Study of a Himalayan Community, Bombay, United Asia Publications. 21 Physical Development Plan of the Kathmandu Valley, 1969, H.M.G. of Nepal. 22Ross, E.B., 1978, Food taboos, diet, and hunting strategy: the adoption to animals in Amazon cultural ecology, C.A., 19, 1– 36. 23Rosser, Colin, 1966, Social mobility in the Newar caste system, in C.Von Furer-Haimendorf ed., Caste and Kin in Nepal, India and Ceylon, Bombay, Asia Publishing House. 24Simoons, F.J., 1979, Questions in the sacred cow controversy, C.A., 20, 467– 493. 25Srinivas, M.N., 1952, Religion and society among the Coorgs of South India, Oxford Univ. Press. 26Srinivas, M.N., 1967, Social change in modern India, Berkeley, Univ. of California Press. Citing Literature Volume22, Issue2May 1981Pages 99-131 ReferencesRelatedInformation

A Catskill Flora and Economic Botany.

A Catskill Flora and Economic Botany.

Annual meeting of the society for economic botany

Annual meeting of the society for economic botany

Joint meeting of: The American Society of Pharmacognosy and the Society for Economic Botany: Massachusetts College of Pharmacy, Boston, Mass., July 12–17, 1981

Joint meeting of: The American Society of Pharmacognosy and the Society for Economic Botany: Massachusetts College of Pharmacy, Boston, Mass., July 12–17, 1981

The society for economic botany

The society for economic botany

Annual Meeting of the Society for Economic Botany

Annual Meeting of the Society for Economic Botany

Joint meeting of the American society of pharmacognosy and society for economic botany

Joint meeting of the American society of pharmacognosy and society for economic botany

On Pre-Columbian Maize in India and Elephantine Deities in Mesoamerica

Previous articleNext article No AccessDiscussion and CriticismOn Pre-Columbian Maize in India and Elephantine Deities in MesoamericaBalaji MundkurBalaji Mundkur Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Current Anthropology Volume 21, Number 5Oct., 1980 Sponsored by the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/202548 Views: 3Total views on this site Citations: 1Citations are reported from Crossref Copyright 1980 The Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological ResearchPDF download Crossref reports the following articles citing this article:Carl L. Johannessen, Anne Z. Parker Maize ears sculptured in 12th and 13th centuryA.D. India as indicators of pre-columbian diffusion, Economic Botany 43, no.22 (Apr 1989): 164–180.https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02859857

Twenty-first annual meeting the society for economic botany June 15–18, 1980 Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana

Twenty-first annual meeting the society for economic botany June 15–18, 1980 Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana

Alkanna tinctoria: A Nomenclatural Tangle

Dyers' Alkanet, the False Alcanna (Alcanna spuria) of the old pharmacopoeias*, is a common plant in many parts of southern Europe and the Mediterranean region. It has a long and well-documented history in medicine and economic botany, and it is the conserved type of the conserved generic name Alkanna Tausch. In the circumstances one might reasonably assume that its scientific name would be soundly established and secure against change. Unfortunately, closer examination of the facts proves otherwise.

Gau sun: A cultivated host-parasite combination from china

The structure that is called "gau sun" in Cantonese and "jiao sun" in standard modern Chinese (Mandarin) is probably the only product of a plant host and a fungal parasite that is systematically cultivated and eaten as a vegetable. It consists of the swollen flowering culm of the grass Zizania caduciflora Turcz. and a comparatively small amount of the mycelium of the smut fungus Ustilago esculenta P. Henn., which is responsible for the swelling of the culm. Brief descriptions of gau sun, in English, have been given by Fischer and Holton (1957) and Herklots (1972). However, so far as we are aware, there is no comprehensive account of the economic botany of gau sun, and a survey of the literature suggests that the nature of gau sun is not well understood in the West. The earliest account of the formation of gau sun known to us is in An Outline of Materia Medica by Li Shih-Chen and published in 1578, indicating that the Chinese people have been cultivating and eating gau sun for at least 400 years. The origin of the association between Z. caduciflora and U. esculenta was discussed by Li (1966), who remarked that cultivation of Z. caduciflora first took place in the northern region of China-presumably north of the Yellow River. Later, the area of cultivation was extended southward, where infection occurred. He did not speculate on the possible host of U. esculenta before Z. caduciflora became available. Hance (1872) described gau sun as a "Chinese culinary vegetable," consisting of the shoot of a grass, but did not recognise that a smut fungus was associated with it. Later authors interpreted incorrectly the relationship between U. esculenta and the part of the plant that it affected: for example, Hennings (1895) described the fungus as affecting the inflorescence, and Zillig (1932) described gau sun as an hypertrophied inflorescence. However, Roger (1951) correctly stated that infection caused hypertrophy of the culm and that no trace of floral organization could be detected. Roger noted further that the parasitized plants did not flower, and that plants which flowered did not produce gau sun. The sterility of infected plants has been noted by several authors in China and by ourselves. Some Japanese authors have taken the view that the fungus is the main component of gau sun. For example, Hori (1907) mentioned that the Taiwanese "consume unripe Zizania smut as a delicacy," and Kawagoe (1925) described gau sun as the "hypertrophied sprout of Z. latifolia filled with the mass of the sporogenous hyphae of a smut fungus." In fact, the greater part of gau sun is composed of host tissue.

The role of botany in the development of the Republic of South Africa with special emphasis on the contributions of the Botanical Research Institute

Five papers cover different aspects of the contributions to and role of botany in the development of the Republic of South Africa. Two papers sum up the contributions for the non-agricultural and agricultural sectors. The introductory paper by D. J. B. Killick provides a short historical account of the Botanical Research Institute, followed by a discussion of the contributions of the Institute to botany in South Africa through its National Herbarium and identification service as well as researches in taxonomy, plant anatomy, cyto-genetics, ecology, economic botany and data processing. B. de Winter emphasizes the fundamental role of taxonomy and bio-systematics for planning and the optimal use of the natural plant resources. The current support for taxonomy and biosystematics is examined and proposals made for improving progress in the Flora of Southern Africa series. For plant physiology, N. Grobbelaar discusses, firstly, the ways whereby the productivity of a plant species with its characteristic genetic constitution can be raised by determining and modifying for optimal response the effects of environmental factors such as spacing, mineral nutrition, water provision, etc.; and, secondly, usually when the first means has been achieved, of improving plant productivity by altering the genetic constitution of the plant so that it can perform better than its ancestors under the prevailing conditions. After discussing and illustrating the applications and roles of plant ecology, D. Edwards concludes that basic plant ecological research is required, firstly, at the regional level through regional plant ecological studies to supply the essential local knowledge needed by researchers, planners and users of the land; and, secondly, at the more detailed level where knowledge is needed of the processes and factors that govern the behaviour of vegetation so that it can be properly used, managed and manipulated. M. J. Wells discusses the role of economic botanists for priority research assessment, and for research on problem plants, such as weeds, and on plants for food and other useful products, especially from the rich and untapped South African flora of over 17 000 species. The needs for an adequate base of primary botanical data are stressed, and for ethnobotanical work to assist exploration of plant uses. S. A. Hulme, in his summing up for the agricultural sector, points out that despite the emergence of the specialist agricultural disciplines, botanical research remains fundamental to the understanding of the plant. Following on the important contributions that botany has made to agriculture, there remain many important contributions to agriculture for the future through physiological and other botanical studies. In his summing up for the non-agricultural sector, D. M. Joubert illustrates the ways whereby the influence of the Botanical Research Institute and its co-operation with other institutes and organizations extends beyond the purely agricultural field to other national programmes involving terrestrial and inland water ecosystems, in plant alkaloid research, in nature conservation, etc.

Aquatic weed control versus utilisation

During recent years a large number of articles have appeared in scientific periodicals, magazines and newspapers emphasizing the need for utilisation of various aquatic weeds, especially water hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes) (Boyd, 1970; Sharma, 1971; Rogers and Davis, 1972; Little, 1968; Bagnall et al., 1973; Varshney and Rzoska, 1976). The multiplicity of the publications and the interest in the subject is highlighted by the appearance of three papers in a single issue of Economic Botany (Boyd, 1976; Bates and Hentges, 1976; Wooten and Dodd, 1976). One of the latest publications is the report of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences entitled Making Aquatic Weeds Useful: Some Perspectives for Developing Countries (Anonymous, 1976). A reading of these accounts makes one feel that man has discovered new resources which may substitute hitherto known materials for such valuable needs as proteins for man, feed for animals, pulp for paper and above all fuel (as biogas). There is hardly any need that cannot be fulfilled by using aquatic weeds in place of traditional materials! This communication intends to record our views and serious reservations against the plea for utilisation of aquatic weeds on the basis of available literature and our own studies. We do not intend to review the whole literature but only to survey briefly to develop our viewpoint.

New editor of economic botany

New editor of economic botany

Twenty-First Annual Meeting the Society for Economic Botany June 15–18, 1980 Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana

Twenty-First Annual Meeting the Society for Economic Botany June 15–18, 1980 Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana