Conservation and documentation of the medicinal plant resources of India

Abstract

In India, activities in the field of medicinal plants, including conservation of germplasm, have been enhanced significantly during the past couple of decades and a huge volume of data is being generated out of these works. For maintaining the records in a consolidated form, documentation is required to store and manage all information on the related studies. In accordance with the implementation of various plans and programmes, some pioneer organisations started developing databases on medicinal plants. Based on the knowledge on contemporary works, as collected from published literature and websites, this article presents information on current activities in India in two important aspects of the field, namely, (1) conservation of medicinal plants; and (2) management of data generated from such studies. Another important aspect of the article is the announcement of a plant conservation related software, 'PlantCon'. This digitised database contains data of 40 selected nationally prioritised medicinal plants (list enclosed). The notable difference of 'PlantCon' from other databases lies in its conservation-related information which is up-to-date and covers a wide area of Indian geographical sites. The database provides information in a user-friendly manner.