This volume deals with plants that are used for their oily seeds or fruits. About 80% of the world supply of non-mineral oils and fats is of vegetable origin and mostly produced by 14 crops. Of these, 9 crops are treated in separate papers. Oil palm and coconut are two most important oil crops of South-East Asia, but sunflower and sesame are also cultivated in some countries of this region. Rap…
This volume deals with the pteridophytes, or the ferns, clubmosses and horsetails. The possibilities of these species are not limited to use as garden and indoor ornamentals, though this is what they are best known by. Being a group of plants that has representatives in most natural land habitats, often in abundance, pteridophytes have instigated cultures all over the world to employ them for v…
This volume deals with the plants of South-East Asia that produce essential oil, particularly the ones producing oils used as fragrance material. It complements the Prosea volumes on edible fruits and nuts, medicinal an poisonous plants, spices, and plants producing exudates, which deal with plants that produce essential oils as important by-products.rnFragrance materials play a much more impot…
This volume deals with the auxiliary plants in agriculture and forestry of South-East Asia, including fuelwoods and water-clearing plants. Auxiliary plants have service functions in cropping systems and help increase or sustain the yield of the main crops. Auxiliary plants include shade and nurse trees, cover crops, green manures, mulch, fallow crops, live fences, wind-breaks and shelter-belts,…
This third volume completes the PROSEA trilogy on the medicinal and poisonous plants of South-East Asia, and brings the total number of papers in the 3 volumes to 548, and of species treated to 1290. The present volume includes many lesser-known species, for which in general little information on the phytochemistry and pharmacology is available compared to those treated in the first (1999) and …
This first of the three planned volumes on the medicinal and poisonous plants of South-East Asia deals with the better-known species and genera. Many people in this region depend on plants for their primary health care and as pesticides. Interest in medicinal and poisonous plants is increasing because it is recognized that plants are still a vast source of novel chemical compounds, that traditi…
Exudates are generally obtained by tapping trees (Latexes, resins, gums). A few of them, such as rubber and pine resin, are economically very important: in South-East Asia, rubber is a major source of income for well over 1 million households. Other exudates, however, have not been able to compete with synthetic substitutes and have declined in importance or have fallen out of use. Of the exuda…
This volume deals with the plants of South-East Asia that are cultivated or collected from the wild as fibre plants. A broad definition of fibre plants has been applied, and they are considered to comprise: plants used for textiles, cordage and paper (including those used for toothbrushes, spones and cork); plants used for making baskets, mats and wickerwork (including brooms); and plants used …
This volume deals with the bamboos of South-East Asia. For centuries bamboos have been of great importance in rural communities in tropical Asia, being used intensively as a sustainable resource for numerous purposes.rnBamboos are often classifield as minor or non-timber forest products and their value orpotential value has been largely underestimated. In recent years the commercialization of b…