Non-Timber Forest Products Food, Healthcare and Industrial Applications

Forests cover thirty-one percent of the world’s land surface, provide habitats for animals, livelihoods for humans, and generate household income in rural areas of developing countries. They also supply other essential amenities, for instance, they filter water, control water runoff, protect soil erosion, regulate climate, store nutrients, and facilitate countless non-timber forest products (NTFPs). The main NTFPs comprise herbs, grasses, climbers, shrubs, and trees used for food, fodder, fuel, beverages, medicine, animals, birds and fish for food, fur, and feathers, as well as their products, like honey, lac, silk, and paper. At present, these products play an important role in the daily life and well-being of millions of people worldwide. Hence the forest and its products are very valuable and often NTFPs are considered as the ‘potential pillars of sustainable forestry’.

 

NTFPs items like food, herbal drugs, forage, fuel-wood, fountain, fibre, bamboo, rattans, leaves, barks, resins, and gums have been continuously used and exploited by humans. Wild edible foods are rich in terms of vitamins, protein, fat, sugars, and minerals. Additionally, some NTFPs are used as important raw materials for pharmaceutical industries. Numerous industry-based NTFPs are now being exported in considerable quantities by developing countries. Accordingly, this sector facilitates employment opportunities in remote rural areas. So, these developments also highlight the role of NTFPs in poverty alleviation in different regions of the world.

 

This book provides a wide spectrum of information on NTFPs, including important references. We hope that the compendium of chapters in this book will be very useful as a reference book for graduate and postgraduate students and researchers in various disciplines of forestry, botany, medical botany, economic botany, ecology, agroforestry, and biology. Additionally, this book should be useful for scientists, experts, and consultants associated with the forestry sector.

Professor Azamal Husen (BSc from Shri Murli Manohar Town Post Graduate College, Ballia, UP; MSc from Hamdard University, New Delhi; and PhD from Forest Research Institute, Dehra Dun, India) is a Foreign Delegate at Wolaita Sodo University, Wolaita, Ethiopia. He has served the University of Gondar, Ethiopia, as a Full Professor of Biology, and also worked as the Coordinator of MSc Program and the Head, Department of Biology. He was a Visiting Faculty of the Forest Research Institute, and the Doon College of Agriculture and Forest at Dehra Dun, India. He has a more than 20 years’ experience of teaching, research and administration. Dr. Husen specializes in biogenic nanomaterials fabrication and their application, plant response to nanomaterials, plant production and adaptation to harsh environments at physiological, biochemical and molecular levels, herbal medicine, and clonal propagation and improvement of tree species. He has conducted several research projects sponsored by various funding agencies, including the World Bank, the Indian Council of Agriculture Research (ICAR), the Indian Council of Forest Research Education (ICFRE); and the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC), etc. He has published over 100 research papers, review articles and book chapters, edited books of international repute, presented papers in several conferences, and produced over a dozen of manuals and monographs. Dr. Husen received four fellowships from India and a recognition award from University of Gondar, Ethiopia, for excellent teaching, research and community service. An active organizer of seminars/conferences and an efficient evaluator of research projects and book proposals as he is, Dr. Husen has been on the Editorial board and the panel of reviewers of several reputed journals of Elsevier, Frontiers Media SA, Taylor & Francis, Springer Nature, RSC, Oxford University Press, Sciendo, The Royal Society, CSIRO, PLOS and John Wiley & Sons. He is included in the advisory board of Cambridge Scholars Publishing, UK. He is a Fellow of the Plantae group of American Society of Plant Biologists, and a Member of International Society of Root Research, Asian Council of Science Editors, and INPST, etc. Also, he is Editor-in-Chief of American Journal of Plant Physiology; and a Series Editor of ‘Exploring Medicinal Plants’ published by Taylor & Francis Group, USA.

Dr. Rakesh Kumar Bachheti graduated from the Hemwati Nandan Bahuguna University, Garhwal, India, in 1996. He completed his MSc in Organic Chemistry from Hemwati Nandan Bahuguna University, Garhwal, India in 1998. He had undergone a one-year Post Graduate Diploma in Pulp and Paper Technology from Forest Research Institute, Dehradun, in 2001. He obtained his PhD in Organic Chemistry from Kumaun University, Nainital, India in 2007. He is presently working as an Associate Professor of Organic Chemistry in the Department of Industrial Chemistry at the Addis Ababa Scienceand Technology University (AASTU) of Ethiopia, where he teaches PhD, graduate and undergraduate students. Before joining AASTU, Dr. Rakesh was working as Dean Project (Assistant) in Graphic Era University (A grade university by NACC) Dehradun, India. Dr. Rakesh also presented papers in various international and national conferences. His major research interests include natural product for industrial application, biofuel and bioenergy, green synthesis of nanoparticles and their applications, and pulp and paper technology. He has successfully advised 30 MSc and 3 PhD students to completion and countless undergraduates have researched in his laboratory. Dr. Bachheti has over 50 publications dealing with various aspects of natural product chemistry and has eight book chapters published by Springer, Elsevier, Taylor & Francis, and Nova Publisher. Presently, he is supervising 5 PhD students, 3 Master’s students and also working for two research projects funded by AASTU.

Dr. Archana (Joshi) Bachheti did BSc in the year 1997, and MSc in 1999 from Hemwati Nandan Bahuguna University, Garhwal, India. She received her PhD from Forest Research Institute, Dehradun, India in 2006. She has carried out research projects and consultancy work in the areas of ecorestoration/ development of wasteland, physico-chemical properties of Jatropha curcus seed oil and their relation with altitudinal variation; and has been a Consultant Ecologist to a project funded by some governmental agencies. Dr. Joshi, currently an Associate Professor at Graphic Era University, Dehradun, India. She has also served in many capacities in the academia within India and provided expertise internationally for more than 15 years where she taught Ecology and Environment, Environmental Science, Freshwater Ecology, Disaster management, and Bryophytes and Pteridophytes. Her major research interests encompass the broad, interdisciplinary field of plant ecology, with focus on eco-restoration, green chemistry