Genetic Improvement and Conservation Practices of Medicinal Plants

This book explores the most recent advances in medicinal plant conservation and improvement through genetic transformation. It presents a compendium of topics related to conservation for sustainable utilization of important medicinal and aromatic plants, plant tissue culture interventions, genetic engineering tools for plant transformation, and transgenics for improved traits in the medicinally active plant species. Advancements in the areas of medicinal plants’ nuclear and chloroplast engineering, stress tolerance, metabolite production, DNA barcoding, etc. have been carefully intertwined to offer novelty for the readers. The book caters to the interests of plant biologists, biotechnologists, ecologists, chemists, and pharmacologists and will be helpful to researchers, academicians, and students in the areas of medicinal plants’ conservation, propagation and genetic improvement. Salient Features: 1. Provides a detailed and up-to-date account of the role of in vitro methods in the sustainable conservation of medicinally important plants. 2. Serves as a comprehensive guide for different methods of genetic engineering of medicinal plants. 3. Demonstrates application of genetic transformation strategies for improved characters, bioactive production, and stress tolerance in medicinal plant species. 4. Elaborates the conservation and genetic engineering methods for priority medicinal plants. 5. Discusses the application of advanced techniques like bioinformatics, genomics, and DNA banks for medicinal plant conservation and improvement.

1. Manu Pant is currently working as an Associate Professor in the Department of Life Sciences, at Graphic Era University, Dehradun, Uttarakhand, India. She received her master's degree from Banasthali Vidyapith in Rajasthan, India, and her doctorate from HNB Garhwal University (A Central University) in Srinagar, India. She has extensive experience in the field of plant sciences, having worked as a research fellow at the Forest Research Institute and the Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education on nationally funded projects. She currently works as an Associate Professor in the Graphic Era Deemed to be University's Department of Life Sciences in Dehradun, India. She has several peer-reviewed international papers (h-index 11) to her credit, has published patents, and has delivered numerous oral and poster presentations, keynote addresses, and invited talks at national and international scientific events. She has completed state-funded research projects on orchids and has published patents on orchid propagation strategies. Dr. Pant has conducted many conferences, seminars, and trainings related to orchid biology. She has been supervising Ph.D., M.Sc., M.Tech., and B.Tech students in their research work. For her work in the field of plant sciences, Dr. Pant has received appreciation in form of awards by State and National level bodies.

2. Sayed Sartaj Sohrab is working as a Professor at King Fahd Medical Research Center, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, KSA since Feb 2012. He has 17 years of experience in the various area of plant biology. He has published more than 100 research papers and six book chapters edited by different editors and submitted more than 250 genome sequences in GenBank. He has completed 11 projects and 13 running projects as PI and Co-PI funded by various agencies. He got best poster award in “9th International Virology Congress and Expo” during March 13-14, 2017, London, UK. He is an active reviewer of many research papers from scientific journals. He is member of Indian Phyto pathological society, Indian Virological society, Saudi Society for Genomics and Molecular Oncology. He has worked as secretary of King Fahd publication committee. He is actively involved in the guidance of students for their thesis work and laboratory activities at King Fahd Medical Research Center, King Abdulaziz University, KSA.

3. Azamal Husen served as Professor & Head, Department of Biology, University of Gondar, Ethiopia and is a Foreign Delegate at Wolaita Sodo University, Wolaita, Ethiopia. He specializes in biogenic nanomaterial fabrication and application, plant responses to environmental stresses and nanomaterials at the physiological, biochemical and molecular levels, herbal medicine, and clonal propagation for improvement of tree species, and has published over 200 research articles. He is contributed to R&D projects of World Bank, ICAR, ICFRE, JBIC etc. He is on the advisory board of Cambridge Scholars Publishing, UK. Husen has been on the Editorial Board and the panel of reviewers of several reputed journals. He is a Fellow of the Plantae group of the American Society of Plant Biologists, and a Member of the International Society of Root Research, Asian Council of Science Editors, and INPST. He is Editor-in-Chief of the American Journal of Plant Physiology, and a Series Editor of Exploring Medicinal Plants (Taylor & Francis Group, USA); Plant Biology, Sustainability, and Climate Change (Elsevier, USA); and Smart Nanomaterials Technology (Springer Nature, Singapore).