Plant genetic resources are key components of global diversity from which humanity derives most of its food, medicines and industrial products. They ensure the world’s food, security and directly or indirectly and they support the livelihoods of every person on earth. Both the wild and domesticated components of plants genetic resources heve been used. Staples, which feed the world, include leafy green vegetables, root crops, seeds or inflorescences as well as fruits. Plants, which cloth the world, include those fibre-bearing plants, dye plants and others. Lesser-known and under-utilised plant resources are among those plants which have either become neglected in the course of time or whose potential has not yet been realized.
Lesser-Known and Under-Utilised Plant Resources is a photographic guide to the potential that present the lesser known and under-utilized plant resources worldwide. Among the categories of plants are those giving fruits, vegetables, perfume plants, spice and herbs, dye and fibre plants amongst others.
233 colour photographs illustrate 158 plants from 69 families and highlight vital information like their nutritional, industrial and medicinal values as well as their commercial potential. This publication will be useful to a wide range of stakeholders including farmers, students, researchers and the public at large on the use and potential use that lie in store for the under-utilized and lesser-known plant resources.
Ameenah Gurib-Fakim, PhD is presently the Managing Director of the Centre for Phytotherapy Research (CEPHYR). She has authored several books on Medicinal Plants and on the flora of Mauritius and Africa. In 2010, she also co-authored the African Herbal Pharmacopoeia.
Elected Fellow to the African, lslamic Academies of Science and the Linnean Society of London, she has received several international scientific prizes namely the l'Oreal-Unesco Prize for Women in Science (2007), the Special “Woman Professionals in Science” Prize of the CTA/NEPAD/RU FORUM/AG RA/ATPS/FARA (2009); the African Union ‘Woman in Science‘ Prize (2009). In 2013, she received the Honorary Doctorate from the Universite Pierre Marie Curie (Sorbonne Universites).