CRC Press Genetic Improvement and Conservation Practices of Medicinal Plants (Exploring 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.