Balaa group of plant drugs is one of the important ingredients in many of the Ayurvedic formulations used for treating various neuro-muscular disorders. The accepted species as per Ayurvedic Pharmacopeia India is Sida cordifolia L. However in today’s practices, there are multiple species which go by the same trade name Balaa. This may be due to regional manifestations, context based usages, alternatives, substitutes thus leading to confusion and affecting quality of the medicine. In this context, advanced tools like application of signature sequence techniques, using defined DNA markers and decoding of DNA Sequence, would additionally help in identification of plant species from herbal formulations. The present paper shares the investigation on the detection of Balaa (Sida cordifolia L.) in the market formulations using Internal Transcribed Spacer 2 (ITS2) region and Maturase K (matK) barcoding markers using CTAB technique. The results show that for validating the presence of a particular species usage in the commercial formulation, complete gene sequencing of the claimed species/original species and accepted alternatives have to be made available for comparative studies. For the Balaa group of drugs, there is potential to develop the complete gene sequence for authentication purpose. This approach is now being used as a standard protocol in herbal pharmaco-vigilance research to verify labelled ingredients and detection of substitutes/alternatives in specific products. This process is meant to ensure Quality Assurance (QA) of raw drug materials used by herbal sector.

An ethnobotanical study was conducted in the Uttarakhand state of India, through questionnaire survey, to investigate various plant species and their parts used for making chutney- a special spicy condiment made of fruits or vegetables. Thirty eight plant species belonging to 19 families were documented during the survey. Polygonaceae, Rosaceae and Rutaceae were the most dominant families in terms of use of number of species for making chutney. The fruits of majority of such species were used for this purpose, followed by flowers and leaves. Apart from making chutney, these species were also used for treatment of over 32 types of ailments, including indigestion, blood purification, cough and toothache. Most of the species were collected from the wild. Of the 38 species Rheum webbianum and Berberis asiatica are endangered.

Embelia ribes Burm. f. is an important, vulnerable, dioecious, woody climber. The fruits of Embelia ribes areused in ayurvedic formulations. The plant usually blooms during January-April and the fruits mature during June-August.Seeds are found to be dormant, so seed germination in the natural condition and rooting from the stem cuttings are verypoor. Effect of pre-germination treatments on freshly harvested seeds of Embelia ribes was carried out. The highest (75%) germination percentage was observed in GA₃1000 ppm treated seeds.

The bee forage includes survey of forage plants, assessment of the relative merits of the component species as sources of nectar and pollen, their flowering sequence and floral calendar during seasonal cycle.  Himachal Pradesh, owing to its varied agro-climate, has a great variety of bee forage sources which provide the basis for development of beekeeping industry in the state. Bee keeping with Apis cerana is a common practice among the rural communities of the Kullu valley in the  state. The identification of the existing bee flora will be useful to evaluate the suitability of Katrain area for A.cerana beekeeping and particularly to find out the dearth periods that would help to combat the shortage of food either by suitable feeding or migration of bee colonies to forage rich areas. This will be helpful in the formulation of the action plans for effective management of the A. cerana  bee based livelihood avenues of the mountain people.

Bioactive compounds are some of the secondary plant metabolites found to have important pharmacological properties.  Maranta arundinacea L. (arrowroot) belonging to the family Marantaceae forms a part of the traditional medicinal systems of Asia from time immemorial. Traditionally the plant is considered as a rich source of easily digestible starch.  Nowadays the plant is well reported for its anti-diarrhoeal, anti-oxidant and anti-cholesterol properties.  Modern methods of identification and quantification of active constituents in plant materials are valuable for proper standardization of herbals and their formulations. Therefore, the present investigation was carried out to determine the possible bioactive compounds present in the rhizome of Maranta arundinacea L. GC-MS analysis of the methanolic extract of Maranta arundinacea revealed the presence of several bioactive compounds, with a high percentage of amines and fatty acids followed by phenolics. Identification of the individual components may lead to the identification of new drugs.

Forest and wild life are essential for ecological balance of an area. Forest is an important component of our environment and economy. Forest products are classified into timber forest products (TFPs) and non-timber forest products (NTFPs). Morni Hills of Haryana is rich in floristic diversity having various species of trees, shrubs, herbs and climbers. Phytodiversity also supports wild-life in this area. In Morni Hills total 186 species were found which yield timber forest products (TFPs) and non-timber forest products (NTFPs).

Wayanad, a district in the north-east part of Kerala state is situated in the hilly tracts of the Western Ghat region of India. Wayanad in the vernacular language means the land of paddy fields. Rice is an inseparable component of their cultural and agricultural identity. Several native rice cultivars are traditionally cultivated by the people of this area.  The present experiment was carried out to study twenty one such native rice cultivars which are cultivated in this agricultural hamlet in terms of the extent of variability present between them in relation to growth and yield characters. Observations were made on nine growth characters and eight yield characters. All the growth and yield characters showed statistically significant variation between the cultivars.

The study deals with 35 species of plants used by the Konda Reddi tribe of Andhra Pradesh for curing  asthma, cold and cough. Morphological analysis showed the utilization of Leaf is used in a maximum of 11 practices followed by root (8), flower (4), fruit (3), and others. 18 practices were found to be new or less or less known.

The present study was conducted on diversity, distribution, indigenous uses and conservation of economically important Plants in Kalatop-Khajjiar Wildlife Sanctuary, Chamba district, Himachal Pradesh during 2013–2016 which has not been explored so far. A total of 361 economically important species (33 trees, 70 shrubs, 249 herbs and 9 ferns) belonging to 254 genera and 99 families have been recorded. These species are used for medicinal (229 spp.), edible (78 spp.), fodder (15 spp.), fuel (53 spp.), timber (09 spp.), religious (20 spp.) and other species for various other purposes. Of the total species, 150 are native, 211 non - native, 73 near endemic and 01 endemic. These species are distributed between 1870 – 2750m, amsl. Due to habitat degradation, over exploitation and changing environmental conditions, the populations of most of the species are facing threats. Therefore, frequent monitoring of populations of these species in relation to climate change and education and awareness among the local inhabitants and Forest Department Officials are suggested. (NTFPs).