Destructive and unsustainable harvesting practices led to a decline of Sterculia urens (Gum karaya) trees from some of the forest areas of Madhya Pradesh. Therefore to assess the current status of S.urens trees, seven districts of the state were surveyed. Results revealed that gum karaya collection is done by inflicting multiple blazes on Sterculia trees. The intensity of harvesting was found progressively high in Sheopur district, followed by Umaria and Damoh districts. Percentage of healthy trees is declining. Methods adopted by local gum collectors are unsustainable and of serious concern leading to tree damage or even mortality. Gum collection is usually carried out throughout the year by locals until gum oozing stops. Post harvesting practices are not properly followed leading to increased chances of contamination and poor economic returns.

Embelia ribes is a woody perennial forest climber that belongs to Rare Endangered and Threatened category.  Because of its economic importance of its seeds and great demand in the market of ayurvedic and pharmaceutical medicines tremendous pressure is being imposed on its natural populations. The present study is an effort to analyze the variability of juvenile plants of Embelia ribes grown from the seeds collected from different geographical regions of the southern part of Western Ghats of India. Statistically significant variability between the accessions was shown only by internodal length and the other characters under study showed only insignificant variations.  However, characters like number of tertiary branches, number of leaves per tertiary branches and epicuticular wax content showed some degree of variation.  The present study reveals that the level of variability expressed in the case of juvenile plants of Embelia ribes when grown and compared under uniform nursery conditions is very low and this observation points to the alarming situation that the level of genetic variability among Embelia ribes plants distributed in the Western Ghats region of Kerala state is very low and measures to improve the extent of variability should be initiated with the objective of enriching in situ diversity and developing germplasm of the plant in which all the available genotypes across its natural habitats are conserved.

Coscinium fenestratum (Gaertn.) colebr. a critically endangered medicinal liana of Western Ghats, is a potential substitute of Berberis chitria for its berberin content. The destructive harvest of the plant over a period for both stem and root has resulted in the scarcity of reproductive individuals in their distributional range and subsequent arrest of natural regeneration. The present study is therefore conducted to raise the genetic stock of the species by enhancing the seed germination percentage through the application of high humidity, temperature and wet sowing medium at field conditions. The seeds sowed in wet river sand inside a poly tunnel having 72-80% RH and 32-38^oC, resulted 85% seed germination and 15-20% of seeds have maintained their viability period up to 10-12 months. In normal climatic condition only 40% total germination were noted. These methods could be a very effective technique for a lay-man to propagate maximum number of this highly potential species from its available seed stock.

An investigation was undertaken with Bixa orellana the test tree species to standardize ideal Integrated Nutrient Management (INM) techniques for improving the growth of B. orellana seedlings, so as to obtain the best quality seedling within a shortest nursery period. A nursery experiment was conducted by raising seedlings in polybags filled with standard soil mixture 2:1:1 (Soil: Sand: FYM) with three levels of nitrogen (100, 200 and 300 mg N per seedling) as urea, three levels of phosphorus (200, 300 and 400 mg P₂O₅ per seedling) as single super phosphate and three levels of potassium (100, 200 and 300 mg of K₂O per seedling) as muriate of potash along with Farm Yard Manure (100g) per seedling, Azospirillum (5g) per seedling, Phosphobacteria (5g) per seedling and Vermicompost  (5g) per seedling.The cost analysis revealed a positive trend in reducing the nursery period. The observation of this study showed that the production of 1000 seedlings in control incurred a total cost of Rs.800.00 and the seedlings took 120 days to reach a height of 24.10 cm, collar diameter of 0.65 cm and shoot-root ratio of 0.97 but the application of treatment T₁₁ incurred Rs.1030.47 to produce the seedlings with same as that of control and it took 74 days only. Though the treatment T₁₁incurred little bit higher cost than other treatments it produced good quality seedlings and also reduced the nursery period.In the present investigation, application of 200 mg of N, 300 mg of P₂O₅ and 200 mg of K₂O along with Vermicompost (5g), Azospirillum (5g) and Phosphobacteria (5g) per seedling (T₁₁) has produced healthy seedlings of 38.69 cm height in 74 days.

The useful properties of Parthenium hysterophorus L. in terms of its multifarious utility in medicinal, pharmaceutical, pharmacognostic, cosmetic and agricultural sectors are elucidated and the species is established as a medicinal herb with enormous potential in drug designing for diabetes mellitus and cancer, as well as with wide scale applications in cosmetic and nanotechnology-based industries. One more ethnomedicinal use of this plant in joints pain is reported from some districts of Bihar and Uttar pradesh.

Wood and wood products are generally machined before they are placed in service.Tool and tool maintenance costs contribute importantly to the total production cost in the wood processing industry.The machining of MDF (Medium Density Fiberboard) involves high temperatures and pressure in the cutting zone at and near the tool edge,because it contains wood as well as binder such as urea formaldehyde,resin,catalyst,wax,extenders and fillers etc.The machining of MDF produce more decomposition products that can adversely affect tool wear.So this paper reviews the factors responsible for the tool wear, to know the effects of high temperature sulfidation and oxidation and halides specifically chlorine (Cl). The element analysis from thermo gravimetric analysis (TGA) showed that the chlorine was available as Cl^-, Cl₂ or HCl to react with C₂ (Tungsten carbide 6% cobalt) in gas phase reaction. The weight loss of C₂ in TGA is characteristics of volatile corrosion products such as CoCl₃ (Cobalt trivalent chloride) as the result of oxidation chlorination of cobalt. It is seen that, diffusing element boron to the substrate surface of a metal form a chemical layer which increases the tool life by reducing cobalt binder removal.

Variability and diversity of Emilia sonchifolia (L.) DC., an important medicinal plant species, in its natural habitats in Kerala were analyzed based on the observations on ten salient morphological characters recorded from thirty populations of the species distributed across Palakkad, Malappuram and Kozhikode districts of Kerala state, India. All the ten characters studied such as plant height, number of branches per plant, length of branches, number of leaves per plant, leaf length, leaf area, internodal length, number of inflorescences per plant, length of peduncle and fresh weight of plants showed statistically significant variations between the populations. The interrelationship between the characters and their association was also studied. Leaf length and leaf area showed significant positive correlation with three characters each. Number of branches per plant, number of leaves per plant, internodal length, number of inflorescences per plant and fresh plant weight showed significant positive correlation with two characters each.  Plant height, length of branches and length of peduncle showed no significant positive correlation with any of the characters.  By factor analysis three factors could be extracted and number of inflorescences per plant, number of branches per plant, number of leaves per plant and length of branches were found to be the lead characters. Highly significant variability with regard to morphological characters indicates the strong genetic base of the plant species in the field.  However, care should be taken to conserve the gene pool of the species especially under the present conditions of environmental threats.

Information about ethnomedicinal use of Phyllanthus niruri Auct. non. L. (Euphorbiaceae) recorded from the tribals of Ratlam district (M. P.) has been dealt with in this communication. It has been observed that the plant species is acting like a wonder drug against jaundice.

The primitive tribal groups viz., Gadaba, Khond, Porja and Savara of North Coastal Andhra Pradesh use 33 plants species belonging to 32 genera and 25 families for curing cuts and wounds. Litsea deccanensis and 5 practices among wounds and 6 for cuts among both cuts and wounds  and one for both were found to be new.

The present paper deals with 309 angiospermic plants, in which dicots 255 species and monocots 54 species were collected from the various villages and forests area including hill and hillocks of the Patan District, Gujarat state.