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JournalISSN: 0013-0001

Economic Botany 

Springer Science+Business Media
About: Economic Botany is an academic journal published by Springer Science+Business Media. The journal publishes majorly in the area(s): Plant ecology & Economic botany. It has an ISSN identifier of 0013-0001. Over the lifetime, 3242 publications have been published receiving 106473 citations.


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TL;DR: In this article, the importance of over 600 species of woody plants to non-indigenous mestizo people in Tambopata, Amazonian Peru has been evaluated.
Abstract: This paper describes a new, simple, quantitative technique for evaluating the relative usefulness of plants to people. The technique is then compared to the quantitative approaches in ethnobotany that have been developed recently. Our technique is used to calculate the importance of over 600 species of woody plants to non-indigenous mestizo people in Tambopata, Amazonian Peru. Two general classes of hypotheses are formulated and tested statistically, concerning (1) the relative importance of different species, and (2) the importance of different families. The plant families are compared with respect to all uses, and with respect to five broad groups of uses. Palms, Annonaceae, and Lauraceae were found to be the most useful woody plant families. On average, the 20 largest woody plant families are most important to mestizos for subsistence construction materials, followed in descending order by commercial, edible, technological, and medicinal uses.

844 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Mistletoe lacks an author’s index, limiting the value of the book for anyone looking for specific papers, and will be of value to ethnobotanists, anyone interested in alternative medicines, and students of mistletoes and parasitic plants.
Abstract: ‘‘Gentlemen don’t need mistletoe’’ said the Christmas whiskey billboard I saw recently in Florida, a garish reminder of how much mistletoe lore is embedded in western society. Mistletoe The Genus Viscum, one in the series of medicinal and aromatic plants for industry and academic researchers, centers on the mistletoe in this advertisement, the common European mistletoe,Viscum album. There are helpful discussions on African, Asian, and Argentine mistletoes and their uses but the corpus of the book deals with V. album. Viscum album, considered sacred by the Druids, is no doubt the most widely used parasitic angiosperm for various health concoctions. As a result, much has been learned about its biochemistry and pharmaceutical potential. A great deal of the work on the culture and utilization ofV. album has been done by investigators at Institute Hiscia Center for Cancer Research in Switzerland where votaries of Rudolf Steiner’s distinct form of homeopathy have used mistletoe extracts (‘‘Iscador’’) for many years in cancer treatment. Mistletoe collected from less common hosts are considered to have greater efficacy in preparation of Iscador. As a result, there is a helpful chapter on culturing V. album which is not as difficult as might be imagined for an obligate parasite. Most of the chapters deal with the medicinal aspects of mistletoe including toxicology, clinical aspects, chemistry, and biochemistry emphasizing the lectins which are one of the more desirable compounds produced by the parasite. I found the treatment by Bu ̈ssing (Biological and pharmacological properties of Viscum album L.) helpful because it reviews the link between folk and modern medicine. However, several relevant papers were omitted which are included in a recent excellent review of mistletoes (Watson 2001). Like many books with a diversity of authors, the quality of chapters varies. Obviously produced as a reference volume, Mistletoe lacks an extensive index. Especially aggravating is the lack of an author’s index, limiting the value of the book for anyone looking for specific papers. These days, $70 for a hardbound monograph is reasonable. Color images are well-produced but some of the black and white figures are blurry in my copy. This volume will be of value to ethnobotanists, anyone interested in alternative medicines, and students of mistletoes and parasitic plants. LITERATURE CITED

752 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Multivariate statistical analyses of morphological, agronomic, and molecular data, as well as other available information on Latin American landraces representing various geographical and ecological regions of their primary centers of domestications in the Americas, reveal the existence of two major groups of germplasm: Middle American and Andean South American, which could be further divided into six races.
Abstract: Evidence for genetic diversity in cultivated common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris) is reviewed. Multivariate statistical analyses of morphological, agronomic, and molecular data, as well as other available information on Latin American landraces representing various geographical and ecological regions of their primary centers of domestications in the Americas, reveal the existence of two major groups of germplasm: Middle American and Andean South American, which could be further divided into six races. Three races originated in Middle America (races Durango, Jalisco, and Mesoamerica) and three in Andean South America (races Chile, Nueva Granada, and Peru). Their distinctive characteristics and their relationships with previously reported gene pools are discussed.

711 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This volume accompanies Flora of China text Volume 4, published in 1999, and includes 394 figures representing 816 species in the families Cycadaceae, Ginkgoaceae, Pinaceae, Taxodiaceae, and Fagaceae.
Abstract: This volume accompanies Flora of China text Volume 4, published in 1999. Included are 394 figures representing 816 species (;75% of the taxa represented in the text volume) in the families Cycadaceae (8 species), Ginkgoaceae (1 species), Araucariaceae (2 species), Pinaceae (84 species), Taxodiaceae (11 species), Cupressaceae (27 species), Cephalotaxaceae (9 species), Taxaceae (11 species), Ephedraceae (14 species), Gnetaceae (6 species), Casuarinaceae (2 species), Saururaceae (3 species), Piperaceae (42 species), Chloranthaceae (11 species), Salicaceae (240 species), Myricaceae (4 species), Junglandaceae (24 species), Betulaceae (62 species), and Fagaceae (242 species). The Sciadopityaceae, included in the text volume, is omitted from the illustrations volume.

642 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors compared four indices based on informant consensus to assess the cultural significance of plant species and found a positive and significant correlation between the number of uses (NU) and the frequency of citation (FC) of the species and concluded that the more versatile a plant, the more widespread its usefulness.
Abstract: Cultural Importance Indices: A Comparative Analysis Based on the Useful Wild Plants of Southern Cantabria (Northern Spain) This paper compares four indices based on informant consensus Each index aims to assess the cultural significance of plant species and is suitable for statistical testing of different hypotheses For the comparison, we used data concerning plants traditionally used in the Campoo area of southern Cantabria in northern Spain Our results show a positive and significant correlation between the number of uses (NU) and the frequency of citation (FC) of the species It seems to be a general rule that the more versatile a plant, the more widespread its usefulness In addition, NU is highly influenced by the number of use-categories in the study Consequently, an objective index must rely on FC more than NU We propose the use of the cultural importance index (CI), which is defined as the summation of the informants’ proportions that mention each of the uses of the species The CI index is highly correlated with FC and, although it also considers diversity of use, each use-category is conveniently weighted by the number of informants mentioning it Despite the use of cultural significance indices being questioned, we believe that indices based on in-depth, semi-structured interviews are still very useful for compilation studies of passive knowledge, such as most ethnobotanical works conducted in the last three decades in Europe

618 citations

Performance
Metrics
No. of papers from the Journal in previous years
YearPapers
202316
202232
202119
202029
201936
201834