ABSTRACT
The Silk Road, a complex network of trade routes linking China with the rest of the Eurasian continent by land and sea, fostered transformation of the ethnic, cultural, and religious identities of diverse peoples. In Natural Products of Silk Road Plants there is a treasury of plants, many indigenous to countries along the trading routes of the Silk Road, that yielded medicines, cereals, spices, beverages, dyes, and euphoric and exotic compounds previously unknown to the rest of the world.
This entry in the Natural Products Chemistry of Global Plants series has been prepared for university students of chemistry and ethnobotany and for those wishing to broaden their knowledge. It opens a window on a vast region of Asia not well described for its flora and provides new and fresh insights on:
- Significant plants, some endangered
- Traditional and modern applications of extracts
- The biochemical and pharmacological properties of extracts
- Contains over 150 full colour figures
The significance of the Silk Road is being revived today through immense investment by China and other eastern countries in major schemes of transport infrastructure.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
part Section I|4 pages
Introduction
part Section II|65 pages
Eastern Asia
part Section III|97 pages
Central and Southern Asia
chapter 4|27 pages
Medicinal Plants of Central Asia
chapter 5|19 pages
Melons of Central Asia
chapter 6|15 pages
Resources along the Silk Road in Central Asia: Lagochilus inebrians Bunge (Turkestan Mint) and Medicago sativa L. (Alfalfa)
part Section IV|100 pages
Western Asia and the Middle East
part Section V|13 pages
Maritime Routes