Connecting Indian Wisdom and Western Science ─ Plant Usage for Nutrition and Health

A truly integrated collection of research, this book compares Ayurvedic and Western conceptions of wellness, healthy lifestyle, and diet. Examining the phyto-pharmacological, phytochemical, clinical, ethnobotanical, socio-cultural, and biomedical approaches to plant- and herb-based healthy diets and wellness, it includes approximately 40 selected monographs on fruits, vegetables, spices, nuts, and seeds complete with Ayurvedic and traditional uses as nutritional ingredients. It offers evidence based on the scientific literature on chemical composition, nutritional properties, mechanisms of action and influences at the cellular level as well as extensive references for further study.

Luisella Verotta, master degree in chemistry, is a senior assistant professor of organic chemistry and adjunct professor of natural products chemistry at the University of Milan, Italy. Verotta is a member of the Faculty of Science and Technology teaching staff. Her main research studies are in the realm of bioactive natural products, aimed at obtaining lead compounds for the development of new therapeutic agents, particularly noncytotoxic chemopreventive agents and antimalarial compounds. She has pursued parallel lines of investigations, such as the synthesis of compounds of pharmaceutical relevance based on natural scaffolds, the study of their medicinal chemistry, and the mechanism of activity. Recent researches are based on the synthesis of new entities inspired by natural products to produce new functional biomaterials for biomedical and food applications or as nutraceuticals. She has been a visiting scientist in many Third World countries, introducing young researchers to the phytochemical study of medicinal plants. She is an extramural phytochemical expert for the Centre for Orientative Education (COE), an Italian NGO that fosters and supports projects in Third world countries (TWC) for the sustainable use of natural resources. She has authored and coauthored more than 110 research papers (including full papers, book chapters, patents) and more than 110 communications to congresses, including poster presentations, oral communications, and invited and plenary lectures. She holds research contracts with several companies interested in the discovery of new bioactive natural products and acts as a reviewer of several international scientific journals. She is a member of the editorial board ofFitoterapia (Elsevier). For CRC Press/Taylor & Francis Group, she coeditedHerbal Principles in Cosmetics: Properties and Mechanisms of Action in 2010.

Maria Pia Macchi is an anthropologist member of the International Society of Ethnobiology. After a few years of field work in the Amazon of Ecuador and an academic collaboration with Padua University Human Ecology Workshop, she focused her interest on Indian traditional systems of medicine. During frequent visits to India and Nepal, she took part in different trainings, congresses, and workshops on Ayurveda and Siddha medicine, developing her interest in the traditional use of medicinal plants and food integrators. In 1997, she founded an ethnobotanical garden in the Western Ghats of Tamil Nadu with the objective to actively involve local communities in the conservation and enhancement of knowledge related to local health traditions. Since 2003, she has been the president of the nonprofit organization Magia Verde, Italy, and supports a pilot project on traditional medicine revitalization in Tamil Nadu in partnership with Vivekananda Kendra. She took part in various projects and awareness campaigns focused on environmental conservation, nutrition, and integration between different systems of medicine, promoted by two Italian NGOs, Cooperation for the Development of Emerging Countries (COSPE) and COE. She also has a long-term collaboration with the Agency for Environmental Protection at Riva del Garda in the ethnobotany section.

Padma Venkatasubramanian holds a master’s degree in health management from McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, and a doctorate in microbial biochemistry from the University of Cambridge, England. She is a professor at the School of Life Sciences, Institute of Trans-disciplinary Health Sciences and Technology, Bangalore, India. She was the director of the Institute of Ayurveda and Integrative Medicine, Bangalore. Her main research studies are of a transdisciplinary nature, aimed at bridging traditional Indian medical knowledge and modern science. The areas of her interest are to understand the concepts in Ayurveda and use them to develop cost-effective, contemporary applications. She has demonstrated h