Rajasthan Board RBSE Class 12 Biology Notes Chapter 17 Economic Botany and Human Welfare
Introduction
1. Food, clothing and shelters are the three basic requirements of human being to survive. Prehistoric man used to complete all his requirements easily from products of plant kingdom.
2. These requirements increased enormously with increased human population. Morever, modem lifestyle has made the human life more complex and stressfull.
3. Plant kigndom is a remarkable group of living beings which can trap the solar energy and store it in the form of organic compounds. The plants provide food products, fibres, wood and other substances in adequate amount and in many forms to fulfill our requirements.
4. The plants which provide substances of human requirement are called as economically useful The systematic study of such economically useful plants is called as Economic Botany.
5. The economically useful plants yield various types of products. Such as—cereals, pulses, fruits, vegetables, spices, edible oil, medicines, fibres, tea, coffee, rubber, gum, dyes, paper, starch, alcoholic beverages, timber, fuel, wood, tobacco, narcotic substances, fodder, decorative plants, aromatic oils, bio insecticides etc.
6. In real sense, plant kigdom is weath of any nation.
7. India harbours huge varieties of plant species, hence our economy remained and will remain agriculture based.
Classification of Economically Important Plants
Scientists from time to time classified the plants on the basis of different aspects. The classification of plants followed by A.F. Hill (1952) in his book “Economic Botany” is most accepted in this regard. Hill classified economically important plants into four groups on the basis of their use. These are as follows : Classification of Economically Important Plants
Edible or food plants
- Cereals and Millets : Wheat, Rice, Maize, Sorghum and Bajra etc.
- Pulses: Gram, Mung, Urad (Black gram), Arhar, Moth, Chaula (Lobia) etc.
- Vegetables : Potato, Brinjal, Tomato, Pumpkin, Ladyfinger etc.
- Fruits : Pomegranate, Orange, Banana, Apple etc.
Food Adjuncts
- Spices and Garam Masala : Turmeric, Pepper, Black pepper and Coriander seeds etc.
- Beverage : Tea, Coffee, Cocoa.
Meditational Plant
- Medicinal plants : Ashwagandha (Withcmia somnifera), Giloy (Tinospora cordifolia), White musli (Chlorophytum borivillianum) Neem (.Azadirachta indica), Atees (Equinetum heterophyllum), Opium (Papaver somniferum), Indian Snake Root (Rauvolfia serpentina).
- Smoking, Chewing and Narcotic Products : Tobacco, Supari (Betel nut), “Bhaang” 0Cannabis).
Industrial Plants
- Fibre Yielding Plants: Cotton, Jute, Hemp, Flax etc. –
- Timber Yielding Plants : Teak, Sheesham (Indian Rosewood) etc.
- Rubber Yielding Plants : Natural Rubber.
- Gums and Resins : Babool (Gum arabic Tree, Vachellia nilotica), Pine (Pinus).
- Aromatic oils : Indian Sandalwood (Santalum album), Mogra (Arabian jasmine, Jasminum sambac).
- Fatty Oil: Mustard, Groundnut, Coconut, Castor oil.
- Sugar and Starch : Sugarcane, Sugar beet Walnut, Sago (Saboodana)