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Current Status and Future Prospects for Select Underutilized Medicinally Valuable Plants of Puerto Rico: A Case Study

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Medicinal Plants

Abstract

In the last century, nearly all compounds of medicinal value were derived from naturally occurring compounds found in plants, bacteria, and fungi. Yet even today several interesting plant species with potential medicinal value remain underutilized and neglected. In a changing world, where unfavorable climatic and anthropogenic scenarios threaten natural vegetation across the globe, there is an urgent need to identify and investigate underutilized medicinal plants. Also, the utilization of such species should go hand in hand with their conservation. With the island territory of Puerto Rico as an example, we present a case for such underutilized medicinal plant species which could end up being the source of the next wonder drug for humanity. We also emphasize the need for sustainable utilization of such resources to go hand in hand with their conservation.

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Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank Eileen H. Helmer of USDA Forest Service for her help and guidance regarding the Land Cover and Forest Formations map for Puerto Rico. Land cover data was completed by the USDA Forest Service (USFS) International Institute of Tropical Forestry and the Center for Environmental Management of Military Lands, Colorado State University as part of the USFS Caribbean Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) program, as well as part of a joint project between USFS, USGS—Center for EROS, TNC, NASA, CSU—CEMML, and USAID—Caribbean Program Office. Landsat imagery was provided by NASA—GOFC, USGS—Center for EROS, and IITF. The classification used a cloud-free Landsat image mosaic developed in cooperation with the USFS Remote Sensing Applications Center (Helmer, E. and B. Ruefenacht, PERS 71 (9): 1079–1089, 2005).

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  1. Inter American University of Puerto Rico, Barranquitas, Puerto Rico

    Prachi Tripathi, Alok Arun & Juan A. Negron Berrios

  2. Agricultural Research Station, Fort Valley State University, Fort Valley, GA, USA

    Lubana Shahin, Ankush Sangra & Richa Bajaj

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  1. Prachi Tripathi
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Correspondence to Prachi Tripathi .

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  1. Agricultural Research Station, Fort Valley State University, Fort Valley, GA, USA

    Nirmal Joshee

  2. Department of Agriculture, Food and Resource Sciences, University of Maryland Eastern Shore, Princess Anne, MD, USA

    Sadanand A. Dhekney

  3. Department of Neurosurgery, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI, USA

    Prahlad Parajuli

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Tripathi, P., Shahin, L., Sangra, A., Bajaj, R., Arun, A., Berrios, J.A.N. (2019). Current Status and Future Prospects for Select Underutilized Medicinally Valuable Plants of Puerto Rico: A Case Study. In: Joshee, N., Dhekney, S., Parajuli, P. (eds) Medicinal Plants. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-31269-5_4

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