Wild Edible Fruit Plants of Eastern India

Collection of fruits from wild for food and domesticating it for multipurpose use is an age old practice in Indian subcontinent. Mango, bael, aonla, banana, palmyra palm, coconut and such others are intimately associated with the culture, traditions, festivals and rituals of Indian communities. Medicinal uses of fruits like bael, emblic myrobalan, jackfruit, wild dates, wild fig, monkey jack, jamun, ber, mango, wood apple and many others find place in many of the Indian Ayurvedic literature from 4th century BC to date.

The rich diversity of wild fruits in Indian tropics and Himayalan belt not only provide nutritious food but also income to tribals and poor people living close to forests and rural areas. Quite often, besides providing timber, firewood, fodder, they serve as famine insurance in periods of food scarcity. Many of these fruits are nutritionally very rich and of great medicinal value. Agricultural research and development however has not given due emphasis to these plant groups resulting limited literature on diversity, distribution, taxonomy, phenology and uses of wild edible fruit plants of India. An inadequate understanding concerning taxonomy, biology and local knowledge of these taxa has contributed to suboptimal utilization of these valuable resources. It is essential therefore to identify, evaluate, improve, propagate and cultivate these under-utilized species and for its sustainable use which can broaden our choice of food and enrich the livelihoods of rural poor.

This book gives an account of 150 important wild and naturalized fruit plants occurring in the Eastern part of India prepared on the basis of field work undertaken by the authors and data available in published literature. For each species, correct botanical name with author citation, synonym (s), name of the family to which it belongs, vernacular names, flowering and fruiting time, ecological notes, uses of fruits and other plant parts, diagnostic botanical characters and notes on distribution have been provided with coloured photographs for each species. The fruit uses alongwith other parts described in the book are based on fieldwork and literature survey. This book will serve as a reference literature for those interested in the utilization of these less-known and neglected biological resources for human welfare. It is hoped that the work will arouse interest in conservation, research, improvement and domestication of region-specific wild edible fruit plant species in India and elsewhere.