Browsing by Author "Malay Bhattacharya"

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    Edible Leaves of Jalpaiguri District of West Bengal, India
    (2007-09) Arunachalam, V.; Arun Kumar Sit; Malay Bhattacharya
    Many of the traditional leaf vegetables remain underutilized in India. A comprehensive study in a small geographical area, involved survey of rural weekly markets and interview with local people growing/gathering, selling and or/ using these vegetables. We enumerated the market potential, season of availability, common, vernacular and botanical name of 42 species of plants belonging to 28 families. These are either grown or gathered from wild growth from a range of habits and habitats and commonly marketed and used as leaf, tender shoot or flower vegetable in Jalpaiguri District located in Sub Himalayan Terai region of West Bengal. The report covers details of Ethnobotany especially the consumption during festivals and traditional wisdom on medicinal uses etc. Cephalandra leaves for curing diabetes; leaves of water lily for curing piles are few medicinal uses to mention. Use of leaves of Indian Pandan to impart the flavor of aromatic rice to recipes is an interesting finding from the study. Leaves of common weeds such as Gumma (Leucas aspera), water spinach and water lily are marketed and consumed here. Leaves of jute, chickpea, pumpkin and ash gourd are sold in the market where hundred tender shoots varied from US $ 0.2 for sweet potato to US S 2.2 for brahmi (Water Hyssop). The paper concludes with a framework for institutional mechanisms to promote research, development, documentation, marketing and post harvest technology of these plants in order to enhance dietary diversity and nutritional security.
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    Weed floristic composition in palm gardens in Plains of Eastern Himalayan region of West Bengal
    (2007-05) Arun Kumar Sit; Malay Bhattacharya; Biswanath Sarkar; Arunachalam, V.
    Weeds are unwanted plants in the crop land that compete for nutrients, water and space. Proper knowledge about weed flora is important for their management. Weather conditions in sub-Himalayan West Bengal favour weed growth. Therefore, a study was conducted to find out the weed floristic composition of different palm gardens in this region. The results showed that dicots were predominant in the palm gardens. Maximum number of weeds was found in the oil palm gardens and the least in the fruiting arecanut gardens. A total of 20 angiosperm families were found in the study area. Among them, 17 belonged to dicots and three to monocots. A total of five pteridophytes were found. Members of Poaceae, Asteraceae, Oxalidaceae and Urticaceae were found in all the plots studied. Three species, viz. Ageratum conyzoides, Oxalis corniculata and Vandelia were found to be more widely distributed in all four palms as well as in fallow land, showing Shannon’s index value >0.75. Prevalence of some weeds in all the study areas revealed that they can grow under any conditions