For facilitating easy access to information, each volume includes features such as cross-references, lists of books and journals cited and a meticulously made index of the synonyms of plants dealt with, cultivars of crops, common English, vernacular and trade names, drugs, products, active principles and important chemical compounds. Adequate references to the sources of information are provided at appropriate places, and the articles are well illustrated with halftone and coloured plates, line-drawings, charts, maps, etc.
In addition to 11 volumes of main series, 3 revised and updated (A, B and Ca-Ci alphabets) plus a supplement on Bird has been brought out. The revised volumes boasts of an elaborate use based index as an additional feature. Subsequently, supplements (covering information from 1982-1996) have been brought out in 8 volumes maintaining the style and format of the parent series and every effort have been made to give a cohesive presentation so as to easily blend with the parent volumes.
The complete set of 23 volumes of The Wealth of India-Raw Materials series is much sought after as a ready reference for its extensive, authentic coverage on distribution, cultivation, production, diseases and pest control measures, harvesting and post harvesting care, chemical composition, utility including community knowledge, conservation, statistical data, etc., especially in the search for natural resources in the life of living beings in broader prospective. Compiled and collated by a body of subject experts with the collaboration of specialists in various fields all over the country, the entire work is a treasure house of knowledge any natural raw material information.
The complexity, heterogeneity and voluminousness of this encyclopaedic work can be visualized from the fact that whole series covers more than 6000 plant-species, 52 articles on animals and their products and 73 articles on minerals.
The Wealth of India is indispensable to research workers especially beginners dealing with life sciences, chemical sciences, pharmacology, environmental sciences, students of economic botany, government departments and rural development agencies, planners, industrialists and all those interested in the availability of Indian raw materials, their production , value addition, exports and imports. |
