BOTANICAL TERMS

ABAxiAL. Side of an organ away from the axis or center of the axis dorsal ACUMINATE. An acute apex whose sides are somewhat concave and taper to a protracted point 

ending in a point, the sides of the tapered apex essentially straight or slightly convex 

ADAxiAL. Side toward the axis ADVENTITIOUS. On occasion, rather than resident in regular places and order, as those arising about wounds 

ALTERNATE. Arrangement of leaves or other parts not opposite or whorled placed singly at different heights on the axis or stem ANNUAL. Of one season s duration from seed to maturity and death 

ANTHER. Pollen-bearing part of the stamen, borne at the top of the filament or sometimes 

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The index of therapeutic action will be found helpful in locating suitable herbs in specific forms of ill-health, while the volume would not be complete without the information concerning the gathering of herbs, the glossary of botanical terms used and the very full index of the herbs... 

There is no definitive answer possible, but no candidate more suitable than Wasson s has yet appeared. A recent Ph.D. thesis at the University of California, Berkeley, entitled "Huoma, renews this query, suggesting on the basis of linguistic factors that the plant contained a harmaline compound (which in botanical terms does not fit with Soma s identification). 

THIRD EDITION, REVISED AND ENLARGED WITH 238 ILLUSTRATIONS AND GLOSSARY OF BOTANICAL TERMS... 

Chapter IX on Ecology has been newly introduced as has also a Glossary of Botanical Terms. The index has been so planned as to make the information contained in this book readily accessible. 

Jackson, B.D. A glossary of botanic terms with their derivation and accent. Hafner Publishing Co, Inc., New-York, 1971,481p. 

Nor is the confusion limited to botanical terms. The multitude of trivial chemical names in this field is again testimony to the conservatism of scientists. The classic example of how meaningless a term can become is perhaps that of the camphors, of which there must once have been at least 15— bergamot camphor, thyme camphor, cardamom camphor, and so on. Berzelius protested against this indiscriminate use in the 182O s Otto Wallach, 70 years later, persuaded his coworkers to drop the term. (It persists, however, in the trade.) The continued use of such words as limonene and citral, when more descriptive and comprehensible terms are at hand, is justified only because tradition is behind it. 

For analytical purposes it is important to define precisely what needs to be measured. Nuts is a general term used for culinary purposes to refer to the dry seed or fhiit of certain plants, whereas in botanical terms the term is restricted to a simple dry fiuit with one seed, in which the seed wall becomes very hard at maturity. Most nuts included in the diet are the seeds of trees, but the seeds of a few other plants that are not strictly nuts are included (e.g., peanut or groundnut is a legume and a seed). Also, coconut Cocos nucifera) is not a nut (despite its name) but a drupe and is a single fleshy fmit with a hard stone that contains a single seed. In this chapter the culinary definition will be used to discuss the many types of edible nuts that are found around the world (Table 20.1) and included in legislation and codes of practice. 

Plant parts identified as "herb" consist of the leaf and stem of the identified plant, and this term is generally used only for non-woody plants. A plant part identified as "above-ground parts" means all of the plant above the ground, so it generally includes not only leaf and stem, but also flowers, fruits, and seeds, depending on the state of maturity of the plant at the time of harvest. All other plant parts (e.g., bark, leaf, root) are each identified with the generally used botanical term. 

Botanical Term Expressed Distilled Used Plant Parts... 

The nuts of chestnut are borne in a spiny wrapper (involucrum), the burr. The fruits of the chestnut are, in botanical terms, nuts, the shell of which is developed from the ovary wall. The edible kernel of the nut is the embryo, mostly consisting of the huge cotyledons, the small root and the embryonic shoot. The embryo is enclosed into a sometimes felty membrane, the pellicle, which develops from the integuments. 

Data given in Table 8.2 represent the correct present status of knowledge (see also its footnotes , andrespectively). This is also true regarding the validity of the botanical terms of the species. As their respective authorities also are listed in that table such species will be cited in the following text without authorities. 

The terms cocoa and cacao often are used interchangeably in the Hterature. Both terms describe various products from harvest through processing. In this article, the term cocoa will be used to describe products in general and the term cacao will be reserved for botanical contexts. Cocoa traders and brokers frequendy use the term raw cocoa to distinguish unroasted cocoa beans from finished products this term is used to report statistics for cocoa bean production and consumption. 

Apart from butter or butter oil most fats that are used in biscuits are defined in terms of their physical and chemical properties. Fat suppliers are skilled at producing products with controlled physical and chemical properties from a range of raw materials. The baker can either buy fat on a physical and chemical specification, e.g. solid fat index, slip melting point, and not to contain lauric fat, or on an origin basis, e.g. to be coconut oil. The advantage of the botanical specification is that the item is a commodity and can be obtained from numerous sources. The disadvantage of this approach is that the product is tailored for a particular use. 

By definition, a nutraceutical (derived from the term nutritional pharmaceutical ) is a foodstuff (fortified food or dietary supplement) that is held to provide health or medical benefits in addition to its basic nutritional value [1], Nutraceuticals derived from botanicals deliver a concentrated form of presumed bioactive agents from plants that are not generally part of the food supply. The term nutraceutical has no regulatory definition. Similarly, functional foods, as defined by the International Life Sciences Institute (ILSI), are foods that by virtue of physiologically active food components, provide health benefits beyond basic nutrition [2], For the purposes of this review, these two terms will be differentiated by the form in which they are consumed. Nutraceuticals refers to dietary supplements most often found in pill or capsule form functional foods are ingested as part of a normal food pattern. Both are intended to provide beneficial effects beyond their nutritional value, and contribute to an improved state of health and/or reduction of risk of disease. 

The term "herbaceous" applies, botanically, to any plant that does not form a persistent woody stem. Confusingly, though, "herbaceous" is commonly used as shorthand for "herbaceous perennial," to mean plants such as hostas, delphiniums, and the like, that die down in the winter, and return every spring. These plants may also be referred to simply as "perennials." This chapter, however, covers the whole spectrum of herbaceous plants—annuals, biennials, bulbs, and half-hardy perennials grown as annuals, as well as herbaceous perennials, and including grasses. 

Because of the previous inaccurate botanical determination of the Madagascan periwinkle, the alkaloids of this plant were formerly considered as Vinca alkaloids, an erroneous subclassification for alkaloids isolated from a plant belonging to the genus Catharanthus. It also should be noted that the alkaloids of C. roseus containing two different (most commonly indole and dihydroindole) alkaloid building blocks were, and sometimes still are, referred to as dimeric indole alkaloids. It is more accurate to use the term binary or bisindole alkaloids, since chemically these alkaloids are not dimers of two equal subunits, but rather comprised of two (bis) different alkaloid building blocks. 

Sassafras oil is used as a generic term for commercial essential oils containing high quantities of safrole. They originate from different botanical species. The main use of these oils is the isolation of safrole as the starting material for the production of heliotropin (see p. 136)... 

As with drugs and purified biomarkers, thermal- and photostability of botanical products are the factors that must be considered. Commercial dried extract and capsules of SJW were evaluated under harmonized test conditions (25). Photostability testing showed all the constituents to be photosensitive in the tested conditions. However, different opacity agents and pigments influenced the stability of the constituents. Amber containers had little effect on the photostability of the investigated constituents. Long-term thermal stability testing showed a shelf life of less than four months for hyperforins and hypericins, even when ascorbic and citric acids were added to the formulation. 

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