Economic botany

This article is an introduction to a series of articles discussing the commercial aspects of plants.

Introduction – Economic Botany

When plants are important to people then they acquire special value. This subject is discussed under the general topic of plants and people which emphasises the historical, scientific, and sustainability aspects of plants. For general lists of economic plants – staple crops, vegetables, fruits, herbs, spices etc. see the article plants for people.

This article is about economic botany – the plants used in commerce. To set the scene we begin with an article on cultivated plant globalization which gives an historical overview of the way major commercial groupings of plants arose historically and the phases of their distribution around the world by trade. Five major plant grupoings are recognized: the medicinal plants, herbs, spices, and psychotropic kinds favoured in ancient societies by spiritual, religious, wealthy, academic, and powerful community leaders; the mostly temperate cereals and a crops that were so important during the Neolithic Agricultural Revolution; the spices that launched the European Age of Discovery and colonization; the horticultural crops that were spread, largely by Europeans, through the tropics in the 18th century; the introduction to Europe of ornamental plants, beginning in the 16th and gathering momentum into the 18th and 19th centuries. This is a brief outline of the commercial forces that transformed naturally into cultural landscapes across the world.

Economic botany – Historical background

Economic botany, the study of plants that are useful to humans, has a long and fascinating history that spans centuries. From ancient civilizations to modern scientific developments, economic botany has played a crucial role in shaping societies and economies around the world.

The origins of economic botany can be traced back to early human civilizations, where people relied on plants for food, shelter, clothing, and medicine. The study of plants for their utility to humans likely began as an empirical process, where people observed which plants were edible, had medicinal properties, or could be used for construction and other purposes. Over time, this knowledge was passed down through generations and became more systematic as societies developed agricultural practices and traded plant-based goods.

One of the earliest recorded instances of economic botany can be found in ancient Egypt, where papyrus scrolls dating back to the 16th century BCE document the cultivation and use of various plants for food, medicine, and religious rituals. The Egyptians were skilled botanists and horticulturists, cultivating crops such as wheat, barley, and flax, as well as medicinal plants like aloe vera and castor oil plant.

In ancient Greece, the philosopher Theophrastus is considered the father of botany and made significant contributions to the study of plants for economic purposes. His work “Enquiry into Plants” and “On the Causes of Plants” detailed the classification and uses of over 500 plant species, laying the foundation for the scientific study of economic botany.

During the Islamic Golden Age, scholars in the Muslim world made important advancements in the field of economic botany. Arab botanists such as Ibn Wahshiyya and Ibn al-Baitar compiled encyclopedic works on plants and their uses, expanding the knowledge of plant diversity and applications in medicine, agriculture, and industry.

The Age of Exploration in the 15th and 16th centuries brought about a new era of economic botany as European explorers traveled the world in search of valuable plant commodities. The discovery of the Americas introduced Europe to a wealth of new plants, including maize, potatoes, tomatoes, and tobacco, which would have a profound impact on global agriculture and trade.

The 18th and 19th centuries marked a period of rapid expansion in economic botany, driven by the Industrial Revolution and advancements in science and technology. Botanists such as Carl Linnaeus and Joseph Banks made significant contributions to the classification and study of plant species, while explorers like Alexander von Humboldt and Charles Darwin documented the diversity of plant life around the world.

The development of economic botany as a formal discipline accelerated in the 20th century with the establishment of botanical gardens, herbaria, and research institutions dedicated to the study of useful plants. The field of ethnobotany emerged, focusing on the traditional knowledge of indigenous peoples and their use of plants for food, medicine, and cultural practices.

Today, economic botany plays a crucial role in addressing global challenges such as food security, sustainable agriculture, and biodiversity conservation. Researchers are exploring the potential of underutilized plants as sources of nutrition and medicine, as well as developing new crop varieties with enhanced nutritional value and resilience to climate change.

The field of economic botany encompasses a wide range of disciplines, including agronomy, ethnobotany, pharmacognosy, and biotechnology, and continues to evolve with advances in genetics, genomics, and other cutting-edge technologies. Plant breeding and genetic engineering are being used to improve crop yields, enhance nutritional content, and develop more sustainable farming practices.

In conclusion, the history of economic botany is a rich tapestry of human ingenuity, exploration, and discovery. From ancient civilizations to modern scientific advancements, the study of plants for their economic value has shaped societies, economies, and cultures around the world. As we face the challenges of the 21st century, economic botany remains a vital field of study that holds the key to a sustainable and prosperous future for all (AI Sider July 2024).

Plant uses

The ways that different cultures use plants in their daily lives are dealt with under that aspect of economic botany called ethnobotany. We use plants as food (e.g. grains, roots and tubers, vegetables and leafy greens, herbs, fruits, nuts, and pulses); food and drink additives (spices, sweeteners, flavorings, and colorings etc.); psychoactive plants (tobacco, tea, coffee, opium, cannabis, alcoholic drinks, mescalin, heroin etc.); poisons (strychnine); for medicines and drugs; fibres (cotton, hemp, flax, sisal etc.); dyes (indigo); perfumes and aromas (rose, jasmine, pot-pourri, incense); oils (lavender, ulan, olive), fats (avocado), waxes (beeswax); resins (for varnishes, adhesives, glazes); rubber; wood (as timber, fuel, source of paper); as a source of structural materials and also for decoration.

One way of describing economic plants is to proceed alphabetically, chronologically, or preferentially through a list of ‘useful’ plants and it seems that this can be covered adequately by confining ourselves to about fifty plants though we might differ in our views on about 20-30% of those that should be included.^[2]

Numbers

What were the individual starring plants that played a major role in the history of humanity – in pre-history, the classical world, and through to the modern era as the number of recorded flowering plant species has escalated from about 500 or so in the Classical world, to 10,000 in the 1750s (Linnaeus estimated the number of species in the world to not exceed this number), and about 250,000 today.

The article Major world plants provides a summary account or an aide de memoire of the major plants of significance to humanity, past and present – ranging from major crops, medicines, and structural materials to those that have collectively generated our global economy, the ravages wars, and the injustices of slave plantations. Most of these plants are of economic significance.

Industrial development for pharmaceuticals, packing materials, laundry chemicals (collar starch), and various other starches (dextrin, refined corn oil, molasses, lactic acid, sorbitol, mannitol, methyl glucoside), a flour, corn syrup as a sugar substitute which after further processing can converted glucose to the sweeter fructose to produce high fructose corn syrup which is increasingly replacing cane sugar in many commodities and a major component of soft drinks. Present-day genetic engineering attempts to produce transgenic plants with increased yield, resistance to pests and diseases, herbicide resistance (Bt corn).