This book integrates the concept of healthcare with larger social determinants such as caste, class, gender, religion, and ethnicity. It presents a history of the development of health services, discusses the recommendations of the landmark report of the Bhore Committee that laid the foundations of the public health services in independent India, and traces the evolution of this system through social, economic, and political structures. The subject matter of this book also includes:

Piper betle (betel vine) a pan-Asiatic, tropical plant, which can also grow under mild subtropical areas, is essentially grown for leaves which are chewed with array of additives besides slaked lime. The plant is cultivated widely in India and its surrounding areas. Phytochemistry of Piper betel landraces presents a brief on the distribution, historical and cultural aspects, and properties ascribed to this plant in the ancient texts. Phytochemical and pha...

Cassia is an indigenous plant in Africa, Latin America, Northern Australia and Southeast Asia. Several Cassia species are of high commercial and medicinal significance since they are used as spices and in traditional medicines*.* Currently plants from genus Cassia is in great demand due to their immense medicinal properties. Cassia species have various pharmacological activities such as antibacterial, analgesic, antiinflammatory, antiarthritic, hepatoprotective, ...

Piper is the representative genus of family Piperaceae. Piper species are pan-tropical in distribution and found in both the hemispheres. As the king of all spices, black pepper, Piper nigrum, led to the global expeditions culminating in the discovery of India and the new world. Piper species have been reported to possess various pharmacological activities such as insecticidal, antibacterial, anti-inflammatory, antiplatelet, anti-hypertensive, antithyroi...

Ocimum species has been used as a traditional remedy for various ailments such as arthritis, bronchitis, cold, conjunctivitis, diarrhea, dysentery, and flatulence, as well as for healing wounds and lowering blood glucose level. These are characterized by variations in their morphology such as the shape, size and pigmentation of leaves, which cause differences in chemical composition and affect the commercial value of this genus. This book describes phytochemical investigations of ...

Withania is a genus of the nightshade family of flowering plants distributed in the subtropical regions from the Mediterranean to South East Asia. Only two species, W. somnifera and W. coagulans, are found in India. The most common species is W. somnifera (WS), which occurs naturally in the subtropical regions from the Mediterranean through Africa to the Middle East, the Indian Continent, Sri Lanka, South East Asia, subtropical America and Australia. It is a pere...

Rauvolfia species, commonly known as Sarpagandha, has been traditionally used in Ayurveda for curing high blood pressure, hypertension, snake bites, fever, and mental illnesses. Due to its wide variety and differences in chemical composition, it is necessary to develop an efficient and reliable method for rapid screening and determination of phytochemicals in the extracts of the Rauvolfia species. This book will provide qualitative and quantitative comparative phytochemic...

Tinospora cordifolia stem is used as a tonic, vitalizer, and as a remedy for metabolic disorders to treat allergies, diabetes, dysentery, jaundice, heart diseases, leprosy, rheumatoid arthritis, skin diseases, and urinary disorders. It shows anti-inflammatory, analgesic, antipyretic actions and immunosuppressive effects. This book focuses on providing gender and geographical location-based differences in the phytoconstituents of T. cordifolia by the liquid chromatography mass spec...