Dear Reader,
Welcome to volume seven of Spiritual Botany. This issue focuses on medicinal and spiritual plants and their role in improving human health. The featured article “The mythological connection between man and plants: from lores to drugs” authored by Anurabh Chakravarty and Dr R. Gnanam provides glimpses into the world of medicinal plants in religious and spiritual traditions in different parts of the world. This volume also includes contributions from the students in my medicinal plant course including one which is based on a personal experience exploring Indigenous healing traditions in Canada.
A new addition to the sections in Spiritual Botany is the reviews of books and videos relevant to the philosophy of the magazine. I truly enjoyed reading the book entitled “Indigenous Food Systems, Concepts, Cases and Conversations” edited by Pricilla Settee and Shailesh Shukla (2020), Canadian Scholars, Toronto, Ontario. Verena Kulak, a graduate student at the University of Guelph, has reviewed this book and highlighted many noteworthy achievements of articles compiled in this thought-provoking text. I shall be recommending the book to my students in the medicinal plant course and to anyone with an interest in learning about Indigenous food systems. Another new beginning in volume seven is the addition of plant-based quizzes by Dr. Pooja Gupta. On a sweeter note, in the recipe section, Sivagamasundhari Sikamani gives an interesting idea to tomato lovers for making an out of the ordinary sweet dish that is rich in heathy ingredients.
As always, Spiritual Botany requests our readers to contribute their experiences with the beautiful world of plants. Enjoy!
Sincerely,
Praveen Saxena
Editorial Team for Spiritual Botany Volume 7:
Devanshi Shukla
Shweta Dixit
