Edible Fruits and Nuts: Plant Resources of South-East Asia UNESCO Publishing/Expert Center for Taxonomic Identification (ETI)
Full Review

Reviewed by: Gerd Walter-Echols, Integrated Pest and Pesticide Management Consultant, Germany
Review posted 5 October 2006
Review No. 88

CD-ROM Information

Content: This CD-ROM is the electronic version of the handbook "PROSEA 2: Edible Fruits and Nuts" and also contains a database of the edible fruits and nuts of South-East Asia. It is a reference tool for botany scientists and students. It contains a search facility, glossary, hypertext links, illustrations, and photographs.
Publication Date: 1 June 1999
Audience: The CD-ROM aims to provide scientists, students, and other interested parties with easily accessible, high-quality taxonomic and ecological information on the world's biological diversity. As an addition to the printed handbook, this CD-ROM may be particularly useful for scientific libraries and reference collections.
Producer: Plant Resources of South-East Asia (PROSEA), Expert-Center for Taxonomic Identification (ETI)
Size: 154MB
Price: €90
Manual needed: No
How to order:

Order online.*

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Full Review

Content Overview

The CD-ROM contains eight modules:

Module 1: Introduction.

Module 2: Glossary. This contains 550 definitions, illustrated with 168 drawings, listed alphabetically. While working through the CD-ROM the glossary can be accessed through hypertext links in the text.

Module 3: Literature. All 592 literature references mentioned in the taxonomic datasheets are listed here alphabetically. A "Key Words" tab contains hypertext links to the datasheets or the introductory chapter.

Module 4: South-East Asian References. Opening this module gives access to 109,295 references in the Plant Resources of South-East Asia (PROSEA) database on fruits and nuts up to 1998. Each listing has a

1. "Reference" tab that generally gives the English and original language title (if applicable), author(s), source, annotations, language, and location,
2. "Subject" tab that shows the keywords used for classification, and
3. "Abstract" tab that sometimes provides a short summary.

Module 5: Index. Intended as the main access point to the taxonomic datasheets, this module alphabetically displays the scientific, hypertext-linked names for "Species and lower taxa" and "Higher taxa", and the "Common names" in 21 local and international language options.

Module 6: Higher Taxa. This module contains complete datasheets on 12 genera.

Module 7: Species. This module is the centerpiece of the CD-ROM and contains in alphabetical order some 120 full datasheets on economically important species and brief characteristics of another 270 of lesser importance. In addition, there are nearly 400 entries that refer to species described in other titles of the PROSEA series, mostly timber trees, medicinal and poisonous plants, fiber plants, and vegetables. Overall, about 100 species are illustrated with multiple drawings and/or photos, while another 45 have a single illustration, mostly a drawing. In total, there are 424 low resolution photos, 61 color plates, and 95 line drawings.

Each taxonomic datasheet has six tabs:

1. "Description" gives the scientific name of the species, identification reference, family name, and number of chromosomes. Where available, a hypertext link is given to a line drawing. The main text lists information on

2. "More Text" is always empty except for Citrus and Musa species.

3. "Synonyms" re-lists the synonyms and common names.

4. "Taxonomy" displays kingdom-family-genus information.

5. "Literature" shows the references for the datasheet information.

6. "Multimedia" links to photographs, color plates, and drawings.

The datasheets on the 270 minor species only include family name, synonyms and common names, distribution, uses and observations, literature references, and sometimes an illustration. The 400 referral sheets only give the scientific name and synonyms of the species, the PROSEA volume where it is described, and in a few instances, photographs.

Module 8: IdentifyIt. This module allows users to search the database by countries and secondary uses. Each result can be separately examined by listing all countries and uses, and any two results can be compared with regard to taxonomic distance (a choice of 9 formulas) and characteristics that are present in both or only one species.

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Content Comments

Publishing a reference book on CD-ROM offers advantages but there are drawbacks. Obviously, the compact size, electronic search facilities, and hypertext linkages are attractive features. However, these may not be adequate to compensate for reduced readability, low-resolution reproductions of the drawings and color plates, and dependency on computer operating systems that are upgraded every few years. To be more attractive, a CD-ROM would have to make better use of multi-media opportunities, such as eye-catching datasheets with embedded illustrations, high-quality photographs of all species, picture galleries, distribution maps, and interactive identification tools. However, the database provides a wealth of information, and it can still be considered a useful reference tool for students and scientists interested in botany.

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User Friendliness and Navigability

The CD-ROM is easy to install and copies the entire text files (32 MB) to the hard drive. However, it requires users to keep the CD-ROM in the drive to access the illustrations. It is possible to run the entire program without the CD-ROM by copying the 105 MB "media" folder into the installation directory, but no instructions are given for this option.

The CD-ROM has several annoying features:

• clicking on words other than the legitimate hypertext links needlessly opens the "Find" window;
• closing the "Find" window causes a partial program crash and all tabs become unusable;
• double-clicking an icon often results in accidental opening of the "Find" window and a partial program crash;
• navigating the long alphabetical lists by jumping to a string of first characters is not possible as the software only jumps to the first entry of a given letter; and
• accessing drawings, photos, and tables has to be done in separate pop-up windows as they are not embedded in the text.

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Interactivity

For a reference collection, the most important interactive features are the tools that help find a certain datasheet. Lacking identification tools, users must know either the scientific name or one of the common names and use the "Find" function to locate a species, or else scroll through the "Index" or "Content" lists. Other interactive features include "Print", "Save", "Help", "Notepad", and a "Bookmark" function, as well as hypertext links to glossary entries and datasheets. Within a module, users can go to the next, previous or last page. There is a demonstration function that runs through all the species datasheets tab by tab, without, however, giving any explanations or instructions.

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Distribution

Unlike the PROSEA handbook, which is available for as little as US$14 to users in developing countries, this CD-ROM has no special discount off the €90 price tag. Nor has it been reduced for being technically outdated: it was published in 1997. The CD-ROM can still be ordered from any local bookstore or online. No new version of this CD-ROM is planned. Instead the datasheets will soon be published together with other PROSEA handbooks on a combined CD-ROM. Users interested only in fruits and nuts can obtain the handbook from PROSEA.

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Sustainability

In the foreword to the handbook on the CD-ROM, the PROSEA Foundation's chairperson wrote in 1991: "If all goes well with fruit growing in South-East Asia, it will not be long before the need for another edition of the 'Edible Fruits and Nuts' is felt!"

Unfortunately, neither the handbook nor the CD-ROM have been updated since they were first published. Not intending to make a commercial profit but to serve the public with knowledge of the world's biodiversity resources, the producers are dependent on public funding to continue their work. It appears that this has not been forthcoming, and both products are in dire need of revision.

Fortunately, there is a worldwide movement to place reference materials into the public domain via the internet. The PROSEA Foundation has joined this trend and published all the edible fruits and nuts datasheets with embedded line drawings on its searchable website (requires registration)*. It is hoped that the foundation will receive support to continue its excellent work and keep the taxonomic datasheets up-to-date. Users can nowadays also get additional information and photographs, particularly on the most common species on other websites. These modern developments are especially attractive for individual and occasional users and have made the CD-ROM largely obsolete. Rather than selling it for as much as €90, any remaining stock might be better given away to interested botany students or sold for a modest clearance price.

*This link takes you outside the ADBI website. Please use the back button to return to ADBI.org.

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