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The plant material and their products are being used for health care since ages. There is a vast array of knowledge among women regarding their use. But this knowledge is being lost due to non transfer to the future generations which is mainly due to more of stress being laid on instant medication. With fewer women using plants for maternal health, the future generation cannot observe there use pattern. In this context the present study was an attempt to understand the status of these medicinal plants in term of the awareness of rural women. The data collected from three districts of Punjab reveal that one third of the women were not aware that six of the twenty seven plants selected for the study were used for maternal health care . Three out of the remaining plants were known to less than fifty percent of the women. Some plants were known for their use but women were not aware of the purposes for which these were used during maternal health care, hence a significant difference was observed between the number of women aware of the use and purpose of use of these plant. All the women were aware of the plants like Chebulic myrobalan, Turmeric, Black pepper, Indian lilac, Dry ginger and Arecanut on both the parameters but some like Touch me not and Indian seena were known to less than ten per cent of the women. A comprehensive strategies need to be planned to for intra social dissemination of the information so that this rich heritage is not lost.

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