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The imposition of pre-sowing treatment has been playing a crucial role for enhancing the germination percentage of the forest species and its succeeding growth stages. On this contention, a preliminary study was conducted to understand the impact of different pre-sowing treatments on Aquilaria agallocha Lam. (Agarwood) and its early growth behaviour. In this present study, the seeds were subjected to six different pre-sowing treatments. Among the pre-sowing treatments, soaking in water at room temperature for 24 hrs (T3) has resulted the maximum germination percentage (55.25%) as compared to other counterparts. On an average, there was an increase of 49%, 47%, 38%, 40% and 49% of germination percentage, germination capacity, germination energy, peak value and mean daily germination respectively in T3 over control (T6). Similarly, the early seedling growth of the agarwood was also influenced by imposition of different pre-sowing treatments. And all the seedling growth parameters viz., shoot length (cm), root length (cm), seedling length (cm) and seedling vigour index were recorded maximum in T3 as compared to rest of the treatments.

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The paper deals with plants used as a traditional system of medicine by the Poumai tribe of Manipur, India. The Poumai tribe is one among the major tribes of Manipur, mostly resides in the Senapati District, Manipur. Agriculture is the main source of livelihood and also the main sector for employment although it is highly unorganized and unskilled. An ethno-medicinal investigation was conducted to understand the traditional knowledge of medicinal plants being used by the local healers of Poumai tribe, Manipur, India. Some of the medicinal plants used by the community exhibits established pharmacological activities which signify the importance of the traditional knowledge of the tribes. Besides, many other species traditionally used by the tribes assume to have pharmacological potentiality. The result documented 35 plant species belonging to 23 families were found to use for curing 22 ailments. Leaf was used in the majority of cases for medicinal preparation (20 species) followed by bark, fruit, whole plant, flower, stem, bark, seed and rhizome. Among the 35 plant species, they were mainly used to treat diabetes (6 species) followed by diarrhoea and dysentery, hypertension and gastritis (5 species each). The study thus focuses on the potentials of the ethno-botanical research and the need for the proper documentation of indigenous healthcare knowledge pertaining to the medicinal plant utilization for the greater benefit of human mankind.