Indigenous Knowledge and Application of Ethnomedicinal Plants in Western Himalayas

Abstract

Background: In the modern era, the practice of herbal medicine for health care practices has been declining and may led to the loss of valuable information about plants used in traditional medicine from ancient times. The present study was aimed to document ethnomedicinal knowledge of plants used by the inhabitants of Garhwal Himalaya for health care management in rural areas and can be base line for the contribution of drug discoveries for Pharmaceutical industries.Methods: A snowball sampling technique was employed to gather information using questionnaires and informal interviews followed by discussions with peer and prominent healer practitioners. Consensus factor (Fic) was used to test the homogeneity in ethnomedicinal knowledge of rural inhabitants. Fidelity level (FL), cultural importance index (CI) were computed for the people depends on plants. Results: A total of 88 medicinal plants species belonging to 45 families with 80 genera were reported for different ailments. The most frequent plant parts usage was from leaves followed by fruits, seeds, roots, bark, and flowers/buds. Skin problems were healed with the highest number of taxa (15 species) with Fic value 0.85. Maximum number of plant species (15 species.) was used for skin treatment followed by wound, cough and digestive problems.Conclusion: A significant relation of medicinal plants usage with distance (access time), and family income was observed. In the recommendation, it might have possibilities for the plants with higher FL and CI can contribute in discovery of new drugs after further pharmacological experiments.