Potential of ethnobotanical studies in North East India: An overview

Abstract

North East India has a valuable heritage of herbal remedies. Its rural people and tribals living in remote/forest areas still depend to a great extent on the indigenous systems of medicine/cultivation. So far studies in this regard have been reported from a very limited number of the tribes of North East region, viz. Ler, Mikir, Karbis, Miris, Khasi and Jaintai, Garo, Monpas, Nishi, Apatani, Reangs, etc. A wide range of plants with ethnobotanical value against some very important diseases have been reported but much larger numbers of folk medicines have remained endemic to certain tribal pockets in North East India. Therefore, further detailed studies on the ethno­botanical aspects in the region may provide meaningful ways for the promotion of traditional herbal medicinal plants/land races of crop plants for the benefit of mankind at large. In the present paper, the work that has been reported and the potentials of the ethnobotanical studies with particular reference to biodiversity conservation of the important medicinal/crop plants in the North Eastern region have been highlighted and discussed.