Phytotherapeutic Wisdom of Indian Rurals Aboriginals

Contents: Editorial. 1. A mixture of alkaloids, flavonoids and terpenes/sterols with antimycobacterial activity from methanol extract of Artemisia annua L. (Compositae) (whole plant)/A. Uba, K. Ibrahim, E.B. Agbo and A.A. Makinde. 2. An ethnobotanical study of Halam tribe of Dhalai district, Tripura, India/R. Halam, Reema Saha and B.K. Datta. 3. An ethnobotanical study of Sambharpat of West Nimar district of Madhya Pradesh/S.K. Mahajan. 4. Assessment of the antimicrobial and phytochemical properties of the stem bark extract of Disthemonantus bentamianus L. (African Satin Wood) on microorganisms isolated from Semen/K.A. Yongabi, E.B. Agbo and F. Tahir. 5. Collection and conservation of Tamarind (Tamarindus indica L.)--a multipurpose tree for livelihood of rural poor/N. Sunil, G. Subbi Reddy, N. Sivaraj and S. Sridhar. 6. Dental care in herbal way : some ethnobotanical findings/Enakshi Ray Chaudhuri, H.A. Molla and S.K. Basu. 7. Dye yielding plants of Assam and its neighbouring areas/M. Islam and F. Hasin. 8. Ethnobotanical studies in Kedarnath Wildlife Sanctuary, Central Himalayas, India/D.P. Semwal and P. Pardha Saradhi. 9. Ethnobotanical studies in Sangla Valley, district Kinnaur in Himachal Himalayas/Viraj Man and Bhupender Dutt. 10. Ethnobotanical studies of Srikhola, Lepchajagat, Tonglu and Pankhabari areas of Darjeeling district, West Bengal/Rama Prasad Bhattacharya and Chandrakala Rai. 11. Ethnobotanical study of Kalahandi district, Orissa/A.M. Saren, A.C. Halder and P.R. Sur. 12. Ethnomedicinal plants used as antidiabetic/P.R. Sur, A.M. Saren and A.C. Halder. 13. Ethnomedicinal studies of Patan district, North Gujarat/P.K. Patel. 14. Ethnomedicinal studies on cucurbits of Agra district/K.P. Singh and Rekha Agarwal. 15. Ethnomedicinal study of some important plants used in the treatment of hair and boils in district of Pulwama of Kashmir/Iqbal Chak, R.K. Agarwal and Majeed Kak. 16. Ethnomedicinal uses of some weeds in some agro-ecosystems of Doon Valley/Lokender Singh, Neelam Sharma, S.P. Joshi, R.K. Manhas and Venita Joshi. 17. Ethno-medico-botanical studies in Pench Tiger Reserve, Madhya Pradesh/S.K. Masih. 18. Important medicinal plants and their uses in Me-Gad watershed area of Lahual and Spiti/Yogendra Sharma, Arvind Kumar, Archna Singh and J.C. Rana. 19. Important medicinal plants in Moolbari watershed area of Himachal Pradesh/Archna Singh, Yogendra Sharma, Arvind Kumar and J.C. Rana. 20. Ipomoea carnea Subsp. fistulosa (Convolvulaceae)--a friend plant of tribals/Kaptain K. Bajpayee. 21. Medicinal uses of some terrestrial exotic weeds/P.R. Sur, A.M. Saren and A.C. Halder. 22. Mesta diversity : a potential source to improve rural economy in north coastal Andhra Pradesh/N. Sivaraj, S.R. Pandravada, M.V. Naidu, G. Srinivasa Reddy, N. Sunil, V. Kamala, Babu Abraham and K.S. Varaprasad. 23. Natural and cultivated dye yielding plants and their utilization by villagers in southern districts of Tamil Nadu/K. Rajendran, S. Baburaj and M. Jothi Basu. 24. Note on aquatic macrophytes of Gujarat and their economic values/K.D. Mitaliya, D.C. Bhatt and B.B. Maitreya. 25. Observations on traditional herbal remedies for paralysis in Gujarat/B.A. Jadeja, N.K. Odedra and D.R. Zala. 26. Phenolic profile in some petrocrops/M.S.N. Reddy, M. Radhakrishnaiah and S. Jelani. 27. Phytochemical and antimicrobial screening of the leaf extracts of Ocimum gratissimum L./O.I. Okechukwu and F. Tahir. 28. Phytochemical studies in genera Tetrastigma (Miq.) Planch. and Vitis L. (Fam. Vitaceae) and their taxonomic significance/S.G. Patil and B.K. Honrao. 29. Plants used in traditional phytotherapy for indigestion in Gujarat, India/B.A. Jadeja, N.K. Odedra, J.K. Chavda and D.C. Bhatt. 30. Potential ethnomedicinal plants at Kaptipada Forest Range Orissa, India and their uses/K.K. Behera, N. Manjari Mishra and G.R. Rout. 31. Potential fodder species of Ladakh Himalaya/Anju Verma, O.P. Chaurasia, Basant Ballabh and B. Raut. 32. Ritual plants of Neeru Valley, Bhadarwah, Jammu and Kashmir, India/Harish Chander Dutt and Shashi Kant. 33. Some ethnomedicinally important new reports from Melghat/P.Y. Bhogaonkar and V.D. Devarkar. 34. Some important West Himalayan high altitude medicinal plants/Sanjay K. Singh and V.P. Uniyal. 35. Some medicinal plants of Gorumara National Park, Jalpaiguri district, West Bengal/Lopamundra Mohanty. 36. Studies on ethnobotany of Sundarbans with special reference to tribal and rural women health care/Ankhi Sau, D.C. Pal and N.K. Verma. 37. Studies on flowering and fruiting in vegetatively propagated Taxus baccata L. plants: a highly valued medicinal plant of the Himalayas/Dewan B. Basnet. 38. Studies on the antivenin potential of the crude extracts of Balanites aegyptiaca (L.) Del. (Balanitaceae)/B.M. Wufem, H.M. Adamu, Y.A. Cham and S.L. Kela. 39. Study on nutritional potential and anti-nutritional contents in seed kernes of Cycas circinalis L./S. Chidambaram Pillai and V.R. Mohan. 40. Traditional ethnobotanical knowledge of Kiran Pargana, Shimla district, Himachal Pradesh/Joginder Singh, A. Rajasekaran and K.D. Sharma. 41. Traditional herbal veterinary medicines from tribal area of Rajasthan, India/Anita Jain, S.S. Katewa, B.L. Chaudhary and Praveen Galav. 42. Traditional medicinal knowledge on plant from Velliangiri hills of Coimbatore district, India/M. Murugesan, V. Balasubramaniam and N. Nagarajan. 43. Traditional phytotherapy for diarrhoea, dysentery and liver disorders in Chhatisgarh state/S.P. Jain, Nagendra Prasad Mishra, Janardan Singh and Binita Kumari. 44. Unconventional wild edible fruits of Arunachal Pradesh/H.S. Mahapatra and Homen Medhi. 45. Useful plants of Kabi sacred grove, Sikkim/S.S. Dash and A.S. Chauhan. 46. Utilization of macrophytes in North Bihar, India/K.B. Nandan and C.B. Singh. 47. Wild edible plants of Mayurbhanj district, Orissa, India/K.K. Behera, N.M. Mishra, N.K. Dhal and N.C. Rout. 48. Ethnobotany of some healing plants of Kunihar Forest Division, district Solan (Himachal Pradesh), India/Saroj Verma and N.S. Chauhan. 49. Study of non-conventional edible plants used by different communities of Barak Valley, Assam (N.E. India)/Ajit Kumar Das, B.K. Dutta and G.D. Sharma. 50. Ethnomedicinal survey of Alagar Kovil hills (reserved forest) Tamil Nadu, India/S. Ganesan, N. Ramar Pandi and N. Banumathy. 51. Observation on ethnobotany of Darjeeling district, West Bengal/A.M. Saren, A.C. Halder and P.R. Sur. 52. Enumeration of some potential and tribal medicinal plants of Bodamalai hills in Namakkal district of Tamil Nadu/S.P. Anand and R. Jeyachandran. 53. Wild plants used by the tribes of Nokrek biosphere reserve, Meghalaya and their conservation/Basant Kumar Singh and Himadri Sekhar Debnath. 54. Medicinal properties of some locally available green leafy vegetables of Pondicherry region/A. Pragasam, K. Kadavul and S. Sivaranjini. 55. Medicinal plants of family Lamiaceae of Kashmir-I/Gowher Guna, M.Y. Shah and A.R. Naqshi. 56. Medicinal flora of Kashmir valley/Gowher Ayoob, Mudasir Ahmad, M.Y. Shah and A. Naqshi. 57. Ethnomedicinal plants used in skin diseases by some Indo-Mongoloid communities of Assam/Jitu Buragohain and B.K. Knowar. 58. Traditional medicinal plants of cold desert Ladakh used in treatment of Jaundice/Basant Ballabh, O.P. Chaurasia and Z. Ahmed. 59. Ethnobotany of some plants of Dang region, Rajasthan/Leena Sharma, K.P. Sharma and Sitaram Khandelwal. 60. Traditional inventory of some potential economic plants related to Angami tribe in Nagaland/Kuntala N. Barua, Indrani P. Bora and Jasbir Singh. 61. Studies on medicinal plants of Burdwan: III/Gita Hotwani and Ambarish Mukherjee. 62. Plants used as mouth freshner in Saurashtra region of Gujarat/B.A. Jadeja, N.K. Odedra and K.B. Solanki. 63. Status survey of ethnobotanical resources of Satna district, Madhya Pradesh/S.N. Dwivedi. 64. A preliminary study of wild vegetables of Bongaigaon district of Assam/Ananta Borah and Partha Pratim Sarkar.

"The book mainly deals with medicinal plants being used by aboriginal and rural communities in India for the treatment of various ailments through their traditional and endemic prescriptions. About 48 articles on the subject have been contributed by the expert ethnobotanists from different parts of the country. Information about ethnobotanical uses, especially ethnomedicinal uses, is claimed to be original by the authors which is obtained by them from tribal people or others who have accrued deep knowledge about medicinal plants through their long association with forest environment in one way or the other.

Certain articles, besides dealing with medicinal aspects, have also touched other uses of plants. Still others purely deal with other economic aspects, viz. edible, rituals, dyes etc. Such contributions, though not in accordance of title of the book, have also been included keeping in view the present uncertain global trends in patenting, demand and exploitation. The maps, illustrations, photographs etc have been appended by some authors to supplement and authenticate their findings. The local names of plants, wherever provided, will make the book usable at grass root level at one end, and correct botanical nomenclature at advanced platform spread over in 464 pages book.

Though authentic preliminary information has been furnished by the authors, yet clinical tests for many have not been done. As such, the self use of any plant for the treatment of prescribed ailments in the book is not advisable. However, the data presented here will open new platforms to play upon for all those who are engaged in producing herbal drugs on scientific/clinical or commercial scale.

May be certain typographic or other minor errors left in the book, the readers are requested to ignore them in view of attempts made by the authors and editor to achieve the theme of conservation/protection of indigenous wisdom of Indian aboriginals from biopiracy in future."