Abstract

COMPREHENSIVE ETHNO-BOTANICAL SURVEY AND CYTOMORPHOLOGICAL STATUS OF SOME IMPORTANT MEDICINAL PLANTS FROM HIMACHAL PRADESH-A NORTH INDIAN STATE

Vivek Sharma*, Bikram Singh, Raghbir C. Gupta, Harcharan S. Dhaliwal

Abstract

The present study reports the wealth of medicinal plant resources of Himachal Pradesh, North Indian region and especially in the Lahaul and Spiti “Cold Desert” of higher altitude Himalayas. Ethnobotanical data was recorded for 63 plant species (5 from plains, 8 species from mid Himalayas and 50 from higher altitude Himalayas) of North Indian regions. The information was collected from tribal people, hakeems, elder villagers and traditional healers through different interview methods. Data for each species covers vernacular name, locality/ altitude, habit, part used, ethnobotanical use and dosage. Among these 63 medicinal plants, maximum number of times leaves are used against different ailments (55.56%), followed by roots (36.51%), flowers and fruits (30.16%), whole plant (19.05%), seeds (12.71%), bark (11.1%), stems and rhizomes (3.18%). These medicinal plants are used by local people against many ailments and well documented by different researchers worldwide. Along with comprehensive ethnobotanical studies, the complete cytomorphological analysis was also recorded for these reported medicinal plants from study areas with having few new chromosome reports. As per our knowledge, it is the first single constructive report available about the germplasm evaluation by using both cytomorphological and ethnobotanical analysis tools from these study areas of Himachal Pradesh.

Keywords: Ethno-botany; Cytomorphology; First chromosomal report; Lahaul-Spiti; Himachal Pradesh; North India.