Assessment of ethnomedicinal plant diversity of Una and Hamirpur district of Himachal Pradesh, India: An ethno-ecological approach

Abstract

The present study was conducted to explore ethnobotanical diversity and importance of local plants harnessing for medicinal purposes by the local people of Una and Hamirpur district, Himachal Pradesh, India. We recorded in total 159 plant species of 138 genera belonging to 68 families to cure more than 33 different types of ailments. Across family-wise distribution, most important useful plants were recorded from ten families: Asteraceae, Euphorbiaceae, Fabaceae, Acanthaceae, Ceaselpiniaceae, Moraceae, Solanaceae followed by Annonaceae, Convolvulaceae and Liliaceae. These families accounted 43.7% of the total plants and exhibited most acclimatized within local environmental conditions. However, of the total recorded plants revealed as herbs contributed the major proportion (50 %) followed by trees (29%), shrubs (11%), climber (9%), creeper and khumb (<1% each). It was observed that most utilized plant parts were leaves recorded from 55 plant species to cure different ailments followed by other components viz: whole plant (43), bark and seed (34 species each), root and fruits (32 each), flower (18) and other remaining were stem shoot, bulb, rhizome and tubers, respectively. In general, people living to the adjoining areas of the forests have direct influence to utilize those local plants for different ailments; therefore, they have good practices and vast knowledge of traditional uses. Hence, aim of the present study was to collect information about ethno-medicinal plants which were not clearly documented earlier in the literature as well as to investigate the plant-human interactions to understand the socio-ecological relationships.