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 which lies at Shivalik hills or outer Himalayas in Himachal Pradesh, India. We recorded total 159 plant species of 138 genera belonging to 68 families which were used to cure more than 33 different types of ailments. Across family-wise distribution, most important useful plants were recorded from ten families: Asteraceae, Euphorbaceae, Fabaceae, Acanthaceae, Ceaselpiniaceae, Moraceae, Solanaceae followed by Anonaceae, Convolvulaceae and Liliaceae. Therefore, these families accounted 43.7% plants of the total and exhibited most acclamatized plants within local environmental conditions. Further, fifty percent of the total recorded plants revealed as herbs contributed the major proportion 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. People living to the adjoining area of the forests have the direct influence to utilize those local plants for different ailments; therefore, they have good practices and vast information of traditional knowledge. Thus, 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.