Diversity and indigenous uses of medicinal plants in the Ban Oak (Quercus oblongata) forests in Himachal Pradesh, North Western Himalaya

Abstract

The native communities of Himachal Pradesh are largely dependent on natural resources for their sustenance and have rich knowledge regarding indigenous uses, but require proper documentation for their long-time conservation. Diverse biological diversity in the Ban oak forests causes immense miscellany of widely used medicinal plants, thus an ethnobotanical approach was adopted to file the undocumented indigenous wealth and folkloric therapeutics of the communities against different human disorders. Folkloric practice provides an alternative to the needy rural population for the treatment of various ailments. The present study was conducted to document the medicinal plant diversity of ban oak forests during 2018-2019 and recorded 182 species of medicinal plants used by the local inhabitants. These are listed along with their uses, parts used, mode of administration and threat status.