Abstract
Objective:The aims of the present study were to document spice and condiment plants, to identify the most culturally important spice and condiment plants and to evaluate market potential of some spices and condiments used by some ethnic communities of Assam.Methods: The ethnobotanical study was conducted for four ethnic communities namely Ahom, Deori, Mishing, Sonowal-kachari fromLakhimpur and Dhemaji districts of Assam. The information was collected from 120 informants from each community through semi-structured questionnaire.Results:A total of 51 species belonging to 42 genera and 26 families used as spices and condiments by the ethnic communities of Assam were documented in the present study. Maximum number of spices and condiments were used by Ahom and had maximum similarity with Mishing, Sonowal-kachari and Deori. Maximum number of the spice and condiment plants belonged to families Amaryllidaceae and Zingiberaceae.Majority of the plants used by ethnic communities were under cultivation. Among all communities, herbs were used as spices and condiments. However, trees, shrubs and climberswere also used as spices and condiments. The study also revealed that fresh leafy herbaceous species were mostly used as spices and condiments by the communities of Assam. Flavouring was the most preferred category. The cultural important index of Allium cepawas highest among all selected communities of Assam.Piper nigrumshowed the highest market potential.Conclusion: The present study revealed that spice and condiment plants were culturally more important in each ethnic community.
Highlights
The North East India comprising of states of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland Tripura and Sikkim is unique in bioresources richness
The photographs of few plants were given in Plate1.Maximum number of plants were used as spices and condiments by Ahom (32 spp.) followed by Mishing (26 spp.), Sonowal-kachari (22 spp.) and Deori (20 spp.) (Fig. 2)
Plate 1: Spice and condiment plants used by ethnic communities of Assam (a-i): Cinnamomum tamala (a); Homalomena aromatica (b); Hydrocotyle sibthorpioides (c); Curcuma longa (d); Lippia alba (e); Kaempferia galanga (f); Paederia foetida (g); Piper nigrum (h);Ocimum basilicum (i)
Summary
The North East India comprising of states of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland Tripura and Sikkim is unique in bioresources richness. The different ethnic communities use various types of plants to flavour and season their foods which reflect uniqueness of Northeast India in its ethnic foods. Assam is the homeland of large number of diverse ethnic communities including 23 tribal communities [1][2]. Major tribal communities of this state are Deori, Hojai, Sonowalkachari, Lalung, Mech, Miri, Rabha, Dimasa, Hajong, Singhpho, Khampti, Garo etc. The ethnic people mostly depend on natural resources from the nearby forest for their food, livelihood and ailments. They are repository of indigenous knowledge system belonging to agriculture, food, medicine etc. Most of the ethnic communities take vegetables, fish, meat, crab or edible insects in boiled form and add local spices and condiments to increase the aroma, colour and delicacy
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