In silico documentation of medicinal plants in Lacchiwala range, Dehradun forest division, Uttarakhand (India)

Abstract

The Himalaya is the treasure house of natural wealth, particularly of medicinal plants. The drugs from different plant species have been known to the Indian physician since long - long ago. A number of important herbal preparations are described in the Indian system of medicine i.e. the Ayurveda. Ayurveda has described in its text more than three thousand herbs and quite a large number of them are found in the Himalaya. The study of the intrinsic relationship of the Homo sapiens to plants, form the subject matter of Ethnobotany; if one goes carefully through the science of Ayurveda, in one perspective, one would find exactly a similar relationship between man and medicinal plants. Indigenous traditional knowledge of medicinal plants and therapies of various local communities has been lost due to changes in traditional culture and introduction of modern technologies. It is essential to compile the regional medicinal plants of the areas where there is a severe threat to natural vegetation owing to human inhabitation. In that sense, knowledge of the flora of medicinal herb in study area is also equally important. Several experts have conducted botanical survey in the Garhwal region. But these surveys have not been particularly directed towards medicinal plants used in Ayurveda. The present study deals with the documentation of medicinal plants used in Ayurveda of Lacchiwala range, Dehradun Forest Division, Doiwala, Dehradun, Uttarakhand with an aim to extend the knowledge about these plants.