Indigenous knowledge of coastline sacred groves in Central Kerala, India

541-546Sacred groves are a patch of forest protected by religious belief in South India, especially in Kerala. It preserves a vast array of plants including critically endangered, endangered and vulnerable medicinal plants and a way to conserve biodiversity. The present study was aimed to document plant diversity and related ethno medicinal significance along the coastline sacred groves of central Kerala. Field visits were conducted for sample collection and semi structured open-ended questionnaire tools have been used to conduct interviews with local peoples herbal healers and herbal dealers. A total of 121 plant species belonging 108 genera under 60 families were recorded from the sacred groves under this study. Indigenous people commonly use around 100 species as herbal medicines and for other uses. Among this, the traditional medicinal usages of critically endangered, endangered, vulnerable plants are described in this paper. The study envisage that indigenous people still relay various plants as herbal remedies to treat various diseases, as source of income, as fuel and during rituals in temple etc

Indigenous knowledge of coastline sacred groves in Central Kerala, India

Sacred groves are a patch of forest protected by religious belief in South India, especially in Kerala. It preserves a vast array of plants including critically endangered, endangered and vulnerable medicinal plants and a way to conserve biodiversity. The present study was aimed to document plant diversity and related ethno medicinal significance along the coastline sacred groves of central Kerala. Field visits were conducted for sample collection and semi structured open-ended questionnaire tools have been used to conduct interviews with local peoples herbal healers and herbal dealers. A total of 121 plant species belonging 108 genera under 60 families were recorded from the sacred groves under this study. Indigenous people commonly use around 100 species as herbal medicines and for other uses. Among this, the traditional medicinal usages of critically endangered, endangered, vulnerable plants are described in this paper. The study envisage that indigenous people still relay various plants as herbal remedies to treat various diseases, as source of income, as fuel and during rituals in temple etc

Indigenous medicinal usages of some macrophytes of the Muriyad wetland in Vembanad-Kol, Ramsar site, Kerala

365-367Iindigenous medicinal practices are an important component of the traditional knowledge. Wetlands provide a unique habitat for several medicinal plants. Apart from their commercial value, the local community utilizes a good number of these plants for various curative purposes, which are unknown to the people at large. Several of these plants are very sensitive to the fluctuations in the normal physico-chemical parameters of the wetland. A slight alteration or degradation of the wetland may result in the disappearance or the extinction of these plants. This will ultimately result in large-scale economic loss in terms of the medicinal products synthesized from these plants. Apart form the loss of plants, which are exclusively used by a community for their health- related uses, this will also result in the loss of local knowledge on the medicinal properties of these plants, which very often cannot be retrieved. Attempt has been made to document some of the little known medicinal properties of wetland/wetland-associated plants used by the local community living around Muriyad wetland system