India is regarded as the treasure trove of herbs in the world. India is a land of diverse natural resources. It is also a country with the strongest traditions of nature conservation anywhere in the world. Chinese, Indian, Arabian and other traditional systems of medicines make extensive use of about 5000 plants. India is one of the 12-mega biodiversity centres in the country with two hotspots of biodiversity Viz., Western ghats and Eastern Himalayas. Different stakeholders in the medicinal plants sector have projected Tamil Nadu, one of the southern states, as an "Herbal" state. For the present study, Uthiyur is selected to find out the medicinal herbs and indigenous knowledge on medicinal herbs. It is located at the longitude of 77.5 and latitude of 10.99. Uthiyur hills, between Dharapuram and Kangeyam of Tamil Nadu, seem to be a fort using 3 side hills as a wall and other side built with large stones as another wall. From Pon Uthiyur to the Konganar caves, there are some hillocks which are considered as the Sanjeevani hill of the south. It is a pretty small village with a hillock at one side. Several field trips were undertaken in tribal areas of the Uthiyur hills during 2012-2013. At each time of visit, different tribal village and forest pockets were chosen in different seasons to collect more information on plants. Information was compiled through scientifically guided questionnaires. Interviews and general conversations have been conducted with several tribal herbal healers, village heads, elder women and other local informants. In the present study 56 species were selected for enumeration based on information availability from the local ethnic people, and the medicinal herb data base was prepared for the future reference.
| Type : | : | oral |
| Thématiques | : | Ethnobotanique & ethnopharmacologie |
| Mots-Clés | : | Medicinal plants ; Uthiyur hills ; biodiversity |
| PDF version | : |  PDF version |
