DOI: 10.36347/sajb.2014.v02i05.006

Pages: 345-353

The Himalayas have a great wealth of medicinal plants and traditional medicinal knowledge. Medicinal plants have played an important role of primary health care system among the local people of Himalayan region. The present paper is a study of the traditional knowledge of medicinal plants and its use by local people of Uttarakhand Region. It is a hill state in the Indian Himalayan region. Due to its unique geographical location and different climatic condition, it has rich biodiversity and variety of plant species. Medicinal plants are the principal health care resources among the most of people in India. Local people of this region are basically depends upon medicinal plants for their primary health care system. Their primary cure of diseases is based upon deep observation of nature and their understanding of traditional knowledge of medical practices. Local people in this region, especially tribal people and women heavily use these traditionally available medicinal plants for health and believe that these are easily available, less expensive and have no side effects as compare to modern medicine. The plants used for medicinal purposes in the primary health traditions are slowly becoming extinct due to development activities, population explosion, impact of tourism, deforestation and many more. The present paper focuses about the indigenous knowledge of different medicinal plants used in the Uttarakhand Himalayan region. Ethnomedicinal uses of 111 medicinal plant species along with botanical name, part used and mode of treatment are given in this paper.