Quantitative ethnomedicinal study of plants used to cure different ailments in Rajaji Tiger Reserve, Uttarakhand, India

Introduction: India has a rich diversity of ethnomedicinal plants where the preparations from plants are used in treatment of various infection and ailments. Objectives: The detailed survey was done to gather the information about potential preparation of ethnomedicinal plants by the local communities of the study area. Methods: Data on 54 ethnomedicinal plants were recorded with the help of 19 men and 18 women aged between 45 and 60. Direct observation, group discussion and semi structured interview were used to collect the ethnobotanical information of the study area. Results: Prevalent ethnomedicinal uses of the plants were used for treating diarrhoea, asthma, dysentery, and other human ailments. The most commonly plant parts gathered were leaves (28.78 %) followed by bark (19.69 %), root (12.12 %), flower (10.60 %), fruit (9.09 %), seed and whole plant (7.57 % each), stem (4.54 %). It was observed from the investigation that the ethnomedicinal plants used most frequently in the treatment of diarrhoea and dysentery (29 taxa) followed by other liver problems (7 taxa), healing cut and wounds, tooth problems, blood dysentery, piles, asthma, fractured bones, scorpion/insects bite (2 taxa), skin diseases, urinary disorder and headache, menstrual disorder, infertility, stone problems, cold and cough, muscle pain and swelling, memory enhancer, killing of liver worms in children, insects repellent, bronchial catarrh (1 taxa each). Conclusion: The folk knowledge and ethnomedicinal preparation recorded in the present study area can be implemented in future for pharmacological and biological assay which could be further lead to new drug development.