Abstract

ETHNO-MEDICINAL PLANTS STUDIES ON SOME SACRED GROVES IN PUDUKKOTTAI AND THANJAVUR DISTRICT.

Marimuthu senthil kumar and Suburamanian alagumanian*

ABSTRACT

Ethno-botany is a multidisciplinary science defined these as the interaction between plants and people. India is one of the leading countries in asia in terms of the wealth of traditional knowledge systems related to the use of plant species and has an concept of using plants for medicinal purpose. Sacred groves represent ancient Indian way of in-situ conservation of genetic diversity. It acts as a nursery and storehouse of many of the local ayurvedic, tribal and folk medicines. Today many indigenous herbal remedies remain largely undocumented or recognized as potential forms of treatment and consequently continue to be used by only small groups of indigenous populations. This present work documented totally 143 medicinal plant species belonging to 31 families were collected from the study area. The plant parts mostly reported in this regard were Leaves (47.55%), Root (13.98%), Bark (7.69%), Flower (5.59%), Whole plant (18.88%), Seed (4.19%), Latex (1.39%) and Gum (0.69%), Fruit (1.39).

Keywords: Ethno medicine, Medicinal uses, Pudukkottai and Tanjavur district.