2024, Vol. 12, Issue 1, Part B

author(s)
Dr. Ved Prakash

abstract
Madhya Pradesh, a state in Central India is a veritable niche of growing healing herbs, which are being utilised and explored in Indian system of medicine such as Ayurveda, Siddha and Unani. There are about 28 tribal communities (Baiga, Bhariya, Korku, Korwa and Sahariya, Kol, Bhil, Gond, Pao, Khairwar, Maria, Kamar etc.) spread over the entire state in Madhya Pradesh which are utilizing the plants for food and medicinal purposes. These indigenous people have been using with a historical continuity of resource use, and the traditional knowledge has accumulated through a series of observations and explorations transmitted from generation to generation. Ethnobotany, a multidisciplinary science, studies the complex interaction/relationship between plants and people. This relationship between plants and human culture is not limited to the use of plants for food, clothing and shelter but finds their use for religious ceremonies, ornamentation and primary health care services. The plants have always been the principle source of medicines in India since time immemorial. In older times, ethnobotanical research was predominately a detailed survey of the plants used by local practitioners but in today’s world ethnobotany focuses primarily on how plants are being used, managed and perceived across human societies i.e. as food, as medicine, in divination, cosmetics, dying, textile, construction, clothing, literature and in rituals and social life. Therefore, an attempt has been made to compile the ethnobotanical or traditional knowledge of some medicinally useful plants used by tribal communities of Madhya Pradesh to meet different purposes in different ways.