Ethnobotany: A strategy for conservation of plant

Abstract

Ethnobotany deals with the plants in relation to human and animals. The ethnobotanical studies include all type of interrelation between people and plants, with respect to their medicinal, religious, magico religious belief and uses. Now a day’s ethnobotany emerges in a very complex structure which often requires collaboration of experts from various fields such as anthropology, botany, ecology, pharmacy, linguistics, medicine and ethnography. The tribal people act as storehouses of traditional knowledge which developed through continuous uses of plants in their daily life. The knowledge and belief on plant forwarded through the word of mouth, from generation after generation by the elderly people of particular tribes. As this indigenous knowledge is not documented and transfer verbally there is a chance of depletion of its integrity. Ethnobotany helps to preserve this knowledge before its complete loss. This paper focuses on ethnobotany its introduction, the problems encountered during ethnobotanical survey and steps to overcome this issue. It also focused towards the recent developed strategies for conservation of indigenous knowledge on plants used by traditional people.