Medico-ethnobotanical inventory of Renukoot forest division of district Sonbhadra, Uttar Pradesh, India

Abstract

The present paper synthesizes first report related to medicinal plants used by the tribal communities mainly <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">Koal</i>, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">Panika</i>, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">Dharkar</i>, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">Bhuriya</i>, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">Kharvar </i>and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">Gaund </i>of Renukoot forest division of district Sonbhadra. The methods used for ethnobotanical data collection were semi structured interviews, field observation, preference ranking and direct-matrix ranking. It was observed that 105 medicinal plants, used by tribal communities belonging to 44 families, are medicinally very significant. Results of the study were analyzed using two quantitative tools: Informant Consensus Factor (ICF) and The Fidelity Level (FL). The data provided from our informants and analyzed in the present article clearly show that folk knowledge on medicinal plants and plant uses is still alive in the studied region thus documentation of this ethnomedicinal knowledge is important for the evaluation of pharmacological activity and drug development.