Abstract: | Studies on the uses of natural genetic resources in different cultural environments show a strong relation between dietary habits and health of local population. Many wild plants were used by indigenous peoples both as a food and medicine (Johns, 1999; Pieroni and Heinrich, 2003; Rivera et al., 2005). Besides characterization of environmental factors that affect existence and distribution of natural genetic resources, the knowledge on traditional habits, of ethnobotanical and general ethnographic characteristics of a particular area all serve as a professional ground for prospecting for those wild genetic resources that can be of use in a diet and/or medicine of local inhabitants (Heinrich, 2002; Heinrich, 2003; Bremner et al., 2004; Heinrich et al., 2005). The existence of traditional medicine basically depends on plant species diversity and the related knowledge of their use as herbal drugs. In addition, both plant species and traditional knowledge are important to the herbal medicine trade and the pharmaceutical industry, whereby plants provide raw materials and the traditional knowledge prerequisite information (Tabuti et al. 2003). Together with growth in global demand for medicinal plants and in local demand for plant based traditional medicines, the pressure on the existing populations of medicinal plants has increased tremendously during the last few decades (http://www.tifac.org.in/offer/tlbo/rep/ S061.htm). Historically, most of these plants grew in wild as a natural component of vegetation of a particular region. The necessary plant material (roots, barks, leaves) have been collected and sold by the local people to the traders and the industry and exporters purchased them from traders. Since there was no scientific system of collecting or regenerating these plants in past, several plants have either been completely lost or have become endangered. |
