An Introduction to Ethanobotany, Concept, History Importance and Scope

An Introduction to Ethanobotany, Concept, History Importance and Scope

Registration ID: IJNRD_207270

Published ID: IJNRD2310244

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Dr.Sharad Kumar Singhariya

An Introduction to Ethanobotany, Concept, History Importance and Scope

Introduction-the term ethanobotany was coined by J.W. Harshberger, an American botanist at the University of Pensylvania, in 1895. Ethanobotany is the systematic study of the relationships between plants and people though initially it was used to describe the study of plants used by primitive and aboriginal people. In other words Ethanobotany means all the sources of the plants towards humankind and the other species growing on the planet. From the ancient time, people have used plants to provide them food, fodder, medicines, clothes, fibers, crafts, dyes, soaps and detergent, dyes, novel compounds, materials for construction. Ethno (as in ethnic) refers to people, culture, a culture collective body of beliefs, knowledge, language and practice. Botany is the study of plants. The scope of Ethanobotany – the scope of this is increasing day by day. To describe the field in broader sense ethnobotanists have given their definitions time to time.Jones (1941) defined Ethnobotany as ‗the study of interrelations of primitive man and plants‘. According to Schultes (1962), Ethnobotany is defined as the study of the relationships which exist between plants and people of a primitive society and their plant environment‘.Vartak and Gadgil (1980) suggested ‗Ethnobotany is a branch of economic botany, a section of which deals with the role of plants in life and culture of aborigines and tribal people‘.Alcom (1984) states that Ethnobotany is the study of contextualized plant use.Jain (1987) applied the term Ethnobotany as the total natural and traditional relationship and interaction between man and his surrounding plant wealth. Wickens (1990) defined Ethnobotany as the study of useful plants prior to their commercial exploitation and eventual domestication.According to ford 1994, Ethanobotany is concerned with a wide range of interest of plants in cultural and ecological context.Turner (1996) has given an appropriate definition that is ―the Science of people‘s interaction with plants‖.Ethanobotany is the use of plants in material or abstract form among ethnic communities or tribal people. Sometimes, it is regarded as ethnographical or anthropological or tribal botany. Ethanobotany is a combination of ethnography and botany. Ethnographers describe the people of a region including their race, language and their uses of plants.Ethanobotany is an interdisciplinary science and undertakes a research on the relationship between plants and humans in the areas of: nutrition, education, archaeology, linguistics, healing, paleology, livelihood, medicine, agriculture etc. The scope of the subject has expanded greatly. Botanists, anthropologists, social scientists, and the practitioners of indigenous medicines are engaged in the study of people-plant interactions in natural environment. History and Concept-The term Ethnobotany was coined by the early 20th century botanist John William Harshberger. The roots of ethnobotanical science can be traced in the ancient Sanskrit, Arabic literatures, Greek, ethnographics, travelogues etc. Vast ethanobotanical knowledge exists in India from ancient time. A variety of uses of plants are mentioned in the ancient Indian Sanskrit literature, e.g. Rigveda, Atharvaveda, Upanishads, Mahabharata and Puranas etc. These include plants used in worships, as medicines, tools of agriculture, food, fuel etc. A list of some of the importance Indian treatises is presented in two vedic periods Rigveda and Athervaveda 148 medicinal plants are included in Charaka Samhita 400-450 medicinal plants are included. Pent-s‘ao, the treatise on herbs written by Emperor Shah Nung has references to 365 drugs. It has also been reported that hundreds of drugs including important species, i.e., henbane, pomegranate, opium, poppy, aloe and onion were commonly used by the Egyptians. Ethanobotany has developed in the recent past into an important scientific discipline. The central issues in the ethnobotanical studies involve the interaction between plants and people and foremost among these are the management of plant diversity by indigenous communities and the traditional use of medicinal plants

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"An Introduction to Ethanobotany, Concept, History Importance and Scope", IJNRD - INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF NOVEL RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT (www.IJNRD.org), ISSN:2456-4184, Vol.8, Issue 10, page no.c391-c397, October-2023, Available :https://ijnrd.org/papers/IJNRD2310244.pdf

Volume 8 Issue 10, October-2023

Pages : c391-c397

Paper Reg. ID: IJNRD_207270

Published Paper Id: IJNRD2310244

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