Endangered and Critical Endangered Medicinal Plants Species and Their Ethnobotanical Medicinal Values in India

Abstract

Medicinal plants have played an important role in primary health care system among the local people in India. The present paper deals with 30 plants species that are endangered or critical endangered, which were identified with relevant information and documented in this paper with regard to their botanical name, family, common name and utilization by the local people for common ailment. The medicinal practitioners were treating the common diseases like cough, cold, skin diseases, ulcer, wounds, fever, diabetes, etc. These plants are slowly becoming extinct due to population growth, construction, deforestation, an unrestricted collector of medicinal plant from the wild is resulting in over – exploitation and disappearing from the countryside, therefore, the management of traditional medicinal plant resources has become a matter of urgency. Some of these medicinal plants are Coptis teeta, Red sanders, Abutilon indicum, Nardostachys jatamansi, Swertia chirata, Angelica glauca, Curcurma, Picrorhiza kurroa, Taxus walli, Coscinium fenestratum Ceropegia odorata, Ceropegia bulbosa, etc.