Shanti Bhushan Mishra

Folklore Medicines of Salem District of Tamil Nadu, Southern India: a Treatise Shanti Bhushan Mishra

India is perhaps the richest repository of traditional knowledge on the medicinal uses of plants. The country possesses an ancient system of health care based chiefly medicinal plants of diverse nature, ranging from higher plants to microorganisms, from which more than 80% of therapeutic products are derived and have been used for 6000 -7000 years. The Angiosperm diversity of India includes 17,672 species. Tamil Nadu ranks 1st among all the States in the Country with 5640 species (32%). Tamil Nadu is spotted with tribal pockets rich in germplasm of medicinal plants. This book is based on a study of the ethnomedical traditions of the ethnic and rural people of Salem district, Tamil Nadu and presents a categorization of traditional medical practitioners in the Block, their fields of expertise, the medicines they use, the methodology they follow in determining the medicinal uses of plants species and some of the customs they conserve the plants by using some strategies.