1.4 Utilization Aspects of Ethnobotanical Knowledge
1.5 General Reviews on Ethnobotany of India
This introductory chapter summarizes the various aspects discussed in the subsequent 12 chapters of this volume dedicated to the Ethnobotany of North-East India and Andaman and Nicobar Islands. The first section deals with a description of the location, physiography, geological features, vegetation/forest types and flora. The second section summarizes the ethnic diversity of this region, its origin and its cultural, social and linguistic aspects. The third section gives an introduction to the various utilitarian aspects of the study region focusing on attention of ethnoagriculture, ethnofood plants/food system, ethnomedicinal plants, plants of ethnoveterinary importance, plants which are otherwise useful, ethnobotany of Andaman and Nicobar Islands and documentation and exchanges of ethnobotanical knowledge. The last section of this chapter deals with introductions respectively to the quantitative aspects of ethnobotany and ethnobotany of turmeric, antidiabettic plants and plants involved in oral and dental problems. This introduction to all these 12 chapters also emphasizes the type of future attention that needs to be focused on the various topics covered in these chapters.
The Indian subcontinent consists of Himalayan Mountains girdling the northern border, the more or flat Indogangetic plains in the middle, the uplands and plateaus of peninsular India and the narrow coasted plains along the seaboards. Each of these regions is structurally and lithographically contrasted and geomorphically distinct with different geoevolutionary histories (Valdiya, 2010). The Himalayan Mountain with its northwest, north and northeast parts isolated the Indian sub-continent from the rest of Eurasia. It is a 2,400 Km long and 300 to 400 Km wide mountain. It comprises the Kirthar and the Sulaiman mountain chains in the west, the main Himalaya in the center, and Patkai-Naga-Kachin-Arakan Yoma arcuate chains (of about 1,300 km long) of hills in the east. It embodies four physiographically contrasted terranes: the Siwalik, the Himachal (Lesser Himalaya), the Himadri (Greater Himalaya) and the Tethys Himalayas. The Siwalik part abruptly rises above the flat Indogangetic plains and is of 250 to 800 m height and forms the southern front of the Himalayas. North of the Siwalik is the outer Lesser Himalaya which consists of the Pir PanjalDhauladhar-Mussoorie-Nanital-Mahabharat Ranges; it is generally more than 2,000 m high. North of these in the central sector (Kumaun and Nepal) is the 600–2,000 m high middle lesser Himalayas. The Himadri or Greater Himalayas is Perennially snow-capped and extremely rugged (3,000 to more than 8,000 m in height). The most important Himalayan peaks are Nanga Parbat, Nun-Kun, Kedarnath, Badrinath, Nanda Devi, Doulagiri, Sagarmath or Everest, Kanchajangha and Namcha barwa. The Tethyys Himalaya lies beyond the Himadri. It is a cold desert bereft of vegetation on the whole. The Himalayan region ends up against the zone of collision of India with Asia. This is a 50-60 Km wide zone and is of 3,600 to 5,000 above mean sea level. North of this is the uplifted Tibet plateau.
As already stated the northeast Himalayas consists of Patkai-NagaKachin-Arakan Yoma arcuate chains of hills or the Indo-Myanmarese Range and the Arunachal Himalayan Ranges truncated by the LohitMishmi Ranges. The Lohit terrane extends south-southeast into Myanmar, embracing the Malaysian province. Some peaks of the Patkai and Naga ranges are more than 4,000 m high; mount Victoria in Chin hills is 3,201 m high, while Mount Padaung in the Arakan Yoma is 1,3201 m high. The spectacular feature of the north-east Himalayas is the syntaxial knee-bend that extends southwards up to the Bay of Bengal and continues further south for another 1,700 km under water embracing in its sweep the island arc of Andaman and Nicobar. The Mishmi bends southwards in northern Myanmar, forming the 1,700 km long China, Myanmar border ranges. These ranges comprise the Kachin mountains in the north, the Shan Massif in the Middle and the Tenasserim Range in the south. The last one continues into the Malaysian Peninsula. The average elevation of these border ranges is 4,000 m.
An important geological feature of the North-East Indian is the extension of the Satpura range of hills. The Meghalaya massif of North-East India is an extension of the Satpura range; this range about against the Patkai-Arakan Yoma along the Indo-Myanmar border. The Meghalaya massif is also known as the Shillong plateau and consists of the Garo hills (900 m), the Khasi-Jaintia hills (1,500 m) and the Mikir hills (700 m). The Meghalaya massif is composed of pre Cambrian gneisses and metasedimentary rocks overlain by Cretaceous to tertiary sedimentary rock formations. The general elevation varies from 600 to 1,800 m and its highest peak (1,961 m) is the Shillong peak. This Massif deflects the Brahmaputra river westwards to skirt around the upland, before joining the Ganges river in Bangladesh. The Mikir hills are detached from the Meghalaya Masssif and occurs a midst the alluvial sediments of Brahmaputra (Valdiya, 2010). The Renga peak of 900 m high is located in Mikir hills. The states in North East India are Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Tripura and Sikkim (Figure 2.1 of Chapter 2).
There is a 850 km long chain of islands between the Bay of Bengal and the Andaman Sea. This forms the central part of the 5,000 km long Myanmar-Indonesia mobile Belt. The Andaman, Nicobar and Mentawai groups (Figure 8.1 of Chapter 8). It is made up of upper Cretaceous-Tertiary flysch-Naga-Arakan Orogenic belt and active volcanoes. The island Arc is divided by the Ten Degree Channel of 150 km into the Andaman group and the Nicobar group of islands. The Maximum elevation of Andaman Islands is 732 m (Saddle peak) and of Nicobar Islands is 670 m (Thuiller Point). There are two volcanic islands also, namely Narcondam and Barren Islands.
The Eastern Himalayas are far more evenly humid than the Western Himalayas because of the close vicinity of the former to the Bay of Bengal. This region catches the bulk of the monsoon. The highest humidity and heavy rains are conducive to vegetation growth and as a result its timberline is up to 4,570 m as compared to 3,600 m only in the W. Himalayas. E. Himalayas is also far richer in species diversity and, in fact, is one of the richest botanical provinces of the world. Most of the states of this region have more than 60% of their area under forest cover. Four district vegetation regions are recognized on the basis of altitude and vegetation types: sub-tropical, temperate, sub-alpine and alpine; about 51 forest types are found in this region. Phytogeographically it is a distinct region, with a very rich flora including more than 4,000 species (Jain, 1982) and perhaps up to 7,000-8,000 species (Haridasan, personal communication), although many areas are still unexplored for their plant wealth. Some interesting aspects of the flora are as follows: (i) presence of more than 80 species of Rhododendron; (ii) rich representation of Zingiberaceae, particularly the genus Hedychium; (iii) rich in wild and cultivated bananas and in species of Impatiens (more than 200 species); the National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources (NBPGR), India has highlighted this region as being rich in wild relatives of a few other crop plants; (iv) presence of taxa with disjunct distribution, such as Celastrus stylosa, Malaxis acuminata, and Stellaria reticulata; presence of primitive angiosperms like species of Tetracentron, Euptelia, and Magnolia; (v) presence of several floristic elements of other countries such as Tibet, Nepal, Myanmar, China, Malaysia, etc.; a list of such species is given in Jain (1982); (vi) very rich region in endemics; it is likely to contain more than 25% of Indian Endemics; (vii) presence of several species are of economic importance and these have been brought to our attention by the tribals of this region; (viii) rich in threatened plants taxa; more than 800 endangered plant species are known from this region; a partial list is provided in Jain (1982); (ix) one of the biodiversity hot spots of the world as well as a priority Global Ecosystem as per WWF; (x) the region has five National Parks and two Wild Life Sanctuaries.
The terrain of most of the islands in Andaman and Nicobar groups is hilly with undulating mountain ranges enclosing narrow valleys. The vegetation consists of the littoral swamps containing Areca and Pandanus and mangrove forests on the seashore and evergreen and mixed evergreen forests on the interior. The total forest area is around 200 km2 (Dagar and Singh, 1999) in a total area of 8250 km2. There is also man-made vegetation in the form of plantations. There are more than 2,650 species of vascular plants under 150 families (personal communication from Dr. D. Narasimhan). There are around 300 endemic plants many of which come under threatened categories (Dagar and Singh 1999; Sinha, 1999).
The North-East India is very rich in ethnic diversity. It is often described as the cultural mosaic of India with Diverse tribal communities and linguistic and ethnic identities. There are about 130 ethnic tribes with about 300 subtribes in this region, out of the about 427 to 450 tribes of the country (Chatterjee et al., 2006; Mao et al., 2009). The most important tribes are listed state-wise in Dutta and Dutta (2005). It is generally believed that humans had spread to different parts of India by the middle of Paleolithic period, including N. East India (Misra, 2001).
This region has about 220 languages coming broadly under IndoEuropean, Sino-Tibetan, Tai-Kadai and Austroasiatic that share some common structural features and Assamese, an Indo-Aryan language and its pidgin/creoles like Nagamese (in Nagaland) and Nefamese (in Arunachal Pradesh). The Austro-Asiatic Family is represented by Khasi, Jaintia and war of Meghalaya. The Tai-Kadai languages include Ahom, Tai Phake, Khamti, etc. The Sino-Tibetan languages are represented by Bodo, Rabha, Karbi, Mishing, Tiwa, Deuri, Garo, Ao, Tangkhul, Angami, Sema, Lotha, Konyak, Mizo, Hmar, Chakma, Hrusso, Tanee, Nisi, Adi, Abor, Nocte, Apatani, Misimi, etc. Manipuri and Naga languages such as Thadour, Paite, Sylheti, Tripuri, Bengali, etc. Indo-Tibetan languages include Limbu, Bhuta and Lepcha (Moral, 1997). Although the earlier religions of most ethnic communities were basic religions of animism and totemism now most of them follow Christianity followed by Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, etc.
The Andaman and Nicobar Islands (also known as Bay Islands) are inhabited by six indigenous tribal populations: Great Andamanese, Onges, Jarawas, Sentineles, Nicobarese and Shom Pen. The studies by Thangaraj and his group (see Thangaraj et al., 2005) suggested that the Andamanese “Negritos” have closer affinities with Asian rather than with African populations, while the Nicobarese have originated in mainland S.E. Asian tribals and arrived from the east during the past 18,000 years. The Onge and the great Andamanese have evolved in the Andaman Islands independently from other south and S.E. Asian population. These lineages have likely been isolated since the initial penetration of the northern coastal areas of Indian Ocean by anatomically modern humans about 50,000 to 70,000 years ago. The very rich ethnic diversity of North-East India and Andaman & Nicobar Islands has resulted in very rich ethnobotanical knowledge exploiting the abundantly available floral elements. Choudhury et al. provide a detailed account on the ethnic diversity, culture and practices of people of N.E. Indian in Chapter 2 of this volume. The details on the ethnic diversity of Andaman and Nicobar Islands are given by Pullaiah et al. in Chapter 8.
Traditional knowledge of primitive tribal and ethnic communities, both in the Old World and New World, have great relevance in three important spheres of human life: Utilitarian, cultural and social. These three spheres are not isolated from one another but are mutually interrelated and interdependent. Of these three Utilitarian sphere of traditional knowledge encompasses the ways and means of utilizing such knowledge on plants (and animals) relating to hunting-gathering, agriculture and associated crop biodiversity, food plants, medicinal plants, plants of ethnoveterinary importance and other requirements of humans as well as the identification of such source plants through bioprospecting.
Ever since the origin of modern humans in E. Africa around 200,000 years ago and his subsequent spread to different parts of the world initiated around 75,000 years ago, man has been exploiting various natural resources from the environment around him for all his different requirements until about 12,000 years ago from the present man has been a nomadic and hunter-gatherer and forager 12,000 years back, agriculture evolved and a settled life ensued for many human populations. Many useful plants that were identified during the hunter-gatherer stage were slowly beginning to be domesticated and brought into cultivation. Different forms of agriculture evolved depending on the landscape around human settlements and these included Jhum cultivation in hilly tracts and cultivation in plains using river water, ground water or rain-water. In India agriculture may be said to have been initiated around 6,000 to 8,000 years ago depending on the place. In North East region of India agriculture and farming have been the biggest occupation of the tribal people. This region water cultivation and these are continued till today by the diverse ethnic communities of this region. The major agricultural crops of this region are rice, tea, many fruit trees, dwarf cotton, bananas, curcumas, ginger, etc. It is recorded that Bodo community introduced rice and tea in this region. Rai has given a detailed account in Chapter 3 on ethno-agriculture of this region of India and how this agricultural activity is ecosustainable.
It is a very well-known fact that unlike the modern food systems (food resources and methods of preparation) those of the traditional communities of the world (including those in India) cover the full spectrum of life. They also use locally available food resources that are prepared according to local requirements and environmental conditions. However, in last few centuries a great disconnection has been caused between traditional ethnic communities and the food they used to prepare and take and the modern communities and their food. The main reasons for this are increased globalization, liberalization and homogenization of food and food resources. There was also the large-scale introduction of high-yield crops (which incidentally required high-put agricultural technologies, monoculture and use of chemical pesticides and fertilizers) that have almost replaced traditional crop varieties and land races of the local people. These crops have also largely degraded the ethnic agricultural ecosystems, partly the Jhum ecosystems of N. E. India. Moreover, modern food systems have introduced diet related chronic diseases as well as malnutrition, thus distorting greatly the local food safety and security. Thus, there is an urgent need to protect the food heritage and the health of the culturallydetermined food systems of the local ethnic communities from being lost totally. Traditional foods are also of nutraceutical and therapeutic value. We have to document the local food resources after a detailed inventory and also the local food preparation techniques. In Chapter 4 of this volume, Robindra Teron has dealt in detail with ethnic food plants and food preparation of N. E. India. He has highlighted the intricate link between food systems and the ethnic linguistic, cultural and biological diversity. He has also highlighted the role of women in traditional food systems. He has raised serious concerns about the loss of wild food resources.
Ever since the emphasis made by botanists in many parts of the world about the utilitarian or economic approach to the study of ethnobotany from around the middle of the 20th century, people in different parts of the world have concentrated their attention on the traditional knowledge held by diverse ethnic communities. This ethnodirected approach to bioprospecting has resulted in the discovery and identification of several medicinally useful ethnic plant resources, particularly newer sources of nutraceuticals, pharmaceuticals and molecules of medicinal importance. North-East India has a rich niche ethnic diversity as well as floristic diversity, a combination of which has resulted in the very rich traditional knowledge on plants. Suvashish Chaudhury et al. have given a detailed account on the medicinal plants used by the diverse ethnic communities of N. E. India. Their account will form the basis for very intensive bioprospection studies in the coming years.
Plant species form the main source for a vast array of products used by mankind throughout the world. While some plants have been directly exploited from the wild with very little or some further processing many others need to be processed substantially. Some plant sources need to be brought under domestication and cultivation. One of the best means of knowing these plant resources is to go for ethnic knowledge as the traditional communities have been in constant association with nature over vast periods of history such knowledge on plant resources from these traditional communities has not been adequately translated into more wider and popular use. Besides foods and medicines as mentioned above, plants have been good sources of other human requirements such as ornamentals, timbers, fibers, dyes, fuel and a host of other materials. North-East India and its tribal knowledge have been a very good source of the above materials. Prabhat Kumar Rai has given a very useful account on the ethnobotany of other useful plants of N. E. India.
Many ancient ethnic communities are hunter-gatherers and/or nomadic pastorals. The latter have been chiefly instrumental in identifying useful wild animals and birds, in domesticating them as well as in maintaining the domesticated ones, besides the wild native stocks for any future breeding programs. Pastoralists were also mainly dependent on these domesticated animals not only as a source of food but also for providing milk, manure and fuel or to serve as draft animals, during these processes, they because aware of the various problems in successfully maintain these animals, particularly about the various ailments/diseases that these animals face. Hence, they identified potential ethnoveterinary, as well as fodder plants taxa that are found around them respectively for curing the ailments/diseases and for feeding them. The N.E. Indian and Andaman tribal communities did the same things mentioned above as they also depended on animal husbandry and poultry for their sustenance, if not fully, partially at least of this volume Bipul Saikia deals with the prevalent ethnoveterinary practices in North-East India and Andamans.
The Andaman and Nicobar Islands constitute an archipelago of over 572 islands (550 in Andamans and 22 in Nicobar) with a total area of about 8250 Km2 (6400 in Andamans and 1850 in Nicobar). These islands are blessed with unique tropical rainforests with floral elements of India, Myanmar, Malaysia, Indonesia and Australia. There are also wild relatives and land races of cultivated taxa which are believed to have originated (primary or secondary) there. This is the homeland of six tribal groups, inhabiting for thousands of years in the verdant rain forests. Because of their intimate association with the flora around them as hunter-gatherers they have developed a very rich traditional knowledge on the plants of importance in food, medicine and other requirements. An inventory of such plants would be of great value in bioprospection and use in human welfare. Pullaiah et al. have given details on the ethnobotany of Andaman and Nicobar Islands in Chapter 8.
Ethnobotanical research has historically played a very vital role in understanding the relationship between people and the plants around them. Today it is a rapidly growing field of research attracting the attention of diverse stakeholders. However, ethnobotanists have been rather slow in adopting and applying tools of bioinformatics revolution and also in integrating the already obtained research data into a meaningful entity. Many of them still follow traditional approaches to gathering and disseminating ethnobotanical information. Electronic storage and retrieval databases have been started to be organized in increasing numbers (Berlin and Berlin, 2005; Bisby, 2000; Thomas, 2003). Documentation, retrieval and exchange of ethnobotanical information from the organized databases will not only help preserving and protecting traditional knowledge but also will help in bioprospection and commerce. Ringmichon and Bindu Gopalakrishnan have provided detailed information on the documentation and exchanges of ethnobotanical knowledge of North-East India in Chapter 9 of this volume. They have provided very useful information derived from the various kinds of databases and published literature, on the ethnobotany of the various tribes of this regions; they have covered on medicinal plants, food plants, beverages and other uses of plants associated with rituals/ceremonies.
This volume also contains a few review chapters on the ethnobotany of India, in which details pertaining to North-East India and Andaman are also included. The first of these chapters is on Quantitative approaches to Ethnobotany by Dr. Chowdhury Habibur Rahman. Initially when ethnobotany became a separate subject under the discipline of Botany, it was more descriptive based on data collected from different tribal communities of the world. Subsequently the subject of ethnobotany was broadly divided into cultural, social and utilitarian ethnobotany. The third branch gained more and more importance because the traditional knowledge on food medicinal ethno-veterinary and other uses of plants was subjected to intensive research by those involved in bioprospection and discovery of newer molecules of importance. Simultaneously documentation of ethnic traditional knowledge using information, technology and bio informatics tools as well as detailed quantitative approach to the study of ethnobotany also developed in order to make meaningful and correct exploitation of traditional knowledge. The advances in the field of Quantitative ethnobotany, drawing information from Indian examples are discussed in of this volume by Dr. Rahman.
Turmeric, botanically known as Curcuma longa L. (Family: Zingiberaceae), is esteemed by the Indo-European race of people (Aryans) for its golden-yellow colored dye that resembles sunlight; this race which worshiped the sun attributed special protective properties to turmeric. Turmeric has been used for several centuries in India, both in folk medical systems as well as a coloring agent for various media such as silk, cotton, wood, paper, food stuffs and cosmetics. Turmeric, a native of south and southeast Asia, is believed to have had its origin and initial domestication in Western Ghats of India. The genus Curcuma along with C. longa has more than 100 species as well as a number of varieties about 40 of which are found in India. Curcuma not only has morphological diversity but also a very rich chemical diversity; the most important chemicals of turmeric are the curcuminoids. In view of its very high contemporary relevance turmeric has been a subject of interest to botanists, phytochemists and medical people for a very long time. In Chapter 11 Samala and Veeresham have given a good account of the ethnobotany of turmeric and its medicinal importance.
According to WHO over 400 million people in the world suffer from Diabetes mellitus, commonly abbreviated as Diabetes. This is one of the most common metabolic diseases of humans and is often controlled by several factors. It may be due to defect in insulin secretion, insulin gene or both. These lead to chronic hyperglycemia with attendant disturbances in carbohydrate (and protein and lipid) metabolism. Diabetes also leads to a number of complications like retinopathy, neuropathy, nephropathy, cardiovascular diseases, eye problems and ulcers. In recent years Diabetes cases have been on rapid rise, essentially due to changing life styles and food habits/systems (Youssef and McCullough, 2002). Revathi et al. have given a detailed account on the traditional use of herbal plants for the treatment of diabetes in India. However, we feel that in the list of antidiabetic plants prepared from ethnic knowledge sources, only very few plants have been analyzed phytochemically and clinically in order to verify their claimed efficacy and a great deal of research must be done in the near future.
A critical review of the ethnobotany of oral and dental hygiene has indicated that there is a serious lack of a baseline catalog containing details of the Plants used of the ethnomedical treatments of oral and dental problems/diseases (Colvard et al., 2006). Most publications, particularly from India which has a rich data on ethnomedical aspects of oral problems, has been essentially give a list of plants for different problems without attendant data on phytochemistry or the therapeutic basis for prevention/ cure of these problems (Soejarto, 2005). There is also a lack of clinical documentation of the ethnomedicinal treatments for oral diseases experience by people in their own cultural and ecological environments (Elkin and Elisabetsky, 2005). There is, thus, an immediate need for ethnobotanists, ethnomedical experts and modern allopathic dental doctors to come together and take up a detailed multidisciplinary study of the plants listed by Krishnamurthy et al. in Chapter 13 of this volume.
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