ETHNOBOTANY OF INDIA

Western Ghats of southern India represented rich and repository of useful plants with high anthropogenic diversity. The present review gives an account of fiber yielding plants, dye yielding plants, plants used as brooms, forage plants, wild ornamentals, sacred plants, resin and gum yielding plants from Western Ghats, which are used by traditional communities residing in the area. About 200 plant species are used for other than medicinal purposes and many of them are endemic to the region. The plant resources provide the quality life and socioeconomic support to the local communities. Hence the documentation and sustainable utilization are entrusted for long term uses and conservation of these useful plant resources.

10.1INTRODUCTION

The ancient human started his nomadic life by using plant materials directly for covering and protecting his body, thatched leaf for shelter and huts, mats for household, coloring materials for his ornaments, arts and cloths, fibers and cordage materials for weaving and collecting vessels, gums and resins for adhesives, plants and plant products for keeping away evil spirit and other day to day activities. Gradually fast mobility and advancement in lifestyle led him to search for lighter, more durable and sophisticated looking material for routine use. There began an era of developing different plant sources for textiles, papers, basketries, dyes, woven cloths, mats, hats, ropes, cordage, fuel wood, timber wood, ornamental material for various uses.

The Western Ghats is concentrated with varied kind of vegetation and unimaginable topographical features. Biogeographically, the Western Ghats constitutes the Malabar province of the Oriental realm, running parallel to the west coast of India from 8° N to 21° N latitudes, 73° E to 77° E longitudes for around 1600 km. The average width of this mountain range is about 100 kms. This bioregion is hot spot diversity and under constant threat due to human pressure, and is considered one of the 34-biodiversity hot spots of the world. The tropical climate complimented by heavy precipitation from southwest monsoon and favorable edaphic factors provide an ideal condition for the luxuriant growth of plant life, which can be seen only in few parts of the world. With its rainfall regime, the western slopes of the Ghats have a natural cover of evergreen forest, which changes to moist and then dry deciduous type as one comes to the eastern slopes. The vegetation reaches its highest development towards the southern tip in Kerala with rich tropical rain forests. Many number of ethnic people settled all over the range of Ghats and their cultural diversity also varied. The Western Ghats presents a whole range of gradients, both altitudinal as well as latitudinal in climatic factors, such as total annual rainfall, maximum temperatures and anthropogenic diversity yielded the varieties of traditional systems with natural components. The present study revealed the useful plants of Western Ghats other than medicinal importance.

10.2PLANT FIBERS

Fiber yielding plants have been of great importance to man and they ranked second only food plants in their usefulness. The fibers may be classified based on their application and uses that are textile fibers, brush fibers, rough weaving fibers, filling fibers, natural fibers and paper making fibers. All these fibers are of plant origin. Majority of the fiber yielding plants are exploited from the wild or semi-cultivated state. The plant fibers are extracted from different parts, such as stem, leaf, petioles, roots, fruits and seeds. A few species are the source of fibers from roots and stems both namely Cissus quadrangularis and Homalocladus platycladus. The fibers are mainly used in textile industries, paper manufacture, filling, making ropes, fishing nets and cordage, thatch, hats and other weaving materials and for brush making. For items like gunny bags, ropes, cordage, fishing nets, bast fibers of commercially exploited species, such as Corchorus spp., Hibiscus spp. have often been used (Pandey and Gupta, 2003).

10.3DYE YIELDING PLANTS

Indigenous knowledge system has been practiced over the years in the past, the use of natural dyes has diminished over generations due to lack of documentation and with the arrival of synthetic dyes. Though there is large plant sources base available in Western Ghats, little has been exploited so far. Due to lack of availability of precise technical knowledge on the extracting and dyeing technique, it has not commercially succeeded so far. Many natural dyestuff and stains are obtained mainly from higher plants and dominate sources of natural dyes, producing different colors. Almost all parts of the plant like root, bark, leaf, fruit, wood, seed, flower, etc. produce dyes. It is interesting to note that over 2000 pigments are synthesized by various parts of plants, of which only about 150 have been exploited by human being for their coloring purposes (Siva, 2007).

10.4PLANTS USED AS BROOMS

Cleaning of houses and courtyards is a daily practice in most of the Indian households and is ritualistically followed in many countries (Rasingam and Jeeva, 2013). The brooms are traditionally made by plant parts as a general practice. It has been used for a centuries to sweep caves, cabins and castles. Tree branches and young twigs of herbaceous plants were often used to sweep the floor and clean the ashes from the fire places. Sometimes crude brooms like straw, hay, fine twigs and infloresecence were also used by tying with thread or plant fiber for easy handling. However, in some places, where technology is unavailable or deficient and the bioresources are easily available, the traditional methods are still widely used.

10.5FORAGE PLANTS

Forest inhabiting people maintain cattle, goat, sheep and farm animals for various purposes. The fodder and forages consumed by these animals should be easily digestible and should also yields more energy. The chemical composition and nutritive value of a fodder crop is very important. Presence of large amount of lignin and tannin and low amount of phosphorus affects the utility of fodder crops. Nair et al. (2014) reported two new fodder crop for Kerala region of Western Ghats.

10.6WILD ORNAMENTAL PLANTS

The wild ornamental flowers have been more attractive and long prized for the beauty and planted in gardens around mankind dwelling places. The ornamental plants play an important role in environmental planning of urban and rural areas for abatement of pollution, social and rural friendly, wasteland development, afforestation and landscaping of outdoor and indoor space (Sarvalingam and Rajendran, 2014). These plants are grown usually for the purpose of beauty and esthetics and for their fascinating foliage, flowers and their pleasant fragrance. Maruthamalai hills of Western Ghats are reported to have 40 species of wild ornamental climbers belonging to 25 genera and 12 families. Most of the plants belonging to Convolvulaceae and Fabaceae, such as Abrus precatorius, Argyreia pomacea, Canavalia mollis, C. virosa, Ipomoea pes-tigridis, I. quinata, I. cairica, I. obscura, I. quamoclit, I. staphylina, I. wightii, Mucuna monosperma and Rivea hypocrateriformis. Many of the Jasminum species namely J. auriculatum, J. angustifolium, J. azoricum, J. grandiflorum, J. malabaricum and J. sessiliflorum are having ornamental potential. Madukkarai hills of southern Western Ghat alone have been recorded about 137 wild ornamental plants spread over 99 genera and 42 families (Palanisamy and Arumugam, 2014). Several species of them are endemic to Western Ghats, such as Acalypha alnifolia, Asparagus fysonii, Barleria acuminata, Caralluma indica, Christisonia bicolor, Indigofera trita, I. uniflora, Moringa concanensis, Pterolobium hexapetalum, Sesamum laciniatum and Striga desniflora.

10.7SACRED PLANTS

The traditional worship practices show the symbiotic relation of human beings and conserved its valuable biodiversity (Sahu et al., 2013). Tribal pockets residing in the forest areas follow ancestral traditional worship in the form of deity worship, with central focus of worship on forest patches which signify sacred groves. Most of the sacred groves are open and do not have well demarcated boundaries. Well preserved sacred groves are store house of valuable medicinal and other useful plants (Ayyanar and Ignacimuthu, 2010). The sacred grove system was well explained for conservation of biodiversity in Western Ghats by Gadgil and Vartak (1975, 1976). Several useful trees, such as Mangifera indica, Artocarpus integrifolia, Garcinia gummi-gutta, Caryota urens, Piper nigrum, Cinnamomum malabathrum, Canarium strictum, Dipterocarpus indicus, Vateria indica, Myristica fatua, Pinanga dicksonii, Semecarpus acuminata and Gymnacranthera canarica are reported in many sacred groves of Western Ghats. Some rare and endangered plant species are recovered only from the sacred groves of Western Ghats, such as Kuntsleria keralensis (Mohanan and Nair, 1981), Blepharistemma membranifolia, Buchanania lanceolata and Syzygium travancoricum. Aesthetic values of selected floral elements of Khatana and Waghai forests of Dangs, Western Ghats were given by Kumar et al. (2005).

10.8RESIN AND GUM YIELDING PLANTS

Gums and resins perhaps the most widely used and traded non-wood forest products other than items consumed directly as food, fodder and medicine. Human kinds have been using gums and resins in various forms for ages. Use of gums and resins for domestic consumption and for sale to earn some cash is very popular among the forest dwelling communities, particularly tribals in Western Ghats (Upathayay, 2013). Several woody species are sources of gums and resins in this region which include Shorea robusta (Sal), Vateria indica (Vallapine), Pinus roxburghii (Chair pine), Dipterocarpus turbinatus (Gurjan) and Garcinia morella (Gambog). Most of the gum and resin yielding trees belong to the families Pinaceae, Fabaceae, Burseraceae and Dipterocarpaceae in Western Ghats. Other gum and resin yielding trees are Sterculia urens, Anogeissus latifolia, Canarium strictum, Boswellia serrata, Commiphora caudata and Gardenia gummifera which are exploited by the tribals of Western Ghats for various types of gums and resins.

10.9OTHER USES

Ajesh and Kumuthakalavalli (2013) reported that Muthuvans of Idukki district in Kerala are using 21 plants for construction of huts, 16 for domestic articles, 15 for cultural and traditional purposes, 12 for clothing and cosmetics and 20 for tools and weapons.

10.10CONCLUSIONS

Plant genetic resources constitute the major biological basis of the world for livelihood security. By all means they support the livelihood of every form of life on planet earth. Biodiversity is the store house and acts as a cushion against potentially dangerous environmental changes and also economic reforms. Plant resources are only the ultimate support for all lives on the earth planet, hence their documentation and conservation are essentially needed for sustainable utilization of humankind.

List of plants yielding above products is given in Table 10.1.

TABLE 10.1Useful Plants of Western Ghats Other Than Medicinal and Food Plants

KEYWORDS

•Brooms

•Dyes

•Fibers

•Forage

•Gums

•Ornamental

•Sacred Plants

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APPENDIX

PLATE 10.1

PLATE 10.2