Biodiversity and Historical Evolution of Medicinal Plants

4.2 Review of literature:

One of the major aspects of biodiversity is its assessment, which is nominated by its resources. Much concentration in drug plants was evinced during the early period of civilization. The use of plants for remedial purpose various human ailments and has prominently figured in ancient manuscripts such as ‘The Rigvedas’,‘The Bible’, ‘The Iliad’, ‘The Odyssey’, ‘The Sushrutsamhita’ and ‘The History of Herodotus’. The ancient Chinese were by means of drug plants more than six centuries ago. They were the pioneers in using plants as a valuable source of medicine. There are plentiful Sanskrit writings which explain the usage, collection and isolation of drugs from plants. The Greeks were familiar with the works of Aristotle, Hippocrates, Pythagoras, and Theophrastus. However, even during highly developed civilization, the ‘supernatural power’ was

But with a growing evidence that wild edible plants are often superior in comparison to processed foods (Somnasang and Moreno-Black, 2000), provide substantial nutritional and dietary benefits in remote rural areas to tribal populations (Sundriyal and Sundriyal, 2001) and can be used to prevent chronic and under nutrition diseases (Green, 1993) ethno botanical studies are becoming increasingly important (Sundriyal and Sundriyal 2000, 2004; Bhattarai and Chaudhary, 2009). The role of ethno-medicinal plants as the prerequisite of culturally pertinent and economically affordable health care in creating both sustainable livelihoods and the critical conservation of biodiversity is gaining an unprecedented importance and consequently a strong emphasis has now been laid on the need to broaden the biological diversity in human nutrition as well as to document and conserve the indigenous knowledge associated with these plants (Javaid M Dad,