Tapping the Potential of Traditional Knowledge Associated with Medicinal Plants of Tribal Communities in Central India: Perspective and Avenues

Abstract

India is known to have over 700 scheduled tribes which are native to five different regions viz., Himalayan, Central, Western, Dravidian and islands, each having its own primitive trait and cultural distinction. Out of these diverse territories, Central Indian region has the distinction of hosting 55% of the total tribal population of India which provides diverse region for bioprospecting. This region provides a natural, invaluable store house of indigenous medicinal plant diversity that is of great importance for mankind. Protection of traditional knowledge of these tribal communities residing in central India is the need of hour as overexploitation of natural resources due to increase in population may lead to extinction of important medicinal plant species. With careful management of the natural resources a sustainable balance can be achieved. The review envisages providing baseline data on important tribal communities and their status, traditional knowledge, medicinal properties of native plants of tribals and gives an insight for exploitation of these plants by pharmaceutical industry as well as insilico approach for screening new active compounds and drug designing.