Review on Application and Management of Medicinal Plants for the Livelihood of the Local Community

Abstract

The beginnings of the medicinal plants’ use were instinctive, as is the case with animals. In time, the reasons for the usage of specific medicinal plants for treatment of certain diseases were being discovered; thus, the medicinal plants’ usage gradually abandoned the empiric framework and became founded on explicatory facts. Plants have provided man with all his needs in terms of shelter, clothing, food, flavours and fragrances as not the least, medicines. The beneficial medicinal effects of plant materials typically result from the combinations of secondary products present in the plant. Many countries use the plant as medicinal value for primary healthcare. A great amount of traditional knowledge about the use of medicinal plant species is still carried and orally transmitted by indigenous peoples. Currently, approximately 25% of allopathic drugs are derived from plant based compounds, and many others are synthetic analogues built on prototype compounds isolated from plant species. Plants represent a constant interest as sources of novel foods and medicines. Fruit and leaves of different tree species (both wild and cultivated) are essential to alleviate human health problems and food insecurity especially in the developing world. Medicinal plants, since times immemorial, have been used virtually in all cultures as a source of medicine. Medicinal plants are accessible, affordable and culturally appropriate sources of primary health care for more than 80 percent of population. Most of the countries special developing lives in rural area which are considered poor depend on medicinal plants. The medicinal plants play a significant role in providing their own nutrient composition. In addition to these benefits also it has potential of antimicrobial and antioxidant agents. These medicinal plants are faced to challenge as the reason of population increasing, human encroachments and others. Many stalk holders play a great role to conserve and managing the medicinal plants by different approaches.

Keywords: Conservation, Indigenous knowledge, Livelihoods, Medicinal Plants