INTRODUCTION
The term “Ethnobotany” was coined by John W. Harshberger, a botany professor at the University of Pennsylvania in 1895 to indicate plants used by primitive and aboriginal people: From “ethno”- study of people and “botany” study of plants. According to Berlin (1992) the ethnobotany is a complex relationship of plants to present and past societies. Ethnobotany is the science of people’s interaction with plants. (Turner, 1995), while according to Cotton (1996) all studies which concern the mutual relationship between plants and traditional peoples is called as Ethnobotany. Ethnobotany is considered as a branch of ethnobiology. It deals with the study and evaluation of plant human relations in all phases and the effect of plant environment on human society.
Ethnobotany is a distinct branch of natural science dealing with various aspects such as medicine, religious, cultural, agricultural instruments, household implements and several other disciplines. According to Singh and Shrivastava, (2007) Ethnobotany is considered now to be a sub branch of the science of economic botany, which emphasizes the uses of plants, their potential for incorporation into another culture and have indirect contact with the plants through their byproducts.
Since the beginning of civilization, people have used plants as medicine. Perhaps as early as Neanderthal man, plants were believed to have healing powers. The earliest recorded uses are found in Babylon circa 1770 B.C. in the code of Hammurabi and in ancient Egypt circa 1550 B.C. In fact, ancient Egyptians believed medicinal plants to have utility even in the after life of their pharaohs. Ethnobotany is the study of how people of a particular culture and region make of use of indigenous plants. Ethnobotanists explore how plants are used for such things as food, shelter, medicine, clothing, hunting and religious ceremonies. (Veilleux and King, 1996).
Since time immemorial plants have been used for the treatment of various ailments. Even today several important drugs used in the modern system of medicine are obtained from plants. The use of medicinal plants has figured in several ancient manuscripts like the Rigveda, the Bible, the Iliad, and the History of Herodotus. As for back as 4000 B.C. the ancient Chinese were using drug plants. The Greeks and Romans were familiar with many of the present day drugs as is evident from the work of Hippocrates (460-370 B.C.), Aristotle (384-322 B.C.), Theophrastus (370-287 B.C.) and Dioscorides (50-100 A.D.).
Hippocrates called as the father of medicine. “De Materia Medica” a book on medicinal plants was written by a Greek physician Dioscorides. Paracelus propagated “Doctrine of Signature” which advocated that all plants useful for man possessed certain forms and shapes that indicated their specific use in the treatment of similarily shaped organs in human body. For example a liver shaped plant, the liverwort will cure diseases of liver, plants with heart shaped leaves were used for heart diseases, kernel of walnut (Akhrot) as brain tonic, pomegranate seed for dental diseases and the inflorescence of Borago looked like a scorpion sting will cure a case of scorpion bite.
Ayurveda is a basic foundation of ancient medical science in India. It is the largest and oldest source of the knowledge regarding curative properties of plants and their contents which play a vital role in healing.
In India earliest references of the curative properties of plants appear in the Rigveda, written between 3500-1600 B.C. Atharva-veda, describes uses of large number of drugs. In ancient India two important Granthas first is known as “Charaka- Samhita” written by Charak who was an ancient healer and other one known as “Susruta-Samhita” written by Susruta an ancient surgeon as well as healer, deals with about 700 Indian medicinal plants. “Vrikshayurveda” the science of medicinal plants was written by Parasara.
According to WHO more than 80% of the world’s population in developing countries depends primarily on plant based medicines for their basic healthcare needs.
Today, due to high rate of anthropogenic disturbances in the form of cattle grazing, fuel wood collection and fires, the many medicinal plants are facing threat of extinction and loss of genetic diversity. Identification of plant species and traditional knowledge of their therapeutic uses are important for the adequate utilization of herbal plant resources (Kaur and Vashistha, 2014). GEOGRAPHY AND CLIMATE OF JHUNJHUNU
The Jhunjhunu district falls in the extreme North-Eastern part of Rajasthan state and it lies between 270 38’ and 280 31’ North latitudes and 750 02’ and 760 06’ East longitudes. It has an area of 5928 Km2. Above sea level height is about 323 meters.
Jhunjhunu district is a part of Shekhawati region. The district is sharing border with Haryana state in the North-East and East, district Churu in the North-West and North, district Sikar in the South-East, South and South-West.
The climate of the Jhunjhunu district can be classified as semi-arid. It is characterised by very hot summers and very cold winters with poor rainfall. During the months of May and June, the maximum temperature may sometimes goes upto 480C. Winters are quite pleasant with minimum temperature is 10 C, sometimes it reaches below freezing point (00 C) during the month of December or January. Various types of soil in the district are available i.e. desertic, sandy, red desertic, lithosols and regosols.
Northern part of Jhunjhunu district is covered with sand dunes which are drifting in nature. South-eastern part is covered by hills of Aravalli range and South Western part is covered with small isolated hills.