Keywords

11.1 Introduction

The Himalayas are known for its wide range of altitudes, topography and climatic conditions, is a rich repository of more than eight thousand species of tracheophyta, among which 1748 are acknowledged for their therapeutic wealth, which occupies an important place in Vedic treatise (Sharma et al. 2011). The people of countryside dwelling in hilly and mountain zones consume wild and uncultivated edible plants that constitutes a portion of their eating habits in several civilizations and closely related to nearly all characteristics of their wellbeing, socio-cultural and spiritual existence (Aryal et al. 2009; Hawksworth 2006). Wild edibles extensively include roots, shoots, leaves, flowers, fruits, seeds, nuts, and entire plants gathered from woods, hedgerow, grassland, and as weed that grow on their own besides the usual crop (Rijal 2011). Wild edible plays a key role to fulfill the dietary prerequisite of the tribal community in distant areas of the nation all around the year (Grivetti and Britta 2000). Plants of Himalayan region significantly contribute to monetary prospects for billions of people living in mountains. Tribes consuming plants in numerous ways as raw in salads and pickle fried and steamed depending on taste and boiled in kadha preparation, curries, and soups (Pieroni et al. 2005; Piya et al. 2011). The edible plants of the wild hold significant position in the sustenance of countryside or tribal societies in numerous emergent nations (Britta et al. 2003). Numerous wild and cultivated florae have lately acquired significance, not only as herbal remedies, but also as natural constituents for the cosmetic industry (Joshi et al. 2016).

The present chapter documents 33 medicinal plant species (Fig. 11.1) used traditionally by the tribal Community of the Western Himalaya for treating various ailments. The results are provided in (Table 11.1) with botanical name, local name, family, habitat, constituents, and ethnomedicinal use.

Fig. 11.1
figure 1

Edible medicinal plants of Western Himalaya

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Table 11.1 Phytochemical constituents and traditional uses of Western Himalayan medicinal plants
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11.2 Phytogeographical Distribution

Phytogeographic point of view, Western Himalaya region is comprises with the Indian states Jammu & Kashmir, Ladakh and Himachal Pradesh. This chapter intended to study the wide range of plant reserves in Jammu and Kashmir region exploited by native tribes for curative properties against numerous disorders and their socio-economical aspect. Jammu, Kashmir valley, and Ladakh union territories in the Western Himalayas cover a region of 2, 22,236 km2, which is 6.76% of the geographical area of the country. Its elevation varies from 327 to 8611 meters to the sea level (Sharma et al. 2012a, b). Commonly referred as Terrestrial Paradise on Earth (Malik et al. 2011), the valleys of the Himalayas in Kashmir is furtherdistributed into 10 districts with a total region 15,948 km2, formed by the rope chain of Pir Panchal Mountains of the Lesser Himalayas in the south, Zanskar range in to the south east and Western part of the Greater Himalaya (Dar and Khuroo 2013). The vegetation and species of forest can be classified into 4 groups: alpine zone, sub-alpine zone, temperate coniferous forest, and moderately broad-leaved forests. Work has been conducted on several tribes such as Gujjar, Bakarwal, Kashmiri, Pahari, and Boto in western region of Himalayas in India (Champion and Seth 1968; Singh and Bedi 2017).

11.2.1 Forest Collection Season

Collection of plants from forests that are edible varies from the month of May to August, being suitable for juvenile leaves, roots, and tubers; and from the month of August to October being suitable for the fruits and seeds. During cold season, the plants mostly perish owing to the heavy snow-fall in high elevation areas; hence, the natives dry edible parts and store them for their consumption during the wintertime.

11.3 Economic Significance of Wild Edible Plants

Over the past four-five decade studies, established the wild florae consumed by tribals happen to provide a suitable source of low cost nutrient content and herbal medicines, still demand popularization and recommendation for marketing purpose (Murugkar and Susbulakhmi 2005; Maikhuri 1991). It has been established that edibles from wild play a significant part in the rural progress in the central Mountains of Himalaya. People settled in the high altitude areas have restricted opportunities to earn money for their day-to-day necessities, due to low agricultural and industrial growth, poverty, and unemployment, majority of peoples are sidelined and survive on existence level (Rakesh et al. 2004). Ladakh plateau and Gilgit district of Kashmir, areas are characterized by mild summer to severely cold winter. The average annual temperature is 8 °C and annual rainfall is less than 150 mm. (Singh 2006). In the central part of west-Himalayas, florae is the primary basis of economy and health security. Nevertheless, the knowledge about traditional usage of plants as medications from the central parts of west-Himalaya such as Chhota Bhangal has not been acknowledged yet. It is pristine area with around 3500 plants described, out of which 500 plants are supposed to be of medicinal value (Chowdhery 1992). Chhota Bhangal is rich in moist temperate forests of Himalaya with some of Quercus species being dominant. Whereas, dry temperate forests of Himalaya lead with Cedrus deodara combined with certain additional species of trees like Abies pindrow, Betula utilis, Picea smithiana, and Rhododendron campanulatum forming the tree line. This area is also rich with canopy layer, viz. Berberis lycium, Viburnum nervosum, and Prinsepia utilis. Bhangalis represent a tribal community of this areafollow the religion of Hinduism and are extremely fearful of God. Owing to isolation and shortage of modern-day health amenitiesdependency by local tribes on florae for treatment is extremely elevated (Uniyal et al. 2006). Podophyllum hexandrum is an endangered species and export of parts and derivatives of plant are prohibited from India under CITES except for the formulation based products. However, artificially raised species are not prohibited. Existing annual supply is less in comparison to 50–80 tonnes in 1970 and approximated rate per kg is Rs 60. Owing to growing marketable requirement for PPT, abstraction of P. hexandrum has adversely disturbed its wild inhabitants over the previous 20 years (Gupta and Dutta 2011; Lv and Xu 2011). The dried root of Saussurea costus was available as wild plant since 1920s. Its dried roots present value is Rs 150 per kg. Indian market required approximated 100–200 MT annually. Conversely, international market is even in larger demand. This is presented as an extremely economically potential crop in Western Himalaya. Phytoconstituents and traditional uses of some important plants of western Himalayan are tabulated under Table 11.1.

11.4 Conclusion

This chapter deduces that various parts of the wild plants are exploited as food and medication by the tribes of western Himalaya, which supports their existence. The most commonly exploited parts comprise stems, leaves, tubers, and fruits. Appropriate conservation and harvesting methods if employed for wild plants in this region might be the basis of extra revenue for the residents. Amid increasing requirement for bioceuticals of natural origin, wild plants that are edible have fascinated worldwide attention as they can act as a source of several micronutrients and active pharmacological ingredients. However, owing to steadfast revolution and urbanization, the conventional knowledge on the usage of plants is endangered. Consequently, there is a critical requirement to manuscript the conventional information allied with a specific tribe or else such customs and ethnic information would be vanished persistently. The efforts of tribal populations to safeguard must be acknowledged and both on-site and off-site conservation of critical documented plant species of wild origin must be rejuvenated.