ABSTRACT
There has always been an undeniable interrelationship between man and his surroundings, the environment. This infl uence has played a vital role, directly or indirectly, in the evolution of human life and culture. In the last 2000 years, man has been in search of an easier way of life. Likewise, traditional lore tells us that this is only possible with a disease-free healthy body (Mishra and Naquvi 1995). Many people living in rural areas are closely associated with nature, and as such often depend on it for many of their resources; food, medicine, raw material for infrastructure and religious ceremonies. The advancement of science and technology has removed people from their natural surroundings in many places on the globe. However, in some remote areas the dependence of human beings on the plants around them is critical for their survival and often provides a state of healthy well being in these cultures. This intimate relationship that
1Center for Biodiversity Genomics, Integrative Biology, University of Guelph, Canada. aE-mail: ragu@uoguelph.ca bE-mail: snewmast@uoguelph.ca 2Center for Bio-cultural Diversity, Chennai, India. 3Government Higher Secondary School, Salavakkam, Kancheepuram District, India. *Corresponding author
exists between the people of indigenous cultures and plants is at the core of ethnobotany. The term ethnobotany was fi rst applied by Harshburger in 1895 to the study of “plants used by primitive and aboriginal people”. It was derived from the word, ethnic, which means classifi cation of human beings into social and cultural groups (Singh 2002). Ethnobotany is perhaps better defi ned as “the study of plants in their relation to human culture including psychological importance and mythological reference” (Ford 1978). Contemporary use of this term implies the total relationship of plants and people (Jain and Mudgal 1999).
