Scope and importance of traditional medicine

236-239Considerable knowledge accumulated by the villagers and tribals on herbal medicine remains unknown to the scientists and urban people. Many plant species associated with the rural people are on the verge of disappearing and are on vulnerable list. The impact of deforestation, urbanization and modernization is shifting the rural people from their natural habitats and their very knowledge particularly with respect to herbal drugs is slowly disappearing. Our immediate concern is to preserve this knowledge. Whatever knowledge exists today is mostly confined to older generation. In this context some approaches needed for the preservation and development of traditional knowledge are presented here, based on the author's experience in ethno-medico-botanical survey since two decades