Traditional medicine and ethnobotanical research, particularly when the literature and field work data have been properly evaluated. India is one of the twelve mega biodiversity countries of the world having rich in vegetables with a wide variety of plants with medicinal value. In many countries, scientific investigations of medicinal plants have been initiated because of their contribution to healthcare. Herbal medicines have good values in treating many diseases including infectious diseases, hypertension, etc. That they can save lives of many particularly in the developing countries is undisputable. Even today many local and indigenous communities in the Asian countries meet their basic needs from the products they manufacture and sell based on their traditional knowledge. Herbal drugs obtained from plants are believed to be much safer, this has been proved in the treatment of various ailments. Rural communities, in particular scheduled caste tribes, depend on plant resources mainly herbal medicines, food, forage, construction of dwellings, making household implements, sleeping mats, and for fire and shade. Rural people not only depend on wild plants as sources of food, medicine, fodder and fuel, but have also developed methods of resource management, which may be fundamental to the conservation of some of the world's important habitats. The objective of this book is to popularize the ethno medicinal plants species used by the tribals in Kalahandi district of Orissa and the traditional medical practices of the local tribes. Such attempt will protect the traditional knowledge practices of indigenous peoples from disappearing of knowledge and helps in conservation of biological resources for sustainable use. (jacket)

R.K.  Sahu  is  a  retired  Professor  in  Botany  with  30  year  of  teaching  and research  experience.  He  has  done  post  doctoral  research  work  at  Calcutta University  and  New  York University Medical Centre.  He  has  50  publications  in National and International Journals. He has handled two U.G.C. Major Research Projects,  One  Environment  Project  funded  by  Indo-Norwegian Corporation. Recently he is engaged in a project entitled “Antioxidant activity of some important Medicinal Plants in vivo and in vitro”. He has participated in many National and International  seminars and  recognized  as  Scientist  of  repute. 

A.K. Sahoo  is  an  Assistant  Professor  in  College  of  Forestry  under  Orissa University  of Agriculture  and  Technology,  Bhubaneswar,  Orissa,  India  and presently  CCPI,  NAIP  on  Carbon  Finance,  a  consortium  project  of  National Agricultural Innovation Project under Component-I funded by Indian Council of Agricultural Research, New Delhi under the support of World Bank. For the last 23  years  or  so,  Dr.  Sahoo  has  worked  in  various  fields  of  forest  ecology,  forest biodiversity  and  environment  and  has  full  authority  in  areas  of  ecological  and economic impact assessment, natural resources management, ecosystem analysis, biodiversity  conservation  and  other  environmental  mitigation  studies.  Presently his group is perusing study on climate mitigation and improving livelihood through CDM  A/R  framework under  Kyoto  protocol  of  UNFCCC.  He has  also  about 20 years  of  teaching  experience  in  the  subjects’  biodiversity,  conservation,  forest ecology & environment management .He published a good numbers of research papers  in  journals  of  national  and  international  repute  and  published  one  text book on  Forest Ecology  &  Biodiversity  for  UG  students  of  Forestry  and  another book  on  Medicinal  Plants  which  are  highly  appreciated  by  many  workers  and researchers  in  the  country.

Nalini  Sadangi  is  a  Lecture  in  Botany  with  10  years  of  teaching  and  field research  experience  in the field of Ethnobotany. She has worked with medicinal plants  and  the  traditional  knowledge  practices  of    tribals  of  Kalahandi  District. She published a good number of papers on medicinal flora of Kalahandi  district in  reputed  journals.

Kalyani  Singh,  a  lecturer  in    Biotechnology,  presently  working  as  Programme Officer  in  a  Civil  Society,  Health  and  Development  Initiative  (HDI)  under  the support  of  FAO,  Rome.  She  had  seriously  worked  on  traditional  knowledge practices and wide use of medicinal plants by tribals of Kalahandi district. Further, she has worked on active ingredients of medicinal plants and published a number of  papers in  good journals.

Gayatri  Nahak,  a  Research  Associate,  presently  working  in  a  U.G.C  sponsored adhoc project on ethnobotany in B.J.B (A) College, Bhubaneswar, Odisha (India). She had contributed a lot on collection, compilation of traditional knowledge on ethnobotany  of  many  tribals  of    western  Orissa.

01. Introduction. 02. Ethnobotany in Orissa. 03. Ethnobotanical importance of Kalahandi. 04. Ethnomedicinal plants of Kalahandi. 05. Traditional knowledge practice on health cure by tribals of Kalahandi. 06 Conclusion