30^th Experts Meet On Cancer Therapy

Medicinal plants are one of the important forest resources under non timber forest producing plant species and because of their Ethno medicinal and pharmacological values they are prioritized in management and conservation practices. The Indian Eastern Himalayan is a rich floristic diversity region of the world and recognized as one of the biodiversity hotspot of the world. Because of the altitudinal variation, it harbors almost all the forest types’ viz. tropical sub-tropical, temperate and alpine forests. Medicinal plants form one of the important components of these forests and particularly the tropical and alpine forest form the habitat of a large number of high value medicinal plants having pharmacological potential. Many of the medicinal herbs like Acorus calamus, Berberis aristata, Coptis teeta, Embelia ribes, Garcinia pedunculata, Homalomena aromatica, Illicium,griffithii, Podophyllum hexandrum, Piper peepuloides, P. mullesua, Sapindus mukorsii, Swertia chirayita, Taxus wallichiana etc. are distributed in the region. To understand their status of occurrence, ecological distribution, threats and conservation status, we have conducted various field studies during the past 10 years. Field survey and studies were conducted in various forest areas including tropical, sub-tropical and temperate forests. Here we discussed the present status of diversity, management and conservation aspects of some high value medicinal plants of eastern Himalayan state of Arunachal Pradesh. The study resulted the records of occurrence of about 40 high value medicinal plant species from the different forests of the state. The tropical and subalpine vegetation comparatively showed rich species diversity in all the forest types. Among the recorded species 46 belong to Dicotyledons, 7 Monocotyledons and 2 Gymnospermic species. Habit wise grouping reveals that majority of these species represent the herbs followed by shrubs and trees. Amidst the various types of threats recorded for all the species in the present study the Anthropogenic and biotic threats like unsustainable collections, grazing, trampling and rapid developmental activities. As majority of the species are either exploited for their roots and rhizome without proper harvesting methods, these species become highly threatened in the forests. Although some conservation initiative is initiated by the Govt. faster and affective management practices need to be added to conserve and commercial use of these species.