Studies on underutilized weeds of family Amaranthaceae used as edibles by the Munda tribe of Jharkhand, India.

Amaranthaceae, a common family of flowering plants distributed worldwide, also shows its presence in Jharkhand. Jharkhand have some of the species which are wild growing and are considered as weeds. The people of Munda tribe have a rich traditional knowledge of utilizing these weeds as edibles and for medicines. This paper deals with the study and documentation traditional knowledge of Mundas, which resulted in documentation of seven wild growing underutilized Amaranthaceae species. This type of documentation work is very important in the present century where the natural resources and their related knowledge are depleting due to unawareness about their importance and utilities.