Ethnobotanical Survey of Uses of Leguminosae in Raipur District

Plants have been the part of life forms even with the progenitors of man. Term “Ethnobotany” was coined to denote use of plants by human being.Ethnobotany deals with the direct relationship of plants with man. The term today has come to denote the entire realm of direct relationship between plant and man. Plants show enormous diversity in the form of Algae, Fungi, Bryophytes, Pteridophytes, Gymnosperms, and Angiosperms of which later are the most diversified plants. Present study focuses on ethnobotanical study of one of the largest family of Angiosperms, the family Leguminosae, of Raipur city area. Leguminosae include three subfamilies viz: Papilionoideae, Caesalpinoideae and Mimosoideae. The family has approximately 18,000 species grouped into around 650 genera with cosmopolitan distribution. During the study seasonal field survey has been made. Information about the plants were obtained by interviewing the common people and folk healers. During the study 8 plant species were found to be used as pulses, 2 plant species (Glycine max andArachis hypogea) as edible oil yielding plants, 9 plant species used in different socio religious ceremonies (eg. Butea monosperma, Acacia catechu,Prosopis cineraria, Acacia pycnthus, Vigna sps ), 7 plant species as vegetable (eg. Trigonellafoenum-graecum), 3 species as dye yielding plants (e.g. Butea monosperma), 26 plants used in traditional medicine (e.g Cassia occidentalis, Acacia concinna, Psoralea corylifolia, Dolichos biflorus, Mucuna pruriens), 7 plants species are Non-wood Forest Produces (NWFPs), (e.g. Acacia nilotica), 13 plants are used as timber yielding plants e.g. Dalbergia sissoo). Some are fodder plants (e.g. Leucaena leucophloea) and 2 plant species are used as tooth brush (e.gAcacia nilotica) and some plants yields fibre. Some Weeds of this family are used to increase the fertility of soil due to the capacity of nitrogen fixation eg. Aeshchynomene indica,and Lathyrus odoratus. Conservation practices of plants of this family have been observed during the present studies.