Sacred plants and their Ethno-botanical importance in central India: A mini review

Abstract

Sacred groves are distributed across the globe, and diverse cultures recognize them in different ways encoding various rules for their protection. Sacred groves occur in many parts of India viz., Western Ghats, Central India, northeast India, etc particularly where the indigenous communities live. The sacred plants of India are actually worshipped throughout the nation owing only to its mythological significance. In India various god and goddess are worshipped in Hindu religion throughout India. Plants flowers and leaves are used during worship for pushpa-puja and patra-puja. An attempt has been made to identify folklore medicinally important plants frequently used by rural communities of sacred groves and it environs of Budelkhand region of Madhya Pradesh in central India. A total of thirteen sacred groves and medicinal importance of thirteen genera and thirteen families were enumerated.