Diversity of Vegetables of Bastar District (India) and Their Relevance in Preventing and Healing Diseases

Abstract

Even though India has more advanced in the field of allopathic medicines, traditional plant-based medicines are still the major source of treatment for most rural and tribal people in the country. In the Bastar area of Chhattisgarh, vegetables play a significant role in meeting the nutritional demands of the tribal and indigenous population. Vegetables not only give food in large quantity, but they also contribute significantly to population nutrition and health treatment throughout the year. The current ethnobotanical exploratory research encapsulates the tribe of Bastar’s utilization of key significant vegetable plants in health therapy. The tribals are the primary source of ethnomedicinal plant knowledge. This expertise of tribals about indigenous plants, which have great pharmacological potential, must be accessed before it vanishes. This chapter discusses some unique and lesser-known ethnomedicinal applications of 50 vegetable plants from Bastar in the treatment of various diseases. This knowledge was based on an ethnobotanical field study of the Muria, Madia, Gond, and Bhattra tribes of that area. The primary goal of this chapter is to gather precious knowledge of the medicinal properties of the vegetables utilized by the locals and to document the same for the upcoming future generation.