Medicinal and aromatic plants of north east India

North-East India is comprised of eight states namely Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Tripura and Sikkim and supports 50% of India’s biodiversity. Meghalaya is endowed with 850 medicinal plants, of which 377 species are used by majority of people for their primary health care needs. In Assam, herbal plants are used at the household level in a self-help mode by the rural community. Arunachal Pradesh, the treasure house of biological and socio-cultural diversity in the Eastern Himalayan Region of India. The state has 26 major tribes and over 110 sub-tribes who maintain a close relationship with the nature. A number of underutilized minor edible fruits have been identified in the Imphal valley (excluding Jiribam sub-division, Imphal East) of Manipur. The therapeutic application of 39 plant representing 29 genera and 23 families used as medicine by the Meitei community. The rich flora of Sikkim has a number of raw drugs described in Ayurvedic texts. There are about 420 plants are used by the tribal people for various diseases in Sikkim Himalayas region. A total of 25 of such plants were recorded from the medicine men and aged villagers of various villages from Tripura. Some important plants include Oroxylum indicum, Euphorbia nerifolia, Scoparia dulcis, Jatropha curcas and Kaempferia rotunda.