Common weeds of medicinal use in Birbhum, West Bengal

Eastern India is very rich in biodiversity including flora and fauna. Diverse nature of soil and climate has lead to formation of diverse habitat and ecosystems. Many herbs which occur in crop field and non-cropped areas are mainly known for their negative role as weeds. But many of them have medicinal properties which have been valued for generations. The main purpose of this compilation is to understand ethno-medicinal use of some weeds by the local people of Birbhum district, West Bengal. The local people mainly depend upon the forest flora for their livelihood and use many weeds as herbal medicines in curing the ailments and diseases. Most of the weeds have been known to posses therapeutic properties and the pertinent traditional knowledge was transferred orally through generations. In this book an attempt has been made to collect and compile the medicinal uses of more than fifty weeds along with photographs. The weeds have been presented alphabetically of botanical names with information like common name, local name, family, habitat, and short botanical description, season of occurrence and medicinal properties and use by local people for better understanding of the readers.