Diversity of plants of Zingiberaceae family and their ethnomedicinal use in Northern coastal Odisha, India

Abstract

Zingiberaceae is the largest family of the order Zingiberales and plants of the family are mostly distributed throughout the tropics and sub tropics the world. Being aromatic and rich in diverse bioactive compounds plants of this family are economically, ethnomedicinally and pharmaceutically very important. Apart from their traditional use as spices, food, ethnomedicine, dyes, perfume etc., they have got a huge future potential in new drug development due to their antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory, anti-diabetic, anti-cancer and antioxidant characteristics. In the present study, the diversity of the plants of Zingiberaceae family has been studied in an underexplored region of Northern coastal Odisha and the ethnomedicinal practices associated with these plants in the region were also documented. Ten species of the family have been identified in this study including Curcuma amada Roxb., Curcuma angustifolia Roxb., Curcuma aromatica Salisb., Curcuma caesia Roxb., Curcuma Longa L., Hedychium coronarium Koenig., Kaempferia galanga L., Zingiber montanum (Koenig.) Link ex A. Dietr., Zingiber officinale Rosco. Zingiber zerumbet (L.) Smith. Out of these plants, only two species i.e., C. Longa L. and Z. officinale Rosco. are commercially cultivated, whereas, remaining ones are gradually losing their ethnic and economic importance due to the fading ethnobotanical knowledge in the younger generation. Awareness about these species is highly essential for their much-needed conservation for the posterity