Cite this article:
Ganeshaiah (2016). In search of Ancient Plants of India. Journal of Ravishankar University (Part-B: Science), 29(1), pp.40.
GL-E02
In search of
Ancient Plants of India
K N Ganeshaiah
School of Ecology and
Conservation. University of Agricultural Sciences, GKVK. Bengaluru, India -
560065
Corresponding author email
knganeshaiah @gmail.com
[Received
3 February 2016]
Abstract: Ancient
Indian literature refers to several plants with a high economic potential for
the country and it should be the responsibility of Indian botanists to explore
the potential candidates for these species. While there are some attempts to
identify such plants, but with no conclusive results. For example attempts to
find the equivalents of Vedic Soma plant has ended up in a set of six plants.
Despite this it is important that such efforts do continue to search other
plants referred to in the Indian literature. At our lab, we have attempted to
search for the possible candidate species that could represent Sanjeevani the
mythical herb from the epic Ramayana. We undertook an objective approach to
identify the potential plant by setting up a set of four criteria developed
based on the consistent details available: a) it should be referred to in
equivalent name in diverse Indian cultures and thence in diverse Indian
languages; b) it shall be distributed in the habitats referred to in the epic;
c) it should have high medicinal values and, d) it should have the ability to
'resurrect' life. Accordingly, from an initial list of 18,000 species, we have
filtered two species as potential candidates for Sanjeevani. The scientific
studies and the anecdotal information available seem to suggest that these
species are highly likely to represent Sanjeevani. Our search shall not be
considered complete and final, as there could be other approaches and
accordingly, other suggestions as well for Sanjeevani. Whether or not the
results of the search are held up, the approach suggests that a) the criteria
based filtering approach could be a very useful tool for searching such
mythical plants of potential commercial value and, b) that the ethno-botany
should tap on the otherwise neglected mythology also as a source of
bio-resources.
Keywords: Ancient
plants, Sanjeevani, Ethno-botany