The book is written in simple language. Some common animal diseases and their clinical signs are mentioned briefly. The symptoms and the treatment of the disease are described as stated by the indigenous people who rear the cattle and treat their ailments by using different medicinal plants. About 300 medicinal plants along with their botanical names, vernacular names and brief descriptions are mentioned. Botanical names are arranged alphabetically. The plants mentioned in this book are locally available. Few plants showing asterisks are in threatened state and they deserve an urgent conservation and protection.
Vernacular names are provided. Local names vary from place to place or tribes to tribes. So it is not possible to cover all the names but few selected and widely used local names are mentioned. The vernacular names mentioned in this book are English, Assamese, Sanskrit, Hindi, Bengali, Nepali, Karbi, Mishing, Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram Nagaland, Manipur, Sikkim and Meghalaya.
A brief description of the plants with their respective families is also given to help the researchers to know about the taxonomic characters of the plants for further study. The parts of the plants which are used for the treatment of the disease are mentioned. Veterinary use of the plants, procedures for preparation of medicine and dose to be given to the animal are provided in the boom. Medicinal use of the plants is not same in all the states of this region so an attempt is made to describe the use of the plants in state wise.
The traditional knowledge of the different tribes of this region need to be tapped before its extinction. With that purpose an attempt has been made to document the plants used by different ethnic groups in this book. Proper harnessing of these plats may give an economic support to this part of the country in particular and the nation in general. The number of the herbal practitioners is regularly increasing which may create an alarming situation in the medicinal plants because of the lack of proper knowledge of sustainable utilization of these plants. Glossary of medicinal plants, medical terms, vernacular names, families are also mentioned in alphabetical order. |
