The use of medicinal plants by two village communities in the central development region of Nepal

In two Nepalese villages it was found that 66 plant species were being used for medicinal purposes. Although the treatment of patients by the medicine man, or “jhankri,” included extensive ritual elements, at least 17 of the species prescribed could be expected on pharmacological evidence to produce the therapeutic effects attributed to them. Some medicinal plants were also used as insecticides or piscicides. It was recognised in the villages that the use of these latter species as human food or animal fodder was limited by the presence of toxic constituents.