NEW ETHNOMEDICINAL INFORMATION FROM LEPCHA COMMUNITY OF DZONGU, SIKKIM.

The Lepcha community of Sikkim is primarily confined to the Dzongu area of the state. The people of this community are mostly dependent on the forest produces for their livelihood since the ancient times and used plant resources to cure daily ailments. In the present work, extensive field surveys conducted in different corners of Dzongu to document the ethnomedicinal plants and their uses from the traditional practitioners as well as the local people. As a result of which new information on the ethnomedicinal uses of 40 plant species have been recorded and these are presented here for future reference. The uses of plants have been validated statistically following Use Value (UV) and Fidelity Level (FL) methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]