Traditional Uses of Medicinal Plants by Ethnic People in the Kavrepalanchok District, Central Nepal.

In rural areas of Nepal, where it is difficult to get access to Government health care facilities, people depend on medicinal plants and local healers for health problems. This study concerns an ethnobotanical survey of the Kavrepalanchok District, reporting some unusual uses of medicinal plants and original recipes. A total of 32 informants were interviewed, 24 of them being key informants.

Factors Contributing to the Decline of Traditional Practices in Communities from the Gwallek-Kedar area, Kailash Sacred Landscape, Nepal.

Traditional knowledge and practices are increasingly recognized in the resource conservation and management practices, however are declining in many parts of the world including Nepal. Studies on the inventory of traditional knowledge are available, albeit limited, and empirical analysis of factors contributing to the decline of traditional knowledge are negligible in Nepal. We thus initiated this study in the Nepal part of the Kailash Sacred Landscape to (i) document traditional knowledge and practices on agriculture, forest-based herbal remedy, and genetic resource conservation; and (ii) identify factors contributing to the decline of traditional practices in the communities.

Diversity and use of wild and non-cultivated edible plants in the Western Himalaya.

Background: Local people in the Himalayan region use a wide range of wild and non-cultivated edible plants (WNEPs) for food, spice, medicinal, and cultural purposes. However, their availability, use, status and contribution to livelihood security are poorly documented, and they have been generally overlooked in recent agro-biodiversity conservation and management programmes. The study aimed to investigate WNEP diversity and current status in a part of the Kailash Sacred Landscape-a transboundary landscape shared by Nepal, India and PR China-in terms of collection, use, management and conservation initiatives.

Indigenous knowledge and use of lichens by the lichenophilic communities of the Nepal Himalaya.

Background: The aim of the study was to document the prevailing indigenous knowledge and various uses of lichens among the lichenophilic communities in the hills and mountainous settlements of Nepal.

Methods: Ethnic uses were recorded during twelve field trips, each of roughly 15 days in three consecutive years, through direct questionnaires administered to 190 respondents. Lichen samples were identified applying microscopic observation and thin layer chromatography (TLC).

Characterization of microsatellite loci in the Himalayan lichen fungus Lobaria pindarensis (Lobariaceae).

Premise Of The Study: Microsatellite loci were developed for the rare, Himalayan, endemic haploid lichen fungus, Lobaria pindarensis, to study its population subdivision and the species' response to forest disturbance and fragmentation. •

Methods And Results: We developed 18 polymorphic microsatellite markers using 454 pyrosequencing data and assessed them in 109 individuals. The number of alleles per locus ranged from three to 11 with an average of 6.

Plant proteomics in India and Nepal: current status and challenges ahead.

Plant proteomics has made tremendous contributions in understanding the complex processes of plant biology. Here, its current status in India and Nepal is discussed. Gel-based proteomics is predominantly utilized on crops and non-crops to analyze majorly abiotic (49 %) and biotic (18 %) stress, development (11 %) and post-translational modifications (7 %).

Wild edible plants used by the people of Manang district, Central Nepal.

Plant diversity plays an important role in maintaining the world's foods demands. Even today in Manang, a remote, mountainous district within the Annapurna Conservation Area, Nepal, local people gather substantial amounts of wild plants to meet their daily nutritional needs, with several species also used for trade. There has been little documented regarding the use of these wild foods, which play a part in both daily nutrition, and survival during times of famine.