Ajit Kumar Rawal

Ethnic communities inhabiting Jharkhand state are living in true harmony with nature. They entirely depend on plants and plant resources for their livelihood. Plants use in tribal belt is as diverse as the ethnic diversity. The paper focuses on lesser known nutraceutical plants, usually  not known to the modern society but form an important dietary part of the ethnic people and provide them both nutritional and health security. These vegetables are lesser known and under-utilized resources, which are rich both in nutrients and secondary metabolites, providing nutritional and health security (nutraceutical). These plant resources grow their own, thrive easily on inhospitable conditions without any input, give new taste and are free of chemical pesticides and insecticides. In view of the large scale utilization of land area in the name of various kinds of developmental activities there is an urgent need of enlisting wild nutraceutical potherbs and documentation of their therapeutic uses before it is too late. The present paper describes 35 plants species which are widely consumed amongst ethnic communities.