Abstract

Medicinal plants are part and parcel of human society to combat diseases from the dawn of
civilization. A preliminary study was carried out to explore the diversity of medicinal plants
over 8.6 acres of land in Venginissery, Thrissur district in Kerala. Frequent field visits were
conducted from October 2023 – June 2024 by a team of seven members. Plant species were
collected and identified with the help of experts in the field of taxonomy and ethanomedicine.
In the present study about 57 plant species belonging to 41 families were identified and
documented. Members of the family Rubiaceae and Fabaceae were predominant with four
genus each followed by Vitaceae and Asclepiadaceae with three members each respectively.
Other families were constituted with only one genus. The information regarding all the plant
species were given in a tabular form. The data collected in this study indicates that the study
area is rich in plant diversity. So this study can be further analyzed for pharmacological
studies which may lead to discovery of new drug formulations.

Key words: Venginissery biodiversity, Ethnomedicine, Medicinal plants, Traditional knowledge.