From time immemorial, plants served as the first source of medicine to treat ailments. Man learnt about the therapeutic use of plants through trials and errors. Such information was passed down orally for generation after generation and sometimes recorded in herbal and other texts on materiamedica that led to the development of the traditional health care system of medicine, practiced in various countries of the world. Ethnobotanical studies discover plant resources that can be used for targeting novel compounds leading to the development of new medicaments for treating especially complicated and minor diseases.

Despite their certain economic value, medicinal plants are declining in many areas due to rapid loss of natural habitats, alteration of native plant communities by invasive exotic plants, and human encroachment. The traditional material culture is therefore declining and many rural societies are rapidly losing their cultural knowledge about medicinal plants. Ethnobotanists are studying different cultures to document traditional knowledge of medicinal plants before it vanishes.

Keeping the importance of ethnobotany, an interdisciplinary field of study, this especial issue is dedicated to the integration of past and present use of plants reporting traditional/folk medicinal use. We invite researchers to contribute to this issue by sending reviews as well as original research articles.

Potential topics include, but are not limited to:

• Documentation of indigenous medicobotanical knowledge of indigenous communities
• Traditional phytotherapies/medicaments used in treating various diseases
• Scientific model based discoveries relating to phytochemistry, pharmacology, and toxicology of ethnobotanically important plants
• Observatory and experimental investigation of the biological activities of traditionally used plants