H.N. Karthik, P. Ramana and B. Aravind Rathod
Abstract
Garcinia gummi-gutta is an abundant wild tree species found in Western Ghat of India with vast ethnobotanical potential. Being underutilized and little reports on its utility in the literatures, especially from the study area. An effort was made to document the ethnobotanical knowledge of this species. The study was conducted at Uttara Kannada district, Karnataka â a part of central Western Ghat, India. Traditional knowledge of twenty-one randomly selected rural respondents was collected using semi-structured open-ended questionnaire, the data obtained was analysed and visualized into charts and graphs. Study revealed the use of G. gummi-gutta fruit rind and seed butter for both culinary and medicinal purposes, Fruit rind is used in preparation of non-vegetarian curries (fish curries etc.) and preparation of pickles. Seed butter is used in frying of edibles, lighting oil in lanterns in some cases and also used as moisturizer, treating cracks, rashes, burn wounds, sunstroke, dehydration and amashanke etc. It is also observed that 71.42 per cent of people donât use rind for their household use. None of them found to produce the seed butter for the commercial purposes although 85.71 per cent people are aware of the process of butter extraction. The underutilized tree species (G. gummi-gutta) has many ethnobotanical benefits. Such uses can be commercialized, so that reliance on similar market alternatives can be minimized for example, the seed rich with seed oil can be used as potential feedstock in bio-diesel production and it in turn may help earn additional income for the rural communities and also help fight climate change by minimising the reliance on fossil fuels etc.