Review Article BOTANICALS AND THEIR USE WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO J&K Sabeena Nabi, Shabir Ahmad Rather, Burhan Nabi* and K.N. Qaisar Faculty of Forestry, SKUAST-Kashmir, Benhama, Ganderbal, J&K, India *Division of Veterinary Medicine, SKUAST-J E-mail: nabisabeena@gmail.com (Corresponding Author) Abstract: Use of botanicals or herbal medicines implies substantial historical use, and this is certainly true for many products that are available as ‘traditional botanicals or herbal medicines’. In many developing countries, a large proportion of the population relies on traditional practitioners and their armamentarium of medicinal plants in order to meet health care needs. India has been known for Ayurvedic, Unani, Siddha, Homoeopathy, Tibetan, Amchi, Yoga and Naturopathy medical system practiced by Hakims and Vaids for nearly 5000 years particularly in Jammu and Kashmir where herbal drugs has a long history of utilization. In early times, the medicines prescribed by these practitioners used to be very cheap and were designated as “common man’s medicine”. These medicinal plants are mostly collected from wild sources and sold under different names. Herbal drugs of montane ecosystems, constituting only those traditional medicines which primarily use medicinal plant preparations for therapy, are in vogue in high altitude regions and offer therapeutic promise which ultimately lead to the discovery of novel drugs for the benefit of mankind. A botanical is a plant or plant part valued for its medicinal or therapeutic properties, flavor, and/or scent. For example stem bark, root bark, leaves, flowers of Azadirachta indica and Melia azadarch, needles of Taxus baccata, whole plant of Artemisia species etc. Herbs are subset of botanicals. Products made from botanicals are used to maintain or improve health may be called herbal products, botanical products, or phyto-medicals. Botanicals are also used as pesticides, insecticides, and other useful extracts derived from plants/trees for the management of human and animal pest organisms (lvabijaro, 1991). By definition, ‘traditional’ use of botanicals or herbal medicines implies substantial historical use, and this is certainly true for many products that are available as ‘traditional botanical or herbal medicines’. In many developing countries, a large proportion of the population relies on traditional practitioners and their armamentarium of medicinal plants in order to meet health care needs. Although modern medicine may exist side-by-side with such traditional practice, herbal medicines have often maintained their popularity for historical and cultural International Journal of Science, Environment ISSN 2278-3687 (O) and Technology, Vol. 6, No 5, 2017, 3174 – 3180 2277-663X (P) Received Sep 24, 2017 * Published Oct 2, 2017 * www.ijset.net