Abstract
Traditional knowledge/ethnoveterinary medicine is the holistic, interdisciplinary study of the local knowledge and the socio-cultural structures and environment associated with animal health care and husbandry. Livestock raisers have a well-established ethnoveterinary practice to cure and control livestock diseases throughout the world. This practice is based on a deep indigenous knowledge of their environment. This knowledge acquired through observation, palpation and auscultation of sick livestock evolved into an ethnodiagnosis procedure, which could be a major contributor to the local traditional bioprospecting skills. Prior to the discovery of organic chemistry in the 19th century, 80% of all medicines were obtained from plant materials. In most of developing countries, herbal medicine is particularly popular and it is estimated that 80% of the population resorts to traditional medicine to treat human and livestock diseases. Plant derived drugs are still the most common medicines/practices for the treatment in traditional knowledge system both for man and animals. This chapter describes traditional knowledge particularly with reference to plants and their indigenous uses in animals.