Abstract:

Therapeutic use of animal products is an age old and widespread cross-cultural practice. However, there is a general lack of interest about ethnopharmaceutical practices among the busy modern people. Surveys were carried out during 2010 to 2015 for identifying the use of honey of stingless bee, Lepidotrigona arcifera (Cockerell) in the ethnomedicine of Nepali community. Open ended structured questionnaires were used to acquire knowledge about the use of honey for medicinal purposes from medicine men and old resource persons. Some of the plant parts, cow urine, milk, etc. were also found to be used to prepare concoction with the honey. Diseases treated with the honey singly or in combination with other natural products ranged from simple cold and cough to dreaded disease like cancer.  Utilizing the traditional knowledge of use of stingless bee honey will help in harnessing the knowledge of natural resources of medicine all the same domesticating and conserving sub-Himalayan stingless bee diversity.