Incense and Insect Repellent Plants of Darjeeling Himalaya, West Bengal, India

Incense is an aromatic biological substance that releases fragrant smoke or fumes when burned and used for appealing and aesthetic purposes as well as some other use like repelling insects. Darjeeling Himalayan region is rich in diversified flora and varied tribal communities having rich traditional knowledge. They still prefer to use their traditional knowledge to exploit the available plant resources for religious purposes as well as making traditional incense and insect repellent substances. Being rich in traditional knowledge system, different aspect of ethnobotany and indigenous knowledge of different communities of this area were studied by different workers. Lack of complete, concrete and compact study on incense and insect repellent plants of this zone and the related aspects encouraged the present dissertation which was designed to enumerate the botanicals used as incense and insect repellent agents by the people of Darjeeling. Standard methodology for ethnobotanical survey including field visit, market survey, visit to the religious places, interviews with monks, knowledgeable elderly person etc were followed to collect the data. A total of 58 species belonging to 52 genera and 26 families covering dicots, monocots and gymnosperms which played an important role in the daily life of the tribals and the locals. The study pointed towards the threats to some of the incense and insect repellent species and recommends further detailed and more intensive study to investigate their proper uses and potential as more effective and environment friendly incense and insect repellent products, population structure and ecological status of those species for their protection and conservation.

@article{pratibha2026,
  author  = {Pratibha Khawas, Kesang Sherpa and Kishor Biswas*},
  title   = {{Incense and Insect Repellent Plants of Darjeeling Himalaya, West Bengal, India}},
  journal = {Journal of Bioresearch},
  year    = {2026},
  volume  = {5},
  number  = {2},
  pages   = {36-45},
  doi     = {https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.19016184},
}