Abstract
Use of plants by ethnic communities always play an important role in the life of common man as it can be another source of information for the betterment of health and longevity. The study of plants used by tribals always encourages the new generation to undertake new aspect of the study. Theriophonum minutum (Willd.). Baill. is a (Family- Araceae) unique ethnomedicinal plant used by the Korku tribe of Melghat Dist. Amravati (Maharashtra) to cure intestinal and duodenal ulcers. There is no mention of well-known pathies like Ayurveda, Siddha, Unani, Homeopathy, etc. As this is a unique medicinal plant, no anatomical and phytochemical data is available for drug characterization. Drug characterization is important to understand the purity of the drug. Here an attempt is made to study the macro and micromorphology of all plant organs in details.
Highlights
In the southern part of the India Theriophonum minutum tubers are mostly used as a source of starch and food
In eastern part of Maharashtra, leaves are used as vegetable but only the Korku using this plant as medicine against intestinal or duodenal ulcers
The primary phytochemical screening shows the presence of Total seven amino acids present along with positive tests were observed for Alkaloids, Flavonoids, Phenolics (Catechol) and Steroids present
Summary
Belongs to the family Araceae, commonly known as aroids, are the plants known to everyone but scientifically little studied. The word “arum” is derived directly from ancient Greek “aron”. This family is very diverse in its appearance, where the leaves are most appreciated feature due to its variegated appearance. Though most of the Aroids widely used as ornamental indoor plants, some species of Alocasia, Amorphophallus, Colocasia and Xanthosoma are rich source of carbohydrate. While reviewing the literature we noted that Theriophonum minutum is not exclusively studied for neither for its ethnomedicinal uses nor for its scientific studies. Very few records have been found for its uses and scientific studies where, only the embryological studies of Theriophonum minutum is careed out by Parameswaran (1959). Leaves are used as wild vegetable (Patale et al, 2015)
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