Ethno-medicinal Survey on Herbaceous Plant Resources of Cachar District of Assam, India

Abstract

An ethno-medicinal survey was carried out to collect information and its documentation of the folk knowledge and diversity of uses of ethno-medicinal herbaceous plants from the tribal and rural inhabitants of the Cachar district of Assam during the period of 2018–2021. The area comprises of diverse medicinal herbs as well as diversity in ethnic groups and culture practices associated with plant diversity. The indigenous knowledge of folk medicinal herbs was collected from the field through personal communication with the inhabitants of the remote villages of the district and through repeated enquiries from local folk. In the present survey, a total of 112 species under 101 genera of herbaceous plants belongs to 60 families were collected, identified and documented. The study reveals that the ethnic and rural peoples of the survey area are depending on traditional medicinal plants for many of their primary health care. During the survey, it was found that due to anthropogenic activities (i.e., deforestation, construction of roads, urbanization and modernization, etc.) many of the important medicinal herbs used by the tribal and ethnic groups became rare, endangered and threatened. Therefore, it is necessary to develop the conservation and propagation activities of these ethno-medicinal herbs for future generations.