ETHNOBOTANICAL STUDY OF MEDICINAL PLANTS USED BY THE ETHNIC COMMUNITIES OF ALIPURDUAR DISTRICT OF WEST BENGAL, INDIA

Abstract

Scientific documentation of traditional knowledge on ethnobotanical plants used by the ethnic people of Alipurduar district of West Bengal, India has been done by conducting field surveys during July 2018 to January 2020. With the help of pretested semi-structured questionnaires, knowledgeable ethnic people of the studied areas were interviewed to record their traditional knowledge on plants and their utilization for daily livelihood. The questionnaires covers various aspects (vernacular name(s), parts use, ethno medicinal uses, disease treated, mode of preparation, other uses, among others) of each and every plant species having ethnobotanical values. Standard methods for plant collection and herbarium techniques were followed and identification was done with the help of relevant sources. In the present survey, 84 plant species of 44 families have been documented. Asteraceae dominates (8 species) among the plant families. Based on growth habit, herb (35.71 %) dominates among plant types and were mostly collected from their natural habitat (58.33 %). A total of 143 ethnobotanical uses were recorded under 5 numbers of used categories, viz. ethnomedicine (EM), edible plant (EP), magico-religious (MR), ethno-veterinary (EV) and narcotic (N), of which all the plants (100.0 %) were used under ethno medicinal category. Altogether 77 types of common physical problems, grouped into 22 major problems were found to be treated by the herbal medicine. Leaves were found to be the dominant (40.91 %) plant part among others used for the preparation of medicine. In most of the cases medicines were prepared following extraction methodology (41.11 %) and were taken orally (62.64 %) or topically (36.36 %). Collected information clearly suggests that the ethnic people are largely dependent on plant species for their daily needs, especially for primary healthcare. Future research on these medicinal plants can lead to the discovery of unique phytochemical and newer drugs for the treatmen