Ethnomedicinal plants used by the indigenous tribal communities of Arunachal Pradesh, India: a review

Abstract

Background: In the absence of modern healthcare facilities in remote rural localities, the indigenous tribal communities of Arunachal Pradesh in the Eastern Himalayan region of India continue to rely on plant-based ethnomedicine for the treatment of various ailments prevalent within their biocultural landscape. This review work has been carried out to document the ethnomedicinal knowledge of the indigenous tribal communities of Arunachal Pradesh by critically perusing the selected published literature. The exploration of ethnomedicinal knowledge of the tribal communities may provide clues for development of new drugs and can also help in the continuity and preservation of such important traditional healing practices. Methods: We downloaded 20 published ethnomedicinal literature (between 2005 to 2019) from online databases such as iMedPub, Academia.edu, ResearchGate, Semantic Scholar, Scopus, Web of Science, Publons, PubMed, etc. using keywords ‘ethnomedicine’, ‘tribes of Arunachal Pradesh’, and ‘North-East India’. The diversity of ethnomedicinal plants, types of ailments treated, herbal formulation, informant consensus and the species and family use values have been quantified using relevant statistical tools and techniques. Results: The present review have reported 358 species of medicinal plants belonging to 100 families used by the fourteen indigenous tribal communities for treating 107 specific types of ailments which are classified under 10 broad categories of ailments, namely, cardiovascular, dermatological, gastrointestinal, general health, gynecological, musculoskeletal, odontological, orthopaedic, respiratory, and urological disorders. Asteraceae has shown the highest use reports per family (86) while Acanthacaeae demonstrated the highest family use value index (UVf) of 4.90. The highest species use report was observed under gastrointestinal disorders with an Informant consensus factor (FIC) of 0.41 while the least species use report was observed under urological disorder (FIC 0.11). Conclusion: Plants showing higher UVf index and FIC in the present analysis should be useful for conservation priority. It will also help in prioritization for in-depth investigation of bioactive phytochemicals of potential medicinal plants effective against reported target ailment categories. Keywords: Ailments, Ethnomedicine, Family use value (UVf), Tribal communities, Informant consensus factor (FIC).