Ethnopharmacological survey of traditional medicinal plants in tribal areas of Kodagu district, Karnataka, India

Abstract

BackgroundKodagu is one of the tiniest districts in the Southern part of Karnataka (India). It is a habitat for more than ten different types of ethnic groups commonly called ‘Girijana’. An ethnomedicinal survey was undertaken in the tribal areas of the district to collect information from the traditional herbal healers on the use of medicinal plants in order to evaluate the potential medicinal uses of local plants used in curing various ailments. MethodsThe information was collected through conducting interviews, discussion and field observation with herbal healers and knowledgeable elder people of the study area using semi-structured questionnaire. ResultsThe survey reveals that the tribal people even today rely on traditional practice-knowledge inherited from generation to generation. It is evident that about 126 plant species belonging to 60 families are being used as ethnic drugs to cure various ailments viz., diabetes (32), skin disorder (22), diarrhoea (6), wound healing (17), intestinal worm (14), antidote for snake bite (13), jaundice (8) etc., respectively. ConclusionRecent trend shows a decline in the number of traditional herbal healers in the tribal areas since the younger generation is not interested to continue this tradition. Hence, there is an urgent need to record and preserve all information on plants used by different ethnic/tribal communities for various purposes before it is completely lost. In addition, several wild medicinal plants are declining in number due to deforestation and forest fires. There is need for phytochemical analysis and pharmacological investigations of these important disappearing plants to strengthen the documentation of ethnic drugs. It would help in developing novel drug(s) to treat chronic diseases.