Potential of ethnobotanical medicinal plants used by Malayali tribes in Yercaud hills, Eastern ghats of Tamil Nadu, India

Abstract

Ethnobotanical knowledge plays an important role in therapeutic beneficial by traditional people of the Yercaud hills, Eastern ghats of the State Tamil Nadu. This current study focused on documentation of medicinal plants used to treat several ailments. Enlightenment of medicinal plants data was gathered from the Malayali tribes, using an integrated approach like botanical collections, group discussion and interviews with questionnaires in the year 2018 – 2019. During the survey a total number of 40 ethnomedicinal plant species belonging to 38 genera and 25 families were documented. Traditional names of the plants by traditional healers and local community members were prepared as a checklist. The checklist of medicinal plants used by Malayali tribes are listed with botanical name, vernacular name, family, parts used, mode of preparation, mode of admiration and medicinal uses. We observed that the documented ethnomedicinal plants were commonly used to treating snakebite, earache, chest pain, body pain, lumbago, eczema, haemorrhoids, jaundice, dog bite, sprain, beetle bite, epididymitis, bone fracture, arthritis and painful menstruation. The results of this study showed that the tribal people still depended on medicinal plants in Yercaud Hills for treating various diseases. This would be a baseline data of medicinal plants for future research and potential development of novel drugs.