Reproductive health related ethno-medicinal practices among the Paraja and Gadaba tribes of Koraput district, Odisha, India

Abstract

In the remote and inaccessible areas of Koraput district, ethnomedicine become the vital source of medicine. In this research, an ethno botanical exploration was made among the tribal communities of Paraja and Gadaba group to find out their Ethnomedicinal Practices for enhancing reproductive health. This information was collected from 37 Paraja and Gadaba tribal dominated villages of 25 Gram Panchayats belonging to 5 development blocks of Koraput district, Odisha. In the study, a total of 71 plant species belonging to 38 families were identified as being used for treatment of approximately 25 ailments of reproductive diseases including both male and female category. Fabaceae (15.5), Apocynaceae (8.5), Euphorbiaceae (5.6), Arecaceae (4.2), Malvaceae (4.2), and Solanaceae (4.2) were most represented plant families in this study. Bauhinia vahlii (5.1), Asparagus racemosus Wild. (4.3), Achyranthes aspera L. (3.4), Carica papaya L. (3.4), Cocos nucifera L. (3.4) were most cited. Though all these plant species are used at community level, information was collected from ethnic healers and cross verified from the beneficiary patients. Further, phyto-chemical investigation is necessary for patenting and use in pharmacological industry for the benefit of the entire humankind. It is the need of the hour to explore, identify and utilize ethnomedicine because of their less or no side effects in curing diseases, high efficacy, easy accessibility, and less cost on one hand and, on the other, this knowledge will help to conserve the existing but threatened flora and fauna species of rare medicinal values of the locality.