Abstract

A CONTRIBUTION TO THE MEDICINAL PLANTS USED BY THE TRIBAL PEOPLE OF LATERITIC BELT OF WEST BENGAL

Nasrin Begum and Sudhendu Mandal*

ABSTRACT

Medicinal plants are the most valuable natural resources of any country and are mainly used as folk medicine by the tribal people for their primary health care needs. The modern society people are not fully aware of this traditional knowledge system. The present paper deals with the survey of some medicinally important plants used by the local tribal people of lateritic belt of West Bengal. A total of 51 different medicinally important angiospermic plants belonging to 33 families, among which 31 dicot families and 2 monocot families are recorded from the study area. Alstonia scholaris, Calotropis gigantea, Andrographis paniculata, Argemone mexicana, Vitex negundo, Dentella repens, Cissus quadeangularis etc. are very important medicinal plants of this region. These plants are employed by the tribal people in the form of infusion, decoction, oil, paste, latex, etc. The investigated plant taxa are enumerated according to their family, local name, habit, plant parts used, mode of utilization and medicinal uses. The major tribal groups of the survey zone are Santhal, Kora and Oraon, among which the Santhal community is dominant one. The main objective of our present survey is to focus light on the traditional practice of folk medicines by the tribal people and make an approach for their proper recognition in the field of ethnomedicine for their socio-economic development. The folk knowledge on herbal medicine needs a proper documentation for further scientific studies and also for their conservation. Thus, the present investigation will throw new ideas for the inclusive and sustainable development of India in the present scenario.

Keywords: Medicinal plants, Tribal people, Folk medicine, Sustainable development, Lateritic belt, West Bengal.