Buchholzia coriacea: AN OFTEN NEGLECTED AFRICAN PLANT WITH MULTIFARIOUS ETHNOPHARMACOTHERAPEUTIC POTENTIALS

The evergreen shrub Buchholzia coriacea (Wonderful cola), which belongs to the Capparidaceae family, is found in Cameroon, Central African Republic, Gabon, Congo, Angola, Nigeria, and Ghana, among other places. Diarrhea, malaria, rheumatism, ulcers, worm infestation, asthma and cough, diabetes, hypertension, mental problems, and impotence were among the conditions for which traditional medicine believed it to be a useful alternative treatment. Some of its ethnomedicinal knowledge had been ethnopharmacologically verified and published in scientific publications. As a result, the emphasis of this study is on a current evaluation of its verified ethnomedicinal activities, which will serve as a research horizon for current and future academics.

Ethnomedicinal Study of Plants in Begumgonj, Noakhali, Bangladesh

Backgraound: The aim of this study was to document and preserve the ethnomedicinal knowledge used by traditional healers of Begumganj upazila, Bangladesh, to treat human diseases and evaluate the relative efficacy of the medicinal plants.Methods: The uses of medicinal plants were documented as an ethnomedicinal data sheet using direct observation, field interview, plant interview and group interview techniques from December 2012 to January 2014 in the study area. Data were collected from 98 traditional healers through a questionnaire survey and analyzed through informant consensus factor and fidelity level.Results: Overall, 75 plant species under 71 genera of 47 families were documented, which are used to treat 41 diseases. Data analysis revealed that 41.33%, 14.67%, 36% and 8% of the medicinal plant species were herbs, shrubs, trees, and climbers, respectively. Leaves were the most used parts, followed by stem, root, fruit, bark, latex and rhizome. The most frequently treated diseases were dysentery, rheumatism and skin diseases.Conclusions: This is the first ethnobotanical survey, which recorded the importance of medicinal plants in Begumgonj upazila, Bangladesh. This study can contribute to preserving the indigenous knowledge on the traditional use of medicinal plants in this region and attract future generations towards traditional healing practice.

Ethnomedicinal knowledge among the Malayali tribal of Chitteri hills, Eastern Ghats, Tamil Nadu, India

The present study was aimed to document the ethnomedicinal knowledge among the Malayali tribal of Chitteri hills Eastern Ghats of Tamil Nadu, India. Field visits were made to the Chitteri hills every month covering all seasons. Interviews with traditional healers and other knowledgeable inhabitants and farmers were conducted. The Malayali tribal people of Chitteri hills use 320 plant species for their day-to-day life, this ethnobotanical exploration revealed they were the habit of using around 216 species of medicinal plants belonging to 200 genera under 45families. Malayali tribes use morphological characters such as bark surface, leaf colour, leaf taste and exudates, underground plant parts and ecology of species as criteria for identification of 135 species belongs to 105 genera under 46 families. The documentation of the knowledge of Malayali tribal identification of plants of Chitteri hills is to be accorded top priority in the preservation of our ancient traditional knowledge.

Borders as Crossroads: The Diverging Routes of Herbal Knowledge of Romanians Living on the Romanian and Ukrainian Sides of Bukovina

Cross-border and cross-cultural ethnomedicine are novel ways to address the evolution of local ecological knowledge. As is widely acknowledged, ethnomedicinal knowledge is not static, but evolves according to several factors, including changes in ecological availability and socioeconomic conditions, and yet the effect of the political context on medicinal knowledge remains largely underexplored. Bukovina, a small region of Eastern Europe that has been divided by a border since the 1940s and is currently part of both Romania and Ukraine, represents a unique case study in which to address the impact of political contexts on ethnomedicinal knowledge. The aim of this study was to compare plant-based medicinal uses among Romanians living on the two sides of the Romanian–Ukrainian border. In addition, we performed cross-cultural and cross-border analysis with published data on the ethnomedicine of the neighboring ethnolinguistic group of Hutsuls. We conducted 59 semistructured interviews with conveniently selected Romanians living in both Romanian and Ukrainian Bukovina. We elicited preparations for treating different ailments and disorders by naming each part of the body. We also asked about the sources of this medicinal knowledge. We documented the medicinal use of 108 plant taxa belonging to 45 families. Fifty-four taxa were common to both Romanian communities; 20 were only found among Romanians living in Romania and 34 only among Romanians living in Ukraine. However, the number of recorded uses was higher among Romanians living in Romania, revealing that they make consistent use of local medicinal plants, and Romanians living in Ukrainian Bukovina use more taxa but less consistently. Comparison with the data published in our study on neighboring Hutsuls shows that medicinal knowledge is more homogeneous among Hutsuls and Romanians living in Ukraine, yet many similar uses were found among Romanian communities across the border. We argue that the 50 years during which Ukrainian Bukovina was part of the USSR resulted in the integration of standard pan-Soviet elements as evidenced by several plant uses common among the groups living in Ukraine yet not among Hutsuls and Romanians living in Romania.

Ethnomedicinal Knowledge of Kisan Community - A Case Study

In the context of depleting indigenous knowledge and their values in the Kisan Community, they seem unaware of their culturally rich traditional practices of using animals and plants for medicinal purpose. It has been essential to document those knowledge of practices for future references. The paper tried to explore and document those knowledge and practices by the Kisan community of Mechinagar 9 and 11 of Jhapa, Nepal. For this purpose, the data were collected through interviews with key informants including conjurer (Dhami/Jhakri), elders of the society and also focal group discussions with the local people. Analysis of the data has shown that 29 animal species belonging to 24 families are used to treat 29 ailments and 57 plant species belonging to 37 families are used for treating 39 different ailments. The commonly treated ailments were common cold, cuts, wounds, diarrhoea, dysentery, etc.

Ethnomedicinal uses of plants by major ethnic groups of Hilly Districts in Nepal: A review

Plants are used as ethnomedicine by indigenous people living all around the world. In Nepal, plants are being used for healing diseases since a long period by various ethnic groups of rural areas due to difficulty in the availability of modern medicines. Many researchers have contributed to the documentation of ethnomedicinal knowledge on plants in Nepal; however few studies have been carried out on hilly districts. Our study aims to review and compile all the published research documents on ethnomedicinal uses of plants by various ethnic groups of hilly districts in Nepal. Altogether 35 published documents till August 2020, accessed through Google Scholar and Research Gate were selected for our study. A total of 215 plant species from 93 families was found to be used for the treatment of 139 types of diseases by 10 ethnic groups of 13 hilly districts. Also, leaves were used for the treatment of maximum numbers of diseases (69). Plants from Fabaceae, Asteraceae, and Poaceae, etc. were used to treat major diseases like; diabetes, asthma, stomachache, fever, jaundice, etc. Traditional knowledge on medicinal uses of plants is needed to be explored and documented to preserve traditional medicinal knowledge as well as medicinal plants.

EXPLOITATION OF FOLK ETHNOMEDICINAL KNOWLEDGE OF KOTLI AZAD JAMMU AND KASHMIR-Pakistan

ABSTRACT For the documentation of folk Ethnomedicinal knowledge from District Kotli, Azad Jammu and Kashmir-Pakistan, we have surveyed various areas of Kotli and gathered information from the habitants by personal interviews, discussion and also by questionnaires. Plant specimens were also collected from the fields of different selected areas in different seasons of the year. Their medicinal uses and taxonomically confirmed with the help of available literature. The duration of this research work was one year, from December 2019 to January 2020. During the research period, we reported 59 plant species which belongs 54 genera and29 families, among the reported families Lamiaceae and Fabaceae were dominant families having six species each, followed by Asteraceae with five species. These plants are utilized by habitants from centuries as Ethnomedicine against various diseases like cough, cold, malaria, fever, stomach disorders, mouth and throat sour etc. This research provides a lot of Ethnomedicinal knowledge which depicts men’s interaction with plants.