USE OF PLANTS IN TRADITIONAL HEALTH CARE PRACTICE: AN ETHNOMEDICINAL SURVEY AT SUJANAGAR UPAZILA IN PABNA DISTRICT OF BANGLADESH.

- Department of Pharmacy, University of Asia Pacific, 74/A, Green Road, Dhaka-1215, Bangladesh.
- Abstract
- Keywords
- References
- Cite This Article as
- Corresponding Author
Medicinal plants are the main component in traditional medicine system and most rural people of Bangladesh still depend on folk medicine practitioners (Kavirajes) for their primary health care needs and medicinal plants used by folk medicine practitioners actually differ from region to region. The present study was designed to record the use of medicinal plants in different health ailments by the folk medicine practitioners of Sujanagar upazila(subdistrict) of Pabna district of Bangladesh. A structured survey questionnaire was prepared to obtain all the information, informed consent was obtained from the interviewer and the interview was taken in local language (Bangla) so that kavirajes could easily understand and provide necessary information. In our present study, we recorded total 63 plant species from 45 different families used by folk medicine practitioners of Sujanagar upazila in different illness. Liliaceae and Solanaceae appears the most prominent family in this study each having 3 plant species followed by Fabaceae and Acanthaceae having 2 species. Folk medicine practitioners use different parts of the plants including whole plant, leaves, fruits, barks, and rhizome. In this study, we found that leaves along with other parts of the plant had highest percentage of use (36.507%, 23 species) and only leaf holds the second position in its usage percentage (17.46%, 11 species). This study revealed that kavirajes of Sujanagar upazila preferred oral route (60.32%) of administration for their different medicinal formulations. There were also some formulations for topical application (11.11%) and found some plant based formulations were also for both oral and topical application (28.57%). This study represents many medicinal plants used by folk medicine practitioners of study area could be important source to isolate new bioactive compounds and novel drugs through extensive research in future.
- Araujo, C., Leon, L. 2001. Biological Activities of Curcuma longa L. Mem Inst Oswaldo Cruz., 96 (5): 723-728.
- Das, S., Choudhury, MD. 2012. Ethnomedicinal uses of some traditional medicinal plants found in Tripura, India. Med. Plants Res., 6(35): 4908-4914.
- Devi, DL., Srinivas, B., Rao, N. 2012. An evaluation antimicrobial activity of Aloe barbadensis Miller (Aloe vera) gel extract. J Pharm Biomed Sci., 21 (03): 1-4.
- Dey, AK., Rashid, MM., Millat, MS., Rashid, MM. 2014. Ethnobotanical survey of medicinal plants used by traditional health practitioners and indigenous people in different districts of Chittagong division, Bangladesh. Int J Pharm Sci Invent., 3(7): 01-07.
- Dhankhar, S., Kaur, R., Ruhil, S., Balhara, , Dhankhar, S., Chhilla, AK. 2011. A review on Justicia adhatoda: A potential source of natural medicine. Afr. J. Plant Sci., 5(11): 620-627.
- District Statistics: Pabna District, 2011. Statistics and Informatics Division, Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics. http://www.bbs.gov.bd/WebTestApplication/userfiles/Image/PopCen2011/COMMUNITY_Pabna.pdf
- Gupta, B., Nayak, S., Solanki, S. 2011. Abroma augusta Linn f: A review. Der Pharmacia Sinica., 2 (4):253-261.
- Joy, PP., Thomas, J., Mathew, S., Skaria, BP. 1998. Medicinal plants. Aromatic and Medicinal Plants Research Station, Kerala Agricultural University.
- Osungunna, MO., Adedeji, KA. 2011. Phytochemical and antimicrobial screening of methanol extract of Heliotropium indicum J. Microbiol. Antimicrob., 3(8): 213-216.
- Pa, R., Mathew, L. 2012. Antimicrobial activity of leaf extracts of Justicia adhatoda L. in comparison with vasicine. Asian Pac J Trop Biomed., S1556-S1560.
- Parvin, S., Kader, MA., Chouduri, AU., Rafshanjani, MS., Haque, ME. 2014. Antibacterial, antifungal and insecticidal activities of the n-hexane and ethyl-acetate fractions of methanolic extract of the leaves of Calotropis gigantean J Pharmacogn Phytochem., 2 (5): 47-51.
- Quazi, S., Mathur, K., Arora, S. 2013. Calotropisprocera: An overview of its phytochemistry and Pharmacology. , 1(2): 63-69.
- Rahmatullah, M., Ferdausi, D., Mollik, MAH., Jahan, R., Chowdhury, MH., Haque, WH. 2010. A survey of medicinal plants used by kavirajes of Chalna area, Khulna district, Bangladesh. Afr J Trad CAM., 7 (2): 91 – 97.
- Sahu, PK., Masih, V., Gupta, S., Sen, DL., Tiwari, A. 2014. Ethnomedicinal plants used in the healthcare systems of tribes of Dantewada, Chhattisgarh, India. Am J Plant Sci., 5: 1632-1643.
- Salahuddin, M., Rakib, HH., Biplob, A., Islam, MS., Foyasal, MK., Tanvir, RZ. et al. 2015. Medicinal plants used by a traditional ayurvedic practitioner at Asadnagar village in Narsingdi District, Bangladesh. J Pharmacogn Phytochem., 4(2): 269-275.
- Sharma, R., Thakur, GS., Sanodiya, BS., Savita, A., Pandey, M., Sharma, A., Bisen, PS. 2012. Therapeutic potential of Calotropis procera: A giant milkweed. IOSR J Pharm Biol Sci., 4(2): 42-57.
- Tumpa, SI., Hossain, MI., Ishika, T. 2014. Ethnomedicinal uses of herbs by indigenous medicine practitioners of Jhenaidah district, Bangladesh. J Pharmacogn Phytochem., 3 (2):23-33.
- Zari, ST., Zari, TA. 2015. A review of four common medicinal plants used to treat eczema. J Med Plants Res., 9(24): 702-711.
[Md. Anzam Ul Islam, A. H. M. Nazmul Hasan, Afsana Awal Trina, Sk. Jahid Hasan and Md. Asaduzzaman. (2017); USE OF PLANTS IN TRADITIONAL HEALTH CARE PRACTICE: AN ETHNOMEDICINAL SURVEY AT SUJANAGAR UPAZILA IN PABNA DISTRICT OF BANGLADESH. Int. J. of Adv. Res. 5 (Jan). 1869-1879] (ISSN 2320-5407). www.journalijar.com