SYSTEMATIC DOCUMENTATION OF TRADITIONAL KNOWLEDGE ON FUNGUS INFECTED ETHNOMEDICINALLY IMPORTANT PLANTS USED BY KANI TRIBES OF KERALA

Traditional Knowledge associated with biodiversity is a living body of functional knowledge system and the same is getting eroded rapidly because of the changing lifestyles of the people. The systematic documentation of traditional knowledge related to ethnobotanically important plants deserves utmost importance, and it appears this is particularly true with fungus infected plants. Based on the aforementioned issue, the major lines of work under taken in this investigation were a) Systematically Documented Traditional Knowledge related to fungus infected ethnobotanically important plants used by the Kani Tribes of Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, India b) Data accrued through the documentation were subjected to analysis for scientific validation. The study resulted in the systematic documentation of 114 formulations prepared using 74 fungus infected ethnomedicinal plants being used by Kani tribes. Also documented 101 fungal species infecting on 74 ethnomedicinally important plant species. Statistical analysis and the relative frequency of citation, informant consensus factor, usage value of plant taxa etc were also calculated. The findings indicated a general agreement for the treatment among the tribal people and also exemplifies the utility of fungus infected ethnomedicinal plants in the development of novel drugs. This information would also be of much avail for the preservation of the traditional knowledge and also provides a baseline information for the development of novel drug. The present investigation concluded in such a way that the tribal claims documented would serve as a lead which often play a key role in the drug discovery and designing of novel drugs