Medicinal Plant Knowledge and Ethnomedicinal uses of Tribal People of Niyamagiri Hill, Kalahandi District, Odisha, India

Background: The current study was prepared to collect the ethnomedicinal data from tribal peoples of Niyamagiri hill region of Kalahandi district, Odisha, India. The Tribals of this region have been using medicinal plants to treat various kinds of diseases since time immemorial.

Methods: The aim and objective were to record the information on medicinal uses of plants by leading healers by taking interviews and recording the comprehensive knowledge about the medicinal properties of different plants with the snowball technique and sampling method. Plants were recognized by the local practitioner also known as Kabi Raja or Vaidya, in the forest floor and were classified botanically.

Results: The present study recorded the use of different parts of 150 plant species belonging to 131 genera of 78, unlike flowering plant families, against various diseases, with special reference to diarrhoea, dysentery, cold, cough, piles and fever. The practitioners use these plants to treat kinds of ailments like asthma, skin diseases, piles, constipation, diabetes, fever, cough, toothache, wound healing, headache, infertility in women, mouth ulcer, stomach disorder, indigestion, insect bites, ring worms, thirst, eczema, dysentery and diarrhoea. All these medicinal plants are used as healing sources as modern medical facilities are far away from them. All these plants have a different climatic zone that helps them grow, specifically in the hilly forest of the district. The current record of ethnomedicinal data specified that the backward and tribal local people commonly used plants for the treatment of diarrhoea and dysentery are A. salvifolium, A. spinosus, A. paeoniifolius, A. paniculata, B. acutangula, B. purpuria, B. malabarium, B. pinnatum, B. lanzan, C. arborea, C. fistula. For cold and cough the plants are A. indica, A. sativum , A. galanagal, A. mexicana, A. integrifolia, B. acutangula, B. campestris, B. pinnatum.

Conclusion: The present study consists of 150 plants species were collected from Niyamagiri hill region of Kalahandi district, Odisha. All plants are rich in different medicinal properties like healing, therapeutic properties. It is found that still a large number of tribal people are using their traditional knowledge and culture and have adopted herbal therapy for most of the diseases because of strong belief on the local practitioners. They use medicinal plants so intelligently with knowing their medicinal properties, their preparation, their storage and how to administer different dose with great efficiency against kinds of ailment. Due to modernization, population growth and cutting down of trees the Niyamagiri hill is losing its rich diversity of medicinal plants frequently, which is a matter of concern. This concern need to be resolved with proper management and conservation of medicinal plants of Niyamagiri hill region of kalahandi district.