Medicinal Plants Used By

Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine BioMed Central Research Open Access Medicinal plants used by traditional healers in Kancheepuram District of Tamil Nadu, India Chellaiah Muthu1, Muniappan Ayyanar1, Nagappan Raja2 and Savarimuthu Ignacimuthu*1 Address: 1Entomology Research Institute, Loyola College, Chennai – 600 034, India and 2Department of Applied Biology, University of Gondar, Gondar, Ethiopia Email: Chellaiah Muthu - [email protected]; Muniappan Ayyanar - [email protected]; Nagappan Raja - [email protected]; Savarimuthu Ignacimuthu* - [email protected] * Corresponding author Published: 07 October 2006 Received: 06 June 2006 Accepted: 07 October 2006 Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine 2006, 2:43 doi:10.1186/1746-4269-2-43 This article is available from: http://www.ethnobiomed.com/content/2/1/43 © 2006 Muthu et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Abstract An ethnobotanical survey was undertaken to collect information from traditional healers on the use of medicinal plants in Kancheepuram district of Tamil Nadu during October 2003 to April 2004. The indigenous knowledge of local traditional healers and the native plants used for medicinal purposes were collected through questionnaire and personal interviews during field trips. The investigation revealed that, the traditional healers used 85 species of plants distributed in 76 genera belonging to 41 families to treat various diseases. The documented medicinal plants were mostly used to cure skin diseases, poison bites, stomachache and nervous disorders. In this study the most dominant family was Euphorbiaceae and leaves were most frequently used for the treatment of diseases. This study showed that many people in the studied parts of Kancheepuram district still continue to depend on medicinal plants at least for the treatment of primary healthcare. The traditional healers are dwindling in number and there is a grave danger of traditional knowledge disappearing soon since the younger generation is not interested to carry on this tradition. Background nous knowledge through ethnobotanical studies is Plants have been used in traditional medicine for several important for the conservation and utilization of biologi- thousand years [1]. The knowledge of medicinal plants cal resources. has been accumulated in the course of many centuries based on different medicinal systems such as Ayurveda, Today according to the World Health Organization Unani and Siddha. In India, it is reported that traditional (WHO), as many as 80% of the world's people depend on healers use 2500 plant species and 100 species of plants traditional medicine for their primary healthcare needs. serve as regular sources of medicine [2]. During the last There are considerable economic benefits in the develop- few decades there has been an increasing interest in the ment of indigenous medicines and in the use of medicinal study of medicinal plants and their traditional use in dif- plants for the treatment of various diseases [8]. Due to less ferent parts of the world [3-7]. Documenting the indige- communication means, poverty, ignorance and unavaila- Page 1 of 10 (page number not for citation purposes) Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine 2006, 2:43 http://www.ethnobiomed.com/content/2/1/43 bility of modern health facilities, most people especially mostly on forests for their need and have sound knowl- rural people are still forced to practice traditional medi- edge of herbal remedies. cines for their common day ailments. Most of these people form the poorest link in the trade of medicinal plants Materials and methods [9]. A vast knowledge of how to use the plants against dif- The study area and ethnobotanical survey ferent illnesses may be expected to have accumulated in Tamil Nadu is the 11th largest state in India with a geo- areas where the use of plants is still of great importance graphical area of 130058 km2 and lies between 11° 00' to [10]. 12° 00' North latitudes and 77° 28' to 78° 50' East longi- tudes. The total forest cover Tamil Nadu is 21482 km2 In the developed countries, 25 per cent of the medical (16.52%). This includes 12,499 km2 of dense forests drugs are based on plants and their derivatives [11]. A (9.61%) and 8,963 km2 of open forests (6.91%). Of the group of World Health Organization (WHO) experts, who total forest area of Tamil Nadu, 3305 km2 are under pro- met in Congo Brazzaville in 1976, sought to define tradi- tected area (15%) which includes, 8 Wildlife sanctuaries, tional African medicine as 'the sum total of practices, 12 Bird sanctuaries, 5 National parks, 3 Biosphere reserves measures, ingredients and procedures of all kinds whether and one Tiger reserve [26]. material or not, which from time immemorial has ena- bled the African to guard against diseases, to alleviate his/ Kancheepuram district in north Tamil Nadu (Fig. 1) is her suffering and to cure him/herself' [12]. Traditional placed 19th in the forest cover with a geographical area of medical knowledge of medicinal plants and their use by 4474 Sq.kms and recorded forest in the district is 5.32% indigenous cultures are not only useful for conservation [26]. This district is situated on the northern East Coast of of cultural traditions and biodiversity but also for com- Tamil Nadu and is adjacent to Bay of Bengal and Chennai munity healthcare and drug development in the present city and is bounded in the west by Vellore and Thiruvan- and future [2]. namalai districts, in the north by Thiruvallur and Chennai districts, in the south by Villupuram district and in the Ethnobotany is not new to India because of its rich ethnic east by Bay of Bengal [27]. Paddy is the major crop culti- diversity. Jain [13] printed out that there are over 400 dif- vated in this district followed by groundnuts, sugarcane, ferent tribal and other ethnic groups in India. The tribals constitute about 7.5 percent of India's population. During the last few decades there has been an increasing interest in the study of medicinal plants and their traditional use in different parts of India and there are many reports on the use of plants in traditional healing by either tribal people or indigenous communities of India [14-21]. Apart from the tribal groups, many other forest dwellers and rural people also posses' unique knowledge about plants [13]. The objective of this study was to interact with local traditional healers and document their knowledge on medicinal plants, their usage and the types of diseases treated etc. Kancheepuram is one of the 30 districts in Tamil Nadu and the traditional healing systems are still popular here. The present-day traditional healers are very old. Due to lack of interest among the younger generation as well as their tendency to migrate to cities for lucrative jobs, wealth of knowledge in this the area is declining. So far no systematic ethnobotanical survey has been made in this area and this is the first report on the medicinal plants used by the local traditional healers. A perusal of the liter- ature reveals that, some of the ethnomedicinal works has been done in the forests of nearest districts in Tamil Nadu in the last two decades [22-25]. During the course of exploration of ethnomedicinal plants of the district, the LocationFigure 1 of the study area informations have been gathered from the healers of rural Location of the study area. villages found near forest areas where the people depend Page 2 of 10 (page number not for citation purposes) Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine 2006, 2:43 http://www.ethnobiomed.com/content/2/1/43 cereals, millets and pulses. The river Palar is one of the Results most important rivers running through the district. There The results of the survey are presented in Table 1 and the are only a few hills of considerable elevation in the district families of the plants are arranged in alphabetical order. [27]. The present investigation comprises 85 species of ethnomedicinal plants distributed in 76 genera belonging to 41 Local traditional healers families. For each species botanical name, family, local Local traditional healers having practical knowledge of name, parts used, methods of preparation, administration plants in medicine were interviewed in 12 villages of the and ailments treated are provided. Traditional healers are district during October 2003 – April 2004. During the using these plants to cure diseases related to skin prob- course of the study, four field trips were carried out in the lems, cold, fever, cough, headache, diarrhoea, fertility study area totaling 40 days. Methods of selecting inform- problems, toothache, stomach ache, wounds, diabetes, ants depended upon the distribution of local people hav- rheumatism, asthma, dysentery, small pox, bone frac- ing folk knowledge. They were requested to collect tures, earache, hair loss and poison (snake, scorpion and specimens of the plants they knew or to show the plant insect) bites (Figure 4). species on site. These informants were traditional healers themselves or had tradition of healing in their families Herbs (39 species) were found to be the most used plants and had knowledge of the medicinal use of the plants. (Figure 2) followed by trees (21 species), shrubs (14 spe- Fuel wood from the surroundings was the main energy cies) and climbers (11 species) in descending order. The source for cooking and eating. The wealth of medicinal most dominant families in the study were Euphorbiaceae plant knowledge among the people of this district is based (7 species), Verbenaceae (5 species), Caesalpiniaceae, on hundreds of years of beliefs and observations.

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