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Ethnobotanical Study on Medicinal Plants for Dermato- Logical Disorders at Chittagong Hill Tracts, Bangladesh

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Ethnobotanical Study on Medicinal Plants for Dermato- Logical Disorders at Chittagong Hill Tracts, Bangladesh Archive of SID March 2020. Volume 6. Number 1 Original Article: Ethnobotanical Study on Medicinal Plants for Dermato- logical Disorders at Chittagong Hill Tracts, Bangladesh Shejuti Rahman Brishty1,2 , Nurul Islam Setu3, Md. Rafi Anwar4*, Raunak Jahan5, M.M.K. Mia6 , Mohammad Fahim Kadir4,7, Md. Rabiul Islam2,4* 1. Department of Neuroscience, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden. 2. Department of Clinical Pharmacy and Pharmacology, University of Dhaka, Dhaka, Bangladesh. 3. Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, University of Dhaka, Dhaka, Bangladesh. 4. Department of Pharmacy, University of Asia Pacific, Dhaka, Bangladesh. 5. Sinhgad Institute of Pharmacy, University of Pune, Pune, India. 6. Former Principal Scientific Officer and Consultant, Bangladesh National Herbarium, Dhaka, Bangladesh. 7. Department of Pharmacology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK. * Corresponding Author: Md. Rabiul Islam, PhD. Address: Department of Pharmacy, University of Asia Pacific, Dhaka, Bangladesh. Phone: +880 (19) 16031831 E-mail: [email protected] Copyright© 2019, ASP Ins. This open- A B S T R A C T access article is published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution- NonCommercial 4.0 International License which permits Share (copy and redistribute Background: Dermatological disorders affect people in all age groups and prevail all around the material in any medium or format) and Adapt (remix, transform, and build the globe. In this regard, medicinal plants play a significant role as they are usually the first line upon the material) under the Attribution- of treatment in dermatological disorders. Because traditional healers in Bangladesh know little NonCommercial terms. about the use of plants to treat different skin diseases, we carried out an ethnobotanical survey of medicinal plants in the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) to explore the traditional uses for healing wounds and skin problems. Objectives: This study aimed to list the plants employed as remedies against various Article info: dermatological disorders in CHT. Received: 04 Dec 2019 Methods: The survey was performed from January 2016 to December 2017 with fieldwork Accepted: 01 Jan 2020 undertaken in CHT of Rangamati, Bandarban, and Khagrachari. Open-ended and semi-structured questionnaires were used for interviewing a total of 387 people comprising traditional healers, Ayurvedic/Unani drug manufacturers, and local inhabitants. A total of 56 plant species of 32 families were documented. The most frequently used plant parts were leaves. The majority of the species were shrub in nature, while paste represented their main mode of drug preparation. Most Keywords: plants grew wild in forests, with some cultivated in homestead and gardens. Bangladesh, Results: There was remarkable diversity in the doses of different plant preparations for various Ethnobotanical survey, treatments. The presence of identified active compounds can rationalize the conventional use of Dermatological disorders, many plants to treat dermatological disorders in Bangladesh. Medicinal plants, Conclusion: This documentation accounts for the preliminary information necessary to perform Traditional healers future phytochemical investigations and is vital for the conservation of these plants. Citation Rahman Brishty S, Islam Setu N, Rafi Anwar M, Jahan R, Mia M, Fahim Kadir M, Rabiul Islam M. Ethnobotanical Study on Medicinal Plants for Dermatological Disorders at Chittagong Hill Tracts, Bangladesh. Pharmaceutical and Biomedical Research. 2020; 6(1):61-90. www.SID.ir 61 Archive March 2020. Volumeof SID 6. Number 1 Introduction made hazards, and migrations of traditional medicinal heal- ers to different jobs [13]. Besides, the knowledge of tra- erbal plants have long been used as medi- ditional therapeutic practice has been passed only verbally cations in all cultures around the globe [1]. from one generation to the other [14], and the written docu- The use of Traditional Medicine (TM) has ments are unavailable in most cases[15, 16]. expanded globally during the last decade H and continued to gain popularity. TM has Skin diseases are general disorders that affect people from been used not only in developing countries for primary all age groups and produce damages in various ways [17]. health care of the poor but also in countries where conven- It is difficult to define skin diseases precisely since they- in tional medicine is the predominant practice in the national clude a wide range of different disorders. Their prevalence health care system [2]. According to one study, about two- rates are influenced by nutrition, habits, genetics, and so- thirds of the world population relies on medicinal plants for cioeconomic status of a particular community [18]. The treating a variety of illnesses [3, 4]. growing proportion of dermatological diseases encountered in general practice causes a significant part of morbidity in Despite being more effective than phytomedicines, syn- children; however, little information is available about the thetic drugs and antibiotics often come along with unavoid- frequency of specific skin diseases. Although the overall in- able side effects and high prices. Moreover, because of the cidence rate of all diseases combined has decreased in gen- historical and cultural biases prevailing among people, syn- eral practice, the incidence rates of the bacterial, mycotic, thetic drugs still have limited usage in different parts of the and atopic skin diseases have increased [19]. world, especially in the rural areas of developing countries. Consequently, the researchers have accelerated their quest Transmissible skin diseases are major public health prob- to explore new drugs from natural sources in recent years lems in many developing countries like Bangladesh. Lack [5]. The study of medicinal plants and their traditional uses of proper hygiene and basic amenities, and especially the has increased during the last few decades in different parts difficulty of traveling to distant health care facilities in of the world [6]. Plants are extensively being studied to hilly terrains, are the major risk factors of dermatological identify the phytochemicals and lead compounds respon- diseases [20]. Herbal plants are considered as the first line sible for their pharmacological and therapeutic efficacy. In of treatment against skin disorders in many rural areas of this regard, ethnobotanical surveys of medicinal plants have Bangladesh. According to the literature, some ethnobotani- made essential contributions to the discovery and conserva- cal studies have already been performed on dermatologi- tion of novel biological resources [7, 8]. cal diseases in the country [21-25]. However, these studies have not covered the areas, which we have specifically fo- Bangladesh is a country gifted with a rich plant diversity cused on our research. Our research is the first to document because of its various environmental conditions such as the plants used for treating dermatological diseases in some warm and humid climate and fertile alluvial land. About particular hilly regions located in CHT of Bangladesh. Be- 6000 species of indigenous and naturalized plants grow cause of the diversity of dermatological disorders, we at- in the country [9], among which more than 1000 species tempted to focus on those disorders which are found to be contain medicinally active chemical substances [10]. Chit- treated by the preparations of the documented plants in our tagong Hill Tracts (CHT) is the only extensive hilly region survey. The most prominent disorders include boils, ecze- of Bangladesh located in the southeastern part. Known as ma, bruise, itching, sore on different areas of the body (such a land of splendid natural beauty with landscape, lakes, as mouth, throat, tongue, and foot), dandruff, acne, scabies, and rivers, the area has hills and cliffs covered with dense scurvy, chickenpox, measles, leprosy, and skin ulcer. Apart jungles of bamboo, shrubs, and creepers harboring an abun- from documenting the plants, our study aimed to provide dance of floral species[9] . The tribal and other native com- relevant information about the plants and their potential ap- munities are mainly dependent on traditional medicinal plications in novel drug discovery. healers for treating different ailments. Materials and Methods Local inhabitants hold a strong belief in the healing prop- erties of herbal medicine. A large portion of the population Study area are deprived of modern medical facilities. This condition has also contributed to their dependence on TM [11, 12]. CHT, with an area of about 13184 km2, is bordered by Unfortunately, medicinal plants and the abundant knowl- Myanmar to the southeast, the Tripura state of India to the edge associated with them are facing the risk of serious loss north, Mizoram state of India to the east, and Chittagong owing to aberrant climate, deforestation and other human- district of Bangladesh to the west. It is situated between www.SID.ir 62 Rahman Brishty S, et al. Study on Medicinal Plants for Dermatological Disorders PBR. 2020; 6(1):61-90. Archive of SID March 2020. Volume 6. Number 1 21°25'N to 23°45'N and 91°54'E to 92°50'E [9, 26]. Tropi- Sampling of informants cal monsoon climate prevails in the region with an aver- age annual rainfall of 2540 mm in the north and east, and The ethnomedicinal survey was conducted between Janu- 2540 mm to 3810 mm in the south and west. The hills soils, ary 2016 to December 2017, and the aim was to cover at characterized by strongly acidic nature,
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