Diversity of Unani Medicinal Plants in Chamarajanagar Wildlife Division Karnataka, India
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IJISET - International Journal of Innovative Science, Engineering & Technology, Vol. 2 Issue 1, January 2015. www.ijiset.com ISSN 2348 – 7968 Diversity of Unani Medicinal Plants in Chamarajanagar Wildlife Division Karnataka, India 1 1 1 2 P R.P Murugeswaran, P K.P Venkatesan, T. Shahida Begum P PandP AminuddinP 1 P RegionalP Research Institute of Unani Medicine, 1, West Mada Church Road, Royapuram, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India-600013. 2 P CentralP Council for Research in Unani Medicine,Dept.of AYUSH, Janakpuri, New Delhi, India-110058 AbstractU The principal source of drugs in Unani system of medicine is plant origin drugs and the Unani system of medicine owes its origin in Greece and it was developed by Arabs in to an elaborated medical sciences. A survey was conducted to study the diversity and status of Unani medicinal plants in the forest areas of Chamarajanagar Wild life division, Chamarajanagar District, Karnataka. The present paper deals with the 119 numbers of the Unani medicinal plants of 105 genera belonging to 60 families. Based on the distribution status of the Unani medicinal plants it is categorized as common, common and cultivated, vulnerable, rare, sporadic, and endangered. Those plants falls under the vulnerable, rare and endangered category are recommended for germplasom collection and to take up cultivation and propagation activities through modern agronomical techniques. Further the extensive field studies may also help to the discovery of new plant species used in the Unani system of medicine for the betterment of health care needs. Key words: Unani System, Medicinal Plants, Diversity, Karnataka Email: Corresponding author: [email protected] U31T 1. Introduction Unani system of medicine is developed throughout the India which is 95% based on plant origin drugs. Globally about 85% of the traditional medicines used for primary health care problems are derived from plants. Traditional medicine and ethno botanical information’s play an important role in plant science research. Herbal medicine is still practiced about 75 - 80% of the world population mainly in the developing countries for their primary health care needs [1]. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the use of herbal remedies throughout the world exceeds that of the conventional drugs by two to 22 IJISET - International Journal of Innovative Science, Engineering & Technology, Vol. 2 Issue 1, January 2015. www.ijiset.com ISSN 2348 – 7968 three times [2]. Many conventional drugs originated from plant sources a century ago and most of the few effective drugs were plant based formulations which includes aspirin from willow bark, digoxin from foxglove, quinine from cinchona bark, and morphine from the opium [3]. Traditional preparations comprise medicinal plants, minerals and organic matter etc. The wide spread use of herbal medicine is not restricted to developing countries as it has been estimated that 70% of all doctors of modern medicine in France and German regularly prescribe herbal medicine for the treatment of various ailments [4]. The biodiversity of the Unani herbs are concern it is differs place to place depends on the climatic conditions and vegetation patterns. The diversity of vegetation in Indian forests have decreased considerably over the few decades due to various human intervention [5]. About 86% of the tropical forest areas are recorded in India in which 54% are classified as dry deciduous and 37% as most as moist deciduous [6-7]. The current rate of deforestation with the concurrent loss of biodiversity there is a need for accurate documentation of the knowledge and experience of the traditional knowledge [8]. Ethno botany is another important aspect which leads to the new drug discovery and gained a momentum in the recent past and such studies have revealed vast traditional knowledge available among the tribal [9]. Some of the studies related to ethno botany and floristic diversity have been reported from Karnataka state [6-7, 10-18]. The Central Council for Research in Unani Medicine, New Delhi is continuously involved in ethno-botanical surveys through Survey and Cultivation of Medicinal Plants Programme by its Regional Research Institutes throughout India particularly tribal dominated areas of Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Bihar, Jammu & Kashmir, Madhya Predesh, Karnataka and Utter Pradesh. Accordingly the Southern Western Ghats region of Coimbatore district, Tamil Nadu was surveyed to study the diversity and status of Unani Medicinal Plants and to carry out the research activities in the clinical research and drug standardization research of the Unani system of medicine. There is no previous report in the record of ethno botanical knowledge from Soligars tribal of Chamrajnagr district, Karnataka and the researchers of the Regional Research Institute of Unani Medicine, Chennai were made a pioneer attempt to conduct an ethno botanical study and to analyze the diversity status of the Unani medicinal plants in Chamarajanagar district, Karnataka. 23 IJISET - International Journal of Innovative Science, Engineering & Technology, Vol. 2 Issue 1, January 2015. www.ijiset.com ISSN 2348 – 7968 Map of the Study Area 1.1 Study Area and Topography Chamarajanagar district is the southernmost district in the state of Karnataka lies on the border of Kerala and Tamil Nadu. The altitude is about 662 mts above sea level. It is lies between the North latitude 11 40 58 and 12 06 32 and East longitude 76 24 14 and 77 46 55.It falls in the Southern dry zone. Topography is undulating and mountainous with north southtrening hill ranges of Eastern Ghats. It is surrounded in east by Salem and Coimbatore District of Tamil Nadu, in North by Mandya and Bangalore district of Karnataka, in the west by part of Mysore district and Kerala State and in South by Nilgiris district, Tamil Nadu. Total forest areas in the district is 48.36% of the total geographical area. Chamarajanagardistrict was earlier known as Arikottara but latter in the remembrance of birth place of the Chamaraja Wodeyar the king of Mysooru this place was renamed as Chamarajanagar District. The climate of the Chamarajanagar district is fairly hot summer and cold winter. March-to May is the summer months where the maximum temperature reaches from 32.6-34 C. June-September is the Southwest monsoon period and receives annual rain fall about 750-900 MM. 1.2 Chamarajanagar Wildife Division Chamarajanagar wildlife division is consisting of 6 forest ranges which is Chamarajanagr Range, Yelandur Range, Kollegal Range, Bylore Range and K.Gudi range. 24 IJISET - International Journal of Innovative Science, Engineering & Technology, Vol. 2 Issue 1, January 2015. www.ijiset.com ISSN 2348 – 7968 The Chamarajanagar district has different types of forest vegetation’s such as ever green forests, shoal forests, dry deciduous forests, and scrub jungles. The Biligirim Ranganna betta hills (BR Hills) run east from the Western Ghats to the river caveri forms a forest ecological corridor that connects the Eastern Ghats and Western Ghats. The tribal community called Soligas is settled in different places of the district. About 31 forest areas and 52 tribal settlements are located in the district, particularly B R T Hills in Bylore Range, Elanthur Range, Puninjur Range and K Gudi Range are the demarcated areas of tribal populations. 1.3 Forest Ranges/Areas surveyed Sl. Range Forest areas No 1 Bylore Mangikarai RF., Nellikathiri RF and Thodasambuge forest areas. Soranavathi dam,Chamarajanagar-Gundalpet slope, 2 Chamarajanagar Chamarajanagar- Mysre slopes, Kodimoli and onganur forest areas Arapalaya, Todasambuge RF, Onnametti,Kapparibettaand 3 Kollegal forest areas. BRT Hills, MPC, Mulkibetta, Thoomanathatha, Purana, Kullur and 4 Yelandur Kolipalayam forest area. 5 Punjur Bettakalli and Amara beat forest area R T Hills, Nellur, K Gudi lower slope, Ondrabal colony, Nagavalli, 6 K.Gudi Sungudipura, Bharachakki falls forest area. 1.4 OBJECTIVES 1. To know the diversity and status of Unani Medicinal Plants of Chamarajanagar District, Karnataka. 2. Documentation of herbarium and raw drugs used in the Unani system of medicine. 3. Documentation of Ethno-botanical information of the study area. 4. Cultivation, conservation and propagation of rare and threatened plant species used in the Unani system of Medicine. 2. Methodology Two multiday survey tour programme was conducted in different seasons at Chamarajanagar district forest divisions of Karnataka, during the year 2009-2010. About 31 forest areas belong to 4 forest ranges were surveyed. During the field study about300 species of plant specimens have been collected and identified. Among this 119 species of Unani 25 IJISET - International Journal of Innovative Science, Engineering & Technology, Vol. 2 Issue 1, January 2015. www.ijiset.com ISSN 2348 – 7968 medicinal plants were identified and documented. The botanical identity of all the plant species are identified through modern floras [19-26]. and conformed at Botanical survey of India, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu. The plants are arranged alphabetically according to their botanical nameswithcollection number, followed by family, Unani name, habit and their status were described based on their occurrence in the nature (Table-I). The voucher specimens are deposited at the herbarium of the Survey of Medicinal Plants Unit (SMPU), Regional Research Institute of Unani Medicine (RRIUM), Chennai, Tamil Nadu. 3. Result and Conclusion In the present study 119 Unani medicinal plants were collected from Chamarajanagar