Keywords

Ethnomedicinal plants; Disease; Leukorrhea; Mucuna pruriens; Premature ejaculation; Jaundice

Introduction

Since many years, the researchers have focused on the significant use of medicinal plant materials to cure different contagious diseases throughout the world. Plant-based compounds could heal the diseases without any side effects against the use of synthetic drugs. Further, there is a modest possibility of resistance improvement with the plant materials as medicine [1,2]. According to the old century of ISM (Indian System of Medicines), there are 400 different types of plants which are in production to use as tribal, Unani, Siddha, and Ayurvedic medicines [3]. India is one of the extra-large diversity countries with around 18,000 flowering plant species owing to an extensive variety of climate and habitat, but approximately 7500 of those plants are properly documented in Indian system of medicine [4]. The extensive variety of ethnomedicinal development could be familiarized against artificial medicines intended for economic benefits, intellectual competence, and usefulness of the nation. Hence, it is necessary to develop freshness in drugs successfully [5,6]. The medicinal plants in India dwell the significant place in religious, socio-culture, and medicinal ground of the rural populace [7]. The knowledge of ethnobotany is documented in various regions of India and the confined residents have used numerous plant species and herbs as ethnomedicine with the purpose of healing the disorders of human beings [8]. Accordingly, diverse confined groups in the country especially tribal communities have experiences in different ethnomedicinal plants and they are well aware of classifying plants and their parts to treat the diverse diseases. The tribal communities have oral knowledge of medicinal plant usage and have collective economic tribulations on account of altering ecological circumstances [9,10]. Elizabeth et al [11] have carried out the significant ethnomedicinal information on polyherbal medicine for tuberculosis in five different communities in Amathole District in South Africa. They noticed that a total number of nine pyroherbal medicinal plants were collected and observed the significant medicinal value of every plant. Muniappan et al [12] carried out an ethnomedicinal survey for the enumeration of plant species in Kalakad Mundanthurai Tiger reserve, Southern Western Ghat, India. They revealed form their study that, a total number of 350 medicinal plant species were collected for healing different disease. Joydeb et al [13] carried out a field survey for the ethnomedicinal plans used by Bengali communities in Tripuri northeast, India. From their search, they have identified 93 plant species with 52 families and 83 genera. Also, they reported that 55 various diseases of human and 6 diseases of livestock could be cured. Raju et al [14] have studied the importance of folk medicine for women’s diseases used by tribal konda reddis of Andhra Pradesh, India. From their studies, 37 plant species related to 28 families were used to heal different women diseases. Aruna et al [15] studied the influence of different ethnomedicinal plants used by Jatapu women in Eastern Ghats of Andhra Pradesh, India. They have concluded that a total number of 63 traditional plants of 40 families were documented as medicine. Padal et al [16] carried out the ethnomedicinal survey in Visakhapatnam district of Kondadora tribes, India. They have collected 68 traditional medicine plant species belong to 63 genera of medicinal value. Chiranjibi et al. [17] have conducted an ethnobotanical study among the Dadayi community in Malkangiri District of Orissa, India. They have discovered that a total number of 53 ethnomedicinal plants with 34 families were documented for the healing of various diseases. The present study focused to carry the ethnomedicinal investigation on Primitive Tribal Groups of Koyyuru Mandal, Visakhapatnam District. Koyyuru is the part of Eastern Ghats in Andhra Pradesh in South India covered with dense forest. It has 136 villages with the total rural population of 50,589 (25,148 male and 25,441 female population). Apart from various literature surveys, the ethnobotanical surveys including ethno-medicine survey have not been carried out thus far in Koyyuru. Hence, the present study is carried out to collect and document different ethnomedicinal information from the Primitive Tribal Groups (PTGs).

Methods and Methology

Study region

Koyyuru Mandal (Figure 1) located between a Latitude and Longitude of 17°40′00″N and 82°14′00″E in the part of Eastern Ghats in Visakhapatnam District in South India. Vegetation of this area is a tropical dry deciduous forest [18] with an enormous ethnomedicinal plants species practicing by local tribes. In this study area, the tribal population with different communities in the vein of Bagatha, Gadaba, Goudu, Kammara, Konda Dora, Valmiki, Khonds, Kotia, Mali, Muka Dora, Porja, Jatapu, Savara, and Konda Kammara are living. Among the above tribes Kondu (T1), Nuka dora (T2), Porja (T3), Gadaba (T4) and Malis (T5) are treated as Primitive Tribal Groups. They are the oldest inhabitants of their native place. They live in confined, restricted, remote and unfriendly areas such as hills and forests. Their source of revenue is based on primitive cultivation, low level of the closed financial system with a near to the ground rank of technology. They possess a lower literacy rate and inferior health. The tribal people are habitually depending on traditional plants as medicine for their difficulties from various diseases. Further, they have developed their individual unique culture, language communication, and religious conviction.

Figure 1: Representation of field study location

Methodology

The field survey was carried out to collect different medicinal plants and the significance of ethnomedicinal plants were recorded through interviews from diverse traditional doctors and local tribal people during the period of 2018-2019 covered monsoon, pre-monsoon, and post-monsoon periods. Also, the information as regards different ways of using medicinal plants for curing the disease was gathered and instant healing of medicinal plants were collected. To get detailed information concerning the medicinal plant field works were carried out at different Villages and met different tribal traditional doctors. The data which was collected from the local tribal doctors of different villages were cross-checked and validated for the better utilization as medicine. Also, the information on different ways of using the plants and their parts as medicine from different experts in the study region. This information related to medicinal values was collected from tribal doctors, village elders, personal interviews, and group discussions included men and women of PTG. All the plats were identified up to species level using floras and literature [19-22] and all the plants were provided in Table 1 with their habit, family, local names, preparation of mode of administration, etc. Some of the important species were prepared herbarium and deposited in Andhra University Herbarium (AUH). The herbarium numbers intended for few plants namely Abrus precatorius L., Acacia chundra (Rottler) Willd, Aerva lanata (L.) Juss., Andrographis paniculata (Burm.f.) Nees, Argemone mexicana L., Argyreia nervosa (Burm. f.) Bojer, Aristolochia indica L., Buchanania lanzan Spreng., Celastrus paniculatus Willd., Chloroxylon swietenia  DC., Curcuma caesia Roxb., Dichrostachys cinerea (L.) Wight & Arn., Gloriosa superba L., Gmelina arborea Roxb., Gymnosporia montana (Roth) Benth., Mimosa pudica L. Mucuna pruriens (L.) DC., Oroxylum indicum (L.) Kurz, Pterocarpus marsupium Roxb., Solanum torvum Sw., Soymida febrifuga (Roxb.) A. Juss., Xanthium strumarium L., Xantolis tomentosa (Roxb.) Raf., and  Zingiber zerumbet (L.) Roscoe ex Sm were DCV-AUV:24001,DCV-AUV:24003, DCV-AUV:24006, DCV-AUV:24008, DCV-AUV:24011, DCV-AUV:24013,DCV-AUV:24017, DCV-AUV:24019, DCV-AUV:24022, DCV-AUV:24025, DCV-AUV:24027,DCV-AUV:24029, DCV-AUV:24031, DCV-AUV:24032, DCV-AUV:24035, DCV-AUV:24037, DCV-AUV:24038, DCV-AUV:24039, DCV-AUV:24042, DCV-AUV:24045, DCV-AUV:24046, DCV-AUV:24049, DCV-AUV:24051, and DCV-AUV:24054.

Table 1 Enumeration of medicinal plants species in Koyyuru Mandal, Visakhapatnam District, Andhra Pradesh, India.

Results

In the study area (Koyyuru Mandal), the gender sharing was 50.28% and 49.72% intended for male and female respectively, and the literacy rate was 48.83%. Numerous ethnomedicinal plants were collected through the field works during different seasons. The present result makes known that the PTGs of the study region have superior awareness of their health care by using the ethnomedicinal plant species. Based on the information available from the local tribal doctors, a total of 74 different plants of 43 families with 70 genera were collected and reported from Primitive Tribal Groups of Koyyuru mandal. The medicinal plant details with different families and its significance were depicted in Table 1. Further, a few of the pictorial plant views were made available in Figure 2. Table 2 represents the thorough information of number of plant species used by different Primitive Tribal Groups.

Figure 2: a) Abrus precatorius L., b) Acacia chundra (Rottler) Willd, c) Aerva lanata (L.) Juss., d) Andrographis paniculata(Burm.f.) Nees, e) Argemone mexicana L., f) Argyreia nervosa (Burm. f.) Bojer, g) Aristolochia indica L., h) Buchanania lanzan Spreng i) Celastrus paniculatus Willd., j) Chloroxylon swietenia DC., k) Curcuma caesia Roxb., l) Dichrostachys cinerea(L.) Wight & Arn., m) Gloriosa superbaL., n) Gmelinaarborea Roxb., o) Gymnosporia montana (Roth) Benth., p) Mimosa pudica L. q) Mucuna pruriens (L.) DC., r) Oroxylum indicum (L.) Kurz, s) Pterocarpus marsupium Roxb., t) Solanum torvum Sw., u) Soymida febrifuga (Roxb.) A. Juss., v) Xanthium strumarium L., w) Xantolis tomentosa(Roxb.) Raf., x) Zingiber zerumbet (L.) Roscoe ex Sm.

Table 2 Detailed information of number of plant species used by 5 Primitive Tribal Groups.

Discussions

Ethnomedicinal study has exposed that most of the plant species were extremely older and showed better efficacy for healing the diseases. The informants in the region of ethnomedicinal study area have used numerous plant species to cure diverse diseases with blending with a little natural additive or with other plant species. An entirely a total of 59 various diseases were treated with no side effects from the gathered 74 ethno medicinal plants. It can be perceived from the Table 1 that the Acacia, Capparis, Smilax, and Tephrosia genus were with 2 species while left over a total of 70 genera were with single species. The medicinal preparation for treating dissimilar variety of diseases were attained from bark (30% medicinal preparation), leaves (25% medicinal preparation), and root (17% medicinal preparation) of the ethnomedicinal plants. The contribution of leftover parts of the ethnomedicinal plants was not as much of bark, leaves, and roots. For the remedial of several diseases, the habitation of plant species were maximum in number with herbs (30 species) out of 74 plant species compared to trees (19 species), shrubs (8 species), and Climbers (17 species). The observation made from this analysis was that there are 43 families for plant species in which Fabaceae (11 species) has the highest occupancy and poaceae (4 species) dwell in the second maximum occupancy. Among a total of 74 ethnomedicinal plants, 53 plant species were used for a single disease, 12 plant species were for 2 diseases, 6 plant species were for 3 diseases, and 3 plant species for 4 diseases. The ethnomedicinal practice among all 5 Primitive Tribal Groups (PTGs), the utmost number of plants were used by T1 (40 Species) and T4 (40 Species) followed by T3 (39 Species), T2 (36 Species), and T5 (31 Species). The present study demonstrated superior contribution with gathering a total of 74 medicinal plants from the limited tribal people than other related investigations resembling Raju et al [14], Aruna et al [15], and Padal et.al [16].

Conclusions

The present study concludes that plenty of ethnomedicinal plants were originated in favor of healing numerous diseases with different preparations. A total number of 74 plant species with 43 families have been documented and used for healing practices associated to a total of 59 diseases. Further, an additional medicinal value was obtained for a few plant species which as tabulated in Table 1. The complete understanding of ethnomedicinal plants, quantitative analysis, and phytochemical analysis need to be carried out further as future scope.

Acknowledgment

This paper was the part of research scholar’s thesis of Ms.Chandravathi Dibba. The authors acknowledge Andhra University and Koyyuru Mandal Revenue office and local tribal people for their cooperation towards the studies.

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Funding/Support

No funding support.

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