RESEARCH ARTICLE

Medicinal Plant Diversity in Gariyaband District of Chhattisgarh

Omkumari Sahu¹, Bharti Sahu², Andrea Kolla²*

¹Department of Botany, Seth Phool Chand Agrawal Smriti College, Navapara, Rajim, Chhattisgarh

²Department of Biotechnology, Seth Phool Chand Agrawal Smriti College, Navapara, Rajim, Chhattisgarh

*Corresponding Author Email: annpereira@gmail.com

Introduction

The state of Chhattisgarh is classified as a part of the Deccan bio-geographical area which covers 44.21% forest and has important and rich biological diversity, which is rich in flora. The state has a large number of natural resources and endemic plants with vast medicinal properties. Gariyaband district in Chhattisgarh consists of 50.41% forests. The total land area of the Gariyaband district is 5822.94sq. kms with forest in 2935.8 sq. km. area. The forests of Gariyaband district are tropical deciduous classified into Teak forest (0.37%), Saal forest (22.66%), and mixed forest (54.51%). The district is situated in the south east of Chhattisgarh. Gariyaband forests have a rich diversity of medicinal plants. The tribes of this region use plants as medicine to treat various diseases since long and are still dependent on plants for primary health security. As this knowledge of plant use is precious for mankind hence, before losing this valuable heritage of knowledge, it requires instant attention for documentation. Chhattisgarh state, with a rich traditional knowledge of medicinal plants, has many plant species that are as a source of herbal medicines also has a vast diversity of floral and faunal species (Patel 2012). Forests and their goods have played an important role in the everyday lives of the locals since ancient times .The forest provides essential drugs and medicines for treatment of various diseases, in addition to fulfilling basic human needs of food, shelter, and clothes. Medicinal plants represent the most ancient form of medication, used for thousands of years in traditional medicine in many countries around the world. The empirical knowledge about their beneficial effects was transmitted over the centuries with in human communities (Bargali and Shrivastava 2002). India is a world’s botanical garden and a great source of well-documented and traditionally used herbal medicine knowledge (Savithramma et al. 2016). People have established their conventional methods of disease diagnosis and treatment by trial and error, and this record from the nearby forest fulfill their basic requirement. It has become an important way of accumulating rich information on medicinal plants and the use of other natural resources as a result of this long experience and practice (Sharma 2010). People living in rural areas have more practice in using and sustaining plants for diverse economic value. Tribals use both cultivated and wild plant species in their daily lives, according to their knowledge and needs, and contribute to plan conservation (Patel 2014). India is a habitat for medicinal and aromatic plants, with a wide range of species. Herbal medicines are in high demand around the world due to their low side effects and high promise (Naidu et al. 2014). Natural resources are threatened by this increase in demand. The amount of knowledge about medicinal plants is vast, but if it is not quickly gathered and preserved, it is likely to be lost to future generations (Maroyi 2011). In light of the above knowledge, the present work of documentation of such indigenous knowledge was done to conserve it for the future generations.

Material and Method

Result and Discussion

The people of Gariyaband district have a lot of faith in their traditional method of treatment. The medicinal plants are a primary health care source for them. In the present study 51 medicinal plants are reported, which are listed and classified based on habitat (Table 1).The habitat wise distribution of the reported 51 medicinal plants indicate 29.5% shrubs, 59.2% trees and 18% herbs (Figure 1) of the 51 some of the commonly used plants are Karanj, Harra, Amrud, Bahra, Sonapatti, Mahua, Karonda, Bhui amla and Kamini (Figure 2) (Patel 2014). Some of the medicinal plants and their use in ancient and tribal medicine are as follows: Datura is used to treat Asthma, Respiratory Problems, and Toothache. Karanj is used as a laxative, to treat skin ailments, hemorrhoids and leprosy. Mahua is used to treat intestinal worms, respiratory infections, dental problems, and diabetes.

In these regions whenever a tribal person falls ill he/she goes to a village healer who treats them with natural medicine from plants based on their symptoms,  if they are not cured they then visit another Village healer and further if he is not cured they then refer to the nearby Hospital or Dispensary. These tribes in these regions are still very dependent on their traditional method of treatment from plants as their primary healthcare source (Jadhav 2008). Since the tribes are not exposed or rather do not have access and faith to the modern health facilities; they rely on their traditional knowledge of medicinal plants available in and around their vicinity. Due to their lack of interest, like communication gap and superstitious beliefs and various other issues they hesitate to share their knowledge and information of traditional medicines. We need to encourage them for access to better medical facilities, to help them to improve their lifestyle and to trust us in order to share their precious knowledge of traditional medicine with us; otherwise in a few years all information and knowledge on regional traditional medicine will be soon lost due to lack of literature recorded and its documentation.

Figure 1: Habitat-wise distribution of Medicinal Plants in Gariyaband district

Table 1: Medicinal plants of Gariyaband district classified based on habitat.

Figure 2: Medicinal plants in Gariyaband district