Full Length Research Paper - International Research Journal of Plant Science ( 2021) Volume 12, Issue 1
, DOI: 10.14303/irjps.2021.003
An ethnobotanical study was performed from Oct 2017 to Dec 2018 to investigate the diversity of medicinal plants growing in New Raipur also known as Atal Nagar 30 km away from the city of Raipur, Chhattisgarh, India. The ethnobotanical study was carried out by using semi-structured interview in which participatory rural appraisal (PRA) and Rapid rural appraisal methods used to obtain ethnobotanical knowledge of plants of their surrounding form local tribes. The quantitative data were also analyzed by the relative frequency of citation, use value and informant consensus factor. The present paper reports 103 medicinal plants belonging to 90 genera representing 40 families. These plants are used by local people to treat different ailments including diabetic, itching, purifying blood, toothache, asthma, fever, low pressure, ulcer and urinary discharge and many other diseases. The highest relative frequency of citation (RFC) was recorded for Ficus religiosa (0.92), Ziziphus marutiana (0.92) followed by Ocimum sanctum (0.90), Murraya koenigii (0.89), Withania somnifera (0.88) and Tinospora cordifolia (0.84). The highest use value recorded for Moringa oleifera (1.78) followed by Ocimum sanctum (1.75), Murraya koenigii (1.62), Punica granatum (1.56) and Mangifera indica (1.55) Highest Informant Consensus Factor (ICF) was recorded for the gastro-intestinal disorder ailment category. Present study provides useful information about vegetation and its therapeutic uses of different communities residing in different villages of Atal Nagar. This study is based on data obtained from survey, field trip and discussion with traditional medicinal practitioner.
Ethnobotanical study, Medicinal properties, Tribal uses, Conservation, Atal Nagar region.
India is very rich in plant biodiversity. India is a home of 7284 species of algae, 14883 species of fungi, and 2523 species of bryophytes, 1267 species of pteridophytes, 74 species of gymnosperm and 18043 species of angiosperm (Chapman, 2009; Singh et al., 2014). A wide variety of plant diversity is found in India. The total forest cover of India is 708,273 km2, which is 21.54 percent of the total area of the country, according to the India Report. Chhattisgarh is also rich in plant vegetation. According to the Indian state of forest report-2018 Chhattisgarh has 55,547 km2 forest cover which is 41.33% of total geographical area of the state. Due of occurrence of numbers of medicinal plants and herbs in Chhattisgarh, it is also known as herbal state. In various part of Chhattisgarh ethnobotanical survey conducted to diagnose vegetation diversity and uses of plant. The ancient medicine system treating human diseases by using plants popularly known as Ayurveda appeared and developed between 2500 and 500 BC in India. (Subhose et al., 2005). According to World Health Organization (WHO), about 80% of the world population still uses herbs and other traditional medicines for their primary health care needs. (Alok, 2015; Yadav, 2008) Ethnobotanical studies are very popular and accepted worldwide. It does provide input to researcher to diagnose unknown medicinal property. In India villagers and tribes believe in their indigenous uses of plants. Several plants are utilized to cure numbers of diseases. In Ayurveda which is ancient medicine book of India based upon the uses of medicinal Plants. There are several technique described regarding use of plants. These techniques are Ras (plant or plant part juice), Choorna (powder of plant part), Quath (decoction of plant or plant parts), Awaleh (plant and its part boiled in milk and clarified butter), Asav (decoction of plant part with jeggary or honey kept in a pot for fermentation). Most of the tribes more or less use this technique to cure diseases. Above all system of traditional medicine arise or developed from the Ayuveda in India (Rao, 1987)
Ethnobotany and ethnopharmacology are important field to discover new drug and medicine which can be used to treat variety of ailments and diseases. Ethnopharmacology was properly explained as “the interdisciplinary scientific exploration of biological active agents traditionally employed or observed by man” (Holmsted and Bruhn, 1983). Another definition was provided by (Etkin & Elisabetsky 2005): “By one, compelling logic, ethno- (Gr.culture or people) pharmacology (Gr.drug) is about the intersection of medical ethnography and the biology of therapeutic action.” Based on the previous definitions, ethnopharmacology can be seen as the study of traditionally used, biologically active natural products, with the aim of understanding their therapeutic actions”. According to (Sofowora, 1996) approximately 60-85% of population of developing country is using traditional medicine for the cure of their health problem at primary level because of limited health care facility. Chhattisgarh is also one of the states with limited health care facilities. Chhattisgarh is not only home for various herbs but also different ethnic communities residing here. This combination is evolving various home remedies and traditional medicinal uses of plants. Instead of this limited and small scale ethnobotnical study has performed in this area performed by (Vinodia et al 2019; Madharia et,al 2018; Hussain et al 2017).
Herbal base medicine have been basis for the cure of various diseases and physiological condition in Ayurveda, Unani, and Siddha Ayurveda, Unani, and Siddha by exploiting the traditional methods practiced. The aim of present study to prepare inventory of medicinal property and to derive ethnobotanical knowledge within different communities residing in the different villages of Atal Nagar Raipur district.
Study area
Atal Nagar is newly formed city that touch its boundary Raipur, Arang, Mahasamund, Rajim and Abhanpur. Atal Nagar has an area of about 80 km2 which includes a total of 41 villages out of which 27 villages form the core of Atal Nagar (Figure 1).
Figure 1. Map of Study Area (Atal Nagar) Sources: maps of India and Naya Raipur Development authority.
Atal Nagar has a warm environment; impact can be clearly seen on the type of vegetation growing in this area. Generally summer starts from the month of March and remains till the month of July. June is mostly recorded the hottest month of the year. In these days temperature has reached around 48- 50 °C. At the mid of July to mid of September rainy season occur. The city receives about 1,300 millimeters (51 inches) of rain annually, mostly in the monsoon season from late June to early October. Winters last from November to January and are mild, although lows can fall to 15 °C. The geographic location of Atal Nagar is 21.1650° N latitude, and 81.7753° E longitude. City is divided into many sectors. The plants have been collected from various locality of Atal Nagar including Sector-1 to sector-40. Several villages of Atal Nagar had been covered in this study. All type of plants (aquatic, terrestrial) is observed in this category. Medicinal plants were recorded in several villages including Rakhi, Nawagaon, Uparwara, Jhanjh, Khapri, Cheriya, Pauta, Kurru, Pachera, Palaud, Kotni, Parsada, Chatauna, Nawagaon, Riko, Chicha, Barauda, Kendriya, Kuhera, Kotrabhata, Tuta, Tendua, Khandwa. The whole area has limited healthcare facility and Outdoor patient department facility such as no orthopedic surgeon had available in this area to treat bone related problem. Most of the healthcare facilities available in this area are almost closed at 4:00PM so therefore, due to the lack of emergency medical services, local residents have two options, and either goes to hospitals in Raipur, which is thirty kilometers away, or trusts the herbal medicinal practitioner or home remedies near them. In the absence of a critical medical condition, he believes more on these home remedies and traditional medicinal practitioner for getting immediate treatment. People of different ethnic groups believe that this treatment based on Ayurvedic method is more effective than allopathic medicines. Numbers of ethnic community such as kewat urav, paharikorba, gaud, baiga are residing here. No previous study has concluded in this area so it is important to note down ethnic uses of different community residing here. The present study aims to identify and prepare an inventory of various medicinal plant species used by the villagers of Atal Nagar area to cure their various ailments.
Collection of plants
The plant species were collected, and herbarium specimens were prepared by pressing with the help of herbarium press and drying in the field using a natural drying technique (Forman and Bridson 1989) with some modification. All the plant species were recorded and deposited in Herbarium of Kalinga University for future references and studies. Several field visit done by author to record data with his assistant staff and students. During field visit certain plant species which are known to be threatened were also being cultivated in Botanical Garden of Kalinga University.
Questionnaire
Author had discussed uses of many medicinal plants to the local people and traditional medicinal practitioner. Total 37 male respondents who were working as a traditional healer and medicinal practitioner in their respected societies and tribes, participated in the interview, their answer recorded by author carefully. The entire practitioner belongs to age group of 30 to 75 years. Out of 37 respondents, 15 have completed their graduation 8 have completed matriculation and 14 only completed their primary schooling. Maximum numbers of informants were participated in interviews belong to Paharikorba communities (17) followed by Gaud (9), Baiga (7) and Madiya communities (4). Numbers of medicinal plants were recorded in this region and documentation has been done by author. The method used for ethnobotanical data collection were semi- structured interviews as described by (Cotton, 1996) field observation, preference ranking and direct-matrix ranking according to (Alexiades, 1996). The questionnaire were prepared according to the works of (Bussmann et al., 2006; Yineger et al., 2007; Holroyd et al., 2008; Rokaya et al., 2010 and Wodah et al., 2012). Questionnaire is based upon the usage of plants parts, type of diseases in which the plants are being using, seriousness and condition of diseases, method of making drug, dosage, and time required to treat diseases. All the answers regarding local name, mode of usage, method to treat diseases were recorded carefully. Inventory prepared according to the (Tripathi et al., 2013). Observation table was prepared according to (Bala, 2016) with slight modification
Identification
Plant species were identified on the basis of morphology and taxonomic characters. The identities of several plants were confirmed by experts from various institutions. Anatomical sections were also taken to confirm species identity. Voucher specimens were deposited in herbarium of Kalinga University for future reference.
Relative frequency of citation (RFC):
The relative frequency of citation RFC was used to evaluate the relative importance of plant species cited by respondents or informants. Its higher value show the local acceptance of that particular medicinal plant Calculated by formula used by previous investigators (Shaheen et al., 2017; Pradhan et al., 2020) and by the following formula.
RFC= FC/N
Where FC is the number of informants reporting the ethnomedicinal use of a particular plant and N is total number of informants participated in study.
Informant Consensus Factor (ICF):
(Heinrich et al., 1998) was calculated using the following formula:
IFC=Nur−Nt/ (Nur−1)
Where, “Nur” refers to the total number of use reports for each disease cluster and “Nt” refers the total number of species used for that cluster. This formula was used to find out the homogeneity in the ethnomedicinal information documented from the traditional informants.
Use Value:
The use value of plant indicated how particular remedies are being in practice in that particular. Higher use value also indicates how particular community is familiar with medicinal property of plant. (Rokaya et al., 2010) for particular plant species to measure the importance of individual plant species by using the following formula
UV= /n
Where V is the number of use report (use report indicate the number of medicinal properties a particular plant)
Prior informed consent
Author met the local authorities introduced the purpose and objectives of study with the local people, authorities, and relevant stakeholders of RM (rural municipality) of different villages and authorities of Atal Nagar. Preliminary informed consent about the documentation and dissemination of local knowledge of ethnobotanical uses of plant species was taken from all participants who were involved in PRA and RRA participatory interviews and discussions. As per the respondents’ request, their name and the doses of plant extract preparation for medication were kept confidential (Figures 2,3 and 4).
Figure 2. Distribution of Families.
Figure 3. Distribution of Habit.
Figure 4. Distribution of mode of preparation.
The present study suggests that 45 villages in the border of Atal Nagar are using plants for medical purposes even today. They are still dependent on plants for common and immediate health problems and are curing various diseases with the help of plants growing around them. He has information about various plants used for the treatment of various diseases as well as the nature of plants and their cultivation, although this method is slowly ending due to the availability and reliability of modern hospitals, hence the village. The medical properties of these plants were highly known by the elders of the country, it is not only a matter of concern that the new generation does not have relatively information. The aim of the present study is to overcome this problem and to preserve information about the medical properties of plants for the future. Along with this, the problem was also underlined that the information related to the therapeutic properties of plants was not being transferred sequentially from one generation to another, due to which it was very likely that gradually this method is decreasing day by day. Therefore, the importance of this study increases even more. In the course of his study, the author found that many plants which were used by local residents to cook food and greens in addition to the works of the doctor, in most cases use the Leaves of these plants and the dish prepared in local language is called “bhaji”. It is believed that this vegetable is very nutritious and healthy for them, although work is yet to be done in this direction. Definitely, the amount of nutrients and importance of these plants should be researched by the researchers. In the meantime the author was also found that the local residents were using many plants for the treatment of diseases, but due to lack of systematic information and lack of proper information about the conservation method, many plants may become extinct from this place in future. The author also saw many gardens located in the villages, but those were the main plants which the villagers were using as vegetable greens. During his travels, the author also told the villagers about plant protection and crisis prone plants and shared their ideas about how to use them while minimizing damage to plants. They were provided with information about growing some plants so that they could continue to use the plant in future. In the last few years, urbanization and industrialization of Atal Nagar has been rapid, due to which many plants are facing significant crisis, therefore it became extremely important to list and preserve these plants, hence the author along with his colleagues He has also stored seeds of rare plants and planted some plants in the Botanical Gardens of Kalinga University.
The author expresses his thanks to different tribe of Raipur because of their valuable contribution and hospitality above research had been concluded. The Authors are grateful to Dr. Sandeep Gandhi Registrar of Kalinga University, Dr. Manoj Singh Assistant Professor of Zoology Kalinga University, Dr. Rajiv Chairman of Kalinga University, Dr. Sanjeev Arora Chancellor of Kalinga University, and Dr. Manoj Tripathi Director of Ayurveda Sadan Deendayal Research Institute. Authors also express his thanks to Dr. Rahul Sharma HOD of Department of Botany, Kalinga University Raipur for their incredible support and guidance. Special Thanks to Dr. Manoj Singh and Mr. Pavan Singh Ahirwar who gives his valuable time during research study. Author also express thanks to his lab assistant Mr. Suresh Sinha and Hemant Sen who helped to get local support.
Author also thank Dr. Pankaj Kumar Sahu Assistant professor of Guru Ghasidas University, Dr. Ranjan Moharana Regional Plant Resources, Dr. Milind Wadmare HOD of Botany Department Smt. Kasturbai Walch and College and Dr. R.L.S Sikarwar Taxonomic head of Deendayal Research Institute for help in identification of plants.