Traditional herbal medicinal knowledge in Sagar taluk of Shimoga district, Karnataka, India

Abstract

An ethno-medico-botanical field survey was conducted from May 2006 to July 2007 to document the uses of medicinal plants by traditional herbal healers in Sagar taluk of Shimoga district, Karnataka State, India. The information about plant species and their local name, part used, mode of drug preparation, dosage and duration was collected from 22 herbal practitioners and knowledgeable elder people residing in 10 randomly selected villages using semi-structured and questionnaire based interviews. In the present study, a total of 48 plant species belonging to 44 genera and 31 families used by folk practitioners to treat various common to chronic human and veterinary ailments were documented. Traditional healers in the study villages have a fairly good knowledge about the medicinal values of locally available plants, discussed in this paper.