Documentation of ethno-medicinal practices: A case study on tribal forest fringe dwellers of Terai West Bengal in India

Abstract

The ethno-medicinal practices were documented which were being used by tribal population dwelling forest fringe areas of Terai zone of West Bengal, India on under exploited, non conventional, traditional and indigenous plant species for the sustainable utilization of these resources to cure day to day ailments. A total number of forty seven medicinal plant species belonging to 25 families were documented during the survey period 2012-13, which was used in curing many diseases. Among the families, Euphorbiaceae, Zingeberaceae and Leguminosae were the dominant families that represented four species each. Herb was the highest proportion of plant species 18 (38%) followed by 15 tree species (32%), 8 species of shrubs (17%) and rest were climbers and fern. It was observed that the tribal forest fringe communities of the Terai zone of the West Bengal have a good ethno-medicinal knowledge of using plant resources and developed their own traditional practices to cure day to day diseases.