Portrayal of folk medicinal practices among the indigenous people of north Tripura district of Tripura, India

Abstract

North east India is the richest reservoir of plant diversity in India and one of the 'biodiversity hotspot' of the world. Tripura, which is a hilly state of this region, is also rich in plant diversity. North Tripura district of Tripura is comprising of mostly forest area and of which 82.67 % population living in rural areas has high practices of traditional medicine for different disease conditions. This study on folk medicinal practice was done in order to document the existing folk drugs and treatment procedures among the peoples of North Tripura district of Tripura with a view to provide lead material for the discovery of new drugs of natural origin. For this local health practitioner, village head, elderly experienced persons were interviewed during 2012-2013 in the medico-ethno botanical survey of North Tripura and folk medicinal claims were documented. Present study reveals first-hand information on 48 folk medicinal claims having plant parts, animal products and minerals. Enumeration of the claims were arranged according to disease condition wise providing information on scientific names of the used folk drugs followed by local name, Sanskrit name, parts used, method of use with dose and duration as informed by the claimants and their relevant properties as per Ayurvedic texts. The documented folk medicinal claims have both single herb preparation and compound formulations.