Documentation of ethnomedicinal and ethnoveterinary plants used by paliyar tribes, kurangani hills, western ghats, theni district, tamil nadu, india

Abstract

A study on medicinal plant utilization in area revealed that the communities commonly used for maintaining their primary healthcare. The ethnomedicinal and ethnoveterinary documentation in the Kurangani forest of Tamil Nadu state was made for a period of two month from January to March 2021. The forest is a tropical evergreen with high species richness where the temperature and rainfall data indicates that it is suitable vegetation for the inhabitation of great number of species. In order to sort out health disorders or diseases based on the plants prescribed there are 8 ailment categories were classified. In present study, totally 50 plant species for ethnomedicine and 25 species of ethnoveterinary were encountered through the knowledge of indigenous tribal communities, Paliyar of Kurangani forest. Most of the treatments in both ethnobotany and ethnoveterinary practices with the use of herbs particularly leaf parts were perceived. For medicinal purposes, the family Malvaceae contributed majorly 5 species followed by Solanaceae with 4 species, Euphorbiaceae and Zingiberaceae contributed 3 species and afterward other family species solely mentioned for different ailments. In ethnoveterinary medicine documentation, 3 species belongs to the family Euphorbiaceae which is predominant, subsequently 2 species belong to Zingiberaceae. The mode of preparation and dosage, mode of application, duration of the treatment for each ailments have documented. This study highlights the traditional medicinal knowledge of the Kurangani tribal people, providing basic data for further research and protection of minority medicine. Thus, conservation of medicinal plants by local communities is emphasized in present study to avoid further loss. Moreover, phytochemical and pharmacological investigation is recommended with due consideration to frequently used medicinal plants.