Ethnobotanicals used for the Treatment of Skin Diseases with Special Emphasis on Carbuncle Disease from Purulia District of West Bengal in India

Abstract

Background: From time immemorial ethnic people of Purulia district of West Bengal are well acquainted with different plant resources for the treatment of various skin diseases including 'carbuncle' and others skin diseases. Carbuncle, caused by the methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus is of major concern in this part of India, mostly dominated by tribes like Majhi, Munda, Santal, Birhor, Ho and Rajwar etc. Hot climate, overcrowded households, improper sanitation, very poor economic background and frequent burn accidents are of major issues for spreading of these bacterial infections. Objective: Present authors are trying to summarize these ethno-medicinal knowledge of the local, conservative traditional healers by using structured questionnaires given to them and are trying to analyze these information from scientific perspective. Materials and Methods: Plant samples were collected from March 2014 to May 2016, mostly during their flowering stage and a total of 62 people, both male (84%) and female (16%) were interviewed. Informant consensus factor, fidelity level and use value were calculated. Results: Fifty-nine herbal plants belongs to 35 families were recorded for the cure of various skin diseases, among which 10 plants are used individually during medication whereas 9 polyherbal formulations were used in various combinations during treatment. Five species of the families Moraceae and Asteraceae was found to be the most common medicinal plants, among which 44.89% are herbaceous in habit. Leaves (55.55%) are the most common plant part for their use. Conclusion: Therefore, the present paper has been written to document this rapidly vanishing huge knowledge of folklore which should be digitally conserved for futuristic approach on medicinal plants in India. ABSTRACT SUMMARY Fifty-nine herbal plants belongs to 35 families were used in various combinations during treatment. Most of the species belongs to Moraceae and Asteraceae families in comparison to other families. Herbaceous plants are most commonly used and leaves are the most common part for preparing formulations.

Ethnomedicine Study on Medicinal Plants Used by Communities in West Sumatera, Indonesia

“…From this research, it can be seen that older informants have more knowledge about medicinal plants than younger informants. This may be due to the lifestyle of the younger group which is more modern, they are not too interested in natural medicinal plants and prefer modern medicines obtained from doctors [3,4].…”

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“…The leaves of the plant are oval in shape; stem contains milky latex. Leaf and latex of the plant are applied on the mouth of carbuncle by the tribals of Purulia 4 . In a study evaluating antimicrobial activity of Calotropis gigantea L., various solvents on the basis of polarity were used for the extraction.…”

“…The tribal peoples of Purulia use traditional herbal medicines to treat skin diseases like carbuncle4. Mahato, in 2019, reported 59 herbal plants used by the tribal peoples of Purulia to treat carbuncle 4 . Among 59 herbal plants, 5 were invasive weeds.…”

“…The leaves of the plant are mixed with Clarified butter of cow milk, honey and other plant parts to form a mixture. The mixture is taken before breakfast for 4-5 days to treat carbuncle 4 .…”

“…Flowers are purplish white in color. The leaves of C. procera is used by tribals of Purulia district for the treatment of Carbuncle4 . In the work of Kareem, the antimicrobial effect of ethanol, aqueous and chloroform extracts of leaf and latex of Calotropis procera was evaluated against pathogenic microorganisms such as Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli, Aspergillus niger, Candida albicans.…”