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Ethnobotanical formulations for the treatment of jaundice by the Mech tribe in Duars of West Bengal

2010; NISCAIR; Volume: 9; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

0975-1068

Ajita Sarkar, A. P. Das,

Ethnobotanical and Medicinal Plants Studies

Duars is a Sub-Himalayan region of West Bengal situated on the eastern bank of the River Tista and located between 27°-26°16' N latitude and 89°53'-88°4' E longitude. The total area of Duars is approximately 6,227 sq km stretching between the rivers Tista and Sankosh. Duars is bounded by Darjeeling Himalaya and Bhutan in North, Coochbehar district of West Bengal and Bangladesh in South, Assam in the East and the plain region of Darjeeling district and small part of Bangladesh lies to the West. Temperature and precipitation of the area varies in each season. However, the temperature fluctuates between 37.5°C during summer and about 6°C in winter. Rainfall mainly occurs due to South-west monsoon wind and begins from the month of May and continues till the first quarter of October. The annual rainfall of the region is about 374 cm. Most of the sectors of Duars are covered with dense forest and savannah type grasslands and, hence, is very rich in biodiversity. Villages of Mech tribes are situated within the vicinity of the forest and they inhabit the land along with other tribes such as Rabha, Toto, Munda, Oraon, Garo, etc. 1–3 Major part of Mech population (very primitive tribe of this region) in Duars (known as Bodo in Assam) is still dependent on traditional methods of treatment for recovering from most of their health problems. The study was conducted among these people during 2006 to 2008 to record the methods of treating jaundice, a quite common disease of the tribe. Methodology Information about the medicinal use of several plants was collected through surveys conducted in several villages in Duars located mainly in different parts of the Jalpaiguri district of West Bengal 4–9 . These people are apparently very friendly but maintained a deep secrecy about their traditional knowledge. However, after visiting them for several times after developing confidence, they finally shared their knowledge about the medicinal uses of plants growing around them. A good number of patients suffering from jaundice were also interviewed during the survey, mostly taking them away from the healer (Ojha). The voucher specimens of the useful plants were spotted by the healers were collected and processed following conventional techniques 10 . The plant species were identified, verified and deposited in NBU herbarium.