A Case Study of Medicinal Plants and Their Uses by the Sundar Haraicha Nagarpalika Community in Morang District, East Nepal

Abstract

Background: Nepal is considered as a staple area for wild as well as local medicinal plants. Traditional botanical medicine is the primary mode of health care for most of the people. Several case studies were conducted across the country but some of them were unexposed. So such studies were conducted in order to reveal the importance of locally available medicinal plant species which leads to the discovery of useful drugs and socio-economic development of the community. Objectives: The main objective of this study is to evaluate the importance of each plant species and reveal the purposes to use of the medicinal plants by the local community. Materials and methods: Data was collected in the Morang district of East Nepal. Informal meetings, group discussion, participants observations and schedule surveys were primary sources of data collection. A total of 60 respondents were questioned through an interview by the semi structured English language questionnaire. Result: A total of 60 respondents were recorded. 37 species of medicinal plants belonging to 30 families and 35 genera were documented. The majority of them were herbs and these herbs were able to cure fever, headache, stomachache, cuts and wounds, snake bite etc. Additionally, 26% of medicinal plants are used to treat ailment in the peoples, 48% for both animals and humans, and 25% for marketing. Conclusion: Through this case study, it leads to discovering high priority medicinal plants. Similarly, high potential for the establishment of crude drugs and socio-economic development.