Floristic composition and utilization of ethnomedicinal plant species in home gardens of the Eastern Himalaya

Abstract

Background Home gardens are popular micro land-use system and are socioeconomically linked with people for their livelihood. In the foothill region of Eastern Himalaya, very less documentations are available on species richness of the home gardens, particularly on the ethnomedicinal plants. We assumed that the home garden owners of the study site are domesticating ethnomedicinal plants which are not easily accessible to them in the wild due to distant forest. This study was planned to explore and document the diversity and population status of ethnomedicinal plants in the home gardens along with its ethnomedicinal use. Methods The present study was conducted in the home gardens of Cooch Behar district of West Bengal from May 2017 to May 2018. A multidisciplinary approach like collection of plant specimen, interview with structured questionnaire for documenting the utilization pattern, and quadrat methods for population study was applied. We selected 150 study sites randomly in the village cluster. The owners of the gardens were the respondents for the household survey. The study documented diversity, population size, and medicinal uses of ethnomedicinal plant species identified by the garden owners growing or being grown in their gardens. Results A total of 260 plant species were reported, of which, 53 were utilized for different ethnomedicinal applications. These 53 species were represented by 35 families and 45 genera. Most of these ethnomedicinal species were woody perennials (37.73%). Cocus nucifera dominated the list with highest number of use followed by Hibiscus rosa-sinensis. The use value of the species varied from 0.006 to 0.53, while the fidelity value (%) ranged from 2.29 to 93.75%. The leaves of the plants were mostly used for ethnomedicinal applications (19 species) followed by fruits (12 species) and bark (9 species), and the least was the root (7 species). We documented 20 different ailments/diseases cured by using these plants. In some cases, more than one species are used to cure a disease or ailment. As many as 10 species were used to cure only stomach-related problems. Some more diseases like cough and cold and jaundice were treated using six and four species, respectively. Conclusion This documented list of 260 plant species including 53 ethnomedicinal ones from the home gardens of the study area indicates that these gardens are key in maintaining diversity and source of healthcare system in agricultural dominant landscape. Documenting such ecological status and traditional applications becomes a prerequisite for developing conservation and management strategies of home gardens to be included in the mainstream conservation processes. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (10.1186/s13002-019-0293-4) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Traditional use of medicinal plants in the Chyangthapu-Phalaicha biological sub-corridor, Panchthar District, Kangchenjunga Landscape, Nepal

“…The dominant use of underground parts may be linked to the presence of bioactive compounds in these parts [76][77][78]. These results agree with the previous studies [23,49,50,63,[79][80][81][82][83][84][85]. Harvesting of the underground parts must be monitored at regular intervals for the sustainable use of the medicinal plant species [23,86].…”

“…The combined action of different species is believed to increase the catalytic activity of the medicinal constituents and accelerates its assimilation within the body [97]. The multiple uses of these species for curing different ailments also re ect their widespread adoption of these species [82]. Table 2 Preparation methods for different remedies Table 3 Administration mode for different remedies…”

Ethnomedicinal plants used by the ethnic people living in fringe villages of Rasikbil of Cooch Behar District , West Bengal, India

“…In few cases, the plant parts are used in combination with other plant parts to prepare the traditional medicine. Most of the ethnobotanical studies confirmed that leaves are the major portion of the plant used in the treatment of diseases (10)(11)(12)(13)(20)(21)(22)(23)(24)(25) . Scientific documentation of the plant species utilised for different ethnomedicinal purposes by the ethnic communities in the Cooch Behar district have been done earlier by several authors (7)(8)(9)(10)(11)(12)(13) but the present survey has reported additional 14 medicinal plant species which is definitely a new inclusion in the existing database.…”

“…The district of Cooch Behar is in the under developing status and mostly the rural people depend on medicinal plants to treat common physical problems like smaller injuries, cough and cold and abdominal disorder. Although, documentation of medicinal plants have been done earlier in the district (7)(8)(9)(10)(11)(12)(13) , the present study will definitely enrich the database of medicinal plants by recording new medicinal plant species used by the ethnic people in the district not reported earlier from the district. Keeping all these in mind, the present field survey was undertaken to explore traditional ethnomedicinal knowledge of ethnic people living in fringe villages of Rasikbil of Cooch Behar district of West Bengal, India.…”

Plant diversity of the Kangchenjunga Landscape, Eastern Himalayas

“…Banerji, between 1948 and 1957 from Koshi Basin, and Darjeeling via Ilam, Taplejung, Topkegola; Hara in 1963; Numata during 1963–1982; and, Grew-Wilson in 1973 and 1981 in Taplejung and adjoining areas (Rajbhandari, 2016). Over the past two decades, many surveys on flora of the KL (e.g., Badola and Pradhan, 2010a, Badola and Pradhan, 2010b, Chettri et al., 2009, Kholia, 2011; Manish and Pandit, 2018; Pala et al, 2019; Pradhan and Badola, 2008, Rai and Sharma, 1995, Saurav and Das, 2014, Shankar, 2001, Singh et al., 2003, Singh and Sundriyal, 2005, Sundriyal and Rai, 1996, Uprety et al., 2016) have been published. These publications have broadened our knowledge on species distribution, composition, abundance, biogeography and traditional knowledge for utilization and conservation of flora of the KL, and the field of botany in the Himalayas in general.…”