Indigenous knowledge of ethnomedicinal plants by the Assamese community in Dibrugarh District, Assam, India

Abstract

The present investigation is an attempt to study the uses of ethnomedicinal plants in traditional knowledge system among the Assamese community of Dibrugarh District in Assam. All the relevant data were collected during 2017–2019 by following standard ethnobotanical methods through personal interviews as well as through focus group discussions with a total of 193 informants including 62 men and 131 women. The use value (UV) of the medicinal plants and informant consensus factors (FIC) values were determined. In the study 174 ethnomedicinal plant species were documented belonging to 147 genera and 78 families. Except for three species, the 171 species are Angiosperms mostly collected from the wild. Among the 174 species of medicinal plants, 12 species are listed under various categories by IUCN and CITES. All these plants are used to treat various diseases that are grouped under 13 ICPC (International Classification of Primary Care) disease categories, with the highest use value (0.54) recorded in Leucas aspera followed by Paederia scandens with (0.5) use value. This confirms that these plants are important traditional herbs with potent medicinal uses. The highest informant consensus factor with the highest number of species (93) being used for the digestive system (FIC= 0.76%), followed by oral and dentistry (FIC= 0.73%) category. The ethnic communities in the district are rich in traditional knowledge which is evident from the use records and high degree of consensus among the informants.

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