Medicinal Plants In Traditional Use At Arunachal Pradesh, India

Abstract

In rural world, the use of medicinal plants in healthcare system is an integral source of easily available remedy. This study was conducted on herbal preparations of different plant parts used by the tribal people of Arunachal Pradesh for controlling the diseases. The villages like Yekar, Dulom, Sippi, Soki, lamdik in Upper Subansiri District, Ngopok, Passighat, in East Siang Distrivt, East Kameng District, West Kameng District, Lower Subansiri District of Arunachal Pradesh, India were surveyed through personal interviews with the villagers and medicine men and assistance of local information. We recorded the traditional use of 101 medicinal plants species belonging to 50 taxonomic plant families used for treating a total of 156 different diseases/ailments. The informant consensus factor (ICF) values demonstrated that local people tend to agree more with each other in terms of the plants used to treat malaria (0.71), jaundice (0.62), urological problems (0.56), dermatological disorders (0.45), pain (0.30), and respiratory disorder (0.33), and while the general health (0.15) and gastro-intestinal disorders category (0.28) were found low ICF values. The highest number of medicinal plants (101 species) was reported from the Adi of Lower Dibang Valley followed by the Nocte of the Tirap (25 species) and the Nyishi ethnic groups of Papum Pare districts (13 species).