The Biobrio 10(3 & 4), 2023

Traditional application of some plants used to cure diabetes in Debra P.S. of Paschim Medinipur District of West Bengal- A retrospection

Arpita Chakraborty & Moumita Chakraborty

ABSTRACT:

Traditional uses of medicinal plants to get rid of various diseases have become a culture in different rural and forest areas of West Bengal. Among various common diseases, diabetes is one of the majors complain of the district. Diabetes is a metabolic disorder arises from malfunctioning of the body’s pancreas. Apart from the capacity of body, climatic factors and food habits are other two major causes of diabetes in the said area. The dominated tribe of the district is santhal, munda, majhi etc. Present authors trying to summarize the data, with the interaction from different medicine men, vaidyas, ojhas, herbal healers, Gunin, knowledgeable persons in different survey and document the specific formulation of using plants. Survey was carried out from March, 2016 - November, 2017 in different areas of Debra P.S. of Paschim Medinipur district. Each survey was done through interaction of medicine men, vaidyas, ojhas, herbal healers, Gunin, knowledgeable persons in Bengali language with a semistructure questionnaire method. Valuable information came out in each day’s interaction were documented with their scientific name with proper author’s citation, family, local name, parts used and method of traditional application. A total of 13 plants belonging to 13 Genera and 11 families were recorded viz., Azadirachta indica A.Juss., Cajanus cajan (L.) Huth, Catharanthus roseus (L.) G.Don., Centella asiatica (L.) Urb., Coccinia cordifolia (L.) Cogn. are some of the medicinal plants which was documented after survey. Out of these plant species 8 belonged to herbs (61.53%), 1 shrub (7.69%), 1 undershrub (7.69%), 2 climbers (15.38%) and 1 tree (7.69%). The most dominated families are Cucurbitaceae and Fabaceae in the documentational work. Attempts are made to document the various plants which have ailment-curing property for acquiring knowledge of present interested persons including students as also in future before demise of the knowledgeable persons. This documentation will also enrich the data in TKDL and PBR’s.

Keywords:    

Traditional use, diabetes, santhal, munda, majhi, traditional formulation, medicine men, TKDL, PBR's.

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