Reproductive health related ethno-medicinal practices among the Paraja and Gadaba tribes of Koraput district, Odisha, India

[摘要] In the remote and inaccessible areas of Koraput district, ethnomedicine become the vital source of medicine. In thisresearch, an ethno botanical exploration was made among the tribal communities of Paraja and Gadaba group to find outtheir Ethnomedicinal Practices for enhancing reproductive health. This information was collected from 37 Paraja andGadaba tribal dominated villages of 25 Gram Panchayats belonging to 5 development blocks of Koraput district, Odisha.In the study, a total of 71 plant species belonging to 38 families were identified as being used for treatment of approximately25 ailments of reproductive diseases including both male and female category. Fabaceae (15.5), Apocynaceae (8.5),Euphorbiaceae (5.6), Arecaceae (4.2), Malvaceae (4.2), and Solanaceae (4.2) were most represented plant families in thisstudy. Bauhinia vahlii (5.1), Asparagus racemosus Wild. (4.3), Achyranthes aspera L. (3.4), Carica papaya L. (3.4),Cocos nucifera L. (3.4) were most cited. Though all these plant species are used at community level, information wascollected from ethnic healers and cross verified from the beneficiary patients. Further, phyto-chemical investigation isnecessary for patenting and use in pharmacological industry for the benefit of the entire humankind. It is the need of thehour to explore, identify and utilize ethnomedicine because of their less or no side effects in curing diseases, high efficacy,easy accessibility, and less cost on one hand and, on the other, this knowledge will help to conserve the existing butthreatened flora and fauna species of rare medicinal values of the locality.

[学科分类] 医学（综合）

[关键词] Ethnopharmacology;Reproductive health;Ethnic-healers;tribal communities