Traditional methods of detoxifying medicinal plants: an ethnobotanical survey in the Bargarh district, Odisha

Long-term curative efficacy, low cost, easy availability, and no side effects are the peculiar features of the traditional herbal system of treatment, which is the most beautiful gift of nature to the living society to live a healthy life. The most intelligent creatures humans have been using these plants since the ancient era have been experimenting with various toxic plants and their usage, detoxification process, and accurate dose for treating ailments. This knowledge of folklore medicines is restricted and limited to their own family only. The current paper is an attempt to bring this knowledge of toxic plants, detoxification process, toxicity, ethnic use, and dose to the limelight. Bargarh is loaded with various forest patches, and tribal inhabitants have plenty of ethnic knowledge of folklore medicines. During the study, 19 mainly used toxic plants belonging to 14 families were identified. Out of 19 plant species, 5 were herbs, 6 were shrubs, 3 were trees, and 5 were climbers. To discuss the toxicity and phytochemicals of toxic plants and the importance of detoxifying media, various books, journals, and databases have been utilized. It was found from the study that toxic plants are more effective than non-toxic plants due to their unique property of spreading all over the body quickly if they could be detoxified before use and taken in appropriate doses. Cow milk, cow urine, and cow ghee, along with the juice of some plant parts, were found to be used in almost all processes of detoxification. GC–MS, HPLC, TLC, and Spectroscopy, like advanced technical analysis by various researchers, have proved the reliability of these ethnic processes of detoxification. Understanding the mechanism of action of the detoxified phytochemicals could be the future study of this area.