Ethnomedicinal Review Study on the Tribes of Wayanad District, Kerala State, India
摘要
This chapter deals with the systematic documentation of ethnomedicinal uses of plants used by seven indigenous tribes in Wayanad district in Kerala state, India. The majority of their ‘traditional wisdom’ is passed down orally over many generations and is not recorded. So, this study has been taken up. Data were collected from literature sources, both published and unpublished; using easily accessible literature sources from Google Scholar, Science Direct, Scopus, and PubMed, information was retrieved by keyword search. Available books, theses, dissertations, and technical reports were also searched. Wayanad was one of the search terms combined with traditional medicine and medicinal plants. About 307 plants were enlisted in this study. Different parts of the plants are used, out of which leaves (45%) were the mostly used plant part and roots (12%) occupying the next position. Most number of folk claims were obtained for wounds (14%), tooth ache occupying the second position (10.42%). The commonest method of preparation of medicine was paste form (41.04%) and juice occupying the next position (23.45%. The review opens up the vast treasure of folklore practices of the tribes of Wayanad, and initiatives like ‘Belt and Road initiative’ are needed to augment exchange of the gathered knowledge across globe.