Traditional Ethnomedicinal Plants: A Focus on the Tribals of Mizoram, India

Plants have always played a pivotal role in providing therapeutics, nutrition, shelter, and food to humans as well as animals. Mizoram (a North-East Indian state that lies under Indo-Burma Hotspot) is highly blessed with traditional ethnomedicinal plants and is well known for its rich cultural heritage. From ancient times, traditional ethnomedicinal plants of this region have been highly utilized by the tribal people for healing different kinds of ailments. The primary aim of the current study is to explore the potential traditional ethnomedicinal plants among tribals of the region and gather information on plant names, families, common names, local names, habits, availability periods, parts used, mode of preparation, consumption, and medicinal uses. A total of 145 different potential traditional medicinal plant species belonging to 65 families were identified and documented in the present study. The highest frequency distribution of plant family was Asteraceae with 15 species, followed by Euphorbiaceae and Moraceae. The most common mode of preparation and consumption was decoction (45%), juice (18%), raw (16%), and infusion (8%). Leaves (30%) were found to be the most frequently used part for medicinal purposes, followed by whole plant (19%), fruit (18%), bark (14%), rhizome/roots (11%), seeds (4%), flower (3%), and tuber (1%). The most common illnesses with remedies documented were fever, diarrhoea, and diabetes. The study will give baseline data on medicinal plants to be used for further drug discovery research and formulation development.