A medicinal plant study of the Santal tribe in Rangpur district, Bangladesh.
OBJECTIVE
The Santals form the largest tribal community in northern Bangladesh and reside primarily in the districts of Rangpur and Dinajpur. The tribe has a long history of medicinal plant use and has its own medicinal practitioners, who usually administer medicinal plant formulations for treatment of various ailments. The objective of the present study was to conduct an ethnomedicinal survey among the Santal communities residing in Rangpur district to collect information on their use of medicinal plants.


METHODS
Interviews were conducted with the Santal traditional medicinal practitioners in their own dialect with the help of a semistructured questionnaire and using the guided field-walk method. Plant specimens as pointed out by the practitioners were collected and pressed on the field, and identification was completed at the Bangladesh National Herbarium.


METHODS
The location was the Rangpur district, Bangladesh.


METHODS
Subjects consisted of the Santal tribe.


RESULTS
Information on 52 medicinal plants distributed into 33 families was obtained in this survey. Ailments treated by these plants included skin disorders, respiratory tract disorders, gastrointestinal disorders, impotence, diabetes, cancer, malaria, and paralysis.


CONCLUSIONS
The medicinal plants used by the Santals are worth detailed scientific studies because they are used to treat ailments such as cancer and paralysis.
Rahmatullah
Mohammed
M
Department of Biotechnology & Genetic Engineering, University of Development Alternative, Dhanmondi, Dhaka, Bangladesh. rahamatm@hotmail.com
Mollik
Ariful Haque
AH
Rahman
Sahidur
S
Hasan
Nazmul
N
Agarwala
Bipasha
B
Jahan
Rownak
R
D044466:Asian People; D001459:Bangladesh; D019448:Ethnobotany; D005260:Female; D019538:Health Care Surveys; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D008297:Male; D008519:Medicine, Traditional; D008517:Phytotherapy; D010936:Plant Extracts / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D010946:Plants, Medicinal; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires
D010936:Plant Extracts