title: Medicinal plants used by tribal population of Coochbehar district, West Bengal, India-an ethnobotanical survey.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To explore traditional ethnomedicinal knowledge of different tribes of Coochbehar district of West Bengal, India, and its present status.
  
  
  METHODS
  With the help of standardized questionnaires, traditional healers and resource persons were interviewed on medicinal use of local flora in all the tribal villages of Coochbehar district during July, 2007 to December, 2009 and some of the places were revisited for this purpose again during July to December of 2012.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A total of 46 plant species belonging to 42 genera and 27 families were reported to be used for treating 33 various physical ailments. In terms of the number of medicinal plant species, Fabaceae (5 species) and Euphorbiaceae (4 species) are dominant families. Among different plant parts used for the preparation of medicine, leaves were most frequently used for the treatment of diseases.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  In all tribal villages we found the use of medicinal plants, particularly to treat common physical problems like smaller injuries, stomachache and abdominal disorder. However, non-availability of such plants in close vicinity is imposing restriction on using medicinal plants. Further research on these species may lead to the discovery of novel bioactive molecules in one hand and also it may open up a new horizon of sustainable development.
authors.affiliation: Department of Zoology, Ananda Chandra College, Jalpaiguri-735101, West Bengal, India.
authors.forename: Tanmay
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Datta
authors.affiliation: Department of Zoology, Ananda Chandra College, Jalpaiguri-735101, West Bengal, India.
authors.forename: Amal Kumar
authors.initials: AK
authors.lastname: Patra
authors.affiliation: Department of Computer Science, Ananda Chandra College, Jalpaiguri-735101, West Bengal, India.
authors.forename: Santanu Ghosh
authors.initials: SG
authors.lastname: Dastidar
keywords: Coochbehar district; Medicinal plants; Tribal ethnobotany