Ethnobotanical Leaflets 13: 98-115. 2009.

 

 

Traditional Ethnomedicinal Knowledge Confined to the Pawra Tribe of Satpura Hills, Maharashtra, India

 

^*Jagtap, S. D., Deokule, S. S.¹, Pawar, P. K. and Harsulkar, A. M.

 

Interactive Research School for Health Affairs, Medical College Campus, Bharati Vidyapeeth University, Dhankawadi, Pune – 411043, Maharashtra, India

¹Department of Botany, University of Pune, Ganeshkhind, Pune – 411007, Maharashtra, India

*Correspondent author, E- mail: [email protected]

 

Issued 04 January 2009

 

 

Abstract

          Ethnobotanical surveys can potentially bring out many different clues for the development of safe, effective and inexpensive indigenous remedies. Present study has been focussed on Pawra tribe of Nandurbar district of Maharashtra, India. Field surveys of this area were carried out during 2000–2005 through several field visits and interviews.  The aim of the present study was primarily to evaluate and inverntorize medicinal uses of the plants known to Pawras and to encourage preservation of their culture, conservation and sustainable utilization of the plant wealth.  After an extensive comparison with literature, about 80 unique or less known uses of 79 plant species belonging to 59 families are described. The documented ethnomedicinal usage of plants mostly pertains to cure asthma, inflammation, lactation, menstrual problems, poisonous bites, skin problems, stomach ache and tooth ache. We found that the study area is rich in ethnic and biodiversity and the tribe posses a valuable treasure of ethnobotanical knowledge. This wisdom available with the tribe is transmitted only through oral communication in locally-spoken, script-less language and therefore needs conservation. The plants used by the Pawra tribe are arranged alphabetically followed by family name, herbarium number, local name, parts used, mode of preparation and medicinal uses.

 

Key words: Pawra tribe, Less known, Ethnomedicine and Nandurbar district.

 

 

Introduction

         India is well known for its plants diversity and is rich in medicinal plant wealth. India has the second largest tribal population in the world after Africa. As per the 1991 census of India, the total tribal population is 8% of country’s population of which Maharashtra has 47 scheduled tribe communities with 9.27% of the total population of the state (Kshirsagar and Singh, 2000). The traditional medical practices are an important part of the primary healthcare system in the developing world (Ghosh, 2003). According to the World Health Organization (WHO) as much as 80% of world’s population depends on traditional medicine for their primary health care needs (Azaizeh et al., 2003). The tribals have good traditional knowledge about the plants and their medicinal uses. This knowledge is transmitted exclusively through oral communication from one generation to next using a scriptless language. The valuable knowledge is therefore, in an unwritten form and requires urgent measures of conservation.

The ethnobotanical survey can bring out many different clues for the development of drugs to treat human diseases. Safe, effective, and inexpensive indigenous remedies are gaining popularity equally among the people of both the urban and rural areas, especially in India and China (Katewa et al., 2004). Review of literature revealed that, there were few efforts dedicated to document the ethnobotanical information of the tribes, to quote a few, Karnik, (1966): from Satpura mountains, Yadav and Bhamre, (1989): ethnomedico-botanical study of Dhule forests, Rajput and Yadav, (1998): Medico-Botanical and Phytochemical studies on medicinal plants of Dhule and Nandurbar, Yadav and Patil, (2001): traditional medicines and healthcare system of Tribals of Satpura region, Sharma and Mujumdar, (2003): traditional knowledge on plants from Toranmal Plateau, while Patil, (2004): ethnomedicines for human skin diseases from Tribal areas of  Nandurbar District.

Despite of these reports, the aim of the present study was to evaluate and inventorize some less known medicinal uses of the plants known to Pawra tribe and to encourage preservation of their culture, conservation and sustainable utilization of the plant wealth. In the present paper, we report for the first time, some new or less known ethnomedicinal uses for treatment of different ailments by the Pawra’s of Nandurbar district of Maharashtra, India.

 

 

 

Study area

Maharashtra is a central western part of India, located in the south of Madhya Pradesh. The study area comprises the Nandurbar district of Satpura range (Fig. 1). The Satpura is a broad belt of mountainous land stretching east west in a wall like manner on the northern side of the river Tapi. Satpura Mountain forms about seven major folds with an average height of 600 m above sea level and slope down steeply towards river Narmada in North. Two of these ranges of hills unite at Toranmal and enclose an irregular tableland of about 50 km long and 25 km broad. Northern part of this area occupies dry deciduous type of forest while, the southern fertile plains towards river Tapi is predominantly agricultural. The Western Satpura lies between 73⁰  59’ to 75⁰  12’ east longitude and   21⁰  14’ to 22⁰  02’ north latitude and forms Nandurbar district of Maharashtra state. It comprises of four talukas namely Akrani, Taloda, Akkalkua and Shahada. The area lies near the tri junction of the boundaries of Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra state. The western talukas of Akkalkuwa, Taloda and Dhadgaon are rather more rugged compared to Shahada taluka in the west, which comprises of undulating low hillocks.          

 

Pawra tribe

The four main tribes that reside in Nandurbar district are Bhilla, Pawra, Padvi and Naik, of which, Pawra is the third most dominant tribe. Pawras usually reside in remote areas of the forests and are indiscriminately scattered in small villages known as ‘padas’ typically of 2 to 10 houses (Fig. 2). The distance between each ‘pada’ is about 1 km, a group of which forms a village. In some places, villages are of closely situated houses surrounded by farmland. Houses of Pawra are typical, low costing and facing north south, constructed by using locally available material.

       They are mainly dependent on forest and agricultural produce. Major occupations are collection of plant part like fruit, edible tubers, gums, nuts, and leafy vegetables etc. from forest. In hilly area, agriculture is completely dependent on rainfall where as in plains, where facility is available, irrigated crops are also cultivated.

Since this tribe usually resides in the interior and hilly regions, they are more prone to suffer from many ailments because of poor nutrition, and starvation. Habit of smoking and chewing of tobacco and consuming local liquor are very common. Frequency of suffering from skin diseases like scabies, eczema, fungal infections etc is quite high. Water borne diseases like diarrhoea and dysentery are also common. The accessibility of health centre in some areas is difficult hence, the rate of mortality due to curable diseases is high. The usual tendency is to avoid going to the primary health centre and reliance on traditional practices is common. Snakebite, insect bites and attacks of wild animals are common causes of accidental deaths .    

 

Methodology

       Season wise frequent field visits were organized between the period of  February 2002 to May 2006 in the different villages of the study area. The local, efficient, knowledgeable and bilingual mediators were identified in order to understand and collect the traditional information of the medicinal plants from the “Bhagats” who are traditional medical practitioners among the Pawra population. Information was collected through interviews by using a questionnaire. Informed consents of interviewed individuals were obtained.  Plants or plant parts enlisted by at least three Bhagats were emphasized. Interviews of minimum two and maximum of five patients who had taken treatment from the Bhagat for various health problems were also considered for authentication of collected information and incorporated in the present study. Collected data confirmed and compiled by repeated visits.

       Members of the Pawra community accompanied collection tours of the voucher specimens, which helped getting first-hand knowledge of each plant and/ or plant part used by them. The information of medicinal plants and their properties was confirmed by referring previous literature on medicinal plants (Anonymous, 1948–1992; Dey, 1973; Kirtikar and Basu, 1975; Jain, 1991; Jain and Rao, 1983; Jain and Filipps, 1991; Husain et al., 1992) and ethnoveterinary plants (Jain and Shrivastava, 1999). For more recent literature survey , database available on published information at Medicinal Plants Conservation Centre (MPCC), Pune and FRLHT, Bangalore was referred. The identification of the collected plants was confirmed by using Flora of Dhule and Nandurbar Districts (Patil, 2003), Flora of Maharashtra State, Monocotyledons (Sharma et al., 1996) and Flora of Maharashtra State, Dicotyledons, Vol. 1 and 2 (Singh and Karthikeyan 2000; Singh et al., 2001) and by referring herbaria at Botanical Survey of India (BSI), Western Circle, Pune. The specimens were deposited in herbarium of Medicinal Plant Conservation Centre – Rural Communes (MPCC-RC), Pune. The enumeration includes botanical name, authority, herbarium number, family, local name and use of plants.

 

Results and discussion

       The present investigation revealed that the Pawras know over thousand usages of more than 500 plants out of which this paper reports 80 unique or less known usages of 79 species belonging to 59 families (Table 1). These 79 plants comprise 33 herbs, 7 shrubs, 26 trees, 12 climbers and 01 grass. Usage of these plants mainly is to treat asthama, inflammation, disorders associated with lactation, menstrual problems, poisonous bites, skin problems, stomach ache and tooth ache, etc.

       In the dosage preparations, either single plant part or a combination of plant parts was used. Sometimes, combination of two or more different plants is also administered. Materials of animal origin were also used along with the plants in a few preparations. The dosage forms include inhalation, oral administration and topical applications. Most of the ailments such as stomach ache, menstrual problems, infertility, urinary problems, jaundice, and diarrhea can be cured by oral administration while most of the skin diseases, wounds, body swelling, tonsils, hair growth, tumors, pneumonia, piles and encephalitis can be cured by topical application while, animal bites and muscular problems were treated usually by both ways.

       The commercial exploitation of important species like Celastrus paniculatus Chlorophytum borivilianum, Dendrocalamus strictus, Ceropegia occulata var. satpudensis is restricted by creating awareness among the tribals. An attempt was made to convince and explain the importance of such species, which need to be conserved, and judicially utilized. The study revealed that medicinal plants play a vital role in primary healthcare of the Pawras and the knowledge received from them will be very useful in further research. Important finding of our study is the new report of Ceropegia occulata var satpudensis Jagtap & Punekar, first time report of Mucuna prurence var utilis Benth. for Maharashtra state and 73 plants were additions to The Flora of Dhule and Nandurbar Districts (Patil, 2003), which are useful for further researchers in the field of ethanobotany. Further, ethno-pharmacological studies would sustain these observations in order to evaluate their effectiveness.

 

AcknowledgementS

       Authors are grateful to the authorities of Medicinal Plant Conservation Centre-Rural Communes (MPCC–RC), Pune for their constant support and encouragement, Head of the Department of Botany, University of Pune, Pune, Maharashtra, India, for providing necessary laboratory facilities and all the Pawra tribe for their help and co-operation during the entire study and field work. JSD is thankful to Department of Biotechnology (DBT) for award of Post Doctoral Fellowship.

 

References

Anonymous, 1948–1992. Wealth of India – Raw Materials, Vol. I–X. Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, New Delhi, India.

 

Azaizeh, H., Fulder, S., Khalil, K., Said, O., 2003. Ethnomedicinal knowledge of local Arab practitioners in the Middle East Region. Fitoterapia 74, 98–108.

 

Dey, K.L., 1973. The Indigenous drugs of India. Pama Primlane, The Chronica Botanica, New Delhi, India.

 

Ghosh, A., 2003. Herbal folk remedies of Bankura and Medinipur districts, West Bengal (India). Indian Journal of Traditional Knowledge 2, 393–396.

 

Husain, A., Vismani, O.P., Popli, S.P., Misra, L.N., Gupta, M.M., Srivastava, G.N., Abraham, Z., Singh, A.K., 1992. Dictionary of Indian Medicinal Plants. Central Institute of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants, Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India.

 

Jain, S.K., 1991. Dictionary of Indian Folk Medicine and Ethnobotany. Deep Publications, New Delhi, India.

 

Jain, S.K., Rao, R.R., 1983. Ethnobotany in India – An overview. Botanical Survey of India, Calcutta, India.

 

Jain, S.K., Srivastava, S., 1999. Dictionary of Ethnoveterinary plants of India. Deep Publications, New Delhi, India.

 

Jain, S.K., De Filipps, R.A., 1991. Medicinal Plants of India, vol. I–II. Reference Publications Inc, Algonac, Michigan. Karnik, C.R., 1966. Some medicinal plants from Satpura mountains. Indian forester 62, 173-183.

 

Katewa, S.S., Chaudhary, B. L., Jain Anita., 2004. Folk herbal medicines from tribal area of  Rajasthan, India. Journal of Ethnopharmacology 92, 41–46.

 

Kirtikar, K.R., Basu, B.D., 1975. Indian Medicinal Plants, vol. 1–4. Periodical Experts, Delhi, India.

 

Kshirsagar, R.D., Singh, N.P., 2000. Less-known ethnomedicinal uses of plants in Coorg District of Karnataka state, Southern India. Ethnobotany 12, 12–16.

 

Patil, D.A., 2003. Flora of Dhule & Nandurbar District, Maharashtra. Bishen Singh Mahendra Pal Singh, Dehra Dun, India.

 

Patil, M.B., Ramajah, P. V., 2004. Ethnomedicines for Human skin diseases from Tribal areas of Nandurbar District of Maharashtra, India. Proceedings of the National Seminar on Ethnobotany and  Sacred Groves, Agharkar Research Institute, Pune, India, Pp. 218-222.

 

Rajput, A.P., Yadav, S. S., 1998. Medico-Botanical and Phytochemical studies on medicinal plants of Dhule and Nandurbar Districts of Maharashtra State. J Phytol Res. 13(2) 161.

 

Sharma, B.D., Karthikeyan, S., Singh, N.P., 1996. Flora of Maharashtra State– Monocotyledons. Botanical Survey of India (BSI), Calcutta, India.

 

Sharma, P.P., Mujumdar, A.M., 2003. Traditional knowledge on plants from Toranmal Plateau of Maharashtra. Indian Journal of Traditional Knowledge 2, 292–296.

 

Singh, N.P., Karthikeyan, S., 2000. Flora of Maharashtra State–Dicotyledons, Vol. I, Botanical Survey of India (BSI), Calcutta, India.

 

Singh, N.P., Lakshminarasimhan, P., Karthikeyan, S., Prasanna, P.V., 2001. Flora of Maharashtra State–Dicotyledons, Vol. II, Botanical Survey of India (BSI), Calcutta, India.

 

Yadav, S.S., Bhamre P. B., 1989. Ethnomedico-Botanical studies of Dhule forests in Maharashtra State. J. Econ. Tax. Bot. 13(2), 455-460.

 

Yadav, S.S., Patil, S. H., 2001. Traditional Medicines and Healthcare Systemof Tribals of Satpura Region, Maharashtra State. Plant Archives 1 (1&2), 111-118.

Table 1.  Ethnomedicinal plants, local name, mode of preparation and uses by Pawra tribe.

Fig. 2.1: Tribal hamlet

                    

 

Fig. 2.2. Tribal House.

 

                      

 

Fig. 2.3: Pawra Family