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Ethnobotanical Uses and Informant Consensus Factor of Medicinal Plants in BARIsal District, Bangladesh

Uzzal Hossain
Department of Botany, University of Barisal, Barisal-8200, Bangladesh

M. Oliur rahman
Department of Botany, University of Dhaka, Dhaka-1000, Bangladesh

Abstract/ Executive Summary:

An ethnobotanical study was carried out to identify ethnomedicinally important plants of Barisal district of Bangladesh, document their traditional uses, and determine the consensus factor among the Folklore Medicinal Practitioners (FMPs). A total of 106 ethnomedicinal species under 55 families have been identified from Barisal district, which are used for treating 51 ailments with 120 formularies. Among the species, herbs constituted 59%, shrubs 15% and tress 26% of the total. Leaf was found to be the most frequently utilized plant part (44.33%), and most of the medicines were prepared in the form of juice (36%). The Factor of Informants Consensus (FIC) value ranged from 0.622 to 0.951 and the highest FIC value was found in cut, wound and bleeding. The highly cited species for these ailments are Mikania cordata (Burn.f.) Robinson, Cynodon dactylon (L.) Pers. and Chrozophora tinctoria (L.) A. Juss. Citation frequency (Cf) ranged from 20.93 to 67.44, and 11 species were found to have over 50% of Cf value. Fidelity level (Fl) value ranged from 69 to 100% and 17 species attained 100% Fl value. Our findings could provide baseline data to establish a tie between the traditional health practitioners and scientific communities, and finding out potential bioactive compounds for novel drug discovery.

Keywords: Ethnomedicinal plants, Informant consensus factor, Citation frequency, Fidelity level, Barisal

Location: Southern district of Bangladesh

Start Date: 00-05-2017

End Date: 00-04-2018

Program Area: Development of Host and Medicinal Plants

Commodity: Medicinal Plants

Objectives:

The objectives of the present study include: to identify the most and frequently used medicinal plant species used by the local people and FMPs in Barisal district through Informant Consensus Factor, to document their traditional uses, to determine the consensus of medicinal uses, and finally to make a basis for future investigation for potential drug candidates through quantitative analyses.

Methodology:

Study area: Barisal as one of the riverine southern district of Bangladesh lies between 22º27´ and 22º52´N and 90º01´ and 90º43´E. The district is demarked by Madaripur, Shariatpur and Chandpur districts on the north, Patuakhali, Barguna and Jhalkhati districts on the south, Bhola and Lakshmipur districts on the east, and Pirojpur, Jhalkhati and Gopalganj districts on the west. Barisal district consists of 10 upazillas, viz., Agailjhara, Babuganj, Bakerganj, Banaripara, Barisal Sadar, Gaurnadi, Hizla, Mehendiganj, Muladi and Wuzirpur. The area enjoys tropical climate with high rainfall during monsoon period. The soil texture of the area is clay loam and saline in habitat (Shil and Saleque, 2016). Though there is no any natural forest in Barisal except the governmental planned afforestation program in coastal belt, banks of rivers and all homesteads are usually covered by dense green foliage of wide variety of both native and exotic species resulting in vegetation enrich in biodiversity. Plant samples and data collection: Plant samples were collected from the study area during field surveys in different seasons from May 2017 to April 2018. The data of medicinal uses were gathered through semistructured interviews, key informant discussions and informal conversations with folk medicinal practitioners (FMPs) called herbal practitioners or locally known as Kabiraz (Alexiades, 1996). A total of 43 informants mostly male with the age ranging from 24 to 75 years of old were interviewed. Education levels of the informants were from Secondary School Certificate (SSC) to Bachelor of Science (BSc) degrees. Some of the informants were diploma trained in folk medicinal practice from Ayurveda or Unani College at home or abroad. Professionally they were mostly farmers, small shopkeepers, street hawkers, school teachers and volunteer FMPs. Information on uses of plants for treating different ailments, parts used and mode of preparation as well as administration was gathered during the field study. Specimens of each medicinal plant were collected, critically studied and identified by experts and using standard literature (Hooker, 1872-1897; Prain, 1903; Dassanayake and Fosberg, 1980-1991; Ahmed et al., 2008-2009). Voucher specimens were prepared using standard protocol (Hyland, 1972; Alexiades, 1996) and preserved at the Department of Botany, University of Barisal. Data analysis: Factor of informant consensus (Fic): Factor of informant consensus (Fic) was computed using the following formula: Fic = (Nur – Ntaxa) / (Nur – 1). Where, N_ur is the number of use reports in each category and N_taxa is the number of species in each category (Heinrich et al., 1998). Citation frequency of medicinal plants (Cf %): Cf values are useful to determine most common medicinal plants in the study area. Citation frequency values of medicinal plants were estimated using the formula: Citation frequency (Cf %) = (n/N) x 100. Where, n refers to number of people interviewed citing species, N refers to total number of people interviewed (Friedman et al., 1986). Fidelity level (Fl %): The percentage of informants claiming the use of a plant species for the same major purpose was estimated using the Fidelity level index as determined by the following formula: Fidelity level (Fl %) = (Ip / Iu) x 100. Where Ip denotes to number of informants who indicate use of a species for the same major ailment, Iu refers to total number of informants who mentioned the same plant for any other use (Friedman et al., 1986).

Source of Information: Bangladesh J. Plant Taxon. 25(2): 241-255, 2018 (December)

Article Link (Online Journal):

Funding Source:

Total Budget (Tk.) :

Achievement/Findings:

The present study revealed identification and documentation of 106 medicinal plant species belonging to 96 genera and 52 families from Barisal district used by local folklore medicinal practitioners (FMPs) for 51 ailments with 120 formularies. In the present study, the highly reported species were herbs (59%) followed by trees (26%) and shrubs (15%). Several authors reported the common use of herbaceous medicinal plants (Addo-Fordjour et al., 2008), and the herbs attributed to their wide range of bioactive ingredients (Gazzaneo et al., 2005). Herbs, and trees are most commonly used as medicine by the traditional healers (Uniyal et al., 2006), which were supported by our study. Among the species reported 47.16 % was found to be cultivated, 33.01% wild and 19.81% wild but cultivated in home gardens. The present investigation is the first ethnobotanical effort to document and carry out quantitative analyses of medicinal plants used by the local folk medicinal practitioners in Barisal district. The study revealed that Barisal district has a plenty of medicinal plants and the amazing update is that a great portion of medicinal plants are found in homestead. The local people of the investigated area still depend on traditional medicine despite the modern medical facilities are accessible indicating the importance of traditional medicines. Documentation and preservation of traditional knowledge on indigenous medicinal plants is not only indispensable for the communities, but also valuable for ethnopharmacological studies. In novel drug discovery our findings could provide baseline data to launch a bridge between the scientific communities and traditional health practitioners. In this regard, further scientific investigation on these medicinal plants for phytochemical, biological and clinical studies is greatly needed.

Knowledge Management: Journal