The study area (MoCHTA, 2011a): Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT), the only extensive hilly area in Bangladesh lies in southeastern part of the country is situated between 210° 25' N to 230° 45' N latitude and 910° 54' E to 920° 50' E longitude bordering Myanmar to the southeast, the Indian state of Tripura to the north,
Mizoram to the east and Chittagong district to the west. The Chittagong Hill Tracts, combining three hilly districts of Bangladesh are Rangamati, Khagrachhari and Bandarban districts. The area of the Chittagong Hill Tracts is about 13,295 sq km, which is approximately one-tenth of the total area of Bangladesh.
Localities and populations studied: Total population enumerated in the 1991 census was 9,74,447 of which 5,01,114 were tribals and rest are from different communities. The local tribes, collectively known as the Jumma, include the Chakma, Marma, Tripura, Tenchungya, Chak, Pankho, Mru, Murung, Bawm, Lushai, Khyang, and Khumi. Most of the ethnic groups follow Buddhism. Some are the followers of Hinduism and Christianity. Among the non-tribal communities most of the inhabitants are Bengali Muslim settlers. These tribal and non-tribal populations of CHT living there are keeping communal harmony and their own ethnic cultural, religious and linguistic diversity from a long time (MoCHTA, 2011c).
Bangladesh is the abode for 21 ethnic communities (Khaleqe, 1995). Among them, the Chakma tribe is the largest and most dominant one. Total population of Chakma is about 253,000 (Tripura, 1994) of which more than 90 percent live in Rangamati and Khagrachori districts. Even in the recent past, the Chakma people living in Bangladesh used to meet their daily need mostly from natural forest products. The Chakmas form the largest ethnic minority group inhabiting the Chittagong Hill Tracts forest region of Bangladesh. They have their own traditional medicinal practitioners and have a long tradition of using plants to cure diseases. This study was conducted in view of gathering the knowledge of traditional medicines which are used in Chakma ethnic community. Traditional ethno medical information could offer a fast way to the discovery of new medically or industrially useful compounds (Moran, 1961). Ethnobotanical surveys and data collection: In order to explore plants used as ethnomedicine by Chakma community, various field surveys were conducted in the study area. Information was gathered by taking random interview of Chakma men and women with various secondary related sources. Perceptions were taken through direct interview and questionnaire based survey in the study area. Information asked in the questionnaire included: • name, age, sex, education, occupation and ethnicity of the interviewed person; • name of the used plant; • disease in which plant was used; • part of the plant being used; • form of the medicine. In survey, a total of 186 people were interviewed among which 181 were male, the remaining 5 were female. The average age of the informants was around 41- 40 years. Most of informants (84) have passed HSC, 63 were Graduate, 24 passed SSC examination and 15 were under SSC. Professionally most of the informants were service holders, and 34 were small traders, and 15 were farmers. All of the informants (186) were Buddhist.