The present survey was conducted between October 2009 and May 2011 among TMPs of Bawm, Chak, Chakma, Marma, Murong, and Tripura tribes inhabiting Khagrachari and Bandarban districts of Chittagong Hill Tracts region of Bangladesh, and TMPs of the Garo tribe inhabiting adjoining villages in Tangail and Mymensingh districts of Bangladesh. The study protocol was approved by the Research Ethics Committee of the University of Development Alternative. The number of TMPs living among the Bawm, Chak, Chakma, Marma, Murong, Tripura, and Garo communities surveyed were, respectively, 4, 4, 7, 6, 6, 5, and 7. In total, the number of TMPs consulted from the seven tribes was 28 (four per tribe—the authors decided to take the same number of TMPs from each tribe, and since the Bawm and Chak tribes had the least number of TMPs at 4, this number was selected to be taken as the number of TMPs to be interviewed from the other tribes also). Among tribes, which had more than 4 serving TMPs, 4 were chosen on the basis of the recommendation of the tribal Headman as to being more proficient in their practices. At the request of the TMPs from any individual tribe, interviews were conducted of the four TMPs per tribe as a group. Informed consent was initially obtained from the TMPs and the tribal Headman (chieftain) to gather the necessary information. Both TMP and the Headman was apprised in details as to the purpose of our visits, and consent obtained to disseminate the names and formulations (if any) of antimalarial plants both nationally and internationally. Interviews were usually conducted through an interpreter, who can speak both the tribal language as well as Bangla (the language spoken by the interviewers). It may be mentioned that in recent years most tribes have acquired sufficient proficiency in speaking and understanding Bangla, which is the language of the mainstream population (around 98%) of Bangladesh.
Interviews were open-ended and conducted with the help of a semistructured questionnaire. TMPs were specifically asked as to whether they know and treat malaria, the basis for their diagnosis, and their mode of treatment when the disease has been diagnosed as malaria. The general patterns of diagnosing malaria were more or less the same among the TMPs of the various types. The symptoms of malaria, according to the TMPs, were fever (particularly fever arising daily at certain parts of the day or night followed by subsiding and recurrence), chills, pain (throughout the body but mostly affecting the muscles or back), sweats, fatigue, nausea, vomiting, and a general wasting away of the body with time. TMPs were allowed to speak freely on malarial treatment with medicinal plants with only occasional interference and questions from the interviewers. TMP-guided field walks were arranged where the TMPs took the interviewers on field walks through areas from where the TMPs collected the medicinal plants, pointed out the plants, and described their uses. Plant materials were collected and dried on the spot, photographed and brought back to Dhaka for identification by Mr. Manjur-Ul-Kadir Mia, exCurator and Principal Scientific Officer of the Bangladesh National Herbarium. Voucher specimens were deposited at the Medicinal Plant Collection Wing of the University of Development Alternative, where the initial identification was reconfirmed by a botanist at the Medicinal Plant Collection Wing of the University.