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Traditional Phytotherapy of Folk and Tribal Medicinal Practitioners in Bangladesh for Treatment of Elephantiasis

Shiblur Rahman
University of Development Alternative

Shahnaz Rahman
University of Development Alternative

Md. Shaiful Alam Bhuiyan
University of Development Alternative

Abdur Rahman
University of Development Alternative

Fariste Mawla
University of Development Alternative

Kallol Debnath
University of Development Alternative

Sadia Moin Mou
University of Development Alternative

A.B.M. Anwarul Bashar
University of Development Alternative

Mohammed Rahmatullah
University of Development Alternative

Abstract/ Executive Summary:

Elephantiasis is a disease prevalent in particularly the northern districts of Bangladesh. The sickness is characterized by thickening of the skin and underlying tissues, which occurs especially in the legs and male genitals. The disease is caused by thread-like parasitic worms, which are transmitted by mosquitoes. Elephantiasis is of two types – that caused by parasitic infection is known as filariasis, while the other type is known as podoconiosis or non-filarial elephantiasis. Folk and tribal medicinal practitioners of the country use medicinal plants for treatment of both forms of elephantiasis. An ethnomedicinal survey was carried out among folk and tribal medicinal practitioners with the objective of documenting the medicinal plants used by the practitioners for treatment of this disease. A total of 15 plants distributed into 13 families were obtained from the various folk medicinal and tribal medicinal practitioners. The practitioners claimed that they use these plants for successful treatment of the disease. Since the rural population of Bangladesh is primarily affected with elephantiasis, it is important that further scientific studies be conducted with these plants, for scientific validation can provide an alternative, cheap and readily available source for treatment of this disease, rather than costly and time-consuming visits to modern health-care doctors and clinics, which are mostly absent in rural Bangladesh.

Keywords: Medicinal plants, Elephantiasis, Filariasis, Bangladesh

Location: In Bangladesh

Start Date:

End Date:

Program Area: Development of Host and Medicinal Plants

Commodity: Medicinal Plants, Elephant

Objectives:

The objective of this study was to document medicinal plants used by folk and tribal medicinal practitioners for the treatment of elephantiasis.

Methodology:

The present survey was carried out among 245 folk and tribal medicinal practitioners throughout Bangladesh from 2009 till 2012. Not all practitioners knew or treated elephantiasis; among the 245 practitioners interviewed, only 15 practitioners treated elephantiasis. Repeat visits were made to these 15 practitioners with the interviewers being accompanied by an allopathic doctor, who determined from seeing the patients that the disease treated was indeed elephantiasis. Actual interviews of these practitioners were carried out with the help of a semi-structured questionnaire and the guided field-walk method of Martin (1995) and Maundu (1995). In this method, the practitioners took the interviewers on guided field-walks through areas from where they collected their medicinal plants, pointed out the plants, and described their uses. Plant specimens were photographed, collected, dried and brought back for identification at the Bangladesh National Herbarium, Dhaka. Voucher specimens were deposited at the Medicinal Plant Collection Wing of the University of Development Alternative. It is to be noted that informed consent was initially obtained from each practitioner interviewed to disseminate the obtained information both nationally and internationally.

Source of Information: Am.-Eurasian J. Sustain. Agric. 7(3): 143-148, 2013

Article Link (Online Journal):

Funding Source:

Budget:

Total Budget (Tk.) :

Achievement/Findings:

Of the various plants used by the practitioners for treatment of elephantiasis, only Caesalpinia nuga has been reported previously as an anti-filarial plant (Moon et al., 2010). The other plants, according to a search of the scientific and ethnomedicinal literature, have not been reported in the treatment of elephantiasis in any part of the world. However, this absence, by itself, raises scientific interest to conduct further studies on these plants with the objective of discovering lead compounds, which can serve as the basis for new anti-filarial drugs. There are, however, reports in the ethnomedicinal literature on the use of other plants for treatment of elephantiasis, which shows that treatment of elephantiasis with medicinal plants is not something unique to folk and tribal medicinal practitioners of Bangladesh, but is also carried out in other parts of the world. To cite a few instances, the ethnic people of Osmanabad region in Maharashtra, India use the plant, Momordica dioica Roxb. ex Willd. (Cucurbitaceae) for treatment of elephantiasis. Traditional phytotherapy among the Nath people of Assam, India includes use of root bark of the plant, Calotropis gigantea (L.) R. Br. (Asclepiadaceae) for similar treatment (Sikdar and Dutta, 2008). The ethnic people of Cameroon use stem bark of Lannea microcarpa Engl. & K. Krause (Anacardiaceae) for treatment of elephantiasis (Jiofack et al., 2010). Ethnic population in the Nandan Kanan sanctuary, Cuttack, Odisha, India use whole plants of Sida acuta Burm. f. (Malvaceae) for treatment of this disease. These plants are present in Bangladesh but were not reported by the practitioners for treatment of elephantiasis. The study thus underscores the importance of documenting ethnomedicinal knowledge from as many diverse sources as possible to conduct scientific studies on different ethnomedicinal plants towards discovery of better drugs.

Knowledge Management: Journal