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Are Famine Food Plants Also Ethnomedicinal Plants? an Ethnomedicinal Appraisal of Famine Food Plants of Two Districts of Bangladesh

Fardous Mohammad Safiul Azam
Department of Biotechnology & Genetic Engineering, Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Development Alternative, House No. 78, Road No. 11A (new), Dhanmondi, Dhaka 1209, Bangladesh

Anup Biswas
Department of Biotechnology & Genetic Engineering, Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Development Alternative, House No. 78, Road No. 11A (new), Dhanmondi, Dhaka 1209, Bangladesh

Abdul Mannan
Department of Biotechnology & Genetic Engineering, Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Development Alternative, House No. 78, Road No. 11A (new), Dhanmondi, Dhaka 1209, Bangladesh

Nusrat Anik Afsana
Department of Biotechnology & Genetic Engineering, Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Development Alternative, House No. 78, Road No. 11A (new), Dhanmondi, Dhaka 1209, Bangladesh

Rownak Jahan
Department of Biotechnology & Genetic Engineering, Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Development Alternative, House No. 78, Road No. 11A (new), Dhanmondi, Dhaka 1209, Bangladesh

Mohammed Rahmatullah
Department of Biotechnology & Genetic Engineering, Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Development Alternative, House No. 78, Road No. 11A (new), Dhanmondi, Dhaka 1209, Bangladesh

Abstract/ Executive Summary:

Plants have served as sources of food and medicines for human beings since their advent. During famines or conditions of food scarcity, people throughout the world depend on unconventional plant items to satiate their hunger and meet their nutritional needs. Malnourished people often suffer from various diseases, much more than people eating a balanced diet. We are hypothesizing that the unconventional food plants that people eat during times of scarcity of their normal diet are also medicinal plants and thus can play a role in satiating hunger, meeting nutritional needs, and serving therapeutic purposes. Towards testing our hypothesis, surveys were carried out among the low income people of four villages in Lalmonirhat and Nilphamari districts of Bangladesh. People and particularly the low income people of these two districts suffer each year from a seasonal famine known as Monga. Over 200 informants from 167 households in the villages were interviewed with the help of a semistructured questionnaire and the guided field-walk method. The informants mentioned a total of 34 plant species that they consumed during Monga. Published literature shows that all the species consumed had ethnomedicinal uses. It is concluded that famine food plants also serve as ethnomedicinal plants.

Keywords: Famine Food Plants, Ethnomedicinal Plants, Bangladesh

Location: Four villages in Lalmonirhat and Nilphamari districts of Bangladesh

Start Date:

End Date:

Program Area: Resource Development and Management

Commodity: Medicinal Plants

Objectives:

The surveyed villages did not have any forest land. The villages, however, contained fallow land and “char” (river islands on the Teesta River) areas. There was some vegetative cover in the fallow lands and chars; the vegetation mostly consisted of wild herbs, shrubs, and a few trees, which were tropical and subtropical in nature.

Methodology:

2.1. Study Area and Investigative Methods. The present survey was conducted between October 2010 and August 2012. A preliminary survey was conducted among the villagers of a number of villages in Lalmonirhat and Nilphamari districts, which according to news reports of the country have a substantial number of households, who were affected by Monga. From this preliminary survey, four villages as mentioned above were chosen in the two districts on the basis of the number of households, whose incomes were below the poverty level, and as a consequence, were more affected by Monga. More detailed surveys (comprising of a total of nine visits, each visit lasting four days on an average) were conducted in these four villages among a total of 167 households who mentioned that they consume nonconventional plant items not only during Monga, but also at other times of food scarcity, caused due to their low income levels. All together, 238 adult members (219 females and 19 males) from these households were interviewed. It is to be noted that women, particularly the adult married women members of rural households, are in general responsible for cooking food and collecting nonconventional plant items (during times of food scarcity) and so possess more information on famine foods than the male members of the household. Although collecting nonconventional edible plants from the wild or fallow lands and roadsides is also shared by children along with adult female members of the household, such children were not interviewed in the present survey.

2.2. Mode of Interview and Plant Specimen Collection. Informed consent was first obtained from the Head of each household (in most cases being the oldest active male member) to gather information on their monthly income levels, availability of adequate food throughout the year, prevalence of diseases, occupation, literacy, consumption of nonconventional plant food items during times of food scarcity in their households, and the therapeutic uses of the nonconventional plant species. The male Heads of households themselves suggested that information on consumption of nonconventional plants be gathered from the female adult members of each household. Information was collected and recorded with the help of a semistructured questionnaire, open-ended interviews, and the guided field-walk method of Martin and Maundu. In this method, the women informants took the interviewers on guided field walks through areas from where they usually collected their nonconventional edible plants, pointed out the plants, and described the mode of consumption of these plants and the plant parts used for consumption, as well as medicinal values of the plants. All such plant specimens were collected from the spot, pressed, dried, and brought back to Dhaka for complete identification by the Bangladesh National Herbarium. Voucher plant specimens were deposited with the Plant Collection Wing of the University of Development Alternative. Nomenclature of plants was compiled from the Plant List database (http://www.theplantlist.org/). Lalmonirhat and Nilphamari are adjoining districts, and it was noticed that the pattern of consumption of nonconventional plants was basically the same for each household in all four villages of the two districts.

2.3. Search of Databases for Ethnomedicinal Uses of Plants. Ethnomedicinal uses of the plant reports were collected through searching various databases like PubMed, SCOPUS, and Google Scholar.

Source of Information: Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine Volume 2014, Article ID 741712, 28 pages

Article Link (Online Journal): http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2014/741712

Funding Source:

Budget:

Total Budget (Tk.) :

Achievement/Findings:

Famine food plants have generally been mentioned as unconventional dietary items and consist of wild edible plants. It was our hypothesis that such plants also serve therapeutic purposes and can be considered ethnomedicinal plants. Through local surveys among the famine-affected populations of two districts of Bangladesh on the unconventional plants they consume during famine periods, along with local and other reported ethnomedicinal uses on these plants, we have validated our hypothesis.

Knowledge Management: Journal