Ethnobotanical Survey at Kolaroa region of Satkhira District of Bangladesh

Abstract

The population of poorer section of the population resides mostly in the rural areas and the urban slums. The rural population and population in small towns in addition suffer from proper access to health-care facilities and are not always in a position to afford the costs of allopathic treatment. They therefore rely on folk medicinal practitioners otherwise known as Kavirajes for treatment of their various ailments. The Kavirajes rely on administration of medicinal plants either orally or topically for treatment of diseases. Each Kaviraj has his unique repertoire of medicinal plants, which is closely guarded and usually passed onto an immediate member of the family in the successive generation.[1] The objective of the present study was to conduct a survey on medicinal plant usage among selected Kavirajes of Kolaroa Thana in Satkhira district, Bangladesh. Interviews were conducted with the help of a semistructured questionnaire and the guided field-walk method. Information was obtained as to the local name of plants, parts used, formulations and dosages. It was found that the interviewed Kavirajes used various plants in their treatment of various ailments.A total of 29 plants distributed into 21 families I had found to be used by the 3 Kavirajes interviewed for the treatment of various ailments like cough, pain, cholera, dysentery, fever, flux,erectile dysfunction, leucorrhea, skin disease, ophthalmia, opacity of cornea, pox, tuberculosis, hypertension, inflammation, diarrhea, dysmenorrheal, paralysis, gonorrhea, ulcer, asthma.