Medicinal plants used by the folk medicinal practitioners of Bangladesh: a randomized survey in a village of Narayanganj district

Abstract

Folk medicinal practitioners play an important role in the primary health-care system of Bangladesh. They are known as Kavirajes and practice in villages, towns and cities of the country. The mainstay of their formulation is medicinal plants, which is either administered orally or topically in the form of decoctions, pastes, pills, juice or direct administration of whole plant or plant parts. The objective of the present study was to conduct a survey in a randomly chosen village, which lies between the two urban areas of Dhaka and Narayanganj in Narayanganj district of Bangladesh. Kasipur, the village where the survey was carried out had one Kaviraj who administered to the population’s need in various diseases. It was observed that the Kaviraj used 64 medicinal plants in his formulations. The plants were distributed into 41 families. The Asteraceae family contributed to the highest number of plants (6) followed by the Fabaceae family with 5 plants. The Apocynaceae, Lamiaceae, Rutaceae, Solanaceae and Zingiberaceae families contributed 3 plants per family. Leaves constituted the major plant part used, forming 47.1% of total uses. Leaves were followed by roots at 16.3% and fruits at 13.5%. Gastrointestinal disorders and skin diseases were the main ailments treated. Other than diabetes, the Kaviraj did not treat any complicated diseases. This was probably because since the village surveyed was between two urban areas, the village population had quite easy access to allopathic doctors and modern clinics in the urban areas. Despite the easy access to modern doctors, the village people relied on the Kaviraj for treatment of common ailments, suggesting that folk medicinal practitioners can still play a considerable role in the day to day care of health and treatment of common diseases, thus saving a patient from incurring substantial costs related to modern allopathic doctors and clinics. Full Text Link: http://www.aensiweb.net/AENSIWEB/aejsa/aejsa/2011/405-414.pdf