Ethnomedicinal Plants Used by the Tribal Communities of West Champaran District of Bihar, India

Crossref, Index Copernicus International (ICI), Directory of Research Journal Indexing (DRJI),Scientific Indexing Services (SIS), CiteFactor, The present paper deals with 67 ethnomedicinal plant species belonging to 61 genera and 36 families used for prevention and treatment of various diseases by the tribal and indigenous non-tribal communities of West Champaran district of Bihar. This first-hand ethnomedicinal information was collected directly from a field survey of 108 remote tribal villages and forest areas of the district. Among them family Leguminosae is represented by maximum number of plants (9 species) followed by Lamiaceae (7 species). Habit-wise analysis revealed that herbs are dominated with 23 species followed by trees. These plant species are arranged in alphabetical order followed by family, habit, local name(s), locality (ies), field number (s) along with a method of preparation and mode of ethnomedicinal uses in detail. After comparison and cross checking of collected uses with relevant standarad literatures, it is revealed that 11 ethnomedicinal uses of plants (marked by *) have not recorded earlier.


INTRODUCTION
West Champaran district of Bihar lies between 26°16′ and 27°31′ north latitude and 83°50′ and 85°18′ east longitude. The district was carved out of the old Champaran District in the year 1972 as a result of re-organization of the district in the state. The district headquarters are located in Bettiah. It is said that Bettiah got its name from Baint (Cane) plants commonly found in this district. The name Champaran is a degenerate form of Champaka Aranya, a name which dates back to the time when the district was a tract of the forest of Champa (Magnolia) trees and was the abode of solitary ascetics. The district is known for its fluid border with Nepal and occupies an area of 5,228 square kilometers. In 1989 West Champaran district became home to Valmiki Tiger Reserve, which has an area of 880 km 2 . It is also home to Valmiki and Udaypur Wildlife Sanctuary. According to the 2011 census West Champaran district has a population of 3,922,780. This district has 3 sub-division, 18 blocks/circles and 1483 villages.

MATERIAL AND METHODS
The different tribal communities residing in the district are Baiga, Banjara, Bedia, Chero, Chik Baraik, Gond, Gorait, Kharia, Kharwar, Khond, Lohara, Mahli, Mal Paharia, Munda, Oraon, Santal, Sauria, Paharia, etc. with total population of 44,912 (Bhatt and Bhargava, 2006). These tribal people as well as other rural people of the areas are utilizing many plants and plant produces in their day to day life for food, medicine, fiber, dye, fodder, fuel and other purposes. The medicine men (Vaidya, Kaviraj) usually collect plant parts from nearby forest areas and given to the patient/victims after preparation of paste, powder, pills, extract and decoction for the treatment of their diseases, ailments and disorders.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
The field survey was carried out during the year 2018 and interviewed old and experienced men, women and medicine men (Vaidyas) for the first hand information on ethnomedicinal uses of the plants from 108 rural villages and forest areas of West Champaran district. During the survey interaction was done with several tribal (Oraon, Kharwar, Chero) and other non-tribal people of the district. The informants were taken to forest for showing the exact plant species as well as collection of voucher specimens. Care has been taken to record only those medicinal information whose curative potentialities have been confirmed by the informants. Repeated and cross queries were done for confirmation and verification of the information.
The voucher specimens were dried, poisoned, mounted, stitched and labeled on herbarium sheet. These plant specimens were identified with the help of keys and botanical description, described in regional Floras like Sarkar (1998), Haines (1921-25), Mooney (1941Mooney ( , 1950 and Singh et al. (2001). These voucher specimens have been deposited in Ethnobotanical Herbarium of Central Botanical Laboratory (CBL), Howrah, after matching and verification with the authentic specimens housed in Central National Herbarium (CAL). The updated botanical names, families were checked from widely accepted website http://www.theplantlist.org and the names of authors were verified from Brummitt and Powell (1992).
Further, these recorded ethnomedicinal uses were compared and cross checked with well-known standard Indian literatures (Ambasta, 1986;Anonymous, 1948-76;Chopra et al., 1956;Jain, 1991;Jain and Jain 2016;Kirtikar and Basu, 1935) and published research papers on ethnobotany of the district (Dwivedy and Singh, 2016;Singh and Singh, 2014). In this present paper the plant species are arranged alphabetically for easy reference along with their family in bracket, followed by habit, local name(s) in italic, district wise locality(ies), voucher number(s) and detail Ethnomedicinal information. Akuwan, Madar; Gamharia, Kaila, Naurangia Don (CBL-41317) Stem is burnt and the ashes are applied on wounds. Latex is applied on skull to re-grow hair after hair falling. Leaf is coated with oil, warmed and applied on paining part of body. Floss (Bhuwa) are used for stuffing pillows and used during headache.
Centella asiatica (L.) Urb. (Apiaceae); Herb; Brahmbuti, Tal puren; Naurangia Don (CBL-41464) Leaves are given with leaves of Aegle and squash of sugar crystal (Mishri) to reduce the effect of hotness. Leaf powder is applied on leprosy affected part.   (Sapotaceae); Tree; Mahua; Jata Shankar Van Path, Sirisia (CBL-41387) Bark powder is used in toothache. Flowers are eaten for vigour and vitality. Fruits are cooked with milk and made pudding (Halwa). It is (2 spoonful) taken in the morning daily for weakness as tonic. Fruits (Kunayi) are dried and eaten. It is prescribed to old age person to reduce body pain. Stem twig is used as tooth brush to reduce toothache.

Rauvolfia serpentina (L.) Benth.ex Kurz (Apocynaceae);
Herb; Sarpgandha, Dharbaruwa; Naurangia Don, Lal Bhitia, Sirisia (CBL-41453) Root powder is given in stomach related troubles, fever and cold. Root is rubbed on stone and the paste is given 2-3 times in fever. It is also given to neutralize the effect of snake poison. Fruits are dried and fried with rectified butter (Ghee) and given in dry cough. Fruits are cut into small pieces, powdered and fried with ghee. It is given with black pepper (2 -4) in morning and evening in the treatment of cough. Fruits are burnt and the smoke is inhaled to remove worm and reduce pain in infected teeth.

Ricinus communis
Plant decoction is given in digestive troubles. It is also given to purify the blood. Dhair, Dhaiar; Sirisia, Kaila (CBL-41349) Stem bark is boiled with water and that water is applied on burnt part of body till cure.

DISCUSSION
A total number of 109 ethnomedicinal information on 67 plant species belonging to 36 families and 61 genera have been collected from the tribal and rural people of West Champaran district of Bihar during the study. Of these, it is analyzed that these plants are used for 29 diseases/ disorders/ ailments like Abortion (1), Asthma (1), Body pain (4), Burning sensation (01) (15), Tooth ache (9), Vigour and vitality(3) etc. were observed dominant in the area. The above analysis reveals that tribal and rural people of this district are using highest number of plant species for Skin diseases (18 species) fallowed by stomach problems (15 species), Fever (9 species) and toothache (9 species) (Fig.2). As far as families are concern family Leguminosae is represented by maximum number of plants (9 species) followed by Lamiaceae (7 species) and Apocynaceae (5) (Fig. 3). Habit-wise analysis revealed that herbs are dominated with (23 species) followed by trees (19 species) and shrub (16 species) (Fig.4). After comparison and cross checking of collected uses with relevant literatures, it is revealed that 11 ethnomedicinal uses of plants (marked by *) have not recorded earlier.

CONCLUSION
Due to less interest of young generation towards traditional knowledge, urbanization and unscientific exploitation of natural forests, these valuable knowledge as well as plant species are getting depleted leading to their extinction. Therefore, it is necessary to collect and document such precious knowledge from the tribal and remote areas before their complete depletion and also increase awareness among the tribal communities for sustainable use of plant wealth and their conservation. These ethnomedicinal plants should be analyzed chemically for identification of their active constituents responsible for their efficacy to these diseases by various pharmaceutical industries /laboratories to give a lead to development of new herbal drug molecules. Some potential plant species should be identified for the establishment of herbal cottage industries in the tribal areas for the socio-economic augmentation of the country as a whole and tribal in particular.