Useful valuable plants of Maithili community in Eastern Nepal: An ethnobotanical study

Abstract

Ethnobotany is considered to include all studies, which focus on the mutual relationship between plants and traditional people (Cotton and Wilkie 1996; Harshberger, 1896). Nepal is the multi-ethnic, multi-lingual and multi-religious nation with diversified culture and tradition. There are more than 123 caste/ethnic groups speaking 123 languages (CBS, 2011). The ethnic communities have significant customary knowledge on utilization of plant and plant parts and there is a long tradition of transferring this indigenous knowledge from generation to generation (Acharya and Acharya, 2009). However, all the ethnic groups have their own tradition, culture and way of living (Chaudhary et al., 2020). Various communities in Nepal are still giving continuation to the use of plants for their living. Till date, several ethnobotanical studies have been carried out in Nepal to uncover the uses of plants in several communities and rural places (Rajbhandari, 2001; Joshi and Joshi, 2008; Acharya and Acharya, 2009; Malla and Chhetri, 2009; Thapa, 2012; Malla et al., 2015; Chaudhary et al., 2020). Maithili community is one of the ethnic groups with the population of 3.1 million which is about 11.67% of the total population of Nepal (CBS, 2011). Maithili people have developed the diversified use of plants for food, medicine, religious and cultural activities and other purpose. Although, many ethnobotanical studies have been conducted in different parts of the country, ethnobotanical studies of Maithili community have not been documented yet in Nepal. However, Jha and Jha (1996) have documented ritualistic significance of plants associated with Maithili traditions in Northern Bihar, India. Thus, the present study was conducted to identify and record the uses of medicinal and other plant of Maithili people in the Ramdhuni municipality, Sunsari district, Nepal. This study has recorded the use of plants in various purposes, nevertheless, the doses and way of plant intake for medicinal use was not mentioned. Ramdhuni municipality is situated in the Sunsari district, Eastern Nepal (Fig. 1). It lies at 87o10 ́ E and 26o42 ́ N, where altitude ranges up to 185 m above sea level and occupies total area of 91.7 km and total population 52,328. The average annual rainfall is 1100 mm. The study was conducted in 3 villages of ward number 1 in Ramdhuni municipality. Before the collection of data, the participants were made sure about proper use of the data. PRA method was applied for the collection of data. Total 14 peoples (9 females and 5 males) from 2 villages were involved in the study for the collection of data. All the people involved in PRA were over 50 years of age. After surveying the area, group discussion was performed with the group of local Pujaris, old peoples and farmers to explore local illness and curing beliefs and plants used for medicine, edible purpose and other uses. Plant species were collected from the study area and herbarium sheets of each species were prepared (Lawrence, 1951). The specimens were carefully studied, identified with