Ethnomedicinal Documentation of Folk Medicinal Plants Used by Tribal Communities Living in the Selected Villages of Pushprajgarh Block of Anuppur District, Madhya Pradesh, Central India

Abstract

The present work documents indigenous knowledge of plants as a natural remedy by the inhabitants of Pushprajgarh tehsil, District Anuppur in Madhya Pradesh, Central India. This study was conducted by following standard ethnobotanical methods. Questionnaires, informal meetings, and group conversations with pre-identified informants were used to collect knowledge on medicinal plants. The present investigation documented 98 plant species belong to 51 families and 90 genera. The Fabaceae family, which includes 10 species, comprises the most of medicinal plants. Habit analysis of medicinal plants uncovered that trees represented the most proportion of 39 plant species (39.79%) and that decoction (boiling) was the most popular technique of preparing traditional medicines from plant material (44.34%). The highest informants' consensus factor (ICF) was accounted for the urinary disorder (0.60), and the highest outcome was recorded for the microbial infection (20.25%). The fidelity level (FL) results for 10 significant plant species were ranged from 40.86% to 75.00%.  Most of the plants have had a use value, ranging between 0.25 to 1, hence a constant use value for the most referred species is one. The frequency of citation (FC) of the selected plant species was found to be in the range of 1.85 to 6.48 and the relative frequency of citation (RFC) was found to be in the range of 0.04 to 0.12. Statistical analysis shows that current knowledge is still viable and facilitates conserving important plant species before much is lost. This study will provide basic information for further phytochemical/ pharmacological research to explore potential lead molecules for new drug development and discovery process from natural products.