Ayurvedic efficacy of the medicinal plants utilized by Rabari tribes in Kachchh, Gujarat: An Ethno-botanical Study

Abstract

Known for owing sheep and camels, the people of the Rabari tribal community have been practicing the traditional herbal system of medicine for ages and have not been much documented due to their nomadic lifestyle. Nomadism; is a way of life of people who do not continually live in the same place but move cyclically or periodically. It is distinguished from migration which is non-cyclic and involves a total change of habitat. This paper enlists the medicinal plants (with their IUCN conservation status globally) used by the local healers of the Rabari community to cure various diseases rampant in the villages of Kachchh, Gujarat. The study has documented 75 medicinal plants belonging to 36 botanical families utilized for various herbal formulations. Fabaceae family has been the most documented botanical family (12/36) followed by Malvaceae (5/36), Boraginaceae, Cucurbitaceae, and Convolvulaceae (4/36) followed by many others like Asteraceae, Poaceae, Menispermaceae, Euphorbiaceae, etc. Out of the 75 documented medicinal plants, 27% are herbs, 25% trees, 23% shrubs, 18% climbers, 4% grass, and 3% liane. Ayurvedic literature such as Charaka Samhita and Sushrutha Samhita validates 60% (45/75) of the exact herbal formulations documented in the study, whereas for other formulations though the exact validation is not available in Ayurveda but the usage of medicinal plants is duly mentioned. The present study has also documented the other uses of the same plant than the given remedy to broaden the information on the utilization of medicinal plants in herbal medicines.