DIVERSITY AND USES OF MEDICINAL PLANTS AMONG THE PEOPLE LIVING AROUND SAL FOREST, DINAJPUR

Abstract

Nawabganj Sal forests of Dinajpur district, Bangladesh to identify the diversity and uses of medicinal plants and to realize the local dependency and healthcare pattern. The field survey was undertaken from October 2018 to March 2019. A total of 100 informants between 15-75 years old were interviewed with a questionnaire. The independent variables of the study were age, occupation, sex, education, family size, income knowledge about medicinal plants, extinct medicinal plants, medicinal plants present in respondents house, the reason of choosing medicinal plants, source knowledge of medicinal plants and the dependent variable was dependency on medicinal plants. The overall results of the study revealed that the maximum number of respondents (30%) belonged to below 30 years old and the minimum number of respondents (4%) were older than 70 years old. Among them 66% male and 34% female. The educational status was found the maximum (35%) in both primary and secondary level and minimum (6%) was found as above secondary level. Among the occupational status, most of the respondents would like to do agricultural work (56%) whereas the lowest number of the respondents (1%) was under student category. The current investigation identified a total of 30 medicinal plant species used for different ailments. Among them Tulsi (Ocimum tenuiflorum), Basok (Justicia adhatoda), Gada ful (Calendula officinalis), Narikel (Cocos nucifera), Tetul (Tamarindus indica), Ada (Zingiber officinale), Neem (Azadirachta indica), Durba ghas (Cynodon dactylon), Thankuni (Cissus quadrangularil), Anaros (Ananas sativus) etc were popular and the people living around sal forests highly used these medicinal plants for the remedies of their ailments. Besides that the respondents also grew necessary medicinal plants in their house like Tulsi (Ocimum tenuiflorum), Gada ful (Calendula officinalis), Paan (Piper betel), Basok (Justicia adhatoda) etc. The survey results also showed that there was extinction of some medicinal plants, among them Ulot kombol (Abroma augusta) was highest (66%) in percentage for extinction. The research revealed that 61% respondents sought kaviraj for their disease treatment. The survey also showed that most of the people (46%) choose medicinal plants for their primary health care because of the effectiveness of the medicinal plant, 29% emphasized medicinal plants availability, 16% on low price and 9% of people’s reasons for choosing medicinal plants are traditional uses. In case of knowledge on medicinal plants 32% had knowledge on the treatment of diseases using these medicinal plant inheritably, 32% had gathered knowledge from others, 22% sought kaviraj and 10% solve their problem by self-medication depends on many factors namely, individual responsibility for one’s health, knowledge of health problems (influence of the mass media, medical literature for non-specialists). The study result revealed the most important thing that the majority of the people living around Sal forest, Dinajpur were highly dependent (60%) on medicinal plants for their healthcare and 40% people dependent on general medicine from visiting doctors for the treatment of their diseases. The study revealed that sal forest was a good source of medicinal plants for the people. Therefore threatened species should be conserved properly to restore the forest in its original state