| dc.description.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 | en_US |
