Documentation of ethnomedicinal flora utilized by inhabitants of Barjala area of Agartala, West Tripura, Tripura, India

Abstract

The traditional medicines in many parts of the world are still a significant part of the lives of many people of the world. The present survey is aimed to gather information from different ethnic groups residing in the Barjala area of West Tripura district in the northeastern state of Tripura, India. A total of 60 plant species of medicinal importance were noted that belongs to 51 genera and 30 families. Majority of these plants were used in daily life by the locals of Barjala to cure some common ailments like cough, cold, fever, skin allergies, stomach issues etc. Also, Fabaceae family dominated the list of having most numbers of ethnomedicinally important plants with five species which is followed by families like Acanthaceae, Apiaceae, Asteraceae, Cucurbitaceae with 4 species each. Furthermore, in terms of habit herbs are most commonly used and in terms of parts used leaves dominated over other parts like stem, roots, seeds, fruits, flowers. This also confirms that the ethnomedicinal preparations doesn’t involve destruction of the complete plant since the majority of the utilized parts are aerial parts.